Opposition to Film ‘Basic Instinct’ Rises : Entertainment: A coalition of women’s and gay rights activists fears the movie’s depiction of bisexuals and lesbians will result in increased violence against women.

A coalition of women’s groups and gay rights activists escalated their protest of the film “Basic Instinct” Friday, saying the movie could contribute to violence against women while acknowledging that their efforts could also serve to boost ticket sales.

Representatives of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Southern California Coalition on Battered Women and other groups said the risk of added publicity was necessary to spur vigorous debate over the movie.

Tammy Bruce, president of Los Angeles’ NOW chapter, called the movie “the most blatantly misogynistic film in recent memory.”

The movie’s message “is that women like violence, women like to be used, women want to be raped,” said Bruce, who was among a number of activists who viewed the movie in a private screening arranged by the film’s distributor.

Lesbians in particular, are portrayed as “psychopaths and man-killers” who secretly want to be men, said Jehan Agrama, co-leader of GLAAD’s Los Angeles chapter.

“ ‘Basic Instinct’ is an assault on all women,” Agrama added. “The four female speaking roles are either primary suspects or actual killers. There is no balance whatsoever. The linking of sex and violence and the date-rape scene are handled in an obscenely irresponsible fashion.”

“Basic Instinct”--a big-budget thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Michael Douglas--has been a source of controversy from its conception. The story is about a detective’s investigation that leads him into a relationship with a bisexual serial murder suspect portrayed by Sharon Stone.

The movie’s creators have defended their work, saying the depictions of individual characters should not be viewed as a blanket indictment of bisexual women or lesbians. Critics have said such campaigns for “political correctness” represents an effort to mute artistic freedom.

TriStar, the film’s distributor, had earlier accused GLAAD of acting in bad faith after obtaining a draft of a GLAAD press release that criticized the movie before group members had attended a TriStar screening. The group was then “dis-invited,” but Agrama attended despite the ban.

Activists, who have long been angered by the depiction of gays and lesbians in Hollywood productions, disrupted filming of the movie last year in San Francisco. Some radical activists, including members of Queer Nation, have threatened to disrupt the 64th annual Academy Awards presentation on March 30. In addition to expressing anger over “Basic Instinct” the threatened disruptions would also target what activists say are stereotypical depictions of gays in such films as “JFK” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”

Groups represented at the press conference at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center also included the Fund for the Feminist Majority, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Queer Nation.

Savi Bisnath-Malone of the Southern California Coalition on Battered Women and Dr. Sylvia Rhue of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Center, faulted Hollywood’s portrayal of sex and violence as a contributing factor in rising incidents of violence against women.

“This film is contributing to a climate in which hate crimes are rising to epidemic proportions against lesbians and gay men,” Rhue said.

Activists organized by Queer Nation and GLAAD were planning to demonstrate and pass out leaflets Friday night outside theaters in Westwood and Hollywood where the movie is playing.

Patt Riese of Queer Nation, known for its tactics of civil disobedience, said no disruptions were planned for showings Friday night in Westwood and Hollywood. But she warned, “As long as Hollywood makes homophobia big business, we will be there to shut them down.”

Riese said protesters will attempt to make their point with humor. She wore a shirt Friday with wording that supposedly reveals the identity of the film’s killer as a way to dampen the filmgoer’s experience.

But Agrama--as well as some movie critics--have said the climax is so ambiguous that it is not clear who did it in this whodunit.