Erica Yurken-bisexuality or compulsory heterosexuality (part 1)
So I found myself really thinking about this character and this film, and how she interacts with the characters in the film. Namely various women and her designated love interest, Barry Hollis (who wasn’t originally a love interest in the book mind you).
For a while I headcannoned Erica as bisexual, the haircut and especially her interactions with both women and Barry at the time seemed to point to bisexuality. I definitely see Erica as lgbt, she is clearly not straight and I’m not the only one to see this. But then I began to dig a little deeper and analyse a bit more, was it my shipping lenses which made me think she was bi (even if she’s not into him, it was at least a well written and natural relationship progression and Barry seemed to genuinely like her) or was she actually bi? I’m here to analyse that based on what I’ve found.
To start off, the link provided and many others is what I used to base my assumptions on, you can find more by searching compulsory heterosexuality on tumblr. This is the link I’ve used. Within the first 5 minutes of the film, were introduced to miss Belmont, and she asks Erica her name. The children begin to make fun of her and miss Belmont tells them to be quiet, which Erica then tells her, her name. The exchange goes as follows ( 5:14-5:48)
Miss Belmont: “Erica, is a very beautiful name. Do you know that it means great heroine?”
To which Erica then faints and says
Erica (monologueing): “miss Belmont made me feel so special, I was in heaven..”
Very early on its made clear that Erica sees women differently, almost as if she is in love with some and very much enjoys female attention. However, with men this doesn’t seem to be the case, as with the first proper exchange between Erica and Barry (2:18-2:31)
Miss Belmont: “Erica, I know I can rely on you to show Alison around.”
Erica (rather excitedly and enthusiasticly)” sure miss Belmont!”
Enter Barry, who is also in the hall
“Yeah I’ll come too, after Erica gives you the freak show, I’ll show you the good stuff.”
During this, Erica is quick to pull Alison away and ignore him, while Alison seems to show interest in him. Erica is quick to dismiss him however.
Erica: “Alison, this is Barry Hollis. My stalker.”
Also something that’s worth pointing out Is when Alison is first introduced to the class and Is seated next to Erica, not only Erica is constantly staring at Alison once she sits down, but how she describes her (0:30-0:37)
Erica, gazing at Alison with amazement and infatuation (monloguing): Alison ashley was the most exquisite thing you ever saw. It was like she cast a light over everything around her”.
It’s made clear at this point that Erica has a clear interest in women, Alison especially. But Is quite dismissive in regards to men and their advances.
Another romantic interest in women is shown when Alison and Erica are discussing the school she wants to attend (Kyle grammar). The scene goes as follows (here)
Erica (monologueing): “I would have loved to go to a school like that, beautiful girls thinking beautiful thoughts. Was where I belonged.”
Once again, this very much comes off as romantically as opposed to jealousy. She clearly shows interest in women more so then men, speaking of which.
Fast forward to halfway through the film, when the bus breaks down and everyone is forced to get off. It’s been Made clear to the audience that Erica’s aspirations In life are becoming a great actress and a good place for her to start would be the camp play, Romeo and Juliet. Here’s an example of compulsory heterosexuality in the link provided:
“I’m constantly testing my attraction to men. I pick one or more conventionally attractive men in the room, and try to force myself to be attracted to them.”
Let’s see how this scene matches up to the description given (3:39-3:55)
Erica, looking at all the boys standing outside in front of her (monologueing): “ I decided to spend the time casting my Romeo, but things looked bleak they were all such repulsive options. Least Barry Hollis was a tall repulsive option, and there was no other choice for Juliet, was there.”
She then smiles, rather awkwardly, though it’s unclear if it’s forced. Comparing the scene with the example show above, gives off strong vibes that Erica doesn’t actually like Barry, but rather tolerates him. Not even calling him the exception to the rest of the “repulsive options” , instead as the least repulsive option. Like she’s picking whom she can tolerate most rather than feeling actually attraction to someone. Something to note is even though she fantasises about acting in the play Romeo and Juliet, when an actual romantic gesture happens on Barry’s part...Erica’s reaction is quite interesting (8:00-8:17)
Erica is sitting on a bench outside, thinking yo herself (monologueing): “ alisons kimono was perfect, it looked perfect, it felt perfect, just like everything else about her”.
Barry quietly comes up behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder, then leans in to kiss her. Erica responds by standing up, startled and pushes him away.
It’s interesting to note how even with jealousy, Erica still regards Alison as perfect. This scene is interesting, as even with how there has been jealousy towards Alison liking Barry (which I will get to in part 2), once Barry actually makes a move, she gets incredibly uncomfortable and backs off, tying in with another symptom of compulsory heterosexuality
“I like the idea of being with a man, but any time a man makes a move on me I get incredibly uncomfortable.”
When Erica is not dismissive or uncomfortable near Barry Hollis, she can be quite quick tempered with him and physically violent; hitting him when he sneaks up on her private phone call to her mum (4:18-4:24) or slapping him very hard after he upsets her by giving her the harsh reality that she can’t act (2:01) [howver as mentioned in the audio commentary, Barry’s intention was not to humiliate her, but to tell her the harsh reality because he loved her and cared about her to some extent]. Throughout this, even despite the major conflicts Alison and Erica are going through, the attraction to her and women seem to be much more realistic than those to men.
Here is one of the last scenes between her and another woman which is clearly shown to be romantic (save for Erica staring lovingly at Alison towards the end of the film and gently wiping her tear away, as well as helping her and being overall soft and gentle with her).
Erica is sat down at a bus stop, after a confrontation between her and Allison occurs in which she decides its best to give up on her dreams of being an actress and tries to escape camp. She then begins to have her last fantasy sequence in the film, wherein she is laying on a hospital bed and presumable dying, with her fellow teachers playing role of the nurses. Soon in the scene, miss Belmont ( dressed as a nurse) begins to stroke/caress Erica’s hair, while Erica makes this face, blushes and gazes into her eyes.
What’s interesting to note is that this doesn’t actually happen, this is what Erica imagines. She actively thinks about women in a romantic way, and even fantasies about her teacher miss Belmont in a homoerotic way (she might be her teacher but nothing comes of it and it’s one sided-making this not creepy). This seems to very much contrast how she views real interactions with men vs any interaction or view of women, real or in her imagination.
The last moment between Erica and Barry is after the play is finished. There is some small talk before something happens (5:51-5:57)
Barry Hollis: look about the other night...next time, I’m sticking the tongue in (implying he would like to perhaps date her)
Erica then responds with this face
It’s somewhat ambiguous as to how Erica feels about this, the expression on her face is that of a slightly uncomfortable smile or confused genuine delight? With how she has responded to things like this in the past, I feel compelled to agree with the former. One could make the argument that she is only 14, so things like this seem very big for her and mature, and it’s also a possibility.
Conclusion: Erica Yurken gives off many vibes that she may only be interested in women, and that her attraction to men is only a result of compulsory heterosexuality. However I am not done with this topic, tomorrow I will be dabbling into why Erica may be bisexual and discuss those too. Scenes which were purposefully left out here was so I can compare tomorrow and see how they fare. As here I only wanted to focus on compulsory heterosexuality and wlw/same sex attraction
Thank you for listening to my ted talk, I am extremely tired so I’m going to sleep, goodnight. Part 2 will be up sometime tomorrow (this was written 31/8/2020)
