#the queer lens

[phtalogreenpoison]

Kate Wetherall and the Queer Lens

Kate is SO bi lol. I know it's mentioned in the Riddle of Ages that Kate, Sticky, and Reynie all had a crush "one of the others." Now you might think, yes technically this can be interpreted as solely straight. But I ask you, are not these bitches gay? And yes, it is quite clear how Sticky and Reynie would be bi in this situation, but this is where I come in clutch with reading through the queer lens.

I raise you:

Kate being impressed in the Prisoner's Dilemma by Mrs. Plugg that she could just lift people like they were nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

Kate's whole little rivalry thing with Martina Crowe, ESPECIALLY in the show (though I am less familiar with this material) because what's more homoromantic than a rivalry? And how Martina changes sides out of spite in The Perilous Journey, I wonder Kate felt about this.

I don't remember if this is in the first book or the Perilous Journey, but I do remember Kate noting that Jillson tied her ponytail with wire and her thinking that that was very cool. Much as she disliked her, I do think she admired her capabilities to a certain extent.

Yes, she may not have been aware of this at like 12 or 13, but to project, I remember having a similar period of thinking "Wow! women are so cool! and strong! and pretty! Wow I just really admire them!." Think of it however you would like, but to me, I feel like if anything, this proved to Kate that she was not only a lesbian.

I can't decide who would have been the person she consciously was like "oh, women" simply because who would make the most sense/be the funniest, but I do think by Riddle of Ages she is definitely aware of this aspect of herself.

[bongwalter10]

pride kagamines ^_^

[starhoodies]

| REBIRTH |

Older soriku week prompt WIP I guess I forgot to post here?? This was supposed to have a previous part (the "THE END" that I still haven't finished), but I like this by itself too.

[marshvlovestv]

Through the lens of neurodivergence, which is more or less the only lens I have, the thing that makes Slay the Princess romantic is "You've seen the darkest parts of me, the depths of how broken my mind is, and you're still here."

[emthejedichic]

You will pry my "Bilbo Baggins is gay" headcanon out of my cold, dead hands. This motherfucker is one of the richest Hobbits in the Shire, certainly the richest in Hobbiton, and he needs an heir. But did he marry and have children? No, no he did not. He adopted Frodo, the other "weird" Baggins and I cannot unsee the inherent queerness of this. Chosen family, even though they're already related. Bilbo is NOT Frodo's biological uncle, Frodo just calls him that. But they chose each other. And I think Frodo is gay too, and that's part of what Bilbo saw in him. He knows the queers need to stick together.

[the-crooked-library]

The Gender Narrative - from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to A24

Alright so I know this topic has probably been explored to hell and back (pun intended), but a transgender lens reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has beckoned me for years; and seeing I Saw the TV Glow yesterday was probably the last push I needed to get this out in writing. As we know, the film features a fictional television show heavily inspired by BTVS - and the framing highlights the same aspects I've wanted to dissect, so let's dive into it.

Spoilers under the cut!

Throughout its run, and despite its imperfections, BTVS drew much of its messaging from 90s (and early 2000s)-era feminism. Buffy's presentation as a sparkly, pink, girly girl is central to her character and her destiny. She is an icon of what girls can do and accomplish, even with the whole world against them - and, in this context, it is absolutely, startlingly captivating that her personal life revolves around a perpetual struggle for her right to girlhood.

Despite being the picture-perfect blonde Valley Girl on the surface, Buffy often finds herself barred from that existence by her Slayer identity. She is consistently perceived as too strong, too capable, too aggressive, too independent, too dangerous - and, ultimately, too masculine to participate even in the most stereotypical milestones of a girl in high school. Still, that experience is what she craves the most; so she signs up for the cheer squad, she loves shopping, she runs for Prom Queen, and she goes out slaying in a halter top, with perfect bouncy curls. In essence, Buffy Summers is desperate to pass - which takes us to ISTTG and the root of its story.

The two main characters of ISTTG - "Owen" and "Maddy" - are obsessed with a popular YA series, The Pink Opaque; which, between its credits font, its girl power themes, and monster-of-the-week format, is demonstrated to be an in-universe parallel to BTVS. The Buffy equivalent - or, the pink, pretty, sensitive, and powerful Isabel - is a point of utter fascination for "Owen."

there are no good stills of her online yet please forgive me

She is everything he wants to be, everything he is meant to be; and the time he spends with "Maddy", wearing a pink dress, a pink ghost drawn on the back of his neck, the pink glow of the TV vivid on his face, is the only time he feels anything approaching to happiness or peace. The very first sequence of the film establishes that "Owen" barely responds to his own name, that his father is a walking threat of what society commands him to become, and that his mother is loving but distant. Even later on, when he apparently has a "family of [his] own", we never even see their faces. Within the context of his life, he is little more than a ghost, going through the motions; and as the story goes on, it is revealed that "Owen" is Isabel, trapped in a false reality by Mr. Melancholy, the Big Bad of TPO. Her heart was carved out, she is drugged, and buried alive; and the sound of her slowly choking to death overlays "Owen's" steadily worsening asthma.

There is no denying the truth of that alternate existence by the end of the film. "Owen's" life is a nightmarish suffocation. Isabel is dying from a life of a boy she never was - in what is, explicitly, a transgender narrative.

The same story is directly mirrored by "Maddy."

Within the premise of ISTTG, she is the similarly trapped and suffocating "Tara"; or, the second half of the Pink Opaque - who, over the course of the film, discovers the truth of their reality, returns to the world of the TV show, and then comes back, unwilling to leave Isabel behind. However, what is particularly notable is that while her character's name is, of course, an homage to Tara Maclay (made all the more obvious via Amber Benson's cameo), the "Tara" of TPO is nothing like the soft-spoken, pastel-wearing witch.

Instead, she is a bold, loud punk with slicked-back hair and a leather jacket, who snarks at the monsters-of-the-week and speaks in poetry - she's Spike; and that provides the basis for her dynamic with "Owen" throughout the film.

In the world of BTVS, Spike is largely presented as a foil to Buffy's character. He is her thematic (and extremely sexually compatible) opposite; and that extends to his own relationship with gender. His story arc is defined by his struggle to be perceived as a man; on the Watsonian level, it is an identity persistently overshadowed by his vampirism - and in the Doylist sense, his poetry, occasional eyeliner, and painted nails might have something to do with that situation. Regardless, it is a significant factor in his narrative, both before and after his original, human death - to the point where he bonds with Buffy's mother, Joyce, specifically because she "treated [him] like a man"; and in the context of ISTTG, the same themes extend directly to "Maddy." In S5:Ep7 of BTVS (Fool for Love), Spike states that "getting killed made [him] feel alive for the very first time" - and when "Maddy" returns from the world of TPO, she explains that the only way to survive what Mr. Melancholy had done to them was to bury herself alive and die in the false world. Her statement is a monologue of slam poetry, spoken without interruption and illuminated by the steady blue of a high school planetarium; and while "Owen's" experience of blue lighting is usually aggressive and abrasive, "Maddy's" is soothing. It is right. It ties directly to what she is meant to be, even as her story inevitably terrifies "Owen" - who, much like Buffy, is not yet ready to face the truth of who he is or allow himself to indulge the desires he's buried for all his life.

From what I understand, the finale of the film has proven to be divisive; some interpret it as hopeful, others as crushingly bleak - but as a BTVS fan, and a trans man myself, I cannot see it as anything other than a peak of sheer, overwhelming panic that is only experienced at the very precipice of Change. My reason for it is rooted in the parallels between the respective season 5 finales of BTVS and TPO. For Isabel and "Tara," the story ends with their apparent defeat at the hands of Mr. Melancholy; and Buffy's ends with her sacrificing herself to save the world. She dies. She is buried. And then there's season 6. As such, inevitably, "Owen" is going to accept the truth of himself; he is going to die, Isabel is going to claw her way out of a grave - and when she does, only one person is going to understand what happened.

In conclusion - they are T4T. To me. And to Jane Schoenbrun, I suppose.

[ohwatson]

MY PROF JUST REFERENCED JOHNLOCK IN 2024 JOHNLOCK NATION HAS NEVER BEEN MORE UP 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

i think taking a queer theory class would really fix Seven. not just in the obvious way of learning about compulsory heterosexuality & amatonormativity but also seeing that so much queer art is about the deconstruction of personhood and embracing inhumanity & imperfection. and the fact that her very literal struggle with being "human enough" is something marginalized people lived with for centuries (albeit more metaphorically than literally).

[fireladybuckley]

I can’t believe a boyfriend made a silly sex joke to lighten the mood after both partners had a moment of vulnerability. The audacity. The horror. The normalcy! Unbelievable. How dare a conversation about feelings turn to levity. How dare a couple have a light chat about trauma-related things over dinner that doesn’t turn into an incredibly deep heart to heart instead of a joke and moving on. Unbelievable. I’m never watching this show again! 👎🏻

[fiftysevenacademics]

I think one of the reasons all the emotions hit so hard in Fangs of Fortune is the way hard, bitter feelings and violent actions are layered with softness and gentleness. All the main characters (except Ying Lei, who is just pure, soft sunshine), are hung up on rough feelings of grief, revenge, and remorse, betrayal. But each of them is willing to surrender those feelings, which for each of them have grown into a kind of mission, to let tenderness in. This gradually changes them.

The tenderness is shown through so many devices: touch, gaze, play and humor, frank and intimate conversation. It’s also shown through costumes:textured and soft textiles, fur, fluffy pom poms, velvet, that invite touch. Zhao Yuanzhou’s costume in his final scenes is the epitome of this– somber and solid-looking material on one side and a fuzzy white knit textile on the other to signify duality. In this case, the firmness of purpose, making amends, the inevitability of fate on the harder black right side, and the small choices we make to connect with and touch the lives of others on the soft white left.

The soundtrack music also conveys softness. Lead actors Hou Minghao and Tian Jiarui, especially, use incredibly soft, wavering voices to sing haunting ballads that sound like laments and lullabies. But there is also some harder rock music used during fight scenes to balance the dreamlike overall effect.

This all helps convey the theme that though none of the characters can escape what fate has chosen for them, they don’t need to let it harden them. Each has suffered great losses, each knows they will suffer more, but they remain pliable and willing toward each other.

I thought it was interesting that forgiveness wasn’t really a theme. There wasn’t a moment when Wen Xiao and Zhuo Yichen forgave Zhao Yuanzhou in order to love him. In fact, they held him accountable for his past actions until the end but loved him nonetheless. Zhuo Yichen showed his love by taking on the guilt of killing the man he loved, a death that both repaid a debt and saved the world and left him bereft and alone. Wen Xiao showed her love by tearing up the contract and releasing him to both be her lover and to die.

To live with duality, one must be flexible (a point made overtly in the swing scene). The characters that cannot do this, that rigidify on one side of the balance, are the villains. Wen Zongyu, who sealed himself inside hatred of demons after they killed his wife, and Li Lun, who sealed him inside hatred of humans, and a sense of betrayal by Zhao Yuanzhou for loving them. In the end, however, Li Lun, softens and releases the love that remains in his heart to save Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen. These characters live with contradictions and ambiguities.

So the main male characters become better, nobler men not by doing great, or violently masculine deeds, but by letting the softer, gentler, one might even say somewhat feminine side of their natures direct their actions.

[klanced]

people like to joke that batman is a furry but my hottest batman take is that batman is actually a metaphor for gender expression and drag (he is performing hyper masculinity)

[phtalogreenpoison]

riddle of ages gay update (reading through the queer lens)

Hello, my brain is cooperating so I am reading riddle of ages for the first time since the agust d concert. And I am flipping through a little bit, getting back up to speed, when I reread this paragraph:

"Reynie heard Sticky's familiar footstep in the doorway. Reynie started to turn, but something checked him, and he remained as he was, thumbs hooked in the straps of his backpack, regarding the empty room. After a moment he heard Sticky walking quietly up beside him. He hadn't needed to turn. Sticky knew that Reynie knew he was there. And he knew that if Reynie had wanted to be left alone, he would have done something different. They had been friends a long time. Still, Reynie found that he wished he had turned, had gestured for Sticky to join him." (page 210)

And maybe I'm just projecting being queer and insecure onto these two, or maybe I've read too many Merlin fics with this premise (of friendship that never blooms into something more), but oof. Especially because literally on the page before, when Reynie is reminiscing, Mr. Benedict had said you can lose something before it's lost if you don't reach out and work for it. The more obvious context is obviously the possibility all of their friendships being strained by possibly moving away, especially since they're at the age where they either start moving out (to a dorm or apartment), and instead focusing on the loss instead of how that friendship can grow to be different. Which is beautiful in and of itself, and something that I have experience both ways (that being changed, stronger friendships or ones that collect dust and fade away). BUT. If you think about who feels like they are making the furthest leap, it seems to be Sticky and Reynie. Sticky to direct a chemistry institute, Reynie to a (probably) grad program at a university.

And then if you remember Constance's inner monologue about the older three all having crushes on each other, she notes that they were most afraid to change things in fear that it would ruin their friendship. And this seems to me to be a very Sticky or Reynie line of thought, and it also would make sense in this theory as they seem to be the ones with the most frustration between them for wanting to leave the Benedicts' house. In my perspective, it reads like they may be aware on some level of this romantic tension, but do not want to address if they're just going to move out anyways.

Now where is Kate in all of this? I always viewed her to be more practical, and though sometimes that can be a front for her vulnerability, I headcanon that though she can be reticent on emotions, she would eventually act if she wanted to. So in my headcanon, I think her crush on one or both simply faded or she thought about it and felt they were better as friends.

Regardless of how you feel about this (I just think it's fun! also looking back at this point in my life this interpretation would be very relatable to my dumb gay ass), I love both of their characters so much (I still need to make an analysis post on Reynie!), and I hope they resolve the frustrations in their tried and true friendship. I could also see this as a very qpr type deal, but I just want all my blorbos to be happy.

Anyways, however you picture this friendship, I read many MBS characters as queer simply because they are delightfully, sometimes painfully, not normal. And much of the series is about found family, which is familiar as a queer concept, and learning to love yourself for who you are and others as they are.

[usertoxicyaoi]

"Sheng Wang ..."

THE ON1Y ONE (2024). EPISODE ELEVEN.

[skelerangart]

trans on trans crime >:3

[k-wame]

Lex Shrapnel as Leonard Lord & Marcelo Converti as César Cabrol 2023 • A Town Called Malice • S1·E07 • Musical • Crime Family

[gomiii4545]

a drawing my pookie made for pride month @/hikari275026 on twt