"I Can't Think Straight" Tuesday

I am the worst at titling blog posts, so please bear with me. For today, I want to celebrate the film that is I Can't Think Straight.

In this gem of a movie, which is a semi-autobiographical account of director Shamim Sarif's life, Christian Palestinian Tala falls in love with another woman, Leyla, who is a (100% adorable) British Indian Muslim woman. Tala is in the midst of planning her wedding (to a man). Leyla's family, meanwhile, is on her case about not being married or attending religious services often enough. So, the two have some cultural and familial stuff serving as barriers to a relationship (that are also, consequently, working in favor of building the tension).

 (Spoiler Alert) Now, I will say that this film is easily one of my top ten favorites featuring lesbian/bisexual women, and not just because it has a happy ending and nobody dies.  I put it in my top ten because, and I mean this in the best possible way, it has one of my favorite of favorite fanfic tropes: "accidental" but fortuitous bed sharing between two characters who have high sexual tension with one another.

Take, for instance, their first kiss.

In the scene below, Tala and Leyla are away on a trip together (because um?) and, on this trip, they are sharing exactly one room with exactly one bed (because um?).  Nevermind that Tala's family is super-rich and they could probably spring for a double. And nevermind that same-sex hetero adult pal bed-sharing has literally not happened in a movie since Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (disclaimer: unfounded claim).

What matters is that at one point, Tala is listening to music in a little robe and begins dancing.  Leyla, meanwhile, is "reading a book." Scare quotes entirely necessary, as you will see. Tala then beckons the shy Leyla to join her in the dancing. In their one room that has one bed that they are to later share. All of which is 100% heterosexual? (I don't know, is it? Help me out hetero ladies).

ANYWAY, Leyla rejects Tala's advance for a hot second with a half-hearted, "Oh, I have absolutely no sense of rhythm."  But then a millisecond later,  she is all of us: getting her ass in gear and dancing with Tala. Because listen ladies, brother sestras, and those who identify outside the binary, when Tala beckons you to dance, you fucking dance (but only if that's your thing, and in affirming, mutually consensual ways, of course).

See for yourselves (clip contains plot spoilers and is NSFW, probs):


LOL @ "But some of my best friends are Lebanese!"

Samesies.

Hotpants Friday

With literally everybody fangirling over Kate McKinnon lately (which, 100% justified) I feel like we need to remember that Zoie Palmer is also pretty amazing.  And, from what I see of her on Twitter (which as we all know 100% represents how people are offline) she also seems like an adorkably-nice person too.

So, enjoy today's fan vid, featuring Dr. Lauren "HotPants" Lewis.

Dr. Lewis is one of the top reasons to watch Lost Girl, if you haven't watched it already.  (Spoiler alert)  She and Bo are endgame and, as a TV lesbian character, she (*whispers*) actually gets to survive. And end up happy. But, I also appreciated her evolving relationship with both Dyson and Tamsin, two other competitors for Bo's affections. With both, she went from strong dislike to rivalry to kind of a functional chosen family situation. (/Spoiler alert)

Plus, she's smart, funny, nerdy, strong, and attractive. There are so few of us.

(ha ha)

Just watch. Oh, erm, may not be safe for work though.

Commencing Ghostbusters Viewing

I am seeing Ghostbusters this weekend and am quite excited about it.  Just to further piss off the MRA crowd, thought I'd also throw in another donation to Hillary Clinton's campaign and do some Title IX advocacy.

Anyway, while I have an appreciation for all of the women in Ghostbusters, Kate McKinnon has held a special place in my heart ever since her days on Logo's Big Gay Sketch Show cracking it up with Julie Goldman.

I will furthermore note that her SNL parody of Justin Bieber, and I'm not going to try to explain this, makes me feel.... things... as in, slightly .... sexually confused.... things.





Judge.  IDGAF.

Forget Elsa

Get Idina Menzel a girlfriend.

(KIDDING)

But seriously, she's gorgeous.





ps - For background on today's post

pps - This is what I sound like when I try to sing along to people who actually know how to sing.

Femslash Friday: The Women of Sense8

All I'm going to say here is that in Season 1 of Sense8, this happened:

I'd ship it.

Which, fine. That's cool. Nomi gets all the guys in the hot tub.

So, um, when is our companion scene with Nomi and the rest of women? Season 2, I hope.

Just once? It's only fair.

Preferred quad: Nomi/Sun/Kala/Riley

Ghost Lady Friday

*Sigh*

It is a truth universally-acknowledged by TV/film writers and producers that any show with a lesbian or bisexual woman must be in want of her to be killed off eventually. (And yes, today's post was brought to you by the mess that was The 100's handling of Lexa. More here, if you're curious.).

Perhaps I don't have to explain this trend to most of you, but here goes anyway: queer characters make up a tiny share of TV/film characters. So, while ideally, they would get the same treatment any other character would get, including the possibility of death, it seems that lesbian and bisexual female characters in particular are killed off in disproportionate numbers. So, we are already barely represented in media, and then when we are, this representation decreases further when these characters are killed off.

(I have no idea if this is also a thing for queer men. Whatever the case, I don't see them critiquing the phenomenon as much. Or maybe I just don't pay as much attention. Anyway).

I dedicate today's post to these lesbian and bisexual characters, an assemblage of which can be found at Autostraddle. (Addendum: Without getting pedantic about it, I would have included Xena on this list. Which means Lucy Lawless could have been on this list 3 times. Which makes me feel very confused, to be honest. I love that she's playing lesbian/bi, but for once would love to see her get a happy ending doing so! Also, if movies were included in this list, this list would have been quite a bit longer, as lesbian/bi characters in movies get similar treatment as in TV).

HOWEVER, to end on an upbeat note, I think it's important to add that it is a rare lesbian/bisexual character death that I accept as canon. In my head, despite their tragic ends, all of these characters are now somewhere happier. Together. Like getting down with their bad selves at a Dinah Shores Afterlife.

Or, perhaps, canoodling in a secret password-protected vault of stories at A03.

I am quite sure of this.

Imagine:

Dana Fairbanks (The L Word)  is alive, giving Samantha Krueger (Ascension) free tennis lessons, just because Samantha reminds her of a "soup chef" she once knew. It is precisely as adorkable as you think it would be.

Tara Thornton (True Blood) and Tamsin (Lost Girl)  are generally in charge of things in this 'verse, and are even more badass when their powers are combined (and yes, I mean "when their powers are combined" in the dirtiest manner possible).

And then, what would happen if we mixed the authoritarian Helena Cain (Battlestar Galactica) with free spirit Jenny Schecter (The L Word)? Yes, please.

The possibilities are endless, really, and at this point, they belong to the fans.

Femme Friday

So, this happened (possibly NSFW?):

As previously discussed, I have an appreciation for butch women who are HAF.  But a femme woman strutting it up to "Pony"? Yes, please.** (This post is about the first half of the video).

To take a step back and think about things from a feminist perspective, here is what I like. First off, she is emulating her husband's performance as a male stripper in Magic Mike. Although undoubtedly also appreciated by hetero men, her performance of "male stripper" implicitly caters to the female and queer male gaze.

For instance, her clothes: She's wearing sweatpants, sports bra, tank top, and a baseball cap. Women do not typically get to wear such clothing on TV, especially when they are trying to be sexy for the hetero male gaze.  Yet, go to many a gathering of queer women and that is often standard attire.

And then, relatedly -  my gods, listen to the women in the audience screaming! Watch the DJ watching her. They are loving her. And, I love everything about it.

A society that centers male (hetero)sexuality has a pervasive myth in which women as a class are uninterested in sex. Men (as women's "opposite") are in contrast framed as rabid horn-dogs who must trick/cajole women into sex in order to get any. Women's desires, if they are admitted to exist at all, are not viewed as legitimate.

Meanwhile, in reality, women have been sharing their sexual fantasies, as well as reading, watching, and writing stories that turn them on, since forever. These are widely accessible on the Internet. Unfortunately, two things happen.

One, men's desires, particularly their sexual ones, are promoted, mainstreamed, and catered to.  Rape culture narratives, as well as socially conservative ones, structure gender dynamics around aggressive male horniness and demand that women and society take measures to contain it. When male desires are treated as all-encompassing, there is no room for women's desires.

And two, when women's desires are acknowledged, the things and people women desire are often dismissed, mocked, and trivialized - for if predominately women like something, then it has the DUN DUN DUN taint of feminine inferiority! Think about it: 50 Shades of Grey. Justin Beiber. *ahem* Magic Mike. Romance novels. Erotic slash fanfiction. How do many men (and even some women) characterize these? As unimportant. Not legitimate forms of their respective media. Silly. Not serious in the way that men's desires, and the art that represents their desires, are serious business.


(**FYI -  I agonized over this post more than you will ever know, because being a lesbian feminist in a society that simultaneously sexually degrades women and degrades/fetishizes lesbian sexuality is.... complicated).

Femslash February Friday: Antiheros

The antihero, the dictionary tells us, is "a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes."  Wikipedia currently tells us that conventional heroic attributes include "idealism, courage, and morality." TV Tropes tell us the antihero leans toward the cynical side of the so-called "Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism."

I like that.

However, the truth is, however we define them, I'm of the opinion that the line between hero and antihero is a thin, subjective one. Is there any hero who is the perfect archetype of hero?   Every hero has their weakness, their lapse in judgment, their mistakes.

To me, I know an antihero when I get the feeling (a) they might be, at any given moment, on the verge of going rogue; and (b) they engage in questionably-moral actions for what is perhaps a noble purpose.

Mostly, I appreciate the antihero because they remind us that good v. bad is not always (or even often?) clear cut. That is not to say that all morals are relative, just that life is fucking complicated.

Perhaps because I too gravitate toward cynicism and have a strong appreciation for dark humor, antiheroes are some of my favorite characters in TV/Film.  I especially appreciate the female antihero as contrasted with the female character whose responsibility is to be perky, upbeat, and a moral compass of the show, however that is defined in the particular 'verse. It is a real life trope for women, as men's "opposite," to be morally responsible for keeping others, men especially, in line. The female antihero subverts that. She keeps no one in line. She barely keeps herself in line.

And, relevant to the Femslash February Friday theme, people, and by people I mean me, also love shipping the antihero.  Specifically, the damaged, cynical, brooding antihero with a more traditionally-noble hero.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): 

Faith was, in some ways, Buffy's shadow character.  Buffy had a Scooby Gang who supported her survival and kept her sane. Faith was a loner.  Bitter and alienated, she was a legit villain at times. Even as a slayer, seemed to genuinely enjoy killing foes in a way that Buffy did not.

But, I'm a sucker for a redemption story, and Whedon a company delivered it in the final season. Faith continued to have questionable judgment, of course, but ultimately joined forces with Buffy in defeating the final big bad. 

Did you know that Faith/Buffy femslash is one of the top pairings at A03 in the Buffy fanfic archives? It is second in femslash pairings in the Buffyverse only to Willow/Tara.  Also, people are super into Xander/Spike, another antihero pairing.  

All of that is five by five with me.

• Tamsin (Lost Girl)

When Tamsin entered the Lost Girl 'verse in Season 3, I assumed she was being brought in as a competing love interest for Dyson, one of the main male characters. I was pleasantly surprised to find that  she was actually more interested in competing for Bo's interest, with Dyson and Lauren being her competitors.

Like many an antihero, Tamsin lends the appearance of giving zero fucks about most things or people while in reality her sensitive feelings are covered under a thick veneer of acting rude, carefree, and smart-assy.  She's the woman who'll tell someone to "eat a sack of tits" one day, and then the next wrap herself in a bow and give herself to someone for their birthday.

(Let's just re-imagine that scene for a moment, shall we? Or better yet, re-watch it):

Preferred ships include: Tamsin/Bo (#Doccubus) and (even better, in my opinion) Tamsin/Lauren (#CopDoc).

• Indra (The 100)

Now, I've watched The 100 since the beginning of the series and, I have to admit, until around mid-Season 2, I mostly thought of it as "teeny-bopper."  However, (Spoiler Alert), shit got legitimately real when Clarke killed Finn, the characters started making a ton of morally-questionable choices, and queerness became maintext.

Indra stands out to me as antihero for her decision to (Spoiler Alert) follow Lexa in abandoning their previous commitment to Clarke and the Sky People near the end of Season 2.  She was faced with an unenviable moral choice of (a) obeying her commander and breaking a promise versus (b) disobeying her commander and keeping a promise.

Perhaps we are all the antihero when faced with such choices. Perhaps I exaggerate.

Nonetheless, preferred pairing: Indra/Octavia.

• Jessica Jones (Jessica Jones)

Simply put, if an archetype exists for antihero, she is Jessica Jones.  She drinks too much, swears too much, and will legit smack a dude down if he barks at her to "smile" (and can we all watch when that happens?)  

Unlike (ahem) some male superheroes, there are no playboy mansions, butlers, or batmobiles. It's just Jessica, living in a hovel, not giving a bag of dicks what kinky shit other people are into as long as they're into it quietly.

Preferred Femslash Pairing: Jessica/Trish for the bad/good dynamic. Jessica/Hogarth for the bad/bad.

Add more antiheroes in the comments!

Femslash Friday: Taystee/Poussey*

Poussey (Samira Wiley) and Taystee (Danielle Brooks), together, are legit everything on Orange is the New Black (OITNB).  

Now, realize what this means, for a lesbian to say about a show on which Ruby Rose is also a recurring cast member. Poussey is a butch lesbian, which as discussed last week, is super rare (and super hot) in TV/film. They are, together, funny, witty, and (mostly) sweet. At times, their relationship and their individual stories are completely and utterly heartbreaking. Like, Poussey watching Taystee leave prison, from the window.  My heart.

And, rather than either character playing Sassy Black BFF to a white protagonist, they get to be BFFS with each other!  Is there a Bechdel Test for race? Of course there is.

(Although, of course, we all know they're totes girlfriends):





Why Mackenzie, I do so love this ship.

*Couldn't resist. Sorry not sorry.

TV Series Signal Boost: Her Story

Are people watching Her Story? You should be watching Her Story.

You can watch the first 6 episodes (and hopefully more later!) here, on Youtube. It's a series that "looks inside the dating lives of trans & queer women as they navigate the intersections of desire & identity."

The focus of the series is primarily on Violet (Jen Richards) and Paige (Angelica Ross). Violet is a trans woman who is coming to terms with her attraction to women, and in particular, her attraction to a lesbian reporter whom she has befriended.

I'm a fan of the presentation of the trans/cis female same-sex relationship because (a) such a portrayal is so rare in TV/film; (b) it doesn't shy away from acknowledging transphobia within lesbian/bisexual women's communities; (c) it explores why a trans woman might be hesitant to enter into such a relationship; and (c) did I mention Violet is completely adorable? She is. She is completely adorable. I would watch Game of Thrones with her all the Sundays.

Paige, meanwhile, is a heterosexual trans woman who is getting back into dating. She struggles with when/how to tell the man she's dating about her identity, and she's also an attorney for Lambda Legal. I love her character and, well, here's a good summation of her, below. In this clip, she confronts a transphobic lesbian, and it is kind of amazing (content note: transphobia):





BAM!

Take my advice: binge-watch ASAP.

Transparent - Beyond the Supreme Court Test Plaintiffs

Are people watching Transparent?

I largely enjoyed Season 2, in particular.  I am also aware of, and sympathetic to, critiques within the trans community regarding the casting of cis male actor Jeffrey Tambor as Maura, a trans woman - and of trans stories in general not being told by trans people.

Perhaps to her credit, creator Jill Soloway has publicly discussed her hiring of trans actors, consultants, and at least one trans writer to help with the production of the show. Is that enough? I'd say that's not my call, as a cis person.

Today I want to highlight the less-frequently discussed character, Tammy (Melora Hardin).

BAM!

Tammy is, to me, hot.  Like, HAF*.

*(I recently learned that's what the kids are saying for "hot as fuck." I also say fuck on this blog now on the regular, apparently.)

Lesbian and bisexual women's portrayal in TV and film is increasing, but butch women, butch queer women, being portrayed is still incredibly rare. It's as though queer women can be depicted, but they can't actually look like how many queer women actually look in real life.

Which, I guess is sort of an ongoing general rule for women in TV/film in general, yeah?

Men, I would argue moreso than women, can be fat, ugly, bald, frumpy, and old and still get acting roles - as they should! Women, however, have to constantly worry about their, in Amy Schumer's words, Last Fuckable Day - the day when the media decides that an actress is no longer believably "fuckable." So, like a woman reaches the age of 40 and from then on she's only fit for roles where she's, say, Tom Hanks' mom.

I would extend that further and note that even for women portraying queer characters, these characters often have to meet the standards of what's commonly thought of as the Hetero Male Gaze. Even The L Word, which was entirely about lesbian and bisexual women, showed approximately 3 butch women ever over the course of 5 seasons. (That might be an exaggeration. Was Shane butch? Debatable).

And, as a lesbian myself, I find many women appealing who do fall into those conventional beauty standards - but, my standards are also much broader.  I like women, like Tammy, who swagger.  I like women who give no fucks about whether men think they're nice, cool, or hot. I like women who are over 40 and are still portrayed as sexual beings. I find many women attractive who are, by media standards, fat (or who call themselves fat).

I like women are stereotypically feminine, androgynous, and yes, I like women who are butch.

So, back to Tammy. She is, in many ways, a mess. She's at times an asshole and, in Season 2, has a cringe-worthy public meltdown. (there, there, Tammy, there, there......sigh.....I'm sorry, what were we talking about?)

Oh yeah, but at the same time, isn't basically every character on Transparent a mess in their own unique way?

Some (ahem, Rod Dreher) who maybe have never seen the show, perhaps fantasize that Transparent is a propagandistic promotion of gender and sexual nonconformity that presents deviance as both desirable and superior than conventionality.

(which it is, obvs)

BUT, the power of Transparent, to me, is not that it depicts fantastical versions of people outside the norm. For one, it doesn't.  On the contrary, I feel drawn to the characters because they are imperfect, because they make bad decisions, and because they act jerky sometimes.  And, they're allowed to, even though they're queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming (and even if they have weird hairstyles - Season 2 Ali, what is going on?).

The show takes us beyond the point where queer characters must be pretty, gender conforming, and acceptably "safe" for a conservative, heterosexual audience (looking at you, Jenny's Wedding). We are invited to care about these characters despite their flaws. They are not the Supreme Court ideal handpicked, sainted, and prepped "test" plaintiffs for LGBT rights.

The show argues, instead, these people - we-  matter and are deserving of dignity, even if not immediately appealing to the mainstream. And that, I think, is progress.

A Car Wash and an Ice Cream Cone

Today was brought to you by the opening of Lost Girl episode "Groundhog Fae."


Happy weekend!