Lesbian characters, stories, and images were barred from onscreen depiction in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s together with all forms of ‘sex perversion.’ Through close readings of gothics, ghost films, and maternal melodramas addressed to female audiences, Uninvited argues that viewers were ‘invited’ to make lesbian ‘inferences.’ Looking at the lure of some of the great female star personae and at the visual coding of supporting actresses, it identifies lesbian spectatorial strategies.
Patricia White, Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies, teaches film and cultural studies at Swarthmore College. Her work has appeared in Screen, The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, and in numerous collections of feminist and lesbian/gay film studies. She is co-editor of a Wide Angle special issue devoted to the work of the feminist film distributor Women make Movies and a member of the editorial collective of Camera Obscura.