Queer Media - Blog Posts

I understand peoples opinions and thoughts on Steven universe, but at the same time I’m like how can you hate that show? Do you know how much it did for young queer kids trying to figure themselves out? Do you know how great it was for pushing past queer stereotypes in television?

a 'brief' analysis on the queerness of kitty bubai and franke athens from psychonauts, and the depth behind their favorite medias

ok this is the first serious post im making that isnt just account boundaries or anything. wow. ok how do i start this!!! so you guys know kitty bubai and franke athens from psychonauts right.

these little freakazoids from whispering rock in the first game. you know how theyre always holding hands and how theyre 'bestest friends' and shit

yeah well what if i told you they were queer. wow! as if nobody knew that already!!!! (clear sarcasm) but theres some more that meets the eye yknow. one, its remarkable the devs snuck queer girls into the first game which came out in 2005 mind you. when people still werent really all that accepting of queer people ESPECIALLY if they were in a public relationship. this was really based of the devs to do no matter how hidden it is. more under the cut

of course they refer to each other as girlfriends (iirc) and 'sister,' but theres more than you think. we all know about the campster profiles, but the information on them is actually pretty interesting about the campers, since we dont learn much of them in the game itself which is sad.

lets start off with franke. first of all, her only interest (aside from favorite medias) is literally JUST kitty.

thats pretty fucking gay if you ask me. and to add to the fire, she seems to have no real interest in other campers, especially other male campers. vernon in the campster profiles is revealed to have a crush on her, but her feelings toward him are ambivalent at BEST. her main focus is kitty, and has always been kitty.

and about her favorite medias, basically all of them are queer.

lets start with her favorite band of two women, t.A.T.u. this russian pop duo of girls, lena katina and julia volkova. they arent lesbians, but their queerness was a marketing stunt driven by shapovalov. though, maybe franke didnt know this. she just thought that their music was about two girls, loving one another. two russian girls loving one another in a time of potent homophobic stigma. russia has had homophobic ideals for a very long time, and homophobia was even more rampant back then than it is today. its forbidden love, and of course a young queer girl would eat that shit UP. its how she feels during that time.

from an article called 'the strange and homophobic history of 'queer icons' t.A.T.u,' the author writes these little tidbits.

'Perhaps catching wind of their struggling personal brand, Katina and Volkova released a statement in 2007. “Many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them,” they wrote. “This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries." A few weeks later, they performed at the Moscow’s Pride celebrations.'

'In a 2011 interview, Volkova stated that she wouldn’t accept having a gay son. “God created man for procreation, it is the nature. The man for me is the support…I won’t accept a gay son,” she said on Russian TV. “A man has no right to be a fag…I just want my son to be a real man, not a fag.” She then tried to ‘backpedal’, saying, “I have many gay friends. I believe that being gay is all still better than murderers, thieves or drug addicts. If you choose out of all this, being gay a little better than the rest.’ For what it’s worth, Katina publicly condemned Volkova’s statements.'

but of course, franke wouldnt know. this was all way after 2003, when the campster profiles were made. she would think that these two girls were lesbians, just like her. of course she would like their music.

now, lets go to her favorite tv shows and movie—ellen, laverne & shirly, and the hunger. as we all know, ellen is a lesbian. ellen publicly came out on april 30, 1997. with laverne & shirley, people have speculated that they are in a relationship, especially with how they act towards each other.

with the hunger, 1; its an erotic horror. not something a 10 year old should be watching, but honestly its not as bad as the other kids literally being peeping toms or killing animals on complete accident just with how overwhelmed and utterly powerful their minds are. 2; its a vampire flick with homosexual themes. being transformed, in both a queer awakening and a literal way, being transformed into a vampire. vampries throughout history have been associated with queerness in media, and this movie is no different. the hunger is one of the most famous movies with a literal queer plot. theres lesbian sex scenes, and theres goth swinger couples. very 1983. from a website called bitch flicks, theres a post that is titled 'nine pretty great lesbian vampire movies,' in which part of the section on the hunger says;

'Sticking well within queer tropes, however, Miriam is honestly a real U-Haul vampire, and waits all of 10 seconds after John’s death before she tries to marry Sarah pretty much out of nowhere. We are talking about someone that has an eternity ahead of her that can’t even wait like a month after her husband’s “death” before she starts moving her girlfriend in. Which is cold as Hell, because they were married for something like 300 years.'

conclusion, franke is gay as fuck. we love lesbians in this house! now, on to kitty, the more obvious of the queer couple i think.

as a brief little bit, her and frankes relationship status on campster is set to 'open marriage.' if that isnt gay, i dont know what is. franke is only interested in being friends with men and women, meanwhile kitty is interested in a serious relationship with women and men. clearly, shes already polyamorous and bi, which is absolutely based.

with her favorite media, her favorite show is xena: warrior princess. theres a bit of queerness in that show as well, with xena being clearly written as a queer character. xena and gabrielle, friends in the show, have been speculated to be queer, and the actresses for both have embraced this headcanon with open arms. in one episode, xena takes the form of a man and kisses gabrielle, and despite the heterosexual appearance, its very clearly a queer scene with obvious romantic intent. xena has been referred to as a feminist and lesbian icon. love that!

with her favorite movie, mulholland drive, it has been a key staple in sapphic media. from an article, 'the important of mulholland drive in sapphic cinematic history,' there are a few paragraphs id like to highlight.

'Rita has suffered amnesia after being in a car crash on Mulholland Drive–she can’t even remember her own name, choosing Rita from a movie poster. Betty attempts to help Rita figure out her identity and they grow close through the process, eventually sleeping together in a very passionate scene of connection. It’s nothing gratuitous, nor the focus of the film or its celebration after release. “Have you even done this before?” Betty asks Rita. “I don’t know,” Rita says. “Have you?” “I want to, with you. I’m in love with you.”'

'Viewers of Mulholland Drive are unraveling the mystery with Rita and Betty, looking for clues that might have been overlooked, some, like Melissa Anderson of ArtForum, seeing the film an upwards of 20 times. As bizarre things begin to occur–a blue key found in Rita’s purse unlocks a mystery box that has Betty becoming Diane Selwyn, a name Rita recognized earlier on as Rita is now actress Camilla Rhodes. In their new roles, Diane is in love with Camilla, Another love scene between Diane and Camilla is disconnected, one-sided. “We shouldn’t do this anymore,” Camilla says. “Don’t say that!” Diane replies. “Don’t ever say that.” Later, Camilla kisses another woman (played by Melissa George) and then a man, and laughs in Diane’s face. This madness leads Diane to hire a hitman to kill the object of her affection.'

both of these girls favorite medias are queer. all of them. clearly some thought went into these girls, and what they would like as young girls exploring themselves and their identity. it seems like franke would be more closeted about herself, meanwhile kitty is proud of herself. kitty is the ringleader in their relationship, with franke following behind.

conclusion, franke and kitty are gay as hell, and theres literally no disputing that with all the evidence at our fingertips.

sorry if this little essay post was weirdly formatted, i was interested in writing this stupid little thing.

Spare Me Your Mercy, Love in the Big City, and the Trap of Pursuing Mainstream Popularity for Queer Art

I read this excellent post by @waitmyturtles yesterday tackling the frustrating failures of Spare Me Your Mercy, a show that was one of my most anticipated of the year, but that ended up so lost in its own confusing blend of sauces that I didn't even finish it. I appreciated her clarity that despite the show receiving strong ratings and finding popularity with the mainstream domestic audience, that doesn't actually make it a success as a piece of narrative storytelling. And if anything, its popularity underlines why it was a failure as a queer narrative, in particular.

Because here's the thing about great queer art—it's almost never popular with mainstream audiences, especially in socially conservative countries. High quality, well-executed, honest and authentic queer art is more likely to be protested than celebrated in places where real queer people are not safe to live free lives. For an illustration of this, look no further than another highly anticipated queer drama of this year in Love in the Big City. Easily the queerest show to ever get made and aired on Korean television, it drew major protests before it even started, forcing the production to release it quickly in one go to ensure it would reach audiences. And why were those conservative groups so afraid of this little old drama? Because even just in its trailer and promotional materials, it was clear this was no sanitized, G-rated drama created to make gay people seem more palatable to the masses (unlike the film version with the same name, which not coincidentally has been much more warmly received by the Korean media establishment). This show was real, and raw, and QUEER in a way that terrified those bigots, because they know one of the most important ways the oppressed can advocate for themselves is by demonstrating their humanity through art. 

Which brings me back to turtles’ post, and the importance of separating the concerns of art and commerce when discussing the different ways media can succeed. This is something I had some good dialogue about with @biochemjess @pharawee @clairedaring @flowerbeasblog and turtles (and even more of you in the tags) when I was still watching and posting about Spare Me Your Mercy. I originally posted to unpack why the show was flopping narratively, which turned into a discussion of the fact that it was getting good ratings from the domestic audience despite this. And while I appreciated understanding how the show is landing with its priority audience, for me, it’s very important to keep a distinction between these two different kinds of success. Especially in discussions of queer art, and especially for a show whose creators explicitly said they were intentionally downplaying the queer romance part of the queer romance ( @benkaben) to avoid “distracting” from their other messaging goals. 

The important thing to keep in mind is that for queer stories, when they are popular with a mainstream audience it’s often because they are stripping any authenticity from the representation of queer people. Turtles addressed this well in her review of 2gether when she posited that part of the reason it was such a phenomenon in conservative Asian countries (aside from the timing of its release in the early days of the global pandemic), was because its presentation of queerness was mostly unrecognizable to real queer people, stripped of any true notion of queer sexuality or the realities of homophobia. Compare the reception of The Miracle of Teddy Bear—a show that absolutely refused to make its central queer character palatable for a mainstream audience, because the fact that he wasn’t palatable was the point—to that of Spare Me Your Mercy, a show whose creators chose to censor their own story. The ugly truth is that when we’re talking about queer dramas, the best and most vital shows are pretty much anathema to mainstream ratings success.

The impulse to pursue mainstream popularity and commercial success for queer art inevitably leads to watering down queer stories ( @twig-tea) to make them more light, comfortable and familiar to a majority heterosexual and socially conservative audience. And yes, of course, some degree of commercial success is necessary for queer art to get made in the first place. This is how the Thai BL market took off, by recognizing that there was an audience beyond queer people who were open to watching stories about boys falling in love, as long as it didn’t get too real. But there is a careful line to walk here, and it’s so important not to confuse popularity with artistic merit. Queer people won’t win liberation by self-censoring queer media to make it more palatable for mainstream audiences. We win when we make queer art so good and so honest that the mainstream is forced to acknowledge it. We win by challenging the mainstream perspective on queer people and how they should behave, not by catering to it. As @bengiyo said in a completely different discourse, the question is not whether the audience can love queer characters whose actual queerness is suppressed for their comfort. That kind of respectability politics is old hat and it never fucking gets us anywhere. The real question he posed is this: “Do you love us when we’re ugly, when we’re sick, when we’re old, when we’re being mean or catty?”

Which is why a show like Love in the Big City ultimately won by being so excellent, and so true, and so undeniable, that it broke through with audiences around the world and achieved some measure of recognition in spite of how very unpalatable it was to its domestic audience. Unlike Spare Me Your Mercy, this show did not get amazing domestic ratings, but its message was heard far beyond those who watched it on Korean television. And that is the point. Making authentic art that advances the struggle of queer people and making nominally queer art that can achieve mainstream popularity are completely different pursuits, and we must keep that in mind when we discuss whether and how these shows succeeded or failed. And while both must exist in a healthy media ecosystem, one will always be more vital for the survival of queer people than the other. 

"If I had a nickel for every time a main character sacrificed themselves for the greater good, ges a power-up, and then fades into little bits of nothing only to meet a god-like creature I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but its weird that it happened twice."

i don't think that hearstopper or red white and royal blue are not made for queer people. it is just that they are about being queer rather than directly for queer people.

hearstopper, especially, is about teenage queer experiences (first love, coming out, discovering your identities...). while dead boy detectives plot doesn't revolve around the queerness of the characters, since its a detective show.

and rwrb is something else, even. I would say it represent an in-between: although important part of the plot focuses on alex's sexuality crisis, the subplot revolve around politics and international relationship.

rwrb represents the middle ground of the queer media venn diagram. It panders to straight people by offering a clear and distinct representation with some explanation of queer identities while having queer characters whose identities don't solely revolve around being queer.

i say that we need all of those kind of stories, some like hearstopper, some like dead boy detectives and some like red and white and royal blue, because they serve different purposes.

while stories like hearstopper help straight audiences or young queer people to understand queerness and its diversity and struggles, shows like dead boy detectives further humanizes LGBTQ+people by representing them in casual yet meaningful ways with all of the nuances that come with being queer.

as someone who is a huge fan of other queer content (like heartstopper and red, white and royal blue), dead boy detectives feels so incredibly different.

despite how much i love those two, they don’t feel like they’re made for queer people.

in a lot of ways, they feel like media made for cishet people about queer and trans people which is fine and doesn’t make it unenjoyable, but dbda has a totally different feel to it.

it feels like queer media made FOR queer people.

they have so much nuance to their characters and don’t shy away from it. charles openly flirts with both edwin and crystal despite the fact that he never says anything about his sexuality and edwin’s backstory doesn’t try to hide the horrifying way that queer people were treated historically and i think that’s really important.

though he is very clearly repressed, he is still unapologetically queer. he showcases his jealousy loudly and there is no doubt in the viewer’s mind that he is queer even for a moment.

same with monty and the cat king. they’re so vibrantly and boldly queer. monty begins flirting with edwin nearly the moment we see him and as does tck. what i really appreciate about tck is his gender nonconformity. i think that’s so important and i honestly really appreciate that they don’t even mention it.

with tck in particular, his actions can be considered rather predatory, but we never really feel like that’s due to his queerness which is FASCINATING because that is a really harmful stereotype of queer people, but it never feels like that’s what they’re going for or like they’re using it to demonize queerness.

with jenny, she says so casually that she’s attracted to women and it’s not even something that they have to discuss again. it’s such an unimportant aspect of her character, but it’s still so unabashedly there. i love that niko doesn’t even say anything about it when she learns, she just accepts her, no questions asked.

even with simon, he very clearly discusses his sexuality in E7 when he tells edwin that he liked him, but he never has to say the words. we just KNOW contextually because he talks around it. he i would argue that he is the only instance of a character discussing shame in their identity and it immediately results in one of the loveliest quotes in the show.

“if you punish yourself, everywhere becomes hell.”

he has spent over a century repressing himself and when he finally tells edwin, the boy he liked and treated terribly because of it, he is immediately told that it is not torture to be queer. he is immediately told that there is nothing wrong with his sexuality.

the confession scene btwn edwin and charles in E7 and the scene in E6 where edwin is TRYING to confess are so fucking important to me. nearly immediately, charles tells edwin that it doesn’t make any difference that he’s queer and that he accepts him. when he does confess, he doesn’t make him feel bad for it. he tells him that he loves him too, but that he can’t say he does in that way right now, but that he’s the most important person in his life and that that will never change.

the scene in E7 where they’re on the roof and edwin tries to apologize for potentially having made things awkward, charles shuts it down immediately. he says “it doesn’t.” and that’s the end of it.

this show exemplifies queerness through a queer light and it’s very clear who the intended audience is for dbda not to sound like i’m hating on the first two pieces of media (rwrb is literally one of my special interests, trust me, i adore them both), but maybe that’s why hs was given a third season and dbda was cancelled within five months of airing. i feel that these two pander to straight people in a lot of ways, but dbda doesn’t. it’s something that is incredibly important to me and i’m really happy about it.