CASTRATED QUEERS
“[Gus] Van Sant is characterized as a gay filmmaker because he is an out filmmaker, but his films are anything but gay films. Van Sant is less interested in the sexual identity of his characters than he is in the more universal queering of his characters, writes notorious Queer baiter and disgraced actor James Franco for Vice Magazine in his article about the director.
As embarrassing as I find James Franco, he (sadly) has a good point. This ideology walks a fine line between “castrating” queer films and simply queering them. Is explicit sexuality required in order to “queer” a film as The Guardian article about Milk points out? “Harvey Milk was a famously horny man in 70’s San Francisco, who combined police tail campaigning with cruising for men half his age.” The Guardian article also points out that Harvey Milk strongly supported, and practiced, the idea of open relationships to oppose heteronormative ones.
But as the World Socialist Web Site article about Gus Van Sant’s Milk pointed out, just because you’re gay it doesn’t automatically mean you’re progressive. “…The [liberal causes of the corporate Democratic Party], whatever the immediate intentions of those advocating them, like Milk, had nothing progressive about them. Just because you’re gay, doesn’t automatically mean that you’re queer because you can still subscribe to the heteronormative binary.
Despite the debate about the castration of queer characters in mainstream media, there have been some strides in recent years, even if they’re baby steps.
The White Lotus, HBO- Verdict: NOT CASTRATED
The most recent example of queer representation that isn’t castrated is “The White Lotus” on HBO. HBO is an interesting example of a mainstream media outlet that successfully thrives on being explicit and pushing the envelope. This is the network that launched, Sex and the City, after all. The White Lotus became a breakout hit this summer that featured a controversial queer character played by Murray Bartlett. Bartlett’s character isn’t the most likable. He’s cruel to a new staff member who is hiding her pregnancy to maintain her job, he puts his staff in unprofessional positions that could be considered sexual harassment, and he’s relapsed into drug abuse - yet again. Not exactly the poster child for positive queer representation, but a character I find interesting.
He had a sex scene with one of his employees in the series that went viral on social media for depicting “ass eating”. While the scene itself was kind of embarrassing for the character, it was interesting to see an unapologetically queer character who was also extremely flawed and human. I think we’ve reached a point in our culture wars where there’s a lot of pressure for mainstream queer characters to be palatable for heteronormative audiences. I think The White Lotus is a great example of a queer character who is not castrated. Still, he could have used some tips on rimming, as several major publications pointed out:
“I can’t wait for my ass to get retweeted all over the Internet,” said star Lukas Gage.
Love, Simon - Verdict: Surprisingly not castrated
Love, Simon is quite a double edged sword. A success for Disney as a coming of age gay film, the movie was a bit muted in its portrayal of a queer character. The spinoff however, Love, Victor, is a moderate improvement. It allows the queer protagonist to venture into sexuality and other adult issues. Disney+ ended up selling the show to Hulu because its “adult content” wasn’t “family-friendly” for the Disney streaming platform.
Disney moved an upcoming queer-themed show from Disney+ to Hulu because it was reportedly worried about "adult themes" on its flagship strea
Euphoria, HBO - Verdict: DEFINITELY not castrated
In what may be some of the most explicit depiction of queer sex on screen I’ve ever seen in mainstream media is HBO’s Euphoria. The show features explicit scenes of a transgender teen exploring their sexuality. While the scenes border on exploitive in its shock value, the show does present Hunter Shafter’s trans character as fully humanized character. Her character has a very strong character arc. We see her exploring her sexuality and her complicated romantic relationship with her best friend, Rue. There are countless graphic sex scenes with most of the characters on the ensemble show.
Rue and Jules' relationship is a queer dream that refuses to be defined.