This film, which was released in 2018, adapted from the book ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ (2015) and tells the story of a teenager, Simon (Nick Robinson), who is hiding his sexuality from his family and friends but starts to get blackmailed by one of his classmates who finds out his secret.
Film poster, google images
Plot summary
The film begins with the audience finding out about Simon Spier, his family, his friends, his life overall, and he reveals that he leads a relatively normal life except for the fact he’s secretly gay and none of his friends or family know. Although people in his life aren’t explicitly homophobic, the only openly gay person at his school is usually picked on, which adds to the various reasons Simon does not want to, or is not ready to come out. After his best friend tells him someone at his school, using the name Blue, anonymously came out as gay, Simon decides to start emailing him under a pseudonym, and they quickly forge a connection and become close. However, one of Simon’s classmates, Martin, sees Simon’s emails with Blue, screenshots them and threatens to release the emails if Simon does not help set him up with his friend. From this point onwards things slowly start to go downhill until Martin releases the emails, outs Simon, and leaves him without his friends or Blue, who was scared himself of being outed. Eventually, Simon explains why he hid the fact he was gay from his friends, makes up with them and starts dating Blue who reveals himself as one of his other friends, Bram.
Differences between the book and the film
There are a few differences between the book and the movie but overall, the message or story remains the same, the only major difference between the two is that the book is called Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, whereas the film is simply called Love, Simon, which marks a significant part in the books where Simon’s identity as Jacques – his online alias whilst writing to Blue – is exposed and he signs the end of his email with love, Simon, rather than just Jacques. A part which was left out from the film is when Simon’s friends apologise for not being supportive when he’s outed, this could have been included in the film as it shows how scary, significant, and potentially life changing, coming out is.
Importance of the film
One of the biggest reasons why this story is important is because it is one of the first conventional ‘coming-of-age’ movies about a gay teenager, and a lot of people have been able to watch it, especially the queer youth. There are many teenagers and young adult who express their queer identities online, on social media, so the fact that in the film the Blue is only out online and he starts his relationship with Simon via emailing can be reflective of many people’s experiences.
A moment from the film that was especially impactful was when Simon imagines if people had to come out as heterosexual rather than homosexual. This is a significant issue relating to modern society as coming out can be the source of lots of trauma and stress/anxiety for queer people. These scenes were humorous yet reflective of what coming out can be like for queer kids and how their parents react. Moreover, this film is important as those part of the LGBTQ+ community are able to relate and feel validated/seen in Love, Simon, it shows the kind of queer representation that should be present more often in popular culture.
However, this arguably illustrates a bigger issue in which society pressures individuals to label themselves, with both their gender and sexuality, something that is unnecessary and in some cases distressing; if someone does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, or as heterosexual, at some point in their life it’s likely they will have to ‘come out’. Whilst for some, admitting their sexuality/gender identity to loved ones can be a source of pride, for others it can be frightening or even dangerous, but evidence shows that heterosexual people who know someone part of the LGBTQ community they are more likely to have positive attitudes towards to all queer people [1].
In addition, there have been many positive outcomes resulting from the release of this film such as coming out as a result, due to the positive emotions and reactions their families showed after watching the film [2].
[1] Klein, K. et al. (2015) ‘Complicating the Coming Out Narrative: Becoming Oneself in a Heterosexist and Cissexist World’, Journal of Homosexuality, 62(3), pp. 297–326. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2014.970829.
[2] Turner (2018) ‘Love, Simon: The teen film helping people come out’, BBC News, 13 April. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43737712 (Accessed: 8 February 2021).
Queer History Through Film 