#unbury my fucking gays tv people

[genghisthebrain]

youve heard of bury your gays, now introducing unbury your gays, where every tv show that has ever killed off gay people is law mandated to remake the show from that point onwards

#wait_no on ao3 #villaneve #villanelle #lexa #the 100 #killing eve #bury your gays #oberyn martell #poussey washington #there are more #i don't remember them off the top of my head #unbury my fucking gays tv people

[sgiandubh]

Autopsy of a gay lie: the Wikipedia trail

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

― Abraham Lincoln

For starters, sorry for the length and numerous screencaps. It is an investigation, after all and these are sorely needed.

Never underestimate the conjugated power of Internet, a Sunday afternoon and the lightbulb moment that can happen while baking something, because you know, people have also to reward themselves at some point.

I might have fucked up my foolproof Lemon Squares recipe, but I regret nothing. It took me three hours I could have gratefully used to finish that spirits post, but this is too damn good not to share.

Remember Meow Kabob's cross my heart and hope to die pinky swear she found confirmation of Data Lounge's allegations on Wikipedia, out of all places? How she regularly unburies that infamous screenshot listing S under the Wiki "Gay Actors" category? How she told us, filthy and uneducated shipper mob, over and over again, that story about STARZ people scouring the Internet far and wide and scrubbing any gay reference related to S, as soon or shortly after he was cast as JAMMF?

I can confidently prove now Lincoln's perennial truths I quoted above apply to this situation.

I was just pouring my lemon juice, eggs, flour and sugar mix over the hot and nutty shortbread when I stopped in my tracks: 'wait a second, isn't Wikipedia an open source project? BUT OF COURSE IT IS, SILLY COW - yes, I very often talk to myself like that. RUN. NOW. I HAVE TO KNOW.'

Sure enough, like death and taxes, the full edit list of S's Wikipedia page was there for everyone to see:

Even better, since Internet is forever, we have full access to all these edits and can take screenshots.

This is how Sam's Wikipedia odissey started, on November 11th 2007, when he was the complete underdog:

A ' strapping lad with natural dark blonde hair and 6'2'' tall', ideal for the role of Alexander the Great - pious silence and RIP. I grinned, because it sounds well, naïve? It also sounds gay, perhaps? What else does it prove, other than the gay crowd has an acute interest for novelty and a wandering eye?

Nothing. Not even remotely related to S.

Also, note the two classification categories: British TV actor stubs/ British actor stubs. Mark them, they stayed still and alone for a looooong time.

Up until 2009, in fact, when the wikientry was no longer considered a stub and even got several category additions:

Then again, some movin' on up, on that semi-dormant page, in 2013. Totes normal:

By early 2014, even more interest in S commands an expanded webpage and a longer, more detailed, category listing:

Let's quickly peruse 2015...

2016...

The incorrect Irish descent category stayed there for about ten days, until removed by another user. This is how it is done and it is then added to the list:

2017, 2018, 2019, early 2020, no change in the categories, but all hell broke lose content-wise. From Cirdan, the 'estranged brother' acting in a very gay connotated theatre production I have never heard about, in London, September 2016...

...... to a woman named Tiffany Trach who used to dream the impossible dream, in October 2016 (and she was not the only one, far from it)...

...to some halfwit being rightfully slapped for adding brainless Flukenzie Floozy content in March 2017:

By that time, I was getting supremely bored clicking on links and wanted to pack the tent and throw my lemon squares in the trash bin. But, lo and behold, what do I see on January 26th 2020:

With the tag possible vandalism:

Whodunnit?

A very brave person, hiding under a string of random numbers...

... and one single contribution EVER to the Wikipedia juggernaut. This is what I would call a targeted attack:

It stayed like that, unmolested, for five days only, until the user Spiderpig662 decided enough is enough and did something about it...

....categories being then restored to the previous wording:

The last vicious gay reference on Wikipedia dates back to May 28th 2020 (Ha-wa-wee, anyone?), was labeled as 'hate speech' & promptly removed:

Where wuffter is, in British Cockney slang:

Same modus operandi, this time an IP address, pinging in (you simply can't make this shit up, can you?)...

County Durham, FYI.

I then asked myself when exactly did Meow Kabob appear on Tumblr?

Even more exactly, on...

That is, to say the least, a troubling coincidence.

I do not imply anything, I have no wish to attack anyone. All I am saying, is that particular argument, which this user is shouting anytime she is prompted to, had a very short online lifespan. How could an American woman, who appeared in this fandom shortly afterwards, have known about changes operated for five days only, by an unknown user, on the open source webpage of a B-listed British actor?

I have only one question, Your Honor:

WHY?

I rest my case.

[Edit]: To make it maybe more clear, I now know where the person adding that category lives, thanks to Wikipedia's own tracking system:

No surprises here:

Augusta. Georgia. USA.

Now, yes. Now I rest my case.

#fandom

[blatterpussbunnyfromhell]

Did Silver kill Flint?

I keep seeing cold ass takes in the Black Sails side of tumblr that make my blood boil.

Look, I got into Black Sails in 2017, three weeks after the finale aired. Back then, there seemed to be an understanding that the "Silver killed Flint" interpretation was just a fringe theory from straight people made uncomfortable by the queer lead getting a happy ending. Personally, it was my first encounter with the phrase "unbury your gays" (having learnt "bury your gays" a year earlier with The 100). It seemed to be generally accepted that Flint lived, and that this was the whole point.

Now, it would appear that a shift has happened in the fandom, where the idea of Silver killing Flint is no longer treated as a theory by straight weirdos but as a canon, onscreen event, and these posts come from queer fans. It seems to come from younger fans who were about 12 or 13 in 2017. It's so mindboggling to me.

The arguments for this Silver-Killed-Flint thing is usually the same two: birds flying away and Silver's men turning around in the forest, as in reaction to a noise, which is interpreted as a gunshot.

Like, I'm just elaborating on a rant I sent to my friends earlier today here but, if Silver killed Flint, then :

Why would we be shown an entire sequence with one of Silver's henchmen looking for Thomas where he is?

If Thomas and Flint are dead, why aren't we shown their deaths? It's an actual rule in cinema that a character whose death isn't shown on screen isn't dead, a rule that the show does follow (we see Billy's funeral but not his corpse). Besides, Black Sails doesn't shy away from showing death on screen, even for main characters. Then, why not show how Thomas died instead of telling us? Why not show us Silver shooting Flint? The writers trust their viewers to understand the pattern, and understand that the reason we do not see their deaths is because they aren't dead.

Why would Silver bring up Thomas to Flint if he'd planned on killing him? Or if, as I've also seen it said, it was just a lie he made on the spot for Madi ?

And talking about Madi, I've seen A LOT of people saying she would never forgive Silver. And to that I genuinely have to ask, have you seen their last appearence in the show? I dont mean their argument in the cabin, I mean the scene where Silver sits on top of a hill and turns around to find Madi waiting for him on the path. I mean the scene where he walks towards her and she waits for him. So, my question here, if she wasn't gonna forgive Silver, why is she waiting for him on that hill? Nevermind the fact that Treasure Island's Long John Silver is in a relationship with a Black woman (I've seen posts saying that could be Max, and really wtf??), what is the point of showing us this scene if she's not gonna forgive him? Why not stop their arc at the cabin where she sends him away?

At the time when Black Sails' finale aired, Supernatural was still queerbaiting its audience, and Sherlock ended in a fucking shitshow. People were throwing fits over Bill Potts, Doctor Who's first ever onscreen lesbian companion because she was a lesbian with a masculine name. A year before that, The 100, a very popular tv show at the time, had just killed it's only lesbian character and faced so much uproar and backlash for it. (That was my entry into the LGBT+ community, by the way : the first character to make me think I might actually like women getting killed on screen two scenes after having had sex with the female lead). Sense8's two-hour long finale and Love, Simon wouldn't air for another year.

So yeah, if you weren't into queer media back in 2017 (and omg I sound like such an old twat), I don't think you can understand just how important that ending, with Flint being reunited with the love of his life after so much pain and loss, was.

If your interpretation of Black Sails is that the events of Treasure Island happened the way the book tells you, then I'm sorry to tell you this but you completely missed the point of the show.

#black sails #black sails meta #long post #silverflint #long john silver #james flint #thomas hamilton #james mcgraw #captain flint #ok to rb

[justlikeeddie]

For the fandom meme - T or Y, or both, please?

I forgot that once you’ve read a message on tumblr you can’t mark it UNREAD. And thus I also forgot that these were still in my asks and I’d never answered them. I’m sure you have been on tenterhooks waiting for my pronouncements. Apologies

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

I spent a while trying to come up with a good answer to this, and discovered that I don’t think I do a lot of interesting headcanoning. Obviously I guess everything we think or write about pre-existing characters is an expression of some kind of headcanon, but for me that tends to be along the lines of, say, “I think perhaps Character X isn’t as shy as they seem”, and not, like, “I think Character X played semi-professional tennis in their youth and their favourite TV show is Bake Off.” I think my instinct when I engage in fandom is actually to double down on exploring canonical information and situations, probably to the detriment of creative world-expansion, and I’m always impressed by people who are good at the latter. (I’m also unlikely to die defending anything, because I really like the idea that fandom is somewhere where many different interpretations of the same thing can be true at once, and that conflicting realities can co-exist in the same space; I actually like realising that other people are taking away totally different things to me from the same source text.)

Anyway, the best I’ve got is that I had a lot of intense conversations with @the-omnishambles last summer about Fraser responding to Vecchio’s claim that he prefers a woman to be a woman (as opposed to a man in drag) with “That’s just picky, Ray,” from which we concluded that Fraser sees bisexuality as the obvious practical solution to living in small communities in which your romantic options are very population-limited. Okay, maybe I will die on the hill of Utilitarian Bisexual Benton Fraser

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

THE TERROR: I have seen this show and I loved it! But for some reason I did not get fannish about it. Luckily my dash keeps me incredibly up-to-date with the fandom goings-on here, and I would like to congratulate this fandom for its dedication to pornography about 19th-century polar exploration, which I support on principle.

STAR WARS / THE MANDALORIAN: I have seen bits and pieces of the Star Wars universe - surprised myself with how much I enjoyed The Force Awakens, and then was increasingly uninterested in the films that followed - but I haven’t seen the Mandalorian. I know that Pedro Pascal isn’t allowed to take his mask off, but then at some point he does take it off so that baby Yoda can touch his face.

THE WITCHER: I have seen this show and was ambivalent about it. But I agree that Henry Cavill is fucking that twink.

THE OLD GUARD: I enjoyed this film! But did not respond to it fannishly. It’s nice when they kiss in the kidnap van. And I’m glad that Dudley Dursley is still getting work.

COBRA KAI: I have not seen this show. I’ve also never seen The Karate Kid so I am probably not its intended audience. I know that there are two dads and they are best karate frenemies. I also know that one of them looks like Roland from Schitt’s Creek and it’s all I think about whenever I see these gifs.

THE UNTAMED: I think one of them plays the flute?

M*A*S*H*: This is a TV show about men wearing dressing gowns.

IT CHAPTER 2: Unfortunately I can never watch this film because not only can I not watch horror, but I was also specifically scared of clowns as a child (am now fine with normal ones, obvs, but probably not with a full-scale clown monster). I admire this fandom’s dedication to categorically unburying one of its gays, and as far as I can tell, most of the fic is about the one who’s a stand-up comedian coming out in public life about his now-happy relationship with his hypochondriac childhood friend. This seems nice and I’m very pleased for everyone involved.

#memes #reples #due south #the terror #the star war #foxesinlove

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 6x19 Seeing Red

aka dick move joss

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And after today’s episode, who’s ready to get drunk and do some math? *points to self* It me. I’m drunk.

Seeing Red has not one, but TWO of the show’s most controversial scenes in the entire series, so that’s a distinction I guess. One that I should probably be talking about, but… you know. Turns out that when you drink the rest of your apple liquor in one sitting, your ability to form critical thought exponentially deteriorates with each and every second.

But math? Math is easy. You can do math drunk while walking on your hands. So let’s do math.

So, did you guys know that Amber Benson appeared in the most Buffy episodes per season while not being in the credits? It’s true. I made a very detailed excel sheet.

(Yes, these are all the actors who appeared at least 14 episodes of the show. I didn’t really need to include all of them to prove my point, but I did it anyway.)

Those purple highlights you see? Those are for actors who appeared at least 70% of the episodes while not being part of the main cast in a season. Apart from a few special cases where someone has been promoted to the main cast during a season (like Michelle Trachtenberg after one episode in season 5 or Marc Blucas following the first 10 episodes of season 4), the only ones this applies for is Kristine Sutherland and Amber Benson. And the latter’s 18 appearance during season 5 (aka 82% of the season) is our biggest outlier among those even.

Now, to be fair, actors who are part of the main cast never actually go below 83% in their own respective season appearances on Buffy (see the blue highlights that show the two instances that goes below 90% even), but like… Appearing in 16-18 episodes of at least two 22-episode seasons in a major capacity is still a fucking lot by any TV standards.

So the fact that neither of these actors have been promoted to regular status during their run is kind of weird. Maybe Joyce was often forced into the background, but Kristine Sutherland was a huge presence in season 5 in particular. Up until Joyce’s death in The Body, she appeared in all episodes, and had a cameo later in The Weight of the World. She should’ve been in the credits for that period, imo.

Similarly, if you look at other characters who occupied a comparable role to Tara – so, basically characters who were introduced as love interests to one of the Scoobies –, each and every one of them have been promoted to the main cast by their 3rd year at the very least. And Emma Caulfield, who was one of those third year joiners, only appeared in 5 episodes in her first season. Seth Green, who with his 10/22 appearance is much closer to Amber Benson’s 12/22 in their respective debut seasons, was part of the credits by his second year on the show.

In conclusion what I’m saying is that fuck you Joss for pulling that opening credits shit on us. No. This should’ve happened two seasons ago, and now you’re using it to play on the audience’s attachment to this character, dangling that promise of having more of her on the show just to take it away.

Not cool, my dude. So very not cool.

In other bad news, making that excel sheet sobered me up a bit (damn you, math), and now I’m just kinda tired and sad. It’s starting to dawn on me that this is the last I’ll see of Tara during this rewatch.

Maybe I should just start over from Hush? There’s an idea…

There’s also a reason why this episode is cited as such an egregious example of the Bury Your Gays trope even after almost two decades. With the show having been limited on what they can show of Willow and Tara’s relationship early on, the inclusion of the many sexual moments in this episode especially jumps out. Having that precede Tara’s death somehow manages to maximize the negative impact of it even more, reinforcing pre-existing harmful associations in the audience.

But then again, would it have been better to not have these moments at all? I don’t know the answer to that.

In any case, when I talked about character deaths earlier on this show, I mentioned that there are two criteria that I judge those: story impact and social impact. Meaning on one hand, that when you kill off a character, you want that to have a meaningful impact on your story and characters. It needs to have a purpose and long-lasting effects for it to satisfy your audience’s emotional needs. And on the other hand, there’s also the bigger media and societal landscape to consider. Especially when you’re killing off a character, who’s already part of an underrepresented group.

I think I probably already alluded to how I consider Tara’s death to be well-executed story-wise, despite being extremely poorly done in the latter regard. There are arguments to be made of course about how maybe the show could’ve killed a different character to achieve the same effect in the story, etc. – but I find the following arc captivating as it is regardless.

Then again, I also love Tara, and definitely wouldn’t have complained if the show just randomly brought her back from the death, story be damned. Unbury your gays, you cowards.

I guess I’ll also need to touch on the other controversial scene in the episode, huh? Well, I don’t want to.

But fine.

Hot take, but I just don’t connect to Spike. Not during this rewatch. And looking back at my feelings on it, I think that part of that is the very association that’s textualized here.

See, vampires are giant rape metaphors. Well, they can be metaphors for a lot of things, this is Buffy after all, but that’s definitely a big part of them. And the show’s been playing up this aspect with Spike in the past – usually it’s just been done for comedy.

Think about his scenes with Willow in Lovers Walk or The Initiative. The latter is especially chilling with the way he attacks Willow on her bed and turns up the music, right before we cut to black… and then we find out that Spike’s “impotent” and can’t bite her, and suddenly she’s comforting him? And it’s a comedy?

That scene is super weird. And uncomfortable. And that was probably part of its purpose, but it also means that I’m just not shocked by what he almost does here.

Spike’s a romantic, but he’s also a soulless vampire who can’t differentiate between love, death, sex and violence. He tells Buffy in a previous episode that he wouldn’t hurt her, but while he may believe that, it’s not true exactly. He doesn’t understand what Buffy needs. They share an understanding, but in this, he’s unable to empathize with Buffy beyond a certain level.

Afterwards though, he does seem to understand what he’s done, and given what we know of vampires, that’s pretty fascinating. He finally realizes that he can’t love Buffy without that empathy. And he can’t be the monster he used to be with these conflicts. So he’s off to rectify that.

Meanwhile Buffy’s out there, fighting superpowered nerds right after that fucking traumatic experience. Which… don’t get me wrong, I can definitely see how beating up Warren can be therapeutic, but there is also something to be said about the show not giving Buffy enough space to process certain traumas, and focusing more on Spike’s development instead.

Again though, it’s not that I don’t get it. Spike’s an intriguing character, and I can definitely see how a lot of people connect with him. His more negative traits are balanced out by his vulnerability, and his ability to self-reflect and grow. Just because I have a hard time relating to him, doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t enjoy his character. God knows that I have plenty of problematic faves...

Oh yeah, and Xander and Buffy share a nice scene by the end of the episode. Still, I guess I wanted a bit more out of it? Like Xander acknowledging how putting Buffy on a pedestal leads to him judging her more harshly, and how it’s something he should be working on in order to be a better friend to Buffy? Maybe I just want too much.

A character who was just perfect in this episode though? Dawn. Actual picture of Dawn Summers looking at Tara and Willow.

Same, Dawn. Same.

The last three minutes of Seeing Red? I don’t know her.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

[kweerpop]

Week 8: MASC4FEM4WHTVR

Jason and Ade in The Pass

image source

The Pass is a 2016 film based on a play of the same name. The Pass depicts Jason and Ade, two English aspiring professional football (soccer) players. They are both vying for a spot on a “big-league” team. For those of us who are unfamiliar, British culture uses markedly more homophobic slurs than American, and football culture is riddled with toxic masculinity, amongst other prejudices (racism, misogyny, sexism). 

In the first part of the film, it’s 2006 and Jason and Ade are shown roughhousing in their hotel room in Romania. They watch a homemade sex tape one of their teammates made on a video recorder (shown above). Eventually, after some more homoerotic wrestling, Jason kisses Ade a few times, then leaves the bedroom and goes to shower. The picture fades out.

image source

The next part of the film takes place in 2011 in a more upscale hotel room. We quickly see that Jason is bringing a woman back to his hotel room, a woman with whom he is not in a relationship. Ade is not present. To make a long story short, the audience learns Jason is a well-known professional footballer and the woman is going to record them having sex, without Jason’s knowledge, to sell the tape to tabloids. He figures this out before they are even fully undressed, and an argument ensues. He states that he’s mad because people are making up rumors about him, and he doesn’t want any publicity because he and his wife have split, even though no one knows yet, he doesn’t want anything negative out so his soon-to-be ex could use it as leverage to keep the kids from him.

Right away, the woman calls him out. She says, “Oh my god, you’re gay. You’re gay, aren’t you?” Jason denies it, and says that he’s not gay and to “Look at [him]. [He’s] a footballer” (The Pass). She is surprised he cares and asks him if he knows what year it is, indicating it’s not a big deal. The woman also expresses her disbelief that there are no homosexuals in the sport: “Oh yeah, yeah, ‘cause it’s such a man’s game, isn’t it? All of them buff lads together and no one ever fancies a fuck” (The Pass)? She also says, addressing the rowdy public sex escapades the footballers are known to have, “that’s why you always double up on girls, innit?. . . even the straight lads can’t get a hard-on without another fella in the room” (The Pass). Feigning disgust, Jason goes to list the various endorsements and sponsorships he has: “I’m a fucking role model. Little kids have posters of me on their wall . . . Japanese people drink the same whiskey as me. That’s because of the kind of man I am . . . I ain’t gay. Gay ain’t even an option” (The Pass). This is reflective of the idea that most people, namely straight men, are pretending to be something they are not; they are performing a role, the role of masculine man. He cannot come out as a sports star; it is impossible. 

It’s interesting that the woman in the scene is the one who challenges the notions of traditional sexuality. She is the one who queers what it means to be a man, saying it doesn’t matter that he’s gay; he can still be a famous footballer as he is now.

image source

The third part of the movie, now in an even more upscale hotel room (of Jason’s), takes place in 2016. In this scene, Ade shows up at a shirtless Jason’s room, wherein he’s working out, and they catch up. Jason is a very famous footballer, and Ade is now a successful, but modest, plumber. Jason starts training Ade (working out), and as Ade’s blood starts pumping the shirt comes off. They are sipping whiskey, tonic, etc. while working out (very healthy, yes). Jason then brings up the night in Romania but only refers to it as a “mad night.” Mad in this sense being “crazy” or “wild.” Ade then reveals he has come out and is in a relationship with a man. Jason turns hostile and is apparently jealous, though it appears he doesn’t realize this. The tension in the air is palpable once Ade reveals he’s in a relationship. Jason quickly brings the conversation back to Romania. He is apparently trying to convince himself that what happened wasn’t indicative that his sexuality was “abnormal.” He wants to “mark the occasion” of that night (since it is now 10 years later). The hostility subsides and the shirtless, drunk men start partying together (by attempting to  remove the television from the wall). Fast forward and the men are fighting again; this time Jason is pissed that Ade isn’t playing football anymore (He is clearly just mad because Ade is out and happy and Jason isn’t). A bellboy comes up to drop off a screwdriver that was requested by the men (to remove the TV), some more shady, erotic stuff goes down (not sex), and the bellboy leaves the room soaking wet in his underwear. Jason tells Ade he never called him the last ten years because he didn’t want to be “infected by [Ade’s] failure.” Basically, the entire encounter is hostile, dark, and repressed; this is a great moment to realize this is reflective of the inner world of Jason. Ade leaves. 

Jason starts crying and gets into the shower, just like he did when what could’ve been wasn’t realized ten years prior. The camera zooms into Jason’s face, in the shower, and zooms out and we see Ade in the Romanian hotel room ten years prior. This is now after the fadeout we saw when the first part of the film ended. Ade goes into the bathroom and gets into the shower with Jason. They start kissing (it’s very passionate and romantic). Cut to post-coital snuggling in the bed. This part of the film is full of warmth, love, affection, happiness so directly contrasting the rest of the film. 

images taken by me of the film (from Netflix)

Viewers are shown two men who at first appear traditionally heterosexual. The audience is queered when it is apparent there is a sexual chemistry between the two men. That is soon challenged, though, when Jason is shown about to have sex with a woman (therein lying the quintessential ambiguity of queer cinema). We then learn that Jason is married to a woman, and it is not the woman in the scene. The audience’s fantasy that Jason and Ade would be together is squashed, at least for now. The men are losing to sexual identity politics, because their two intersecting personalities (footballer and gay man) are incompatible. Actually, they probably do not even consider themselves gay, at least during the first part. Again, challenging the notion of masculinity. 

Ade, as an out man, has found happiness in life being out and open. Jason has found fleeting pleasure by pursuing his career goals. For both men, self and career aren’t compatible. The two of them choose either or. What I found very interesting, though, was a reddit post by user overactive-bladder: user writes, “i had my fair share of resentment towards people who tossed me aside like jason did with ade . . . maybe they were ruthless to me because they were busy fighting their own demons. pursuing their own dreams they thought was more important. maybe it really didn't have to do with me” ("The Pass [2016] - This Movie Broke Me : Truefilm"). This post gives a perspective not normally publicized: the compassionate gay man who can empathize with a closeted man struggling to accept his sexuality. There isn’t the normal judgment and hostility that is present in so many conversations revolving around closeted people.

A line from “’The Invention of a People’: Velvet Goldmine and the Unburying of Queer Desire,” a piece of work from Nick Davis, states: “This non-diegetic, fleeting image of homosexual pleasure, mined into existence despite a heavy armada of medical, political and memorial forces that work to oppose it. . . this desiring-image does not romanticise the prospect of gay ‘liberation’ or obviate the continued enormity of those forces that would constrict or even annihilate minority discourses and desires” (98). This perfectly captures the essence of The Pass, in my opinion, because, until the last two minutes of the film, the audience thinks that the relationship never happened. It was always about-to happen, but never could, because of the men’s environments. In reality, this is true, even though they did consulate their relationship. These queer men express themselves in very different ways. One has immense power (Jason), but acting on his sexual power does nothing for him since he is living a lie. His economic power, what one would think would solve his problems, does nothing. The other (Ade), has virtually no power, but has found a genuine life. We are then left wondering “what if?” We’re left wanting more. We’re left ambivalent. We’re left without a real conclusion. V NQC.

image source

#the pass #queer cinema #queer film #lgtbq #lgbt #gay film #gay cinema #qs304 #csun #qs 304 #week8 #week 8 #queer