#hoa is rife with queercoding but that doesn’t mean they meant to

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

i’m taking a class on horror films through a queer lens and today we covered a theory called ‘infiltration anxiety’ and how secret societies are often stand-ins for queer people because “how are you supposed to tell who’s part of this hidden ‘other’ group when they look and act like everyone else?”

i think unsurprisingly this infiltration anxiety (and subsequent potential for queer reading) can be applied to s1 and s3 of hoa respectively— more so than s2 for obvious reasons.

in many horror films throughout history, the secret society preys on impressionable youths, whether to influence or harm them. this impact is most obvious in three student characters in hoa s1: joy, patricia, and jerome. oftentimes in horror films, these societies (often queer coded) target teens who are either loners or have missing parental figures. all of them are students at a boarding school so no parents, and while joy’s dad is present, he’s still a central point in the society.

and, as we know, secret societies are often queer coded. who are our main players in the s1 secret society/society adjacent group? victor, rufus, and mr. sweet. now, idk about y’all, but… do i have to say it? 💅🏻 okay, in case it’s not clear, these three characters in particular are queercoded in some way, shape, or form. at the very least they’re all bi. and they all prey on teenagers in some way, shape, or form— whether through gaslighting, grooming, or, more often than not in the case of the hoa adults, both. joy and patricia were essentially groomed and gaslit by the society and rufus respectively, and jerome was definitely exploited, which is a lot of what anti-gay propaganda claimed was happening to children because of the existence of secret society type groups in the mid-20th century.

(i want to be clear that especially in the horror genre, a lot of queer coding is inherently homophobic to get around the production code that was put in place to combat “perversion and depravity” in film, so while equating homosexuality with predatory behavior is obviously not good, it’s still filed under a “queer reading”)

now, in s3, it’s a more traditional sense of infiltration anxiety. this is applicable to a horror films like invasion of the body snatchers or in lots of vampire movies. there’s also the inclusion of a curing trope, but i’ll get back to that.

in s3b, the sinners (the name alone gives me enough fuel for a traditional horror queer theory reading, but i digress) operate as a sort of secret society in and of itself. my professor literally used the words “they walk among us” in reference to the pervasive fear in the 50s and 60s in america about both communists and queer people. and i don’t have to talk about how queercoded robert frobisher-smythe is, do i? i mean…

anyway, if we’re looking at this all as a metaphor, we once again get that homophobic read on infiltration anxiety. here’s a queercoded man/monster preying on children and recruiting them to also be queercoded monsters preying on children. it’s an old and potentially problematic trope if we look at it through horror film queer theory.

now, let’s look specifically at the dynamic between sibuna at this point, because they best represent the “discovery plot” often used in horror films that feature infiltration anxiety:

straight couple who discover a thing: obviously it’s the whole club who discovers that frobisher is on the hunt, but two of them are paired off so they count.

they are aware the thing is there and dangerous and they’re trying to convince other people of that: more specifically applicable to kt trying to convince sibuna that she’s been set up by patricia.

the couple (or group) is not believed until it’s too late: fabian learns the truth and immediately gets picked off

the female character in the couple is in danger from the thing (may also succumb to the threat): patricia (or arguably kt but in a different context)

the hero discovers the thing’s achilles heel and exploits the weakness to destroy the monster: eddie & co vs team evil smack down

If we look at this through a queer lens, particularly point four stands out, especially in the context of s3b and sinner!patricia’s behavior with kt and eddie separately. the female protagonist is in danger/harmed by the thing and has succumbed to its influence, thus infiltrating the good group. her behavior with kt is physical and obsessive, and as i’ve pointed out before… can be read homoerotically. on the flip side, her behavior with eddie is a pageantry of straightness— she is acting as the “perfect straight girl” should with her boyfriend, only to further her evil agenda.

the curing trope was often used in queercoded horror films to overcome the evil, aka curing the monster of its queerness. that might be a religious curing or it may be a straight curing, like in the nightmare on elm street sequel where freddy is defeated bc the girlfriend of the queercoded boy he possessed kisses him and he melts back into her boyfriend. ring any bells for s3?

once the evil (queerness) has been eradicated, everything returns to normal (heteronormativity)

both these s1/s3 instances of horror tropes are very interesting… and potentially products of a problematic production code chic