#queer women breakout relationships

[lullabyes22-blog]

FnF Characters in an Acting AU + Shipping AMV Reactions

For you @frostybearpaws

<3

Mel: Former model. Not just any model, mind you. We're talking Iman or Naomi Campbell levels of powerhouse. She is the muse for a dozen fashion brands, from Versace to St. Laurent. Fluent in a half-dozen languages. Has an MA in art history. A prodigy at piano and harpsichord. Her social media is sublime eye candy; she is lauded as a style icon, and highly sought after by Vanity Fair and Vogue for covers.

Champions tirelessly for better roles for black women in TV and film. Outspoken advocate of the #MeToo movement. Passionately antiwar, and works with a number of educational advocacy groups. Has even made a formal speech before Congress.

re: the AMVs - "Oh this is delightfully done." Flattered by the passionate responses of fans, and amused by the spirited fanbase split between Meljay and Melco. When asked who she ships: "Meljay, I'm afraid. Silco has his charming qualities. But Mel needs someone who will prioritize her, and only her."

Violet: Relative newcomer. Mostly typecast in sporty 'tough chick' roles. Had a big breakout role in a "Bend it Like Beckham" type early 2000s film. The scriptwriters chickened out with a heteronormative ending, but fans latched on to all the queer subtext in film. She's got a huge Insta following, due to her popularity in the fandom, her status as an LGBTQ+ icon, or her being an ex-pro athlete.

She's a big proponent for more diverse representation in pop culture. She also has a degree in gender studies, and is an avid fanfiction reader. She's even written some smutty one-shots of her own <3

re: the AMVs: "Wow. Just... wow." Speechless at how horny y'all are.  Like, off the chains horny. And she's totally not judging. At all. But... "Damn. Take a cold shower, guys."

Sssh. She ships CaitVi too.  And she agrees the Nao arc was uncalled for. "Idk what the writers were thinking. Vi would never cheat on Cait. Even if they did break up." </3

Jayce: Child actor who was thrust into the limelight after starring in a 1990s sitcom. It was cancelled, but ended up having a massive cult following. His last big project was the 2000s comedy flick, "Freaks of Zaun," which, despite a critical drubbing, remains a favorite of the genre. He's kind of a douche irl, but fans are still super into him. He's also an influencer, and runs a successful YouTube channel where he posts workout routines, travel vids, and other lifestyle-adjacent stuff.

Huge fanboy of his own character, and never shuts up about him.

re: the AMVs: "You know what? I kinda get it. These are pretty good." Is a little miffed at the whole "Jayce is an idiot" meme.  “Look, he's a fucking scientist. I don't think a stupid guy could pull off the invention of Hextech." He also doesn't appreciate the ship wars, especially when it gets into toxic territory. "C'mon, guys. It's acting. There are no actual relationships. Don't turn this into a hatefest."

Has gotten cancelled once already. He's since learned not to touch that particular can of worms.

Ships MelJay and tolerates JayVik. Blanches at the mention of JayCo.

Jinx: Total newbie to the industry. Was a former gymnast, and an Olympian in the making. A torn meniscus put her out of the competition. Her agent, who'd been trying to convince her to switch to acting, seized the opportunity to get her in front of the camera. She's never had a day's training. But she's a natural. Her energy is infectious, and her charm is unmatched. A real sweetheart, too. Loves dogs and is a vegan. Advocates tirelessly for animal rights.

re: the AMVs: Shrieking at the first video like a kid in a candy shop. "Is this real? How do I join?" The first to suggest livestreaming the cast's reactions. She's not a fan of shipping wars, but has a live-and-let live attitude. Will scroll through instagram liking any video or post that has #Timebomb in the tag - her favorite ship, btw. She also likes Melco, Sevilco and JayVik.

But not Cait/Vi. Or Jinx/Silco.

"Just... yuck."

(CaitVi shippers accuse her routinely of homophobia. She's not homophobic. She's ace-aro. She's just finds the CaitVi pairing boring.)

Sevika: A rising star, and a fan favorite. She was a former MMA fighter before an accident left her with a paralyzed left arm. She'd been content to go the rest of her life as a trainer, until a talent scout noticed her. She was cast as a supporting character in a cop procedural. It ran three seasons, but her charisma made her a longstanding fandom icon. Audiences in FnF have been clamoring for more screen time, and the writers have been accommodating. Rumor has it that they're working on an origin story arc, where she'll be the main character.

re: the AMVs: "How'd this become a thing? You're all fucking weird." Has an opinion on every video. Doesn't hold back. Her reviews are highly anticipated, and fans love her blunt commentary. She doesn’t ship anyone. But she will like any MelCo tags that cross her Twitter feed.

Not because she thinks they're hot, but because she hates Jayce, and thinks it'd be fun to watch him suffer.

Married IRL to Mel, whom she met on set<3

Caitlyn: Nepo baby. Her parents were both Academy Award-nominated actors, who met while filming a romcom. They've had an on-again, off-again relationship for the last thirty years. Cait has been in the industry her whole life, and acting professionally since she was five. Her resume is filled with romantic comedies and period pieces. She's been compared to Audrey Hepburn, and is considered a classic Hollywood beauty. Originally, she was cast in the role of Nandi, opposite "young" Silco. But the Vekauran community derided the casting as whitewashing, and her chemistry with young Silco was totally lacking. She was recast as Vi's romantic interest, and the rest is history.

She's a huge fan of CaitVi, and is known for her frequent appearances at Comic Con. Always happy to pose with cosplayers of her character. She also has a penchant for weird memes.

re: the AMVs: Has a very strict rule about never Googling her name. Opts out of the shipping wars, too. "If it makes people happy, who am I to judge?"

Vander: Former action star, and a fan favorite. Played a superhero vigilante in the late 80s. Known for his iconic lines: "We can do this the easy way. Or the hard way." He had a string of hit films before the industry shifted away from the genre. His career suffered, and he found himself typecast in a string of poorly-received knock-offs of his old films. His final movie tanked at the box office, and he nearly threw in the towel. But his manager convinced him to audition for the show.

He and Silco are known for their on-screen chemistry, and were the subject of a lot of "Are they?" questions. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Vander even stated, "Look, I'd do Silco. It's no secret." Which caused quite the stir on the internet. Sources still aren’t sure if he meant the actor or the character.

He's a huge fan of the show, and a proud member of the fandom. He ships Jinx & Silco, but as platonic soul-family. He's also a CaitVi and Timebomb fan.

re: the AMVs: "Aww, this is cute." He's the most positive out of the bunch.  Is a bit weirded out by the fan obsession with his love life. "I mean, I'm flattered, really. But c'mon, guys. I have a husband." Is super active on Twitter, and frequently replies to fans.

Viktor: Little-known actor from a small country in Eastern Europe. He'd been an up-and-coming romantic hero, guest-starring in a popular soap opera. When a visa snafu kept him from appearing on the show, he was replaced. But the fans revolted. They loved the character, and didn't want to see him gone. The studio listened, and after he found good legal representation, he was able to secure a permanent work visa and keep the role.

Very sweet and reserved; he's not really into social media, or even the internet.

re: the AMVs: Totally geeking out over them. Has a huge crush on Jinxtor, but doesn't realize it's a no-no in the USA as Jinx is 18, and Viktor is 34. He enjoys JayVik as both a scienbros dynamic and as a romantic couple.

Favorite ship is SkyVik. He's even collaborated with a few AMV creators on Youtube on a whole collection of SkyVik videos.

"It's a tragic love story, no?"

Silco: Indie darling. He was a teen star in the early 80s, and garnered a small but loyal fanbase. His first film was a horror flick, where he played a troubled runaway who'd been possessed by a demon. The raw animalism of the performance garnered him a Golden Globe nomination, and his subsequent projects had a similar gothic flair. He's also starred in a number of subversive art house films. His breakout role was the dissolute vampire king in the cult classic, "Blood for Blood" - for which he snagged an Oscar nod.

IRL he's a vocal advocate for unionization, and regularly attends protests in support of worker's rights. Conversely, he's also a vocal proponent of capital punishment.

re: the AMVs: Is mystified at first. Then intrigued. Then appreciative. "This is quite good. The editing. The cinematography. The music. It's not all amateurish, as one might expect." Mostly, he's a silent observer. Always watching, and seldom commenting. A veritable mystery.

He ships CaitVi, but only for the aesthetic. Jilco gets a raised eyebrow and a headshake. Vanco gets a crooked smile. Sevilco, and he'll actually chuckle.

"You are a strange, strange people."

His favorite ship is Melco. Largely because he and Mel had a fling irl during his tenure on the show.

Ekko: Hearthrob of the fanbase. He's an influencer, and runs a YouTube channel where he reviews tech toys and gadgets. His fans are mostly teens, and he has an adorable 'too cool for school' schtick. He's a huge nerd, though, and is actually a prodigy when it comes to mechanical engineering. His parents were scientists, and he was homeschooled his whole life. He got his first TV role by winning a game show, where he had to create a prototype toy that would be marketed and sold to kids.

He's also the funniest out of the cast. And he knows it. Always quick with a zinger, and can turn even the most awkward situation into a comedy routine.

re: the AMVs: Cracks up over the first few videos. Then becomes an avid fan of the whole genre. Has a soft spot for Timebomb, but he and Jinx are friends irl, so he doesn't want to make things weird. Comes up with his own random ships to troll the fanbase.

Ekko/Vi - "A disaster. Imagine how awkward that would be."

Ekko/Mel - "She's totally out of his league. But I'm down to see how it would go."

Ekko/Sevika - "Now, that would be something. She is one hot mama."

Ekko/Jayce - "I'd top him. There, I said it."

Ekko/Cait - "She's totally a virgin. She'd die."

Ekko/Silco - "Fuck this guy, amirite? Literally."

[blazinghotfoggynights]

If I am basing whether I think Buddie will happen on season 7 alone, I am going to have to say no. I think a lot of the last minutes rewrites were done to accomplish quite the opposite.

My take so far:

Tim seems to be in love with the Tommy Kinard character. Maybe he was originally intended to be a plot device, but it is obvious with the rewrites and forced in scenes that Tim Minear is really invested in Tommy and wants Lou on 911 much more. I believe that season 8 will be used to cement Tommy's place as a regular and even push him to the forefront, ahead of long-time recurring characters like Karen and Ravi. I think he will even get more time than Hen and Chim. I think the only way we don't get a big push for Lou to return and be the next breakout star on the show is if the main cast members all push against it. (Tim seems to be obsessed with the characters who made the 118 a racist, misogynist hellhole. 😒Ijs. Gerrard is back when anyone with RL corporate experience knows someone like him would be blacklisted by any organization that doesn't want to be sued into oblivion. I am sure DeLuca will make an appearance as well. I will probably write a meta about that entire situation.)

From 7 x 4 onward, in interviews and in the show itself, Eddie's heterosexuality has been stressed repeatedly. Buck finding his person has been heavily hinted at. Buck is chasing Tommy shamelessly. Tommy's problematic behavior is being ignored and justified by the writer himself. It is spun as positive, which fans are eating up. This is the setup to separate Buck and Eddie for good and start building up 911 to be the BuckandTommy show.

The absolutely loony arc of Eddie chasing his dead wife's doppelganger served it's purpose. It cemented Eddie's obsession with women. It placed a focus on Eddie's obsession with being with a woman, needing a woman, and being driven by a woman.

Christopher moving back to Texas is possibly the foundation for a Ryan Guzman exit. Christopher probably becomes comfortable in Texas and Eddie, the way he loves his son, will make the decision to go where he is. Maybe Ryan goes to Lone Star. Maybe he doesn't. But it will seal the coffin on Buddie for good, force all fans to accept BuckTommy, open the door the the new power couple, and set up Tim's boost of Tommy's character and Lou's more prominent place in the cast. I can actually see if 911 gets a season 9 and beyond, Lou being pushed to the front. With Ryan gone, and as Buck's partner, Lou could easily jump over every other member of the cast to become the second main focus. I think Buck will remain the primary focus in the foreseeable future,because he is a fan favorite. However, if the Lou fandom continues surging, even Oliver could find himself playing second fiddle.

I think Oliver is completely comfortable with portraying a queer character. But is Ryan? Just because someone did something in the past doesn't mean they are willing to do it now. I think there is a lot going on behind the scenes that is never going to be revealed while the show is still on. Maybe a few years after, someone will spill the tea, but not now. I know which members of the cast I am betting on speaking out first, post show.

Why is no one in that cast, other than Lou, bringing up Tommy or his relationship with Buck? Even the other half of that relationship talks about his coming out and realization arc, his growth, and being in a relationship, but he doesn't give the relationship itself the time of day. Buck and Eddie's dynamic was still being referenced a lot even when Buck is in a whole ass relationship with another guy. That's interesting.

I know the BTS clips are short and fun, but can someone provide one where Lou isn't obviously being ignored and if he is a part of it, it isn't awkward and forced?

[itswhominthiscaseactually]

My transfem awakening has hugely changed the way I’m attracted to women and a lot of that change happened over the summer and now I’m back at uni and we had the first meeting of a residence programming group supporting queer students living in residence that I’m a part of and I just. I. Women. Queer women are so god damn beautiful. A woman I was in a breakout session was so pretty and confident and had great hair and a cute dress and this very forward slightly intimidating energy and after moments of that discussion my stomach just leapt into my chest and stayed there and I’ve been a bit giddy ever since getting home.

I’m in a committed monogamous relationship with a woman who is so beautiful and whom I love so dearly and I know she would not like me feeling this way about someone, but I am just such a woman enjoyer. And I love how it feels to be enraptured by beautiful women in my life all the time. I feel this tinge of guilt but I know I’m not going to cheat on her so why should I refuse or feel bad about feeling so struck by how pretty the women in my life are? I think I shouldn’t! I feel like I’ve come to my answer but I also feel like there’s more to reconcile here somehow. I’m in my feelings.

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 2): General Bracket Match 7

Yrica Quell | Identity: bisexual | Media: Alphabet Squadron Trilogy

Yrica Quell is the main protagonist of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy. In her childhood, she had multiple relationships with both men and women. One of the most important was with a woman named Nette who attempted to join the Alliance, but likely never made it. At her urging, she joined the Empire to get training as a pilot but then never defected to the Rebellion because of her loyalty to her comrades. She is an exploration of the theme of redemption that undergirds the entire saga, but specifically what comes next. She is forced to defect by her mentor after participating in Operation Cinder. Traumatized and depressed, she is recruited into a New Republic task force attempting to take down her old unit of elite pilots- Shadow Wing.

This unit becomes Alphabet Squadron, where she finds a new found family. She also becomes a protegee to Hera Syndulla, as they both learn what it takes to win and establish a new government. She grows into being a leader, but abandons them after her actual involvement in Operation Cinder is exposed. She rejoins Shadow Wing to take them down from the inside. In the process, she discovers that Emperor Palpatine had a database of every Imperial atrocity. The question is how society can move forward when a large portion of them have been party to one atrocity or another, especially her. 

After the war, she opens an intra-system cargo company and eventually properly begins a romantic relationship with Chass na Chadic, a member of Alphabet Squadron.

Chelli Lona Aphra | Identity: lesbian | Media: Star Wars Comics

Oh Aphra, where to begin. Honestly the best way I can describe her is that she’s Star Wars’ Vriska. She’s a “rogue archeologist” and in marketing material sometimes compared to Indiana Jones, but the only similarity is that she can feature in the same wacky stories about retrieving artifacts except with none of the mismatch between modern ideas about archeology and repatriation and Indy being the hero, because she specifically isn’t. She was originally created for the 2015 Darth Vader comic series, recruited to help Vader raise a force that would let him coup the Emperor. She was so popular she then got her own comic series, making her the breakout star of the Disney/Marvel Star Wars comics. The Fandom Menace can’t touch her.

Her comics have been a series of frankly strange adventures involving Force artifacts, Vader either working with her or wanting her dead, and double crosses that leave your head spinning. She has Thrawn level tactical abilities, but only for schemes. She is haunted by how her trauma born behaviors make it hard for her to maintain relationships and be a good person. She has so many exes it's an entire section of this tournament. Her most significant relationships have been with Sana Starros and Magna Tolvan. As of the end of the Spark Eternal arc, the comic seems to be leaning towards a poly ending with the three of them, but first Aphra needs to stop self sabotaging.

One of Aphra’s greatest achievements was at the end of her 2016 comic run, where she trapped Vader in a PTSD flashback Force artifact on Tython and hacked his suit to allow her to erase Hoth from the Empire’s records. She did this for the sake of her loved ones who had joined the Alliance. Doing this gave Echo Base enough time to build up before they were found again that they were able to evacuate much more efficiently. That’s right, disaster lesbian love saved the Rebellion.

[coochiequeens]

Tuft has made it clear she’s willing to lace her boots back up and re-debut — not as the “monster of a male” she says she once was, but as a trans athlete who loves her body." If he really wants to show he's not a "monster of a male" he would only go against oppents who went through male puberty. Or switch to the other wrestling company that does have TIM performers.

BY SAMANTHA RIEDEL December 8, 2023

Former pro wrestler Gabbi Tuft says she wants to return to a WWE ring “very shortly” and face one of the company’s biggest stars, two years after publicly coming out as transgender.

Tuft, who underwent open-heart surgery in 2019, revealed to TV Insider she recently stepped between the ropes for the first time in over a decade while visiting a training school owned by industry veteran Dustin Rhodes (formerly known as Goldust). “Since I did that there has been a huge resurgence and feeling for what I love,” Tuft said, adding that she was actively seeking medical clearance to compete once more.

“I said to my doctor, ‘Hey, review my scans. Am I clear to go wrestle if I want?’” Tuft said. “I’m hoping to hear back from [them] this week to see if I’m a hundred percent clear. If that’s the case, very shortly I may resume training.”

In her original run with WWE from 2008 to 2012, Tuft wrestled under the moniker “Tyler Reks,” a troublemaking villain or “heel” who played a reliable foil to the company’s heroes. As Reks, Tuft faced off against numerous high-profile male stars of the era, some of whom are still active in WWE, like Kofi Kingston, The Usos, and (somehow) CM Punk. In her comments to TV Insider, Tuft praised one potential future opponent who’s rocketed to wrestling fame and Sapphic adoration over the past few years: Rhea Ripley.

Ripley, the current Women’s World Champion and resident leather-clad demoness of the “Judgement Day” team, has become a huge breakout star over the past few years, appealing especially to queer wrestling fans who dig black lipstick and shoulders. (It helps that calling her “mami” and/or “papi” is, according to WWE’s storytelling, canonically appropriate.) Ripley “is such a force in WWE. She is powerful,” Tufts told TV Insider. “To be honest, when I look at her and her athleticism and tenacity, I see a phenomenal opponent. A phenomenal match in the making.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tuft praised fellow trans wrestlers Nyla Rose and Gisele Shaw, who perform in All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling (soon to be rebranded TNA, again) respectively. “I love Nyla and Gisele [....] It’s incredible to see them part of the women’s division,” Tuft said, hinting she feels “like there is a spot there for WWE” to finally introduce an out trans wrestler.

“You haven’t seen it there yet. It’s raising questions as to why. Are they waiting for the right opportunity?” Tuft wondered. “It’s definitely a question in my mind. Maybe someday there is someone who can fill that hole very soon.”

Although WWE has yet to feature an openly trans or nonbinary wrestler on TV (and no, “Santina” and other comic-relief drag characters don’t count), the company has slowly opened its doors to queer authenticity, both in and out of the ring. WWE wrestler Steffanie “Tegan Nox” Newell came out as bisexual in 2020, followed by ring announcer Kayla Braxton the next year, while lesbian star Daria “Sonya DeVille” Berenato got engaged to her “ride or die” partner this February. (Kimberly “Piper Nevin” Benson made a coming-out post in 2019, but has since deleted it and hasn’t discussed her sexuality since.) And while WWE’s stories about gay relationships can get, uh, messy, Tuft is right to point out that the company could just hire a trans wrestler and let them wrestle, much as AEW has with Nyla Rose.

Whenever WWE is ready, Tuft has made it clear she’s willing to lace her boots back up and re-debut — not as the “monster of a male” she says she once was, but as a trans athlete who loves her body.

“[T]he day I stopped caring about what other people thought, was the day I truly became limitless,” Tuft wrote in her 2021 coming-out post. Alas, “limitless” is already taken as a wrestling catchphrase, but if Tuft does get cleared for an in-ring return, we’ll be first in line to get her merch regardless.

[gildatheplant]

Dracula Dreamcast (inspired by the popularity of IWTV)

So your first thought upon reading that title might be, “What do you mean inspired by the popularity of IWTV?”

I mean a version of Dracula that deeply explores the queer themes of the original novel. One that embraces: the homoerotic relationship between Dracula and Jonathan, the fact that Jonathan is framed for much of the story in the way women typically were in stories of the time, the way Jonathan and Mina are framed as each other’s protectors, explores how the story might have gone had Stoker been able to explore Dracula’s infatuation with Jonathan instead of having to switch his interest to Lucy, does NOT rewrite Mina as some kind of love interest for Dracula (my biggest pet peeve in Dracula media since Mina is explicitly attacked for her connection to Jonathan and Lucy- Dracula has no interest in her beyond that and she absolutely hates him), one that explores Jonathan’s gentle and ‘feminine’ traits as well as Mina’s stoic and more ‘masculine’ traits.

With the renewed interest in the original novel, and particularly the growing understanding that Dracula media has deeply wrong the character of Jonathan, I’d like to quickly discuss some dream casting and why.

Alex Wolff as Jonathan Harker-

I’ll be honest, this pick is entirely based on his performance in Hereditary. It was an amazing performance though, so I think it’s fair. Alex Wolff has a combination of vulnerability and strength that I think would be perfect for Jonathan Harker. Hereditary proves that he is excellent at playing a character struggling with horrifying events beyond his control, and the effects such events have on a person’s psyche. 

Christian Bale as Dracula-

I believe this image was created by infamous_captain on reddit, but if I’m wrong please correct me. Christian Bale is known as an actor who really disappears into his roles and gives 110%. While he’s most famous for his role as Batman, he’s no stranger to playing villains. His breakout role was American Psycho in which he played a vain and cruel serial killer, and he’s played a wide variety of characters with dubious morality. As the above image shows, a bearded and long-haired Christian Bale looks straight out of Stoker’s novel. He is very good at being intimidating, and I think his age and presence would make an excellent contrast to Alex Wolff’s youth and vulnerability.

Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucy Westenra-

Another actor with horror credentials under her belt, I think Taylor-Joy has the kind of beauty that seems both ethereal and a little creepy. Much like Jonathan Harker, Lucy Westenra’s characterization in media often veers far away from the innocent and loving woman she is portrayed as in the novel. Taylor-Joy has the acting chops to depict Lucy’s fall from beloved friend and confidante to beautiful and deadly child attacking vampire.

Jared Harris as Abraham Van Helsing-

Jared Harris is the kind of actor who elevates everything he is in. The role that really convinced me he’d be the perfect choice for Van Helsing was Captain Francis Crozier in The Terror. In that role Harris showed how well he could go from a strong, non-nonsense leader, to a caring father-figure, to a man who has seen too much but continues to push forward all perfect traits for the actor playing the legendary Van Helsing.

Mina Murray Harker-??? 

Suggestions would be welcome for this one. Mina is the heart and soul of the Crew of Light aka the good guys in Dracula. She is Jonathan’s strength and in some ways, protectress. In this version of the Dracula tale in particular, where Dracula pursues Jonathan as his main love interest, Mina needs to be played by an actress with the strength and courage to challenge Dracula for Jonathan’s safety. I also picture this Mina as Jonathan’s dearest friend, where their marriage is based more on protecting their beloved friend from a society that would destroy them for not being the ideal Victorian Man and Victorian Woman. 

Thoughts?

[queermediastudies]

Sex, sex, sex and so much more in Blue is the Warmest Color

The French film, Blue is the Warmest Color was released in 2013 and directed by, Abdellatif Kechiche. It follows the story of a young woman named Adele who faces crises with her queer identity. The film begins with Adele facing pressure from her peers to have a relationship with a boy named Thomas. On her way to her first date with Thomas, Adele passes a young blue haired girl in the street and later has a sexual dream about her. This scene is the audience’s first glimpse into Adele’s queer identity. Later in the film when she officially meets the blue haired girl named Emma, an art student in university, at a gay bar the audience begins to see Adele’s queer identity unfold and come to life through their relationship. While this film does work to bring attention to queer elements that are so often missing from films, it also falls victim to heteronormative and hegemonic values in the way that it presents Emma and Adele’s relationship.

The relationship between Adele and Emma seems to follow a similar arc as any other romantic film. They first officially meet at a bar as some type of “meet cute” and Emma later seeks Adele out at her high school, and they have a romantic moment on a bench while Emma sketches Adele. Though unlike the heteronormative romantic films often seen, Blue is the Warmest Color also functions as a queer breakout film. Andre Cavalcante (2017) in his article “Breaking into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences’ Experiences With “First of Its Kind” Visibility in Popular Media” defines breakout texts as “media that portrays “first of its kind” representation” to a marginalized group. While this film is not about Trans characters like the ones Cavalcante analyzes in his article, the film does work to represent queer women’s lives in a way that is not often presented in mainstream media. One of the ways that the film does this, is through its representation of Adele and Emma’s sexual relationship. While the sex scenes throughout this film are striking and even at times uncomfortably long, they give queer women a sexual visibility that is rarely seen.

 The sex scenes that occur in the film not only occur in a queer context meaning that it is not prompted by a male third party, as we see in other hegemonic films, but the content is also extremely explicit. They show the female body in a realistic and raw way. They do not hesitate to show female genitalia, and in doing this they break patriarchal boundaries that demand modesty and concealment of the female body. The scenes also give visibility to queer women that is not through the Heteronormative male gaze. The sexual interactions are by women and for women and unlike the Canadian queer film, Below Her Mouth that also has female sex scenes, they are not all focused around a strap on.

 While queer women can and do use strap ons in real life, the persistence of it in every sexual encounter in Below Her Mouth presents a binary and heteronormative view of female-female sexual relationships and re-enforces the idea that one of them is “the man.” The sex scenes in Blue is the Warmest Color also present a reciprocal sexual relationship, where in neither of the characters seem to be the “dominant” or “submissive,” and a power dynamic between the two, at least in this point of the film, is non-existent. This works against the heteronormative narratives that are so often portrayed in romantic films where one character (typically the man) has more control over the other character. The film also makes the sexual interactions between the two women appear to be consensual, and while this doesn’t happen in the form of either party asking or saying yes, the scene does include mutual participation unlike typical heteronormative sexual encounters seen in films where one party seems to be resisting for one reason or another, and the forcing of the sexual interaction somehow leads to consent. 

Even though this film uses sex scenes to break patriarchal barriers and gives visibility to queer women, as Cavalcante also discusses in his article the short comings of breakout texts such as Blue is the Warmest Color come in their tendency to fall into hegemonic tropes and feed stereotypical narratives. To start, Adele and Emma externally fall into normative ideas of queer female couples. Adele is the innocent femme character and Emma is her butch lover. Later in the film, Adele pursues a career as a teacher and takes on the domestic role, while Emma is a rugged artist. 

This depiction of the characters falls into binary and heteronormative values and reinforces the idea that a queer relationship needs to mimic straight ones by having a “man” or masculine partner and a feminine partner. In addition, the age gap between the two characters is also worth discussing.  While without knowing that Emma was much older than Adele, the audience may assume their ages were similar, but the audience is explicitly told that Adele is 15 while Emma, in her fourth year of university, is assumedly around the age of 22. While, this age gap is not huge, it is still large enough that in contemporary western society it raises some red flags. Not only does this age gap seem strange to include, but it also reinforces narratives surrounding the idea that the queer community is filled with pedophiles and is out to corrupt the youth. This is also played out when Adele cheats on Emma with a man and throughout the rest of the film the audience never sees her have any interactions with any other women. 

This is problematic because not only does it make Emma and Adele’s relationship seem like some sort of fad that Adele was seduced into by the older Emma, it also suggests that femme women are inherently straight. Adele’s lack of interactions or relationships with women other than Emma, and in contrast  Emma’s multiple female relationships throughout the film suggest that feminine women like Adele are inherently straight and that to be truly queer you must be butch like Emma. Similarly, Adele never comes out to her family or friends and her being closeted is almost never mentioned, and even when she does eventually have Emma over to her parents’ house it is under the guise that Emma is just her friend. This is problematic because again it suggests that if you do not externally look queer, then it is easier to stay in the closet. While as discussed in Bonnie Dow’s (2010) article on the Ellen coming out episode, an individual’s coming out is not “taken to imply the success of the discourse” around queerness, it seems for a film such as this it would be important to include. To not include one of the main queer characters coming out at all suggests a shame around queerness that is perpetuated, and not addressed or corrected through Adele’s story.

Overall, Blue is the Warmest Color presents its audience with a raw version of queer female-female relationship, but the way that I experienced the film is probably much different from a queer identifying female. While I was watching the film I thought of Alexander Doty’s (1993) piece Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture, in which he describes that in the same way that “heterocentrist texts can contain queer elements […] heterosexual, straight-identifying people can experience queer moment(s).” While Doty discusses this in terms of queer readings of straight texts, it applied to my experience watching the film, because during the raw and unfiltered sex scenes I did experience queer moments. Though despite my queer moments, I do understand that my analysis is very skewed because despite being a feminist and having knowledge through gender studies classes, I have not had queer experiences. Therefore, for me to say that the film depicts “real” life queer female relationships and even queer female sex lives may be an over exaggeration. Especially the scenes where the women are “scissoring” stood out to me as being potentially stereotyped though again, I do not belong to the queer community, have not experienced a female-female relationship, and have not discussed female-female sexual relationships with queer women and can not speak to the accuracy. It is also notable that I have not seen an abundance of French films and so the nudity in the film that I describe as being liberating or forward may simply be part of French culture/films. 

Sources:

Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking Into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences Experiences With “First of Its Kind” Visibility in Popular Media. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(3), 538–555. doi: 10.1111/cccr.12165

Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis u.a.: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Dow, B. (2001). Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18(2), 123–140. doi: 10.1080/07393180128077

Kechiche A. (Producer), & Kechiche, A., Maraval V., Chioua B., Lemal G., Martin A. (Director).(2013). Blue Is the Warmest Color [Film]. France.

Mullen, A. (Producer), & Mullen, A. (Director). (2017). Below Her Mouth [Film]. Canada.

[nerdygaymormon]

I can't imagine no marriage and no sex for life, even though that's what church teaches for queer people. Do you have another way of thinking about these things? I'm seeing someone and as we get more serious, I know the topic of sex is gonna come up

Our church, and most Christian churches, teach that sex is ONLY allowed between a cis man and a cis woman who are married, which means most queer people are forbidden from marriage or sex. 

Here’s the thing, these Christian ideas on sexual purity not only don’t work for most queer people, they don’t work for most non-queer people. 

The CDC reports that almost 90% of married Americans had pre-marital sex. This isn’t new, in the 1950′s & 1960′s most Americans had pre-marital sex. 

Christian ideas on sexual purity didn't work for older generations and certainly aren't working for today's generations

What is different is that in the Boomer generation, young women were typically married by age 21. If she had premarital sex, it was usually for a year or 2 before they married. Today, a typical young woman in America loses her virginity between the ages of 16 and 19 years of age. She then isn't married until she's almost in her 30's. That would be 10+ years of disobeying her church's rules on premarital sex. 

I suspect LDS adherence to the ideas of no sex prior to marriage is higher than the general Christian populace, and this drives some notable cultural differences. For example, the average age of marriage for Mormons is several years younger than the general population. Also, Mormons tend to have very short engagements, there’s a feeling that it’s a race to try to make it to marriage before the temptation to do more than hold hands or kiss becomes too strong. 

————————————————————

You asked for a different way of thinking about these things. In the New Testament, Jesus doesn't address pre-marital sex, masturbation, making out, non-procreative sex (sex for fun or love without desire or possibility of creating a baby), birth control, or gay sex. You can be a Christ-follower, take the things Jesus said in the 4 Gospels seriously, and not believe these things are sinful.

————————————————————

In our church, we’re very good at communicating the message of abstinence outside of marriage. In fact, we’re so good at teaching abstinence that some people have difficulty switching off that message when they get married.

What we’re not good at is if you’re going to have sex, here’s some things to think about, or here’s some ways to be safe. The remainder of this answer is my attempt to address this.

If you choose to have sex before marriage, you have to decide the level of risk you’re comfortable with. Here’s a list of suggestions, based on research, that dramatically reduce risk and limits bad life outcomes (unfortunately, a lot of the research didn’t include or breakout queer individuals, but I still think it’s useful)

1) If you can become pregnant, get long-acting reversible contraception, such as hormonal arm implants or IUD’s. These last from 3 to 12 years and are nearly perfect in preventing pregnancies. 

According to CDC data, 1000 sexually-active women using birth control pills for 5 years will likely have over 400 surprise pregnancies. 1000 sexually-active women using an arm implant for 5 years will probably have less than 4 surprise pregnancies.

2) Avoid hook-up sex, and if you do have hook-up sex, use only your hands. If there will be any oral sex or intercourse, always use a condom or dental dam to protect against sexually-transmitted infections (STI’s) and cancers

3) When dating, go slowly. Start with your hands and wait awhile before you move to oral or intercourse. You should both be tested for STI’s before adding oral sex or intercourse to your relationship. 

4) Only have intercourse inside a monogamous romantic relationship

5) Try to wait until you’re 19 to have intercourse

6) The fewer sexual partners you have, the less likely you’ll divorce 

Like I said, these recommendations are based on research. You may decide you’re comfortable with a bit more risk, but think about that beforehand and not in the heat of the moment.

Each person involved should provide active consent to engage in each sexual act. This means affirmative, honest, conscious, voluntary, sober and ongoing agreement to participate in sexual activity. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, you have the right to decide you’re no longer comfortable with what is happening and make a change.

[emotions-ew]

A Collection of Queer Country Artists and Songs for anyone who doesn’t feel like there’s country music they can relate to...

There is this idea that country music is like just Republican men singing about beer, and trucks and also Jesus,  and that is kind of fair because loads of it is but there are some cool as hell queer/lgbtq+ country artists. Finding those and finding that representation in a genre of music I was literally raised on kind of changed my life in a tiny way and I wanted to share that.

(This is by no means a comprehensive list and also I’m basing the “Country” part of this sometimes on my subjective opinion/limited music knowledge so yuh please don’t hate me if I get some wrong)

Also link below for a Spotify playlist of my favourite gay/gayish country music, some mentioned in this post some not, (with a title that isn’t obviously gay for anyone who can’t openly listen to gay stuff on their public accounts for whatever reason) so feel free to skip the massive essay and just jump straight to that. And pretty please repost if I missed anyone/ any songs you love.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7KB6PmUxnpkU7lih8Bysvw

Artists To Follow:

Chely Wright

- Right off the bat, Chely Wright is a legend and I’m in love with her. So, in the 90′s Chely Wright was kind of a huge deal. She started her career as a singer/songwriter and released her first album in ‘94, which was critically acclaimed although never reached the commercial success of her later works. By ‘97 she was really hitting her stride, dropping her breakout hit “Shut up and Drive” (a personal favourite of mine) followed two years later by the biggest hit of her career “Single White Female”. Throughout all that Chely Wright was, to the world, a good old fashioned, heterosexual southern gal. Privately it was a bit of a different story. She had public relationships with male country artists, all while pursuing a secret decade long relationship with a woman. 

I hadn’t ever really heard a Chely Wright song until a few years ago so I never knew about her music or career pre-coming out but I do know that even though by the time she came out in 2010 she was by no means at the height of her fame Chely Wright is kind of one of the biggest names in country music to be out and proud (in my opinion) and I love her like an insane amount. I literally play her music in my car when I have passengers just so I can be like “fun fact this singer is actually gay-” and then subject them to a lengthy explanation of her entire career. She came out with an album and a memoir and the album is my favourite of her work because it’s so fucking raw and because I relate to most of it immensely. Anyways Chely Wright went fucking through it in her journey to being her authentic self and now she’s out and proud and married to a woman and they have a family together and I’m a fucking sucker for a happy ending and y’all should add her to every playlist you have. And on top of that her music is genuinely good. Coming out undoubtedly damaged her career but I think that

Brandi Carlile 

- As far as I can tell Brandi Carlile has been out her whole career. I feel like this list is just going to be me saying “I’m in love with her” about a bunch of women old enough to be my mother but in my defence, I am honestly in love with her. She’s been making music since she was like, seventeen, and has had a bunch of massive hits, as a singer, songwriter, and producer. If you want to cry kind of happy tears listen to her performance of “Bring my Flowers Now” with Tanya Tucker. She’s won Grammy’s and CMT awards and she’s done it all as an out Queer woman. She’s also a founding member of The Highwomen, an all-female country music group who released their first album in 2019, comprised of Carlile, Marren Morris, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires. I really love this band because they’re four artists who are immensely successfully in their own right collabing, much like the Highwaymen, and their music is phenomenal while also being a fuck you to mainstream country music and their inability to properly represent women in country music spaces. 

She’s been married to a woman (smoking hot and also brilliant) since 2012 and they have two kids together and if you want to cry (again) then you have to listen to her song “Mother” about her eldest daughter. A queer country artist absolutely worth adding to all your playlists. 

Brooke Eden

- As I understand it Eden came out publicly in January of this year. She’s engaged to Hilary Hoover, who she’s been dating since 2015 apparently. I can’t even imagine the pressure that must be on a person and how stressful it would be to keep a relationship secret from the whole world for years and personally I think they’re a cute as hell couple and I wish them literally all the happiness in the world. 

Brooke Eden has a few older songs that I think are really good, my favourite being “Act Like You Don’t”, and while her new stuff isn’t my usual country vibe I am a sucker for literally anything gay and it is legally my gay duty to stream any song that she releases to support my fellow queer. It’s quite different to anything Wright or Carlile sing but I actually kind of love that because it shows that country music of all different shapes and sizes and styles can be sung by queer artists. 

Amythyst Kiah

- Okay so I am a very new listener to Amythyst Kiah, but her music is literally so beautiful it would be a straight up sin to not include her on this list. Her music is country-blues-roots esq (more roots than country, I think?) and her voice is so unique. She grew up in Chattanooga and has been playing music since childhood. She recently made her Opry debut which is fucking awesome. She also belongs to a band called Our Native Daughters, described as “A supergroup of Black women in traditional music”. Their debut album “Songs of Our Native Daughters” did numbers and I haven’t listened to the whole thing but my favourite so far are “Black Myself” and “I Knew I Could Fly” so y’all add that to your playlists along with “Wild Turkey” by Amythyst Kiah because holy hell her voice on that will blow your mind.

Steve Grand

-        The first man to make this list, he should frankly be honoured. Grand has been an out and proud gay man making country music since like 2013, and I have so much respect for an artist who chose to simply never be in, choosing instead to simply write gay ass songs about being in love with men and letting the chips fall where they man. His music is always going to have a special place in my heart and, he’s cute so if you’re into men and music by men give him a google. add him to your playlists, his All-American Boy album is literally just a dozen songs that are perfect to yell-sing along to.

Katie Pruitt

-        Not hugely knowledgeable on Katie Pruitt but her music makes me feel crazy intense emotions and is absolutely gay

 Honorable Mention Artists I haven’t Really Listened to But Who I Know to be gay thanks to google and might be your thing so totally check them out:

Brandy Clark

Ty Herndon

Shelly Fairchild

Lavendar Country

Trixie Mattel

Cameron Hawthorn

Drop any other names of artists or songs you know of 

 Specific Songs That Make Me Fucking Cry or (in good and bad ways (but always in a gay way)) or basically are just gay as hell:

If She Ever Leaves Me; The Highwomen

- So, this album came out about a week before my first (and only) girlfriend broke up with me. The general gist of the song is a woman singing about how her loved isn’t ever going to leave her but if she does it sure as hell won’t be for a creepy man in a bar. A little ironic that I felt I related to it so intensely, considering she did in fact leave me. There’s this one lyric that goes “I’ve loved her in secret/I’ve lover here out loud/the sky hasn’t always been blue” and my girlfriend and I were crazy deep in the closet so I drew her a cute little picture of a grey cloud and on the back I wrote that lyric and I gave it to her and to me it was kind of a promise that one day I’d get a chance to love her out loud and even though I never actually did this song is forever going to make me cry because of the little bit of hope that lyric gave me and the way it’s inclusion on this overwhelmingly mainstream country album made me feel like acceptance was just that little bit closer. 

 All American Boy; Steve Grand

- Definitely one of the first gay country songs I ever heard, and Steve Grand didn’t once sacrifice a scrap of country for the gay. It’s beautiful, it’s a little sad, it’s hopeful. It’s forever going to hold a special place in my heart and the music videos is kind of one of my favourites ever. I found this song before I found myself and the way it made my heart warm should have been a stronger sign than I took it to be. 

Like Me; Chely Wright

- When you love someone you kind of make it your mission to know them in a way that no one else can. This song by Chely Wright is sort of an ode to that, and how even once you lost someone, you’re still going to know every little thing about them. On top of that it sort of speaks to the idea that all these things Wright learned about this woman, she learned in secret and she knew her and loved her in secret and now that they’re gone from each other she’s left with all of this knowledge and all of these questions and no one to answer them. I love the way it’s so slow and the melody and her voice, the way it’s low and a little raspy, make this one of my favourite Chely Wright songs.

The Mother; Brandi Carlile

-        Sorry but a song about being a mother by a queer woman is going to make me cry every time and actually I’m not that sorry. It’s quite a simple song, if any song written by Brandi Carlile can ever be described as ‘simple’, it’s an ode to her daughter. My favourite line is “you are not an accident/where no one thought it through” because it speaks to the fact that in order for queer women to have a kid together they have to want it so damn bad and also I just like the way her voice sounds on that line. This song is also the perfect thing to listen to if you ever for a second feel like being gay/queer is going to stand in the way of you having a family because it absolutely doesn’t have to and if that’s something you want, you can have it. Don’t let people try and convince you otherwise.

Loving Her; Katie Pruitt

-        Unapologetic gay love. Opening a song with “If loving hers a sin, I don’t wanna go to heaven” is a fucking baller move and she went there. The lyrics are beautiful, and her voice is phenomenal. It could be a sad song, about confronting religious repression and grappling with what that means for your love, but instead its triumphant. Katie Pruitt doesn’t give a fuck if you have a problem because she’s going to write songs for her lover.

Jesus From Texas; Semler

-        Not actually totally sure this is a country song, but it has the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘Texas’ in the title so I feel safe including it in this list. Honestly, I don’t really know why I relate so hard to this song. Like, I wasn’t really raised with religion, so I don’t know what it is about this funky little tune that makes me want to sob but there’s something about this tune that makes me want to do whatever the opposite of get up and dance is, but like, in a good way.

Lovin’ Again; Steve Grand

-        Breakup song that ends kind of positively? So good to sing along to at high, high volumes. The idea that losing someone doesn’t have to mean losing yourself and just because you can’t love them doesn’t mean you’re not ever going to love again. But also kind of about how it’s hard to get over someone, I don’t know it’s just good.

Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears; Lavender Country

-        Jesus christ if this isn’t the coolest shit I’ve ever heard in my life. Sorry but a gay country group formed in 1972 who dropped possibly the first gay themed country album, and this was the title of one of the songs. God I am in love.

 Songs that (to me) are a little fruity or that I just relate to in a gay way:

Picket Fences; Chely Wright

-          Chely Wright is gay but this song came out long before she did and when she wrote it, it wasn’t supposed to be gay which is why it’s in this section and not the previous. The reason it’s included at all is because frankly ma’am, Mrs Wright, it’s a little fruity. And I feel a little bad for joking because honestly to me, the way I hear this song and knowing the context (that Wright was deeply closeted at the time she wrote and released it), it’s kind of just sad. The general gist of the song is Wright asking what’s so great about a traditional lifestyle anyways. It could be read as a woman genuinely questioning why we push that expectation that she’ll have two kids and a husband and a picket fence lifestyle, or even could be read as a woman who’s trying to deflect how much she does in fact want that, you have to listen and form your own opinion. But to me, it feels like a woman who’s desperately trying to justify why she doesn’t want that life not because she can’t have it, but she knows it will never be right for her. I don’t know it’s hard to explain I just feel like this song is a little bit gay even though I’m sure she didn’t intend that.

Sinning with You; Sam Hunt

-          Sorry but this song is gay. Sorry but you can’t write the lines “I never felt like I was sinning with you/Always felt like I could talk to God in the morning” and “if it’s so wrong why did it feel so right” and “But I never felt shame, never felt sorry/Never felt guilty touching your body” and not to mention the opening line of “raised in the first pew/praises for yeshua/case of a small town repression”, and expect to not sit in my car sobbing as I realised that while I never felt like what we did was a sin she absolutely did, and wishing I could have told her that I was sorry for making her carry the weight of both our souls but also that it wasn’t a sin and nothing in the world could feel that good and be that bad and it isn’t right that she had to be so ashamed of something that was just so good. Sam Hunt actually said after he wrote the song that while it was reflection on his own relationship with faith he genuinely hopes that people in the lgbtq community can like find comfort or whatever in his words and like go off king, we stan an ally.

  How do I Get There; Deana Carter

-          This ones easy, it’s about falling in love with your best friend and suddenly realising you want more than just friendship with them. Sorry Deana, that’s gay. In my Deana Carter of like Year 10 I played this song on repeat and screamed along to the lyrics as though singing it hard enough would make her like me back.

[aion-rsa]

Anime For Beginners: Best Genres and Series to Watch

https://ift.tt/2N0s0pf

The past decade has seen anime’s popularity increase in dramatic ways, whether through a much broader spectrum of series receiving dubs, the growing success of anime feature films in theaters, or the sudden prominence of streaming services. There’s never been a better time to be an anime fan and the medium has become more accessible than ever. There’s a lot of anime out there, but the wealth of new series can often blend together or not be given a fair chance. Additionally, there are definitely certain types of anime that are more prominently showcased outside of Japan. 

Read more

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For the uninitiated it’s easy to assume that anime consists of giant robots, monsters that battle, and strong fighters and magical girls that transform, but that’s really just a fraction of what the medium has to offer. Words like shonen, shojo, isekai, and even reverse harem are used in reference to anime, which can sometimes feel overwhelming when someone just wants to watch a silly romantic comedy or superhero clone. Here’s a helpful breakdown of all of the major anime genres and where to get started with them all.

Shonen

The shonen genre is by far the most popular brand of anime and the majority of breakout hits and major successes like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and One Piece all fit into the shonen brand. What’s interesting about anime genres is that they’re treated more like demographics and shonen is content that caters to boys with a young male protagonist. Shonen is so accessible because beyond this basic disclaimer, it’s able to cover a wide berth of content and a show like My Hero Academia can be completely different from Yu Yu Hakusho, yet they can still fall back on the same values. 

Shonen anime has largely been generalized to be series that feature lots of fighting and battles, which isn’t always the case, but has become quite representative of the genre. Shonen series are ideal for people that want lots of action and are hungry for a show that has hundreds of episodes to consume.

Notable Series To Watch: Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Attack On Titan

Shojo

Shojo is the female counterpart to the shonen genre that caters towards an audience of girls rather than boys. The shojo genre isn’t entirely bereft of battles, but it’s a style of anime where relationships and emotional drama is the priority or the source of power. There are many eclectic kinds of shojo series that are content to explore awkward relationship drama where there’s typically some kind of atypical supernatural element afoot. 

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However, the most popular style of shojo that’s largely become emblematic of the genre are “magical girl” series where regular girls transform into powerful warriors. There’s also typically a bright and pastoral aesthetic to shojo series and characters, both female and male, are beautified. Shojo anime is absolutely the place where the power of love will triumph over evil.

Notable Series To Watch: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Vampire Knight, My Love Story!!

Seinen

Seinen is the R-rated evolution of the shonen genre that’s geared towards a more adult male audience that can handle mature storytelling. That’s not to say that shonen series can’t be violent or deal with adult situations, but seinen series often center around antiheroes and adult characters who are disenfranchised as opposed to optimistic youth that want to save the future. 

Some of the most sophisticated and challenging anime series come out of the seinen genre and it’s a great place for people to jump in that are looking for a story that’s not overly drawn out and achieves the same dramatic peaks as prestige television. Seinen once more comes down to the viewers’ preferences and there are science fiction, horror, and fantasy seinen shows that all deconstruct their material in different ways. As a point of comparison, major anime movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell both fit into the seinen genre.

Notable Series To Watch: Kill La Kill, Berserk, Ping Pong The Animation, Vinland Saga, Dorohedoro

Josei

Josei is the more mature version of shojo content and it’s full of series that are designed for women as opposed to girls. Romance is a big component of josei series, but it’s more concerned about the harsh realities behind relationships than the flirtatious courtship that kicks things off. Josei love stories are messy and full of heartbreak and they’re less romanticized than shojo’s interpretation of love. 

A trashy way of putting it would be to say that Twilight is shojo, but Fifty Shades of Grey is seinen. Matters of the heart don’t always have to fuel josei series and there are also plenty of shows that center around adult women as they negotiate through professional and creative endeavors. It’s a place to find less flowery female-driven stories.

Notable Series To Watch: Chihayafuru, The Gokusen, Honey And Clover, Nana, Princess Jellyfish

Isekai

The isekai genre is perfect for fans of fantasy and this style of anime has become wildly popular over the course of the past decade. Isekai anime is any show where a character gets transported away to a fantastical new world. It’s a classic storytelling idea, but anime has been able to run with it in some creative new ways. There’s an abundance of isekai series that incorporate video game aesthetics and there are now just as many series where characters are trapped in a video game world than some alternate fantasy dimension. 

Isekai can focus on the protagonist’s mission to return home, act as a savior in their new world, or simply kill time and enjoy the vacation. There are even reverse isekai anime where a supernatural character gets stuck on Earth and must acclimate. Arguably the biggest most mainstream example of isekai content is Spirited Away, but even something as foundational as Alice in Wonderland would qualify.

Notable Series To Watch: Overlord, Re: Zero – Starting Life In Another World, That Time I Got Reincarnated Into A Slime, KonoSuba, No Game No Life

Ecchi

Ecchi is that brand of anime that’s generalized to be the oversexed content that’s likely to make someone blush if they were watching it in public. Ecchi is any sort of anime series that prioritizes a certain sexiness and isn’t afraid to showcase its assets and indulge in “fan service.” Ecchi anime usually has a lot of skin on display, but it’s far from empty content and there’s an important distinction between something like this and actual pornography. 

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Ecchi series titillate, but they still are concerned about their story and characters. There’s inevitably going to be some overlap between ecchi and seinen content (Kill La Kill is a series that really tows the line between both), but there’s often more of a gratuitous playfulness that drives ecchi content. Sexualized characters may bring in the audience, but the series are still deep enough to maintain their interests.

Notable Series To Watch: High School DxD, High School Of The Dead, Rosario To Vampire, Strike The Blood, Prison School

Mecha

Mecha anime are widely prominent and the visual of gigantic robots locked in combat as they fly through outer space feels like a tentpole of the anime industry. There’s a large awareness towards mecha series and it’s even entered mainstream live-action content through works like Pacific Rim. However, this visibility also makes mecha content easy to generalize and some may write it off without understanding the versatility of the genre. Mecha anime can be broken down further into real robot and super robot series, each of which apply a different level of realism to these unrealistic creations. 

Real robot series might focus more on the humans that pilot the machines and the politics that surround mecha, whereas super robot content can feature robots that destroy planets with giant lasers. There can be a lot of gratuitous action in mecha series, but the human element in shows like Appleseed and Neon Genesis Evangelion, or how various Mobile Suit Gundam properties are dedicated to the casualties of war, is proof that mecha anime can be a lot more than just giant robot battles.

Notable Series To Watch: Mobile Suit Gundam, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Appleseed, Mobile Police Patlabor, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Harem

Romance is popular in any medium and there’s often exceptional tension that’s created from out of a love triangle. One genre of anime takes that idea and seriously exaggerates it in a way that can sometimes be problematic, but has spawned a popular style of anime all the same. Harem series center around a hapless male protagonist who stumbles into some incredible situation where a large group of girls–all of contrasting personalities–fall head-over-heels in love with him. 

Harem anime can come across as baseless wish fulfillment fantasy, but the broad structure allows many other genres to mix together with it in a productive way. A lot of the time these series will center on the actual characters and the complex relationship dynamics involved and try to say something that may not be explored in a josei or ecchi series. There are also reverse harem series, which take the same idea, but flip the genders where multiple men fawn over a woman.

Notable Series To Watch: Tenchi Muyo!, The World Only God Knows, Nisekoi, To LOVE-Ru, Ouran High School Host Club

Gag

Anime series are able to achieve a lot of things that just can’t be accomplished in other forms of animation or programming. Comedy is something that’s able to connect extremely hard in anime and operate at an absurdist level that uses visuals, timing, and premises that are rare to find elsewhere. Many anime series have a sense of humor or are even specifically designed as comedies, but gag anime are a different breed that operate at an overwhelmingly relentless pace. 

Reality and the fourth wall are just things to break in gag series, which often engage in wild parodies and lampshade anime as a whole. Some gag anime have extended storylines, but they often operate in shorter vignette style sequences that allow the comedy to really pop. Gag anime thrive in pop culture references and some of the hardest times I’ve laughed in my entire life have been at gag series like Mr. Osomatsu and Gintama where comedy is king.

Notable Series To Watch: Gintama, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K, Pop Team Epic!, Mr. Osomatsu, Excel Saga 

Slice Of Life

Slice of life anime are those endlessly soothing series that don’t try to create major spectacles where the planet is at risk, but instead celebrate the mundanity of life. Slice of life series may center around the staff at a job, a group of friends in a high school club, or just a loner that’s moved to a new community. These are series that elegantly display the tiny moments that make life important and the bonds that create eternal friendships.

The stakes are often more muted in slice of life anime, but that doesn’t mean that they’re without tension or can’t dabble in fantastical material. There are still slice of life anime series that involve magical creatures or are set in unbelievable worlds. It’s sometimes even more humbling to learn that some planet in a far away solar system has a struggling chess club or that a dinosaur can be obsessed with different brands of candy.

Notable Series To Watch: The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toradora!, K-On!, Dagashi Kashi, Clannad

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The post Anime For Beginners: Best Genres and Series to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/36K7IaW

[josy72]

Noémie Merlant ✨ Intervista ✨

As Portrait of a Lady on Fire arrives in UK cinemas, Claire Marie Healy sits down with the film’s breakout star, Noémie Merlant

February 28, 2020

Lead ImageNoémie is wearing a wool blazer, waistcoat, knitted sleeveless shirt and wool trousers by Louis VuittonPhotography by Alexandre Guirkinger, Styling by Rebecca Perlmutar

“Do all lovers feel like they’re inventing something?” whispers Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) to the woman commissioned to paint her, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), in Céline Sciamma’s queer romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The setting is 18th-century France, and the moment is the culmination of a deeply felt mutual attraction between the two women: but the question could equally apply to Sciamma, whose work has always felt like it reaches for a whole new way of telling stories. As she has said herself, “It’s not like you have to scratch your head for hours thinking, ‘How am I not going to objectify this woman?’ It’s not that hard.” And yet, the levels at which her female gaze operates, and invites you in, do feel invented.

While now-romantic partners Haenel and Sciamma have worked together for years – their actor-director relationship began with the poolside coming-of-age tale Water Lilies – the film’s breakout star is Merlant, who plays the painter challenged to paint Héloïse’s wedding portrait for her husband-to-be. This is despite the fact Héloïse refuses to sit for it, as she doesn’t want to get married at all – beginning the process of secret observation and looking, on Marianne’s part, which develops into a charged romance. As Merlant, who has also recently turned her hand to directing, reveals, the remarkable feeling of intimacy with the character – of feeling like we are looking through her eyes, as well as our own – had everything to do with Sciamma’s exacting, precise technique. (And, of course, having less men on the set may have helped.)

Claire Marie Healy: I saw Céline speak at the BFI last year, and she was saying how on set she was very particular about everything that you and Adèle had to do – how it was quite technical.

Noémie Merlant: Yes, everything was on the script. Each look on the screen. But when you have a lot of things that you have to do, that are written, it actually [gives] you a frame and then in this frame you can find your freedom. I know that I have to do a breath, but I have one thousand ways to do a breath, or one thousand ways to look at Adèle. Even the text – we couldn’t change even one word – but when you really know your text well and you don’t think about it anymore, then you’re free again to break it. You forget it. I think it’s like with music, I would say a violinist has to really know the music, and hears it more than one thousand times – at which point when he really knows it, and know all the things that he has to do, and all the technical [elements]... then he just puts life in it and forgets everything! It’s the same.

CMH: It’s the nature of performance really. And I think that there is something in that – perhaps why there’s such amazing performances in this film from you and Adèle, in that you’re depicting a time where there are a lot of restrictions to living for women. It’s interesting that the storyline is women pushing against that and then equally you as actors are pushing against restrictions or breaking through them. I imagine there was a productive tension to that?

NM: It’s a symbol of that period and what we put on women. What they put on a woman. In this movie it was all about our desires in this kind of culture which was really heavy. We become more and more comfortable with our bodies throughout the movie. The dresses (become) less tight, I start to put my hands in my pockets. We were trying to build this relationship, with Adèle, between Marianne and Héloïse – and we didn’t know each other. We didn’t rehearse together [before], so really we were creating the moment. That was a way to show something magical, something [that had] sincerity – because we were creating a collaboration at the same time [that] we were creating the collaboration of Marianne and Héloïse. When you were talking about details – in this movie [Céline] holds back even the music, there is complete silence and then there is this boom of music. So when there is music people really feel it. I think it is the same with the decor.

CMH: The set design in the house is remarkably plain for a ‘costume drama’, or what we might expect of them.

NM: Exactly, the set – in the same way that the way to act is all about holding back. How we don’t smile at the beginning of the movie – because we don’t want to smile – and [then] when we smile in the movie it’s because it’s a real smile, and it’s really sincere. It’s little details: like the smiles become larger, the eyes become more and more open, you feel more and more of the desires and even the way we touch things or (each other), it’s also with more intensity. Working with Céline was really elegant, in every element. I really liked that.

CMH: It definitely builds in that way. To smile is to really open yourself up to someone – it’s vulnerable isn’t it? And it builds to this cathartic moment, when they reveal their attraction – and it’s so modern, suddenly, and you’re so easy with each other.

NM: It was also mainly women on set. There were men on the crew, of course, [but] compared to other sets it was more women than usual.

CMH: How does that compare to other experiences of yours?

NM: Of course it’s different, because we are different when we are with the same sex. There is kind of a natural equality, intimacy, because we of course understand things more quickly but we have the same kind of problems. It was a really intimate movie in and of itself – about women and their intimacy – so it was easier to only be with other women most of the time, because we were talking about that. There’s always this gaze that you feel in the movie, that we create... this sorority. The vision Céline was really creating [was] this environment of kindness and collaboration – it’s really important for her to create this original gaze.

CMH: What work did you do in terms of entering into that historical period? Did you do any research into the female painters that existed in this time?

NM: We talked a lot about this moment in time, where there were about a hundred female painters that were then erased from history. But what was really important for Céline, and then for us, was really to be focused on doing something really modern, actual and sincere. So, it was more the costumes, the text and then the set were what felt like I was putting on the past. But for everything else in terms of preparing for my role, and Adèle for her role also was really more technical. So I did some preparation with Hélène Delmaire, the painter of all the paintings that you see in the movie.

CMH: Ah yes! She seems amazing. I was reading that she wanted to paint for Studio Ghibli as a teenager.

NM: The work with her was interesting! I was observing her a lot before this – it was like dancing. I found that the painter has their own dance in a way: the aim of the painter is that particular look where you concentrate. It’s really profound and deep, and distant at the same time, and so I was trying to catch this gaze. And all the time it’s between the look at the model and the look at the canvas and the gesture, and then three steps back to look at the painting, and repeat. With a painter it’s this kind of twisting back and twisting forward. I was really observing Adèle and she was really observing me.

CMH: There’s a power dynamic, there, and it shifts in very subtle ways.

NM: Yes, and at the beginning of the movie everything is very closed, our smile, our faces, it’s really not alive – but we feel that there is something that is desired somewhere. Even Marianne as a painter, she feels so lucky to be a painter, like she doesn’t have to marry, but she’s still stuck in the rules of this period.

CMH: I guess that’s kind of the gift that Héloïse gives to Marianne – opening her up in that way so she can be vulnerable enough to feel these things, and that gives her this creativity, beyond just talent. It’s wonderfully done. In some ways it’s quite obvious, but why do you think audiences have responded so strongly and fiercely to this film?

NM: I think it’s because firstly it’s a strong love story, built with real sincerity and imagination. Céline is someone who is always trying to find a new way to express things. She thought of something new – and it’s something that we miss, to have this energy to tell a story with only women talking about love. That to me is this original gaze: the respect, with no violence, just [a] really respectful gaze. It’s kind of an invitation, this movie, an invitation to a vision of women as they really are. To me, when I first read it I felt that this movie had something really true – because it just takes the time to be with women, how we are when there are no men, how we talk together. We don’t talk about men all the time.

CMH: Did you have an early memory of film that hit you in a similar way, perhaps a film that really drew you to acting?

NM: The first movie that I saw in the cinema and [had an emotional reaction to] was actually Titanic! When I was nine years old, I was living in a small town and it was hard to see it because the cinema was full every day. After [several] weeks, I found a place to see this movie. I wanted to fall in love.

CMH: I love that.

NM: Céline loves this movie too, so we were talking a lot about it on set. And the scene where we are on the stairs – we were saying, this is our Titanic scene!

[malnatihq]

          🌈 — MASTERLIST OF HELPFUL RESOURCES !!

as stated before, we hope to educate employees && guests about the availability of lgbtq+ organizations && services who are there to help in times of need. as we have members of the community here at the malnati, we are grateful to have this community && these wonderful resources that are available. happy pride, beautiful people !!

as two women who are members of the lgbtq+ community, we wanted to personally give you guys a list of resources that we thought would be beneficial for you if you’re ever in need && give allies a chance to get educated on these resources && how to become a better ally to the community. pride month is a special month && our hearts are very happy we have this time to celebrate. in real life, we understand that many festivals, events, and parades are cancelled this year so we hope that our fun group celebration will help serve as a virtual pride fest for you && your characters. we want you to know that you are all special && loved && wonderful people. we know a lot of you guys call the malnati a safe space for you, but we also want you all to know that you also make us feel safe to be who we are. you make us feel loved && cared for. we know that sometimes our online friends are the only people who know about our sexuality and/or our true gender identity. we know how important our group && ooc chat can be to people && we appreciate that you guys feel comfortable enough to share your lives with us !! thank you to those reaching out to a friend to make sure they’re okay when they post something in the serious channel, as well. with each day that you all have been part of our lives, we have only felt better about knowing you guys && the unique friendship we share. we are grateful for this community we’ve got, especially all of you in the lgbtq+ community with us. you all are so powerful && full of love. again, we wanted to shine a light on some amazing resources for you all if you’re ever in need && great organizations that do so much for the community.

hotlines && websites listed here are resources && help to prevent crises && offer help to those in need. most of these are based in the united states. if you know of any other organizations / resources, please let us know && we’ll add it here. we also highly recommend searching for resources && organizations that are local to you !! you never know what’s available to you until you look !!   

blackline -- BlackLine is a 24-hour hotline geared towards the Black, Black LGBTQ+, Brown, Native and Muslim community. However, no one will be turned away from the Hotline. The purpose of the BlackLine is to provide people with an anonymous and confidential avenue to report negative, physical, and inappropriate contact with police and vigilantes. Another component of the BlackLine is to provide immediate crisis counseling to those who are upset, need to talk with someone immediately, or are in distress.

trans lifeline -- Trans Lifeline’s Hotline is a peer support service run by trans people, for trans and questioning callers. Their operators are located all over the U.S. and Canada, and are all trans-identified. If you are in crisis or just need someone to talk to, even if it’s just about whether or not you’re trans, please call them. They will do their best to support you and provide you resources.

glbt national hotline -- The LGBT National Hotline is for all ages. They provide a safe space that is anonymous and confidential where callers can speak on many different issues and concerns including, but limited to, coming out issues, gender and/or sexuality identities, relationship concerns, bullying, workplace issues, HIV/AIDS anxiety, safer sex information, suicide, and much more. The LGBT National Hotline is staffed by highly trained volunteers who identify somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum, from all ages, walks of life and from all over the United States.  Along with peer support, listening and affirmation, their volunteers are supplied with the largest LGBTQ resource database in the US (www.LGBTNEARME.ORG) for those who are seeking additional support and ways to connect with their local community.

national suicide prevention lifeline -- We can all help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals.

crisis text line -- Free 24/7 support at your fingertips. Crisis Text Line is here for any crisis. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and responds, all from their secure online platform. The volunteer Crisis Counselor will help you move from a hot moment to a cool moment.

equality federation -- The movement builder and strategic partner to state-based organizations advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. 

matthew shepard foundation -- Empowers individuals to embrace human dignity and diversity through outreach, advocacy and resource programs. We strive to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance.

true colors united -- Works to end homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, creating a world in which young people can be their true selves.

sex, etc. --  On a mission to improve teen sexual health across the country. They help teens with answers to their question about sex, relationships, pregnancy, STDs, birth control, sexual orientation and more.

sage -- The nation’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) elders.

advocate -- An LGBT-interest magazine / website. With an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts & entertainment.

human rights campaign -- The largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

national lgbtq task force -- The country’s oldest national LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

national center for transgender equality -- The nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people. NCTE was founded in 2003 by transgender activists who recognized the urgent need for policy change to advance transgender equality.  

lambda legal -- A national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.  

pflag -- The nation’s largest organization uniting people who are LGBTQ+ with parents, families, friends, and allies. PFLAG has over 350 chapters and 200,000 members and supporters crossing multiple generations of American families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas in all 50 states.  

it gets better -- Their mission is to uplift, empower and connect LGBTQ+ youth around the globe. 

the trevor project -- The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth. 24/7 chat, text, and call line for crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth (13-24 years old). 

egale canada (canada's lgbt human rights organization) -- Egale Canada is a national organization committed to advancing equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people, and their families, across Canada. Egale has members in every province and territory of the country. Their Board of Directors is comprised of an elected male and female representative from each of six regions of Canada. 

rainbow railroad -- Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian charitable organization that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries.

as we all know, pride started from a riot. in light of recent events surrounding the black lives matter movement, we wanted to also showcase resources to help educate you && highlight ways you can help out. whenever we see our members talking about standing up for human rights && black lives, it makes us so proud to have you in our group. whether you protested, signed petitions, or donated -- it's important to show up for the black community every day, especially the black lgbtq+ community. 

snapco -- Builds power of Black trans and queer people to force systemic divestment from the prison industrial complex and invest in community support.

the okra project - Collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black trans people by bringing home-cooked meals and resources to the community.

marsha p. johnson institute -- An organization dedicated to protecting and defending the human rights of Black transgender people.

national black justice coalition -- The National Black Justice Coalition is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

trans justice funding project - Community-led funding initiative to support grassroots trans justice groups run by and for trans people.

black aids institute -- Working to end the Black HIV epidemic through policy, advocacy, and high-quality direct HIV services. 

youth breakout -- Works to end the criminalization of LGBTQ+ youth in New Orleans to build a safer and more just community.

house of gg -- Creating safe and transformative spaces for community to heal, and nurturing them into tomorrow’s leaders, focusing on trans women of color in the South.

lgbtq+ freedom fund -- Posts bail for LGBTQ+ people held in jail or immigrant detention and raises awareness of the epidemic of LGBTQ+ overincarceration.

trans cultural district -- The world’s first-ever legally recognized trans district, which aims to stabilize and economically empower the trans community.  

black minds matter uk -- Support in making mental health topics relevant and accessible for all black people in the U.K. 

the stephen lawrence charitable trust -- They work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 13 to 30 to inspire and enable them to succeed in the career of their choice. They also influence others to create a fairer society in which everyone, regardless of their background, can flourish.

the official BLM website -- #BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, they are winning immediate improvements in their lives.

black lives matter toronto -- To forge critical connections and to work in solidarity with black communities, black-centric networks, solidarity movements, and allies in order to to dismantle all forms of state-sanctioned oppression, violence, and brutality committed against African, Caribbean, and Black cis, queer, trans, and disabled populations in Toronto.

a collection of petitions/donation links/educational resources -- Click on "more resources" then "educate yourself" then "lesson plan on being an ally" to find an extremely useful table of education resources -- you can choose to do 10/25/40 mins per day.

[thesophiewhit]

"Awkward, college gamer Kiki develops a crush on fellow MMORPG player, the mysterious knight-in-pixelated armor @SirAlexe. However, when she finds out who her crush is in the real world, Kiki must reexamine her feelings and identity.  

Online relationships have real-world impacts." 

 This is Sophie Whittemore's first film, and it could not be made without the help of their amazing cast and crew at Dartmouth College. Thank you! 

 **

ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT: 

 Trevor Project for LGBTQ+ Youth & Mental Health Resources: https://www.thetrevorproject.org 

 Okra Project: a collective that provides resources and meals to Black trans people. https://www.theokraproject.com 

 Black Visions Collective- aims to organize Black communities and dismantle systems of violence while centering queer and trans people. https://www.blackvisionsmn.org 

 LGBTQ Freedom Fund - posts bail for low-income individuals in jails and immigration detention. https://www.lgbtqfund.org 

 INCITE! - works to end violence against women of color and trans people of color. https://incite-national.org 

 Marsha P. Johnson Institute - Legal services for Black Trans Individuals: https://marshap.org 

 BreakOUT! - End criminalization of LGBT+ Youth: http://www.youthbreakout.org 

 ** 

 FOLLOW THE FILMMAKER - SOPHIE WHITTEMORE: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesophiewhit/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesophiewhit 

Website:  https://www.sophiawhittemore.com

***

I hope my first film makes you laugh or smile for a moment. Kiki falls for the nonbinary MMORPG gamer @Sir_Alexe in this 11-minute dramedy. It's about a queer college gamer who, like a lot of us, grew up discovering their queerness online when they didn't know who to turn to in real life.

I hope you know you are seen, valued, loved, and not alone.

In love and solidarity- Sophie

[365daysoflesbians]

SEPTEMBER 5: Sarah E. Edmonds (1841-1898)

Historians speculate that over 400 women served in the American Civil War under male disguises. One of those women soldiers and an important “aspect of queer existence in Nineteenth Century America,” Sarah E. Edmonds, passed away on this day in 1898.

An undated photograph shows Sarah’s appearance as her alter ego, “Franklin Thompson” (x).

Sarah Emma Edmonds was born in December of 1841 in New Brunswick, Canada. At the time of her birth, New Brunswick was still an English colony. Despite growing up in a relatively happy home where she worked on the family farm along with her sisters, Sarah ran away at the age of 15 to avoid an unwanted marriage. Her mother was also a victim of an early marriage forced by her parents, and so Mrs. Edmonds helped her daughter adopt the disguise of a man and flee New Brunswick. Having adopted the name Franklin Thompson, Sarah crossed the U.S. border and found herself working as a bookseller in Hartford, Connecticut.

After the breakout of the Civil War, Sarah enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry – also known as the Flint Union Greys – under the guise of Franklin Flint Thompson. Scholars have theorized that the middle name Flint was chosen based on the fact that she had previously been volunteering for the Union Army in Flint, Michigan. Sarah eventually worked her way up from male field nurse to Union spy after her close friend, the spy James Vesey, was assassinated and Sarah volunteered to fill his spot. Her masterful skills of disguise came in handy during her spy career, claiming in her memoir that she frequently went undercover as both men and women.

After contracting a deadly case of malaria, Sarah was forced to give up her life as Franklin Thompson. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered if she went to a military hospital, she fled from her military duty and checked herself into a civilian hospital. Although she intended to return to her Company once she was cured, she was forced to leave the army for good once she noticed posters declaring Franklin Thompson as a deserter and a wanted man. Instead, Sarah decided to serve as a female nurse in Washington D.C. for the remainder of the war.

This illustration depicts a story Sarah tells in her memoir about comforting a fellow Union soldier on the battlefield, only to have the soldier confess that he was truly a woman in disguise! Sarah never reveals the deceased soldier’s name, but writes that she personally made sure they were buried near their brother under a mulberry tree and that she ensured their secret was never discovered (x).

Sarah later married a Canadian mechanic and old childhood friend by the name of Linnus H. Seelye. The two lived happily and ended up adopting two sons after their own three children died young. However, in her bestselling memoir, Sarah recounts having had a relationship with a woman during her pre-war years as Franklin Thompson. Sarah writes that she “came near marrying a pretty little girl” while living as a “famous” bookseller in Connecticut and then later Nova Scotia.  

It would be impossible to attempt to label Sarah E. Edmonds under contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality. Still, she stands as a landmark figure in the long and rich history of female cross-dressers, many of whom enjoyed relationships with other women. The historian Lillian Faderman recounts these women’s place in lesbian history in her book Odd Girls & Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life.

-LC

[killingevedaily]

Outstanding Drama Series - Killing Eve

Crescendoing, relentless, all-consuming obsession fuels the narrative of Killing Eve, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s sexy, smart, distinctly feminine action thriller starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as the toxic spy-assassin duo who can’t stop thinking about each other. Watching Killing Eve feels exactly like that: seering obsession. This category was stacked with great, complex dramas, but there’s something just purely intoxicating about Killing Evethat sets it apart. Though it’s the phrase most often used to describe Eve and Villanelle’s dynamic, “cat-and-mouse” hardly covers what Oh and Comer bring to these characters or what’s even on the page. It’s never quite clear whether they want to murder each other or make out. Hunting each other, longing for each other, Eve and Villanelle might be one of the most complex queer relationships on television. But beyond that dripping subtext, it’s just a very good thriller with compelling twists and turns and sharp edges that refuse to be dulled. — Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Fan Favorite New Show - Killing Eve

Queer women were always going to be into Killing Eve because queer women are very into Sandra Oh, but it didn’t take long into the first season of BBC America’s breakout show for queer women to become as obsessed with Killing Eve as Eve and Villanelle are with each other. This is a story we’ve never seen before, not like this, and damn the tropes we just want more! — Heather Hogan

[frasier-crane-style]

Elseworlds

Well, Tumblr isn’t dead yet and the CW-DC just did a big crossover, so I think it’s time to make fun of the CW........ for the last time.

Did you know Tim Allen actually ended Home Improvement after season 8 because he knew the show couldn’t maintain its level of quality and was on the way downhill? Tim Allen has more creative integrity than anyone involved in the making of Supernatural. Think about that.

Anyhoo, lots to digest! Largely, this crossover felt to me weirdly lackluster and obligatory, like the whole thing was just a trailer for the oncoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. It just felt unambitious, which is the last thing an ‘event’ like this should feel like. In fact, it felt a little like I imagine the result would be of filming a bunch of people playing DC Universe Online. We visit Smallville and see Lois Lane! We go to Gotham and meet Batman...’s cousin, and fight a breakout at Arkham Asylum, complete with Mr. Freeze...’s gun and the Scarecrow...’s fear gas. Then, we wrap the whole thing up with an Evil Superman, because God knows, DC never gets bored of that.

-Petty nitpick department: Batwoman just standing around on rooftops looks weird. Not only does it give the odd impression that she’s spent the entire time between episodes just, uh, standing, but c’mon--you’re supposed to crouch. Or at least hunch. Everybody knows that!

-Weirdly missed opportunity to have Ollie do the Flash narration, considering all the other opening narrations are futzed with.

-The whole thing is pretty much a glorified body swap--Stephen Amell is playing Barry Allen and vice versa. I can see how TPTB would be too pressed for time to explain a whole ‘nother continuity where Barry Allen became Green Arrow and Oliver Queen became the Flash, but still, it’s not as much fun.

-They also wholeheartedly borrow the thing of Ollie having to be happy to use Barry’s powers and Barry having to be mad to use Ollie’s ‘powers’ from the episode of Teen Titans where Raven and Starfire switched bodies. So, I guess, congratulations on making the central plot point of your crossover the same as a half-hour episode of a children’s cartoon.

-Remember that time Barry was too happy and too confident in his abilities, so his dad died?  

-They got a good actress to play the Lois Lane to this Clark Kent, considering they both just look kinda awkward? His chin looks like he had a face transplant done and her nose looks like someone is constantly Photoshopping it.

NHHHA, He-Man!!

-Don’t do a callback to Smallville, show. Oliver Queen has now spent more time in costume as the Flash than Tom Welling did as Superman.

-Direct fucking hit when Oliver said that Barry couldn’t take a crap without getting a peptalk from his team, but on the other hand, Oliver can’t take a crap without Felicity wondering what it means for their relationship. “Oliver didn’t tell me he needed to go to the bathroom! Why wouldn’t he trust me?”

-I’m just saying, last season on Agents of SHIELD, pretty much every character was in a relationship--there was not so much damn drama. It’s a fucking body-swap plotline, guys. You don’t need to treat it like it could lead to someone’s divorce! Really, at this point, if you’re in a relationship with a crazy superhero, you should be used to it. 

-(Although I suppose I’m a little hard to please here, since over on Legends of Tomorrow they suddenly expect us to care about Constantine rescuing the love of his life when we’ve seen their relationship for all of four seconds. But hey, like I said, Agents of SHIELD manages a happy medium and finds time for Ghost Rider to show up.)

-For the post-apocalyptic hellscape they make Gotham out to be, the police respond awfully fast to disturbances.

-”We’re on the corner of Burton and Nolan!” Groooooan.

-Ruby Rose, everyone: the Less Convincing Michelle Rodriguez. It’d probably a bad sign for how compelling Kate Kane is as a character that everyone would rather talk about where Batman is and why Batman would leave. And, speaking as someone who both watched Birds of Prey and The Dark Knight Rises--Rocky, that ‘Batman Retires’ plot point never works!

-(Is Batwoman even that popular a character to get her own spin-off? I suppose she’s ‘TV show’ popular, but still--I think she’s one of those Batfamily members that is somewhere behind Alfred but ahead of Ace, right next to Azrael. And I do think it’s hilarious that TPTB were insistent on casting a real, authentic lesbian!!!--and then immediately got complaints that they didn’t cast a Jew. Oh, Ziggy, will you ever win?)

-I don’t want to be too hard on Ruby Rose here. Yes, she doesn’t showcase anything other than one mode: Snide And Slightly Pouty (Stephen Amell ain’t winning no Oscars, but he can differentiate between Ollie As A Civilian and Ollie In A Halloween Costume). But the writing does her no favors in making a case for this character as being deserving of any amount of screentime, besides the fact that she dresses like Batman, the guy we really care about. She’s a heroine, as are featured variously in every Arrowverse show. She’s queer, as is Alex Danvers, Sara Lance, John Constantine, et al. She’s rich to the point of having unlimited resources, as are (sometimes) Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Kara through her billionaire friends. She lives in a crime-ridden hellhole, as Ollie has done for several seasons. What makes any of this compelling? The Gotham setting? Arrow has already turned itself into an effective facsimile of that, to the point of having Ra’s al Ghul show up to make Queen into his son-in-law. Arkham Asylum seems completely generic, as does Wayne Tower. It’s all just a different part of Vancouver; who cares?

-Likewise, Supergirl, speaking to you as a TV show--you really should either be adamant that Kara is heterosexual or give her a weirdly flirtatious scene with Batwoman, but not both. I know you need, need, need to let the audience know Batwoman is a lesbian...

Pictured: The CW subtly letting you know about a character’s minority status.

But c’mon. We’ve been over this.

-Speaking of minority status, maybe it’s not the best idea to let slip that John Diggle is an AU John Stewart. Yes, there’s ten brothas in the DC Universe, and four of them are actually the other six. There are so few Negros on Earth-1 that they had to make Barack Obama into a superhero. The Batfamily has two black folks and they’re both related to Lucius Fox. There’s so few black people in Metropolis that Black Lightning knows who his father is!

Folks, the DC Universe is so white, the Black Lanterns are all dead. The DC Universe is so white, they don’t even have black Kryptonite. The DC Universe is so white, even Black Condor is a honky. The DC Universe is so white, they don’t even need a Justice League of Africa, they just have a Batman of Africa! The DC Universe is so white, the blackest guy on the Justice League is a refrigerator with one-half of a brother’s face on top of it. The DC Universe is so white, they named the black woman on the Teen Titans after a bug that’s half yellow! Now Milestone, the Milestone Universe is black. It’s so black, Aquaman is the most powerful superhero there, because he’s the only one who can swim!

(-I’m planning on being chased off of Tumblr like Indiana Jones after he snags an ancient artifact.)

-Would it be that hard for them to go to Arkham and run into the Ventriloquist or Orca or someone memorable, so long as they have access to the Batman toy chest? We got, uhh, Lady Who Can Pick Up Gun and Psycho Pirate I Guess? Like I said, unambitious. Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if they got someone from Gotham to film just one little cameo? 

-Also, considering the sex scandal these shows have had, maybe it’s not the best idea to joke about their EPs being depraved maniacs? (Was Guggenheim the one who actually got MeToo’d? Because if so, Dude--Not Funny)

-The show had to character-shill Batwoman so hard that Ollie and Barry stopped being fear-gassed just to reiterate that she is too an interesting character in her own right! (If the characters have all heard of Batman, wouldn’t they have heard of Batwoman too if she’s been an active vigilante more recently?)

-But who cares about four unstoppable superheroes teaming up when we can find out how Felicity feels about her relationship? Just a thought--if you fight with your SO all the time about nearly everything, maybe you shouldn’t be in a relationship. 

-Long story short, Doctor Destiny rewrites reality again to make Barry, Oliver, and Kara into supervillains in a world where he’s the hero. He also makes the other characters into pointless cameos, and weirdly gets criticized by Kara for... not giving himself a sex-change operation by becoming Superman instead of Supergirl? He doesn’t have gender dysphoria, Supergirl. I thought she was all about trans issues this season?

-Like, I don’t know, if a woman used a magic lamp to wish herself President, would anyone criticize her making herself a lady President instead of a man President?

-I guess it wouldn’t be Supergirl unless they crowbarred in an extremely awkward girlpower message where Superman and Lois agree that Supergirl/women in general are more useful than men, despite the fact that all Supergirl did was the exact same thing as Barry, while Superman and Oliver fought Dr. Destiny, and all Lois did was call in a bunch of men as reinforcements and then need to be rescued.

-But like I said about being unambitious--wouldn’t it be fun to see our heroes be forced to team up with a few supervillains to save the day? Instead, we just have Cisco playing a villain (something he’s done numerous times before). They get his help, have a weirdly poor showing in a fight against Jimmy Olsen, get Superman’s help again, yadda yadda. 

-We also get Superman proposing to Lois Lane. Yeah, considering they’ve been in a relationship at least since Supergirl Season 1, she’s carrying his child, and they’re planning to move to an alien world together, yeah, I should think so? I know Superman probably isn’t a Republican, but does anyone think he’d be so blase about putting a ring on it? Hell, if nothing else, he should want to tie the knot before Ma or Pa bite it. Couldn’t they have just made it that he wants to renew his vows with Lois in a Kryptonian ceremony or some such?