QUEER INTERRUPTIONS

My name is Evangeline (she/her) and I'm a PhD student doing a research project on queer fandom and time. Focusing on queer female and genderqueer 'Clexa' fans, I focus on the ways they experience queer time and how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them. Check out my interactive online documentary here: Queer Interruptions If you have any questions or would like to connect, you can reach my via email: evangeline [at] queerinterruptions.com or Twitter.

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Bury Your Gays and Queer Trauma

When will showrunners learn that queer death onscreen for “shock value” speaks to the very real trauma of living in a world that continues to be inhospitable to queer people and qpoc? The total disregard for the cultural context of this death is astounding. Laura Neal may have narrative justifications for her creative choices (the religious iconography!! Villanelle is transcending under celestial light!!! IT’S ABOUT REBIRTH!!) but it’s still just another iteration of a harmful, offensive and all-too-common trope. 

I’ve spent the past few years doing PhD research on queer fans, so if you’re feeling misunderstood, gay-enraged, betrayed, and lost, know that you’re not alone. 

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Some thoughts on ‘queer time’...

It is said that queer people experience time differently. The world seems to function on “straight time”—the life paths and cultural milestones of adolescence, marriage, reproduction, retirement and death. But queer people often stray from that path, being excluded from marriage and child-rearing or experiencing these rituals in a haphazard, disordered way. So “queer time” is marked by a sense of this disorder: a sense of delay and a stumbling through self-discovery; a rebirth and a resetting of oneself; and a feeling of being out-of-sync with the life trajectories reserved for the more “valuable”, productive (hetero) members of society.

Queer time also collapses the past, present and future into one fluid, living entity. As Goltz et al argue, ‘the past is never past, but sits with us, beckons to us, bleeds through the canvas, and speaks through the spaces in between’ (2015, p. 11). Queer history is marked by pain and tragedy, and it is this pain that persists in the present—in our own queer stories; memories of seeing characters like ourselves discarded again and again; and the homophobia that persists despite the calls for pride and defiant marches down city streets. The pains and losses of queer history are ever-present, and lead us to imagine futures where queer love is not only possible, but plentiful. We are not only lingering in the past, but dreaming of queer futures of potentiality, boundless and open. 

For me, queer time is best defined by Heather Love as she describes the contemporary queer experience as ‘the odd situation of “looking forward” while we are “feeling backward”’ (2007, p. 27). It is not only a warping of past-present-future, but also a feeling of dislocation, disorder, and of being out-of-sync. It is a sense of being untethered, and at the same time, being irrevocably drawn towards a something, and a somewhere.  

[queerinterruptions]

Queer Interruptions - a documentary project on queer fandom and time

After 3 years, the documentary component of my PhD is finally done! Focusing on queer female and genderqueer 'Clexa’ fans, I discuss how they experience queer time and how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them. Check out the documentary here!  https://queerinterruptions.com/

[queerinterruptions]

As the queer pain of the past reaches into the present (yet again), it seems appropriate to retweet this. My online documentary explores femslash fandom, Clexa, Bury Your Gays and the cruel, time-traveling wounds inflicted on queer fans, time and again.

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"Queer Interruptions" Examines Impact of 'Bury Your Gays' - The Geekiary

"Queer Interruptions" is a fan created documentary that analyzes the impact of Lexa’s death on the LGBTQIA+ community.

"Queer Interruptions is a powerful examination of the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation in media and the harm that the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope inflicts on a vulnerable marginalized community." 

Thanks for the wonderful write-up The Geekiary!  😊

[lezwatchtv]

PhDs, Queerbaiting, and Queer Interruptions

The dichotomy of asynchrony and anachronism meet in Evangeline Aguas's "Queer Interruptions" - @QInterruptions

There’s a (large) part of me that is so happy to see people getting degrees on queer studies. Especially queer tv. Like a lot of projects about queer television, this one ties back in to the death of Lexa on The 100. March 3rd, 2016, was a pretty rough day for a lot of us. I’d just gotten back from a business trip to Miami where I’d actually talked up the show to a friend who was on the fence.…

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[queerinterruptions]

“The thing is… you’re not alone. We’re not alone. And while we are still struggling to carve space out so all of our stories can be told, if you’ve ever felt out of step with the world, know you have friends.”

Thank you for your wonderful article about my project @lezwatchtv 😊

[queerinterruptions]

Some thoughts on ‘queer time’...

It is said that queer people experience time differently. The world seems to function on “straight time”—the life paths and cultural milestones of adolescence, marriage, reproduction, retirement and death. But queer people often stray from that path, being excluded from marriage and child-rearing or experiencing these rituals in a haphazard, disordered way. So “queer time” is marked by a sense of this disorder: a sense of delay and a stumbling through self-discovery; a rebirth and a resetting of oneself; and a feeling of being out-of-sync with the life trajectories reserved for the more “valuable”, productive (hetero) members of society.

Queer time also collapses the past, present and future into one fluid, living entity. As Goltz et al argue, ‘the past is never past, but sits with us, beckons to us, bleeds through the canvas, and speaks through the spaces in between’ (2015, p. 11). Queer history is marked by pain and tragedy, and it is this pain that persists in the present—in our own queer stories; memories of seeing characters like ourselves discarded again and again; and the homophobia that persists despite the calls for pride and defiant marches down city streets. The pains and losses of queer history are ever-present, and lead us to imagine futures where queer love is not only possible, but plentiful. We are not only lingering in the past, but dreaming of queer futures of potentiality, boundless and open. 

For me, queer time is best defined by Heather Love as she describes the contemporary queer experience as 'the odd situation of “looking forward” while we are “feeling backward”’ (2007, p. 27). It is not only a warping of past-present-future, but also a feeling of dislocation, disorder, and of being out-of-sync. It is a sense of being untethered, and at the same time, being irrevocably drawn towards a something, and a somewhere.  

[queerinterruptions]

Queer Interruptions - a documentary project on queer fandom and time

After 3 years, the documentary component of my PhD is finally done! Focusing on queer female and genderqueer 'Clexa' fans, I discuss how they experience queer time and how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them. Check out the documentary here!  https://queerinterruptions.com/

[queerinterruptions]

Queer Interruptions

An online documentary on queer female 'Clexa' fans and how they experience queer time: in what ways do they feel out-of-sync or delayed compared to their heterosexual peers? In what ways do they feel backward while LGBTQ+ rights advance forward? How do they envision a queer future for themselves?

I’m very pleased to finally release my online documentary project on queer fandom and time.  Focusing on queer female ‘Clexa’ fans, I discuss their reactions to Lexa’s death, how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them and how they envision a queer future for themselves. Check it out and share! 😊

[queerinterruptions]

queerinterruptions: I’m very pleased to finally release my online documentary project on queer fandom and time. Focusing on queer female and genderqueer ‘Clexa’ fans, I discuss their reactions to Lexa’s death, how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them and how they envision a queer future for themselves. Check it out and share! 😊 If you’re interested in queer fandom, queer theory or television studies, have a look at my interactive documentary project 👆

[queerinterruptions]

Queer Interruptions

An online documentary on queer female 'Clexa' fans and how they experience queer time: in what ways do they feel out-of-sync or delayed compared to their heterosexual peers? In what ways do they feel backward while LGBTQ+ rights advance forward? How do they envision a queer future for themselves?

I’m very pleased to finally release my online documentary project on queer fandom and time. Focusing on queer female and genderqueer ‘Clexa’ fans, I discuss their reactions to Lexa’s death, how they feel out-of-sync with the heteronormative world around them and how they envision a queer future for themselves. Check it out and share! 😊

[queerinterruptions]

‪‘The Clexa Fan Documentary’ is now ‘Queer Interruptions’ - not long to go before the project goes live! 🙌

[queerinterruptions]

Update

I’m finally in the final stages of my PhD so I’ll be launching the documentary website very soon! I’ll be updating my username in the meantime (just in case people get confused)... stay tuned! 👀

[queerinterruptions]

Fundraise for Trevor

The Trevor Project

Lexa and the Clexa fandom inspired me to change my career path and start doing my PhD. This character and this fandom have literally changed my life, for the better. 

It’s been four years since 307, and #InHonorOfLexa, I will be donating to The Trevor Project. If you have the means to do so, please consider donating as well ❤️

[queerinterruptions]

The Power of Queer Fandom

The Mardi Gras Film Festival kicks off in Sydney this week and on Saturday February 15th they will be showing the Australian premiere of Queering The Script, a great documentary by Gabrielle Zilkha tracking queer female representation and fan activism. I’ll be speaking on The Power of Queer Fandom panel after the screening, so if you’re in Sydney this weekend, come along and fangirl with us! Also on the panel will be Danielle Jablonski from @clexacon​ and YouTuber extraordinaire Alex Shillington. Get your tickets here: https://tix.queerscreen.org.au/Events/Queering-the-Script

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Very happy to have my first published work in the first book to explore queerbaiting! What a great way to end the year 😆

The book is now available online through the University of Iowa Press: https://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/9781609386719/queerbaiting-and-fandom

[queerinterruptions]

“I knew about it before The 100—that they kill off lesbians. That lesbians are either dead or crazy by the end of anything.”

Interview subject Dr Rebecca Hall on the prevalence of the Bury Your Gays trope / Dead Lesbian Syndrome - from “Feeling Backward” - The Clexa Fan Documentary Trailer

[mam-te-moc]

Add evil and/or out of the picture

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Dr Rebecca Hall goes on to add:

“I want it to be called Bury Your Lesbians because it’s not necessarily a trope that goes with gay men in particular. I don’t quite understand how that happened, but I don’t know that my one little voice in the wilderness is going to change the name of it.”

[queerinterruptions]

I finally got my hands on a well-worn copy of this amazing collection of essays by Audre Lorde. I have a few chapters in PDF form so if you’d like a copy, let me know! 

[lezwatchtv]

Why Can't We Let Lexa Go?

It’s been over three years and we’re still hurting. We’re still angry. We still deserve better. Let’s talk a little about why we can’t let Lexa go. #lexa #clexa #the100

It’s been three years and three days since Lexa died on The 100. Since then, we’ve had billboards, multiple new organizations for LGBT fans, an explosion of queer content in books and television, two ClexaConsin Las Vegas, and one in London. If anything has become clear, it’s that we as a community have absolutely not let the idea of Lexa go. We still care deeply about this event, even if we…

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Thankyou to @lezwatchtv for including my documentary project in their article and for continuing to educate others on the experiences of queer fans 🙌🏽

[queerinterruptions]

“I knew about it before The 100—that they kill off lesbians. That lesbians are either dead or crazy by the end of anything.”

Interview subject Dr Rebecca Hall on the prevalence of the Bury Your Gays trope / Dead Lesbian Syndrome - from “Feeling Backward” - The Clexa Fan Documentary Trailer

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Interview subject Dr Elizabeth Bridges on her experiences in the aftermath of Lexa’s death - from “Feeling Backward” - The Clexa Fan Documentary Trailer

I’m looking for more interviewees to film in New York and LA in December/January! 

I’m looking for self-identifying queer female fans aged 18+ who are willing to participate in a filmed interview for my documentary project. 

Did Lexa's death bring back any painful memories from your past? Did her death cause you to relive any past trauma you've experienced due to being queer? If you had a similar experience to Dr Bridges and are available to film an interview, please get in touch, I'd like to hear from you!

I’d especially love to hear from more queer women of colour, so please get in touch!