queer representation – Page 2

An illustration of a light-skinned girl with long light brown hair in a pink sweater holding hands with a girl with brown skin and her dark brown curls tied up in a bun in a white turtleneck and red shirt. They both look backwards and up, their faces filled with worry. Blue silhouettes of people with angry faces loom above them.

The Oversexualization of Lesbian Relationships in Media

The entertainment industry profits off the sexualization of women. Whether typecast as a complacent suburban housewife or a strong crime-fighting machine, women in media are reduced to their sexual attributes, especially lesbians and other queer people.

A photograph of Dylan Mulvaney, a white woman with light blonde hair. She is wearing a blue patterned blouse and matching skirt. She leans towards the microphone mounted on a clear podium and speaks excitedly into it. Behind her is a large open doorway and a blue screen.

LA

Models of Pride Keynote Speaker Interview: Dylan Mulvaney on Trans Representation, Social Media and the Power of Cringe

At the Models of Pride event hosted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Dylan Mulvaney received the Model of Pride Award and was interviewed on stage by Phillip Picardi, the center’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Dylan spoke candidly about the struggles of being an influencer and the impact on her mental health, her hopes for authentic trans representation in film and television, and her advice to LGBTQ+ youth facing adversity.

Arts & Entertainment

Queerbaiting to Queer Couples: The Evolution of Queerness in 21st Century Media

2023 has truly been a great year for LGBTQ+ representation in media. From movies like “Bottoms” to TV shows like “Heartstopper” and “Good Omens,” we are living in the very recent development of what Them calls “a golden era for LGBTQ+ representation.”

A black and white still where a white blonde woman sits on a couch while a masculine-presenting white individual sits next to her. Her legs are draped over their legs, and they smile at each other. Above them, the devil is a stereotypical caricature with horns and a goatee smiling gleefully.

Arts & Entertainment

“Glen or Glenda”: Feeling Seen Through Art

“Glen or Glenda” is a 1953 transgender exploitation film directed by Ed Wood. It was made incredibly cheaply and quickly and is full of out-of-date ideas and terms about gender and transitioning, with film critic Leonard Maltin describing it in his 2004 movie & video guide as “possibly the worst movie ever made.” That being said, as a transgender woman, I have never felt more seen while watching a film than while watching “Glen or Glenda.” The movie’s critical panning has held it from the fruitful examination it deserves due to its radical stance on gender as it relates to the self and society.

A photograph of a smiling Alex, a Latino man with light brown skin and black hair wearing a gray suit and American flag socks, sitting on a couch with a smiling Henry, a white man with blonde hair, wearing a black suit, blue slash, and Union Jack socks. The photograph reads, "Love who you want. It's good foreign policy."

Arts & Entertainment

What “Red, White & Royal Blue” Gets Right About Being Queer in Politics — And What It Doesn’t

“I am the First Son of the United States, and I’m bisexual. History will remember us.”

Casey McQuiston’s debut romance novel “Red, White & Royal Blue” has recently been adapted into an Amazon Prime movie, bringing the love story between the American First Son and the Prince of England to the big screen. The film is a winding tale of controversy and copulation, but ends happily with Alex Claremont-Diaz (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Henry Windsor (played by Nicholas Galitzine) stepping into Alex’s childhood home to start the next chapter of their lives together.

A Netflix poster for "XO, Kitty." Besides the title, it reads, "From Jenny Han, a new 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' story begins..." and "Only on Netflix | May 18." Five young people stand in front of a city with blooming cherry blossom trees. From left to right, there is a young man with light skin and dark hair in a jean jacket, a young man with light brown skin and dark curls wearing a dark gray shirt, a young woman with light skin and brown hair in a white tanktop, a young woman with light skin and black hair wearing pink, a young man with light skin and black hair wearing a mint jacket.

TV

Commitments to Queerness: A Review of Netflix’s “XO, Kitty”

“XO, Kitty,” the spinoff of Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” was released in May of this year with decent ratings; with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 81% and an audience score of 58%, the show has started off on the right foot. That being said, with all the good aspects of the show, there are also bad ones. Let’s start with the good.

A slanted polaroid collage of queer media posters, album and book covers. From left to right, top to bottom: Shygirl's "Nymph," "Happy Together," Tinashe's "Songs for You," Ashnikko's "Demidevil," The Dead Texan's "The Dead Texan," "Good Omens," "Heartstopper," All Time Low's "Tell Me I'm Alive," "Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse," "Bottoms," "Gideon the Ninth," and "Nana."

Arts & Entertainment

Queer Summer 2023 Favorites

Our OutWrite staff loves queer media! Here are some of our favorites from this summer:

The "Bottoms" poster which includes PJ, a white girl in green making a muscle, and Josie, a black woman in teal making a muscle. Clinging to each of them is a young white woman and a young Wasian woman both wearing pink clothing items. Two football players lounge beneath them, another white woman and a Black man.

Film

Gay Wrongs, and Why I Support Them — On “Bottoms” and Queer Irreverence

Lesbians have never looked as hot as when they are covered in the blood of football jocks like the characters of “Bottoms,” the instant classic lesbian rom-com movie of the year. “Bottoms” — directed by Emma Seligman — follows Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ’s (Rachel Sennott) attempt to woo their respective love interests, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), with a faux all-women’s self-defense fight club. The film screams of a dark humor and irreverence rarely seen in LGBTQ+ media — a refreshing new take that presents audiences with queer, gray morality, or what I lovingly call ‘Gay Wrongs’.

A photograph of Nick and Charlie staring lovingly at each other from Netflix's "Heartstopper". Charlie is a young white man with black hair and a red plaid shirt. Nick is a young white man with blonde hair wearing a yellow shirt. Charlie cups Nick's face.

TV

Heartstopper Season 2: Grieving Something I Didn’t Know I Lost

When Season 1 of “Heartstopper” came out in April 2022, I was a senior in high school. I was coming out of yet another situationship with a straight guy. My story was classic: grow close to him, develop feelings, question whether or not he’s straight, confess.

illustration of Little Dog from Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Literature

Beauty, Past Blood and Shame, in “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong (he/him) unearths the life and history of a young gay Vietnamese-American man, Little Dog. Though the novel moves between his grandmother’s and mother’s lives in Vietnam to his life in the U.S., it isn’t only an “immigrant story” or a “gay story.” Rather, it encompasses his queerness, race, class, family, and humanity.