10 Straight-Directed Films that Got Us Wrong

From: OUT

6. 

Basic Instinct


1992

Dir. Paul Verhoeven


Women who have sex with women must be up to something evil, at least that’s the message embedded in Basic Instinct. In this film, four seductive and sexually deviant women smoke cigarettes, drive fast cars, and don’t need men. Ah! What could be worse! Well, Sharon Stone's killer role bares all in a scene that was forever frozen in men's (and women's) memories. Gay rights and media watch groups like Queer Nation and Out In Film were upset by the use of negative lesbian/bisexual stereotypes—both that bisexual women are just using lesbian sex as a fun activity when men aren't around and the idea that all lesbians dream of viciously murdering men.