Monika Treut's earlier works had a strong sexual initiation, particularly on the lesbians's self-awareness and identification of sexual desires. Her works《Virdin Machine》and《My Father Is Coming》, are regarded as classics by lesbians. In the films, the personas traveled from Germany to United States, leaving her traditional hometown for the free and open San Francisco and New York City. While delicately portraying the self-awareness of lesbians, Treut also uses humorous images to smash the stereotypes cast on race, gender, and culture. Her film successfully depicts the paradise in which gender boundaries are transgressed.
Besides concerns on lesbians identity, Treut often uses S&M and transgender motifs in her films to reverse the main-stream gender mechanism. The scenes of torture and abuse in the fiction film,《Seduction: The Cruel Woman》, the image of dominating women in the documentary films,《Didn’t Do It For Love》, and《Female Misbehavior》,as well as the in-depth interview on transsexuals in《Gendernauts – A Journey Through Shifting Identities 1999》have all led the audience to reconsider the essence of sex, gender, and body. The films also got rid of people’s ethical prejudices, and expanded their potential beyond the traditional “vanilla sex” (pure intercourse). On the other hand, her films transgressed the usual boundaries that separate men and women, and allowed a more flexible sexual-awareness.
