[Editorial] The Low-Key Bisexuality of May (2002)

Lucky McKee's cult classic May (2002) introduces viewers to a lonely young woman (Angela Bettis) who longs for connection and understanding. The titular May had a lazy eye as a child, and her mother was hyper focused on her child's "abnormal" appearance. May had the misfortune of being raised by an emotionally abusive parent, who kept her isolated and contributed to her inability to socialize.

May's only childhood friend was a doll (whom her mother insisted couldn't be removed from her glass case) named Suzie. While Suzie proves to be a good confidante and source of comfort, May grows up and knows that she needs something more. As she starts to experience a sexual awakening, she tells Suzie, "I need a real friend— someone I can hold."

Despite May's social awkwardness, she is charmingly quirky, winning over both men and women during the film, and although she doesn't explicitly identify as bisexual, she is drawn toward people regardless of their gender or sexual identity. Her oft-quoted line "So many pretty parts, and no pretty wholes" can be read differently through a queer lens. She is able to see desirable parts in everyone she meets. Unfortunately, the fact that most people she meets are missing desirable personalities leads to her sad conclusion: there are no pretty wholes.

May meets mechanic-slash-filmmaker Adam (Jeremy Sisto) at the beginning of the film, and she's immediately smitten with him and his beautiful hands. While daydreaming about getting closer to Adam, she also begins a flirtation with her queer colleague Polly (Anna Faris). May compliments Polly, telling her, "You have a beautiful neck," and Polly excitedly reciprocates, telling May to come to her place to hang out and "eat some melons." 

Adam is characterized as hypermasculine. He works with cars and shows up at the local café in his coveralls and five o'clock shadow. He's an extreme contrast with Polly, who dresses very feminine in halter tops and dresses, and bats her eyelashes at May. The casting of Sisto and Faris works perfectly to show the wide variety of people to whom May is attracted. 

However, they both have something in common: they're open to the dark side. Adam makes movies about cannibals who ravenously feast on one another; Polly is shocked when May pricks her with a scalpel at work, but then tells her, "I kinda liked it… do me again." May feels that she can be her real self around Adam and Polly. She lets down her guard and assumes they're just as off-kilter as she is. 

Adam and May begin a short-lived relationship, which sours when she emulates his gruesome zombie movie by biting his lip and drawing blood during a make-out session. May reminds him that he told her she likes weird stuff, and he replies, "Not that weird." 

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A heartbroken May is still being pursued by Polly, possibly the least subtle character in all of film history:

Polly: Do you like pussy?

May: What?

Polly: Cats? Do you like pussycats? Jeez, you're a nasty little thing, aren't you?

While May is surprised by Polly's advances, she's also attracted to her, and the two share a night together, which is marred only by May noticing a mole on Polly's hand, which marks her as another imperfect whole. Like her relationship with Adam, May's relationship with Polly doesn't last long. When she realizes that the aptly named Polly is polyamorous, she becomes frustrated and breaks things off with her.  

While it's true that May does not handle these breakups well— she begins collecting all the prettiest body parts from the people she knows to create one pretty whole— she also doesn't fall into the evil bisexual stereotype that is ever present in television and film. Sadly, based on real-life negative stereotypes, bisexuals in pop culture are often portrayed as duplicitous, ruthless and greedy. May manages to sidestep these stereotypes. While her romantic partners may have possessed these qualities (both Adam and Polly misled her and treated her carelessly), May herself did not. She remains sympathetic because she's still a lonely woman searching for a true connection.

The refreshing thing about May is that her sexuality— through a huge part of the plot as she comes into her own and begins dating— is not part of the problem or an issue she struggles with. Her relationships with both Adam and Polly (while awkward) aren't fraught with any kind of inner turmoil about her sexual orientation. Unlike many other films featuring LGBTQ+ folks, May doesn't portray the fact that May is queer as something that gets in her way or causes conflicts. Her sexuality is a normal part of her experience.

Even the "friend" she puts together from other people's body parts at the conclusion of the film can be read as an expression of her sexuality: she uses both male and female parts to put together the ideal whole person. While her search for romantic love was ultimately unsuccessful, her attraction to the beauty that exists in different genders makes May a bisexual horror icon. 

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