Elaine,

Thank you for an excellent query.

You are perhaps being more subtle than racism deserves when you describe the taboo
against portraying interracial love and sex on screen as a form of stereotyping.
The unwritten embargo against interracial sex on screen persists today far beyond realities on the ground, though we have a few good exceptions. There is one area where the blockades went down long
ago: white men and their desire of highly subordinant asiatic women, particularly in colonial settings.
The active taboo has always rested more directly with white and black women. I'm
sure there are scholars on this list who could tell us a great deal about western
orientalism, sexual racisms, and white men making movies. Sergio Angelini's reply, and wonderful link, shows the thoughtful work that some are involved with.

My viewing experience is unfortunately circumscribed by living in the US, which
is particularly backward in this area. I should add, that in terms of this subject my encounters are probably shaped by commercial film than otherwise. The first interracial sex scene [not just love scene] I ever saw was Jungle Fever.

Then there was Frears's two wonderful flicks, My Beautiful Launderette and Sammy
and Rosie Get Laid. These films came out while I was married to a man from India.
The racism which went on, even that recently, now seems like an absurd thing. Yet
any South Asian man or woman who lived in the West at the time can attest to the
reality.

Recently I suffered through Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. The prohibition of showing
sexuality is in full force between the couple in the movie. We are not privy to a single passionate moment. It is all ideology. And everyone revolves around what is acceptable to the white father--who then pontificates to the captive
audience and cast at the film's conclusion.

Love Field, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Denis Haysbert, actually succeeded in bringing
some chemistry to the screen in their sex scenes. Though these occured within the
larger environment of taboo.

Then there's Costner and Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard. Made the same year as
Love Field, 1992. It is hard to say where bad acting left off and cultural prohibitions
kicked in, but there was no magic [or sex beyond a few kisses as I recall]. They
supposedly fall in love, but have to put this aside while protecting themselves
from the . . . crazy killer white man. Hmmm.

I didn't see Monster's Ball. But wasn't one of the lovers in jail? That puts up
a few, uhm, barriers to a satisfying sex scene.

One wonderful example, which plays with all the proscriptions, is of course The
Crying Game.

My all time favorite "interracial" sex scene is in Mira Nair's Mississsippi
Masala, between Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington. This movie strikes me as
excellent for bringing out this issue with students, as it is part of the movie's
core conflict, yet in classic story form, overcomes the central challenge and the
film's characters are transformed. This was made in 1991.

As we all know, religious differences can amount to ethnic/racial divides, particularly
during The Partition in India. Deepa Mehta's film Earth, 1998, is a wonderful story
about divisions and love. There is fabulously sexy scene between the Parsee Ayah,
and the young Muslim man she has fallen in love with.

Thanks for the question, it really got me thinking. I hope others will come up with
more examples of where films have succeeded and failed.

A final mention, Richard Rodriquez's Brown: The Erotic Discovery of America. His explorations of the lust and loves which, literally, compose us are powerful and fresh.

Best,
Susanna Chandler