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Week 13 - The Future Holds...

Breaking the Binary!

This week I’ll be focusing on calling action to giving more rep to nonbinary people as queer representation begins to grow within media!  

It’s 2019 and we’re still a society that constantly tries to categorize anything and everything as “masculine” and “feminine” which is ridiculous. Gender reveals are still a craze (which has also shown how far some people will go to outdo the rest of the hetero and cis society). Ezra Miller, Jonathan Van Ness, and Asia Kate Dillon are just a list of the handful of those who break down the barriers of gender norms and open the door for those refusing these norms.

Having everything labeled for a specific gender causes more harm than good because of those who identify as genderfluid/nonbinary/trans/agender* (*this is not a complete list) could experience large amounts of gender dysphoria.  

Having more and more people playing characters that don’t conform to specific genders helps normalize the idea that gender is a made-up concept created by society. Not only does it help deconstruct gender, but give those who do identify as nonbinary their representation that they deserve. 

Recently, Billy Dee Williams has come out as genderfluid which created an abundance of responses throughout mainstream media. Billy stated that he/she uses both male and female pronouns, and has also “never tried to be anything except myself.” 

- Twitter user @/elevatorcore describes perfectly the importance of Billy coming out as they point out that Nonbinary POC finally get to have that representation that they need

- They also express a valid point that having Billy come out, breaks the narrative that every LGBTQ+ person only comes out while they’re younger 

- Unfortunately, Billy’s announcement had also brought major criticism amongst other people and shows how uninformed they are about those identifying as genderfluid

As other people begin to express their identities in different ways, this opens up discussions about what really makes us “masculine” or “feminine”. Not only does Hollywood needs to step up their game with nonbinary representation, but globally we need to come together to shine a light and normalize that the binary needs to be broken. 

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Fan: I just want to see lesbians.

Tessa: Me too boo.

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Week 7: Queer Women Power-Up!

Tessa Thompson is a singer/songwriter/actress who is most known for her role as Valkyrie within the Marvel Universe! Though she doesn’t like to define her sexuality, she stated in an interview that “If I bring a woman home, [or] a man, we don’t even have to have the discussion.”

Even though she does not label her sexuality, over the summer it was revealed during the panel for the new Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, that Valkryie is confirmed as a bisexual! This was huge news for the LGBTQ+ community as this was the first Marvel character to be explicitly stated as a member within the community! 

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/marvel-gay-superhero-valkyrie-tessa-thompson-thor-lgbt-1202159737/

Tessa is also known for her active involvement within the LGBTQ+ community as she stares as Janelle Monae’s love interests in the music video, PYNK. She also shows her support as she actively tweets about her support in shipping Captain Marvel and Valkyrie!

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Week 7: Queer Women Power-Up!

This week was all about queer women and their representation in film/tv/webcasts, which had me really excited! As I began to list all of the female characters and actresses that I could remember, it hit me that good sapphic media was harder to come across compared to male queer content. With Black Mirror’s episode, San Junipero, they not only gave a queer couple a happy and wholesome ending, but their relationship was never shown off as a product of fetishization or an ongoing joke between other characters. 

                                              *SPOILER ALERT*

San Junipero follows a unique sapphic love story between Yorkie (on the left) and Kelly (on the right) as their lives change after they meet at a club that is set up to replicate the 80′s. The story takes a unique turn when it is revealed that the town Yorkie and Kelly continue to meet in is actually a simulation created for people that are severely hospitalized or don’t have much time to live. To Kelly’s surprise, Yorkie only had days to live after she had discovered that Yorkie has been in a coma since she was 21 after she had a car accident due to her family’s disapproval of her sexuality. 

This episode was emotionally refreshing as women in the LGBTQ+ community are hardly given a happy ending when in a relationship with the same-sex, especially when their fate is usually one partner dying, cheating, or just being emotionally/physically abusive towards the other. Kelly and Yorkie’s relationship ends with them both permanently becoming residents in San Junipero and driving off in a red convertable as “Heaven is a Place on Earth” sung by Belinda Carlisle plays in the background. 

As shown above, San Junipero was welcomed with many positive reactions with many fans agreeing that seeing Kelly and Yorkie’s relationship had made them happy that queer women had finally received the happy ending they deserved. Not only was the episode successful with their current fanbase, but it had also won two Emmy’s in 2017 for Outstanding Television Movie and Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Limited Special!