#early queer cinema | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

falsebooles123 · 1 year

Text

Finding the First Gay Kiss - Diary of a Big Ole Gay - 3/6/23

Hey Whores, How you been can't remember the last time we talked. Totally not staring into the abyss of fear and shitting myself. Hiiiiii.

(yeah I'm just trying my best right now and or going insane)

so I'm trying my best to get some hours this month so that I can in fact pay my bills and its been stressful. But it turns out that when I'm stressed I watch a lot of movies so heres what's been going on.

Victim (1961) dir. Basil Dearden

A spirtual sucessor to Anders die als Andern this is 2 hours of a crime thriller that just so happens to be about gay people. This film is part of British New Wave which tends to be very focused on british margenilized groups and Dearden manages to be surprisingly sympathetic for the time period. Sure this film features tortured gays who don't even get to fuck a twink but this is a lot better representation then most of the queer rep during the period.

Its important to recognize the effects that censoreship had on the time period. I still have to do some research on british censorship because it is different from american censorship but suffice to say, gays weren't meant to be depicted in a wholesome way so the Tortured Gay Trope stems from that influence. Gays who wanted to stick there dick in some pussy and be "fixed" was the story people could tell with gay people so it was the story they told.

Lust for a Vampire (1971) dir. Jimmy Sangster

The second in the Karnstein Trilogy (yes I watched all three), this one is only slightly lesbian. We have nubile women walking around with there titties out, we have pretty vampire lady being a little interested in the ladies and then .... she fucks a dude.

Yeah they no homoed this lesbian vampire. This is the last in the series that has any lesbian undertones as Twins of Evil is a lot more like a classic folk horror then a lesbian vampire story. There all alright films but I was also very sad when I watched them.

The Vampire Lovers (1970) dir. Roy Ward Baker

Oh Carmilla!

This film is the most faithful to the Carmilla canon. Its a movie where Baker told the Censor board. But Hays Prude's!!!!!! this is based on a classic gothic story, the Lesbanism is like so important to the plot and she has to have her titties out to its like symbolism you know and one they like play with each others tits thats like super hot... I mean like double symbolism. We're respecting the source material.

Yeah this is a movie that centers lesbians for the male gaze and who doesn't like tittys but theres also some aspects that are just gross. Apparently the young coquette was told that her nude scenes would only be for the "Japanese Audience" and the Carmilla Actor encouraged her to go nude despite her misgivings. So its giving double predatory lesbian vibes.

I will say that this is very faithful to the plot despite the fan service and they make a point of making these vampires follow the original rules of the Le Fanu story.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) dir. Richard Brooks

Fuck I forgot how hot the two leads were. Fun Fact: This film was in color because the director wanted to show off how pretty the actors eyes were which is absolutely a good reason.

This is another Tenessee Williams play which I feel like I have a relevant quote here somewhere.

Yeah, so as we know local asshole, Will Hays, was like wah wah theres to many coke orgies in my movies about white supremacy myths, think about the children just not the ones in the mines. (yes I understand that it was a multi-person thing and this stamp licker was just the figure head I too have read Hollywood Babylon now shush), so everyone got together to write a wet blanket code to censor shit and some of that shit was THE GAYS. Thats not to say that that inherenetly stopped queer films from happening, (through the gayest Code Film I have is Slyvia Scarlet after that we mostly have a lot of queer subtext and foreign films like Clud de Femmes or the Orphic Trilogy), but as we get into the 50s and 60s the main we began to see films be more about the stigma of gayness. Theres a few different films that act out the pansy scare, (Tea & Sympathy, The Childrens Hour), were people are accused of being little homos, and these types of sexual repression films were if were lucky its something like Victim (1961) or Detective (1968) were these homos are actually gay they just hate themselves, (remember that the Hays Code was like you can have shit they just have to be villanized or shown that its a tormented lifestyle: See the Queer-Coded Villian), and at worse its just implied that this is the reason this person was sad and killed themselves.

T-Billy plays actually work well on this front which is probably one of the reasons why so many got made during this time frame. The Hays Prudes were loosening the iron grip on queer depictions and T-Billy's Ouvre was already playing with like the specter of queer subtext so it was a match made in some prudes queer-erasasing heaven. I think that its also a testiment to the power of how gay Tenessee Williams is, that when you literally do a hachet job and try to rip out the queerness of his films. The queerness is just felt that more strongly. He was a master of somehow writting negative queer representation. Storys were the missing person in the room is on everyones mind.

wow honestly I have been popping off with my reviews lately.

So put it simply this movie has a lot of queer subtext but they also take out all of the parts of the original play that was actually super gay. Its still an amazing film but it misses points in the queer catergory due to censoreship.

A Taste of Honey (1961) dir. Tony Richardson

so lets talk about british new wave. basically it was a lot of arthouse nonsense adapting plays about disenfranchise poor brits. This film is about a bunch of british people "That just didn't exist". Namely people like single mothers, interraccial couples and a singuler gay.

I've been writing out full reviews for the last couple films and I'm just been very mentally drained lately. so if you want a bigger description check out my Letterboxd.

This films gay rep is absolutely shitty. This man doesn't even call himself gay his gal pal just insinuates it. he doesn't have a boyfriend hes literally just this artsy domestic sort and it is very lazy rep in terms of writing. Don't get me wrong as a film this disserves the accolades it has but it doesn't get points in the queer films category.

It might explain why I've had a hard time with these films as of late. The 1960s are kinda the low point of the queer movie watchlist as we arn't dealing with the sexy queer subtext, (rebecca is iconic we stan) and we arn't dealing with the bright aggresiveness of New Queer Wave so this decade is like the Queer Truama Porn of Early Queer Cinema (yeah thats what I'm calling it now)

Everything Else I Watched Recently

The Great Train Robbery (1903), The Broken Butterfly (1919), Thelma and Louise (1991), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), The Toll of the Sea (1922). Antonio da Silva short films.

Also been watching a lot of television lately

Junji Ito Maniac - Trash

Cunk on Earth - Iconic

28 Days Haunted - absolute trash and iconic.

I'm gonna try to finish watching the staircase at some point this week and I will try to keep up with my gay movie watching i've just kinda burned out on life right now.

#first gay kiss #diary #Queer Cinema #Early queer Cinema #Homophobia

3 notes · View notes

schlock-luster-video · 26 days

Text

On April 1, 2001, Cecil B. Demented was screened at the Night Visions Film Festival.

2 notes · View notes

midnightb-movies · 1 year

Photo

Chuck & Buck (2000, dir: Miguel Arteta)

Mike White wrote some of my favourites morally questionable LGBT characters in the TV and the protagonist of Chuck & Buck is a really close competition. A gay stalker obsessed with his aparently-now-straight childhood best friend looks like something from a Highsmith novel but White write he like such a charismatic loser character. Almost an ode to the queer coded vilains of the past that LGBT people learned to love, a beautiful homenage to the queer art of failure.

#mike white #Queer Cinema #chuck and buck #early 2000s #2000s cinema #2000s queer cinema

26 notes · View notes

mitamicah · 4 months

Text

Oh wow yesterday took away all my energy :'D I will try to catch up with messages and drawing today but already now at 11.30 I am exhausted OVO

#and that's after going to bed early yesterday #idk what happened :'D #the only thing I can think about is that me going from one social thing to the other since 11 o'clock drained all my energy :'D #I had a meeting with my new support person #then I went to the library for an hour reading a third of a book (my library card doesn't work)#then went spontaneously to the cinema and watched wonka (I liked it)#ending the evening with going to this queer meet up for four hours #so yeah #good thing I didn't have anything planned for today :'D #micahs thoughts

3 notes · View notes

glamfool · 8 months

Note

Recommending Lotte Eisner's books on early German cinema and the crowd involved. The Haunted Screen isn't too difficult to find. Her book on F. W. Murnau and his work is written with a lot of affection.

Jim Shepherd's 'Nosferatu' covers the romantic relationship between F. W. Murnau and poet Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele. The events of their lives in Weimar Berlin are really beautifully captured.

Omg! Thank you sm!! 🩷

#early cinema #queer history #def need to go to my local library rn ✨

2 notes · View notes

theconjuredking · 2 years

Text

Looks like the film history hill I will die on is correcting every single time someone sites the 1927 films Wings as having the first same-sex/gay kiss in cinema. Hate to break it but even D.W. Griffith had a same-sex kiss in one of his films. In 1916.

#it stupidly frustrates me to no end that a film released at the tail end of the silent era is treated as a benchmark of early queer film #it's a good movie do not get me wrong i literally have a poster for it in my fucking living room #but i also hate how that one kiss erases genuine - truly intended to be read as gay - relationships IN THE SAME MOVIE #it erases actual gay films of early cinema like 'Different from the Others' from Germany #which by the way had a same-sex kiss in it but later was actively and vehemently destroyed that no complete version survives #this is a restrained rant from your neighborhood queer silent film enthusiast #wings #wings (1927)#film history #silent film

4 notes · View notes

thequeereview · 9 days

Text

Exclusive Interview: Theda Hammel & John Early on Stress Positions "I'm talking about queerness in the way that I want to"

Following the short film My Trip to Spain, Theda Hammel and John Early continue their creative collaboration with the deliciously dark and hilarious 2020-set comedy feature Stress Positions, which world premiered at Sundance and was the closing night selection of MOMA’s New Directors/New Films festival. As well as writing and directing, Hammel also serves as editor and composer, and stars as…

View On WordPress

0 notes

esperderek · 5 months

Text

Hbomberguy did a pretty good job pointing out how Somerton has tried to take up the air of modern queer creators, stealing the works they made to little or no money or exposure, and using them to bolster his own fame. It's a truly reprehensible act.

But I feel like it's also important to briefly touch on what he stole from the past.

The Celluloid Closet is a backbone text on queerness and cinema. Like, if you're at all interested in the subject, please read the book, and watch the doc. Yes, the language will be outdated. It was written in 1981 and the doc published in 1995. Language evolves. I was fortunate enough to both read the book and see the documentary in the early 2000s, when I attended university.

It was written by Vito Russo, who held a Masters in film and a desire to fight for queer rights after witnessing the Stonewell riots. The Celluloid Closet was first a live lecture presentation, then a book. He would try to get the book made into a documentary in the early years, and after he died, others picked up that torch to carry on his work and to pay respect to the man.

Vito Russo was also one of the co-founders of GLAAD. He was a co-founder of ACT UP. You may have, if you've watched documentaries or seen news stories about the AIDS crisis, seen parts of his speech, Why We Fight. He protested, advocated, and educated even as people he knew and loved died, and he himself was dying.

As Hbomberguy notes in his doc, he would go on to pass in 1990. This was a man who fought his ass off, even while dying, for a better tomorrow and better representation.

The fact that Somerton stole his work is beyond insulting to the queer history, and queer film history, that he purports to give a shit about.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #queer history #film history #lgbtqiia+#vito russo

11K notes · View notes

falsebooles123 · 1 year

Text

An Incredible Long Couple of Weeks. Diary of a Big Ole Gay.

Hey Whores, this is going to be a really long post because I may not have the energy to finish this this week.

So I guess I haven't done one of these in about two weeks and a lot of that is me being very busy. Last week of March I was working on like fifteen million different articles and videos and other content creation thingies and the first week of April literally started with my co-worker HAVING A MENTAL BREAK AND LEAVING TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LITERAL COUNTRY.

(i'm posting a funny GIF but I'm actually kinda pissed)

so instead of having a lot of great help to ease into running a full ass kitchen by myself doing 70 heads a day. I was doing this with exactly one other person doing the bare minimum to help me. It was a lot of hard work, and of course it went great. But I was extremly exhausted.

I also didn't watch that many queer films because of it.

but lets get into it.

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) dir. John Huston

OK so I don't remember a lot about any of these films because I watched this one in particular, *checks notes* the 27th of last month. Yeah theres a reason why theres no date on this one.

So this one I think is based on a book or something and features Marlon Brando being a CLOSET HOMOSEXUAL. oh also he stays right in that closet.

(god this gif is something else. so creepy)

Hes like yeah I'm going to spend this entire movie staring at this naked guys ass, (yeah I'm not going to explain the plot your'll either love this movie or hate it but you can't say it doesn't have a plot), but I ain't going to act on it. I'm just going to fight with my beautiful neglected wife who beats my ass for beating her horse.

See the relationship is super toxic but its liz taylor and Marlon Brando so its also the hottest thing ever.

anyway lot of repressed homos in the background of the entire rest of the plot. One of the more fun dramas I watched cause it was MESSY!

Flesh (1968) dir. Paul Morrissey

ok so Flesh is one of those weird cineme verite movies that Morrissey made and it is very artsy and very gay but there isn't actually any guy on guy stuff. The main actor spends most of his time naked, and some of that is like eroticized but also its kinda meant to desexualize nudity. Or rather the film is using casual nudity as a way to lampshade the way we objectify people because after we see this long scene were hes just laying in bed with his dick out (relatable), we get a 5 minutes scene of him starting his day buck ass naked feeding his 1 year old real daughter a muffin. they actually use that as one of the posters

so like yeah hes naked but hes clearly not erotised in that moment in fact even though the main character is a hustler he never actually has gay sex on screen. His only client is a man who wants to draw him for like classical sculpture. Hes someone whose literally objectified scene for his body and not as a living person.

OMFG am I a film critic or something.

anyway this is another pretty cool film and especially something gay people should watch even through there isn't that much PDA.

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) dir. Toshio Matsumoto

ok first look at this iconic photo.

Pretty this follows a bunch of transwoman in like Tokyo just honestly vibing and being faggot punks. We love, we stan, we support.

theres a lot to enjoy about this film and honestly just iconic trans woman you need to watch this. oh also all these ladies are straight so theres no gay kissing.

My Hustler (1966) dir. Andy Warhol, Chuck Wein

NOTE: This is a clip from the 1961 SPORTS THRILLER "The Hustler" but also this is pretty good dupe to the experience of My Hustler

Yeah so My Hustler is the story of a rich gay bringing a gay whore for his vacation and then having his fag hag friend and then the hustler friend show up and they all get in to this contest about whos going to fuck him. So I guess more objectification of men through the queer lens. Noone actually fucks him and its a lot of naturalistic dialogue. Its warhol you get it.

The Children's Hour (1961) dir. William Wyler

Ok so Childrens Hour is about Audrey Hepburn and her GAL PAL Shirley McClaine who run a school together. They are in fact just roommates but doesn't stop snot nose little brats from spreading rumors that like she totally saw Mrs. Hepburn drowning in pussy. So yeah they have there lives ruined and there not even dykes da fuck. Its very Tea and Sympathy in that regard about how homophobia hurts those that arn't even faggots. Y'know the innocent. /s

except it turns out that Shirley McClaine is in fact like a totally LESBIAN HAROLD. and this was the push she needed to admit how fucking gay she is for audrey hepburn, (which like we get it girl it audrey), oh and then she fucking kills herself. Thanks I hate it.

The movie up to that points pretty good.

The Leather Boys (1964) dir. Sidney J. Furie

ok so this is another British New Wave movie and it manly follows this newly married couple. And like the wife Dot, is literally the worst fucking person. She spends all her money on her hair which 1. He doens't like and 2. Doesn't even look good on her. She doesn't have a job and she doesn't keep the house. And then she won't move into his mom's house after his dad fucking dies and his mom literally can't take care of herself which like sorry girl I get if you don't like your mother-in-law but um kinda a consequence of marrying someone at some point you kinda have to deal with there parents getting old and dying. Oh also shes cheating on him. SPOILERS.

Anyway so they spend most of the time seperated while this guy sleeps with his best friend.... in like the same bed. hahaha not like in a gay way that would be ..... gay.

Also I'm totally sure his best friend isn't like a faggot or something.

Yeah, basically this guy was sleeping next to a gay guy the whole time and everytime his friend was like "omg babe lets ditch your looser wife, (can confirm she sucks), and move to america together" that he meant it in like a gay way.

and so the dude just fucking leaves. Honestly I would try sucking dick just once if I was him. You guys have a great relationship and your wifes a bitch.

Advise & Consent (1962) dir. Otto Preminger

The Best Man (1964) dir. Franklin J. Schaffner

just going to throw these together. Basically there both about some future were the president wants to nominate some dude and people are like ew no. also some random other person is getting blackmailed for being a faggot in the war. Yeah both of these movies have like the same exact plot.

I like The Best Man a little bit more but there both kinda awful. Also Betty White is in the first one and SHES A SENATOR. yaaaas girl.

Manji (1964) dir. Yasuzo Masumura

THESE LESBIANS ARE TOXIC.

Like don't get me wrong they kiss, they suck, they fuck. Lot of Women absolutely just being the most, this is the most lesbian thing I've seen.

Oh also eventually they start a death cult it goes to some really weird places. Also theres like three remakes.

anyway whores, sorry that its taking so long for me to post this diary update. I'm going to draft the next post and try to get it out by the end of the month. Thanks love you.

#diary #queer cinema #early queer cinema #firstgaykiss #reflections in a golden eye #flesh 1968 #funeral parade of roses 1969 #my hustler 1966 #the childrens hour 1961 #The Leather Boys #Advise & Consent 1962 #The Best Man 1964 #Manji 1964 #slurs(reclaimed)#Buried Gays #CW Suicide

1 note · View note

bengiyo · 2 months

Note

Hi, i'm a newish bl drama watcher from thailand that just started watching thai bls. i'm a bit ashamed to say that for a long time as a gay man living here i've been avoiding bl shows like the plague cuz of both the fandom reputation and of misconception from my yaoi era which i leave far behind. i'm just want to ask how did you got into watching thai bls and what were you preconception before you got into it.

Welcome to the Tumblr side of BL fandom. I'd actually like to also hear more of your experience with yaoi and BL as a gay person growing up in Thailand if you're willing to share.

For me, I'm a Black American from the Gulf Coast (the South). I grew up in a Catholic city and spent my entire adolescence in the closet. Despite having a sense of who I was as early as 8 years old, I kept most of that to myself. Because I didn't talk about it much with people, I found out most information about queer media and queerness from the internet.

I entered BL via queer cinema. I think the first explicitly gay character that I remember from TV was Marco from Degrassi: The Next Generation. There were probably others, and definitely more subtle expressions, but when I think about the oldest gay character I remember and connect to, it's Marco. I don't like counting things like shipping Shawn and Corey on Boy Meets World or Tai and Matt on Digimon for oldest gay characters. Sailor Moon can't even count because we got a censored version of it in America.

I got access to satellite television away from observing eyes around age 16 and started watching content on Logo back when they aired gay content regularly. I watched basically whatever I could late at night. It's how I saw movies like Get Real (1998), Beautiful Thing (1996), and Bent (1997). It's also how I saw Queer as Folk (2000-2005) Noah's Arc (2005-06).

After hitting adulthood I mostly got lost in video games and standard American TV for a while, but I did basically show up to any Gay Event in TV. I appreciate that Stef and Lena from The Fosters (2013-2018) were some of the only TV lesbians to survive the horror of 2016.

I watched a bunch of movies in this time, many of which appear on the Queer Cinema Syllabus I made for a hypothetical Westerner new to BL and queer cinema, which @wen-kexing-apologist has decided to try to complete.

I got into Thai BL in 2018 accidentally. I started seeing gifsets of Kongpob telling Arthit he'll make him his wife passing around Tumblr and was basically like, "Right, what's all this then?"

I had watched a few Thai gay films, mostly notably Love of Siam (2007), Bangkok Love Story (2007), How to Win at Checkers Every Time (2015), and The Blue Hour (2015), but this was the first time I was seeing a long series made available so easily from any Asian country.

From there I got into Make It Right (2016-17) and Love Sick the series (2014). Once I realized that yaoi had moved beyond manga and a few anime adaptations, I went looking for a lot more. I basically haven't left since I started in about 2016 with SOTUS.

There's my basic entry into the genre. I don't think I was as worried about fandom and worries at the time because so much of being a fan of queer cinema was a mostly-private experience for me for so long. I didn't realize that BL fans active in the space would predominantly be women or queers figuring themselves out. It took a while to adjust to that, and also to adjust my expectations of the kinds of queer stories BL distributors were willing to fund.

That being said, I tend to agree with @absolutebl that BL has a useful role in normalization for non-queer audiences who encounter it. I like cheering BL when it does things I think work really well, and also deriding it when I think it does things that are offensive to help nudge the genre and offer my perspective as a gay man.

I like the place we're at right now where there's way too much to watch for any person with other hobbies and responsibilities because it means that people can pick and choose what's to their tastes.

More often than not, I'm probably most-invested in something airing from Japan because of my melancholy nature, but there's so much variety these days that it's okay if you don't like everything. I certainly don't!

I'm glad you joined us on Tumblr and look forward to your thoughts!

#answered #thai bl #fandom life #about me

160 notes · View notes

alpaca-clouds · 9 months

Text

Democratizing Media

Alright, one thing first: When politicians speak about "democratizing media" they usually mean something else then what scientist say, when they use those words. Politicians mostly mean something along the lines of "media should say what I want instead being controlled by some coorporation, because like I am elected, right?" Meanwhile scientist mean something else.

You see, before the internet became easily accessible for most people, the only way to access media was through certain outlets. TV stations, the cinema, some publishers and some record lables.

Yes, sure. Technically self-publishing was a thing even back then, but without the ease of the internet... How were you to market your own book or comic? And self-made music usually just circulated on copied and copied again casette tapes.

Usually, if you wanted to create media that actually people would see, you had to go through a big company. And those companies could very much decide who got to make movies and tv, who got to publish music or books or comics. Not only where those decisions controlled by capitalist interest, but also by nepotism and cultural biases, given that a lot of the people making those decisions where (and still are to these days) white, cis, abled men.

But when the internet came around things changed. Because suddenly everyone had a way easier time in getting their stuff out there. Pretty early on there were websites where people could just publish their stories and comics online. Either free and hosted by some other website or paid on their own site. Which was pretty revolutionary, especially as suddenly ideas that had been ignored could reach a new audience.

Voices, that by news media and such had been ignored so far - voices of women and marginalized folks - could suddenly broadcast over all sorts of channels.

And yes, you could also just publish your music and what not online, could also do your own research and offer it to the world and could actually get heard.

Now, we all know that this came with ups and downs. Because while finally marginalized people were heard like this, it also gave a bigger platform to some fringe conspiracy groups and the like. But at least there was a chance to get your stuff out there.

Social media websites and the like played a big role in this. Especially Youtube, of course, but other sites, too........ which of course brings me to the problem. Or rather to the question: "Is media democratized right now?"

Because it isn't, of course.

Right now we have these chokepoints, where you kinda are forced to push whatever you create through a channel. Sure, you can upload your videos on your own server, but probably nobody will see them. They need to be on youtube. Just like your music now needs to be on spotify and itunes. And if you self-publish a book, it kinda needs to be available on amazon or you won't sell shit. And if you have your own little blog and do not promote it on social media (or have it not integrated on a blogging platform such as tumblr) it will not be seen.

And this brings two issues with it (well, actually three). For one, as private companies those sides are able to censor you in any way they want to. They decide you cannot say the word "queer" anymore? Welp, no more talking about queer issues for you. And because they are a private company nobody can do much against it. Like with the tumblr purge. No more "female presenting nipples" for you.

The next issue is closely related: The companies in question want to make money. This they do mostly through advertisement and maybe subscriptions. Hence their goal is to keep you interacting with their website for a long while. And thus they have algorithms that decide what content you see - and hence if the content decides that something you do is not worth it or will get the wrong kind of attention... Well, nobody will get it shown. On a lot of social media we see, for example, that the negative content gets shown to more people. So writing about positive stuff does often not get you seen. (Which is why algorithms are bad. Don't fucking build your social media websites around a fucking algorithm.)

And lastly: A lot of media additionally to all of that also uses a system of partly manual currated. This is true for Netflix, who obviously want to make sure that the front page does show the stuff they either paid a lot of money for or that they produced themselves. Like, there is an infinity of great indie movies on Netflix, but if you do not know it is there, you will not see it. Same goes for a lot of Indie Games on Steam, that just go unnoticed, because they do not appear anywhere near the front page and just happen to go overlooked by folks. And in the end the big studios obviously have the money to get their games on the front page. Same with books on amazon, where just the difference in marketing budget makes sure, that certain books will end up front.

So, why am I telling all of that?

Because we still do have the tool. We can make a free, democratic internet like that. Where we do not have censorship (please note: banning people for saying hateful shit is actually not censorship, so yeah, ban them nazis). Where we do not have fucking algorithms. And where just everything has the same chance of getting seen.

Like, does not mean that there cannot be any currated lists. Like, those currator pages on steam? Those are fucking great. Lists where everyone just can make those and you can subscribe to their lists. That is amazing. But... you know. Not for the baseline experience, but for what everyone wants their experience to be like.

Just... a thing that bothers me. Based on the stuff I spoke about yesterday.

#democratizing media #democratizing #anti capitalism #post capitalism #anarchism #free the internet #solarpunk #social media #steam games #netflix #disney #indie games #indie movies #indie books

113 notes · View notes

jesncin · 26 days

Note

Hello!! I saw yalls lunar boy post (which made me so extremely happy btw, genuinely got teary eyed while reading it) and it said that yall did a lot of research into queer indonesian history and media? If yall dont mind could you link some of those? Im studying up on queer indonesian history myself and struggling to find good resources 😅 ofc all of these are /nf!! Feel free to ignore me and im so sorry for bothering yall 🙏🙏

Not a bother at all, and I'm super happy to hear that the Lunar Boy Queer Escapism comic made you so happy! 💜 Ooh yes there's a ton of sources. From the top of my head:

Creating Spaces for Dialogue: Exploring Queer Cinema in Southeast Asia. An extremely thorough analysis and catalog of queer cinema throughout SEA, with a very robust Indonesian section. My buddy Gris did the research for this and they're very dedicated to this sort of stuff! The Kontinentalist in general has fantastic articles.

Queer Indonesia Archive. An incredible digital collection archiving the lives of queer Indonesians. There's magazines, posters, photos, newspaper clippings, and more! I've talked to and met some of the people working on this project and they're very passionate about memory preservation.

Beyond the Binary: Two Bissu Defend Their Roots in Sulawesi. New Naratif has some good articles covering queer Indonesian lives. I think personal interviews and their reporting are their strong points. I've illustrated for them a couple of times (all queer related things lol). Looks like their website is down at the moment but will be back in May!

Vice Indonesia has some great stuff like their video on Lengger Lanang, Bunda Mayora, and more! I recommend Madame X Memories: The Rise and Fall of Indonesian Queer Cinema.

Bissu A Frame of Diversity. A recent video on the Bissu of Sulawesi. I consider it extremely important to be able to hear from Bissu themselves, since most resources are by white anthropologists who often misconstrue queer Indonesian culture.

The writings of Nurdiyansah Dalidjo. He writes in Indonesian (sorry not in English, my language barrier self uses a mix of google translate and my own Indonesian to read his stuff), but the work he does is invaluable. Whether it's personal reflections on his life, or covering the lives of other queer people, it's all fantastic writing. He did a series "Queer di Masa Lansia" covering elder queer people that is very much worth a read. He's active in waria spaces, working together with transfemme lower class people. I've met him, he's very nice to me :( Idk why :'((

So I hope this is helpful! Early on when I did research for Lunar Boy I reached out to academics on queer Indonesian identities and while some of it was helpful (bless Dédé Oetomo for giving me the time of day and answering my questions), I've learned it was more valuable and enriching to find material that talks more directly with queer people. Stuff that isn't filtered through a scholarly lens or bias. If there's any takeaway I can give, it would be that.

#askjesncin #lunar boy #i know it's hard esp if you're diaspora to connect. I struggled with that early on when I did research while based in the US.#im lucky to be able to meet these people now! So I pass that on to you so others can have an easier time than I did

28 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 10 months

Note

Anon from 722398181104795649 again about YA as a G-D and it's failure(s). Your response is really interesting because it definitely aligns with the market research I've had to do over the last 3-ish months for work. Adult YA readers want YA to skew older superficially as escapism from the woes of adulthood (It's like someone who orders a pasta with broccoli in it because they appreciate the flavor it brings, but they have no interest in actually eating their vegetables). Teenagers feel alienated by the G-D that is meant for them no longer allows them to confront said woes with honesty or maturity for their age to prepare them for adulthood or discussing broader ideas. More teenagers skip over YA altogether or just reader adult genre fiction with some Middle Grade fiction mixed in because the teenagers feel in MG, there's still an honesty to the stories that they can understand, having once been young children. In short: teenagers think YA books are talking down to or patronizing them.

The result is YA authors pushing for NA, New Adult, as a G-D, which hasn't taken off within tradpub outside of romance circles. Mostly, because what they're pushing for is already an established genre for around a century: campus novels--books about characters 18+ who are entering college, establishing independence, beginning to explore sexuality and enter the workforce, etc. But, again, YA adult readers refuse to engage with adult genre fiction because there isn't the facade of protection from adult themes or topics, and there's an aggressive refusal among many agents in literary fiction (and some adult genre fiction) to encourage authors to sanitize their stories. YA authors began attempting to cross over into adult genre fiction with mixed, but overwhelmingly negative, results, as they cannot shake the stigma of writing YA. And the genre fiction crowds they want to appeal to have higher standards, typically, than the average YA writer is able to meet. YA authors then complain about the differences in publishing YA and genre adult fiction. It's like when MCU actors and directors get upset when prestige film directors don't consider MCU movies to be "cinema."

--

This is fascinating.

I pretty much missed the YA boom (slightly too old, not paying attention, etc.), so I've mostly encountered YA through its worst evangelists of the Hunger Games knockoff era, and often a good bit after their favorite books were at their height.

As I've said before, this really strikes me as that pattern where something is big when you're at a formative age, and it becomes the Normal Default to you.

I'm sure some of it is refusal to engage with adult nuance, but I'll bet a lot of it is resistance to leaving the name of YA behind. People spent so much time defending this niche that they started believing their own rhetoric about it being the only place the good queer stuff was or the feminist stuff was or whatever. They identified really strongly as A YA Fan. It's hard to let that go.

And if you don't remember much about pre-YA boom publishing, the fact that all that YA-tastic Mercedes Lackey stuff was filed under fantasy, not YA is completely obscure. The places you find stuff you'd like that aren't called "YA" are not obvious. The fact that YA in its boom era form isn't universal and eternal is not obvious.

I think people are waiting for their Cool Era of their early 20s to return and for the things they think should always be in fashion to come back... Like everyone else aging ungracefully, they may be waiting a while.

Gotta say, every New Adult book I've been shown sounds like a hideously boring contemporary romance that would probably make a good coffee shop AU against a backdrop of a canon that's dark or magical but that isn't really pulling its weight even if you like contemporaries.

114 notes · View notes

nerdby · 6 months

Text

Having a debate with someone about "superhero fatigue" and I think I just figured out what the REAL problem with cinema is: The streaming industry and Christofascism go hand-in-hand. Almost everything with decent queer or BIPOC rep goes straight to the small screen because film studios outside of Netflix and Hulu are too afraid to risk losing money.

I mean, when was the last time you saw a queer film that wasn't like....Love Simon or whatever in theaters? Or even on live television?

In the 90s and early 2000s shows like Them -- a horror series that examines suburban racism set in 1950s California on Amazon -- would have gotten a 10pm slot on FX or Showtime. Ads for the show would start playing at like 4pm and become more frequent after sunset. Instead almost no one even knows the show exists unless they stumble across it in the Prime library. I mean, American Horror Story was hugely popular when it aired on cable and now the only place you can watch it is on Hulu, and the same thing is true about Pose.

Every TV series, documentary, or film that has a hint of counter-culture to it goes straight to streaming with minimal marketing.

You can deny it all you want, but queer and BIPOC stories have been delegated to the back burner. Like didn't any of you ever wonder Knives Out: Glass Onion didn't get a theatrical debut even though the prequel was a huge success?

Why don't you ask Benoit Blanc and his husband?

This is why there's no counter-culture in the US right now.

55 notes · View notes

thrillhoues · 1 month

Text

My pitch for a Tim Drake solo is to do away with the romance + superhero tropes that have been a hallmark of his previous stories, and refocus more heavily on a noir detective story with corresponding art that hearkens to early noir cinema to 80s new noir / erotic thriller films. Ground Tim so much, and focus so heavily on Tim's biases and flaws, that it distinguishes him from the other Bat-books by being less of a superhero book altogether.

What that means, sadly, is no romance with Steph or Bernard. For a few reasons, I think romance needs to be put on the backburner, heck, even altogether repudiated. Not because I don't want queer Tim or queer stories, but because I think it's good rep to have an unattached mlm character who goes on dates, who's occasionally happy and unhappy single, because gay and bi dudes don't need to be attached to have value. Plus, frankly, I find the need to match characters like Tim or Jon up instantly after they come out kinda sus - it feels like "we're just like you" thinking rather than reflecting on the fact that mlm folks have a range of emotional and romantic attachments beyond monogamous or single beyond samey romances.

Film noir detective is a genre that allows for a few different things - a focus on the protagonist's flaws and weaknesses, it generally involves an evocative, shadow-heavy art style, and can essentially explore a different kind of mystery. Often systemic. Tim confronting a queerphobic plainclothes villain who wants to, idk, do something nefarious on a bigger scale, like a neighborhood, that could allow for excellent commentary on the ways that systems fail people.

And a focus on a character's flaws would let me (though I'll likely never write for Tim in earnest lol, I'm just shooting the shit) to differentiate the character from other Bats simply by reflecting on his history in clear terms. Honestly I just want Tim to shine, but not to the detriment of Damian (who rules) or Cass (who rules) or Steph, Dick, other Bats (who rule).

#Tim Drake #Robin #dumb pitch I had #comics #dc comics #young justice comics #young justice

23 notes · View notes