Digital Scrapbook for Queer Studies 304

"And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins!" Emily Mahler. She/They. QS 304 Student. This tumblr is in place as my digital scrapbook for my Queer Studies class entitled "Queering the Screen, Queering the Spectator." Work is mine if not stated otherwise. Thank you for looking through my scrapbook/tumblr.

[drbitchcraftletspartykatya]

[allfallsdown]

Trixie and Katya caught off guard while being cuties, a gifset.

[userarmand]

trixya vs. the Straights™

[fairweathermyth]

David and Patrick + season six

[nessa007]

★ 12K FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION ★ Top 20 Male TV Characters (voted by my followers): 16. David Rose (Schitt’s Creek) “There is only room for one unstable sibling in this family and I have held that title for a very long time.”

[tylerposey]

I now pronounce you husband and husband.

[tlematimun]

elio perlman: an affectionate boy

[graveyrdgirl444]

Call Me by Your Name (2017) dir. Luca Guadagnino

[filmaticbby]

Call Me by Your Name (2017)
dir. Luca Guadagnino

[queerrangels]

Week Eight - Queer Men: Trixie & Katya

“I always knew, that the perfect boy is a girl.” - Todd Haynes

(photo by Netflix)

I Like To Watch (Created by Netflix, USA 2019 - present) Starring Trixie Mattel and Katya. Two drag queens review the newest episodes and series on Netflix for the company’s YouTube page. 

(photo by Netlfix)

 Trixie and Katya both fit well with Hayne’s quote and the prompt for this week eight’s scrapbook. Both Trixie and Katya are drag queens known for their time at Ru-Paul’s Drag Race. With them both being so comfortable in their own skin, to perform and be well-know, for their drag persons, they blur the lines between masculine and feminine. It doesn’t seem to be a problem for both of them. Since they are so comfortable it is clear that they both care for the well being of others and their own friendship. Something that many males don’t seem to care for in media and in real life. 

 Having explored both masculine and feminine sides of themselves in public and in the media, Trixie and Katya have seen first hand how the general heterosexual and cis population feel towards every type of people. They talk about this in their Netflix show. In the episode “Drag Queens Trixie Mattel & Katya React to the Umbrella Academy: Season Two,” they speak on gender issues and sexual identity. They talk about how one of the character remembered even having memory loss that she was a lesbian. They relate this back to themselves when they remember they are drag queens when other drag queens are around. 

(video by Netflix)

 Trixie and Katya are the perfect “boys” because they are drag queens. They understand the hardships of being feminine while retaining a shell of a man. By expressing themselves in drag, this allows them to fully embrace both in “heteronormative” sides of the world. Especially one where men can only be perceived in a masculine way, to be considered equal.  

[queerrangels]

Week Eight - Queer Men: David Rose

“Masculinity is fragile because it does not exist in the same sense we are taught to think it exists, that it is a biological reality. It exists as an ideology, it exists as scripted behavior, it exists within gendered relationships.” - Kimmel. 

(photo by Pop/CBC)

Schitt’s Creek (Created by Dan Levy, Canada 2015-2020) Starring Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Eugene Levy, and Catherine O’Hara. After a rich family find themselves broke, they move to a town they once bought for a joke and start their lives over. 

(photo by Pop/CBC)

 Kimmel’s quote which is explored in Todd Migliaccio’s thesis Men’s Friendships: Performances of Masculinity is a perfect quote to describe David Rose (Dan Levy) from Schitt’s Creek. Throughout the show, David explores his sexual and gender identity. He has grown up so far from the norm and now being in a rural town, he doesn’t want to adapt. He doesn’t tend to change himself when he is with any gender, in any relationship. Either sexual, family or friend. He is so comfortable with his own masculinity, that he tends to even dip into femininity in his expressive choices.  

 In the show, David has two sexual relationships. One with a woman, Stevie, and another with a man named Patrick. (Patrick identifies as Pansexual.) During the course of these two relationships, David sticks to being himself. He is so open with both of them and isn’t afraid they will abandoned him. However it should be noted that when Patrick and David do start a relationship, David closed off. It wasn’t because he was nervous about himself and his masculinity. It was because he was nervous he was going to ruin the relationship. Yet, they end up getting married in the final season. 

(Video by Pop/CBC)

 David doesn’t use his masculinity as a weapon and it is definitely not fragile. His ideology behind his behavior and relationships doesn’t change for people. He sticks with himself. He is comfortable with himself. Though David is not the ideal target for Kimmel’s quote and the exact opposite, many men can use him as an example. 

[queerrangels]

Week Eight - Queer Men: Elio Perlman

“Homosexuality does not exist in a vacuum. If being gay is about unrequited love, or soft-focus fantasy, or furious self-hatred, or empty-headed bliss... it is about all of these things at once, never each one separately.” - Christopher Kelly. 

(photo by Sony Pictures Classics)

Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, USA 2017) Starring Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Esther Garrel, and Michael Stuhlbarg. During a summer in Northern Italy, one teenager (Chalamet) and an older man (Hammer) develop a sexual relationship that bonds the two of them together. 

(photo by Sony Pictures Classics)

 Christopher Kelly’s The Unbearable Lightness of Gay Movies speaks on the fact that the queer experience on screen shouldn’t spotlight just one idea of a particular person. Being human is not easy, being queer is even harder than the heterosexual. The queer experience should be detailed like every heterosexual experience. One character I feel like fully represents Kelly’s essay and quote above is Elio Perlman from Call Me By Your Name (2017).

 Elio sees the world from a particular view as a young teenager in Northern Italy. In this film, like the book it’s based on, is mostly about Elio’s summer of sexual awakening. In view of the fact that we see through his eyes, the audience deep dives into his gender expression, sexual practice, sexual politics and lifestyle choices. Elio is exposed to all the examples Kelly lays out in the quote. 

(video by Sony Pictures Classics)

 In the beginning of the film, when Elio starts to understand his feelings for Oliver, he starts a sexual relationship with his childhood best friend Mariza. He starts this relationship to infuriate Oliver. This is also the first time we see him practice sexually. He ends the relationship with Mariza when Oliver is ready. He doesn’t care if this hurts Mariza. He decides to be hurtful in choice. 

 Immediately once their relationship starts, Elio is beginning to feel empty-headed bliss. He believes that this summer love will turn out to be something that could last a life time. Quickly his soft-focus fantasy turns to truth and he understands his relationship with Oliver is unrequited love. He knows it’s because of their age but doesn’t know how his parents will feel about the homosexuality part. Instantly when he realizes this, Elio knows they don’t have much time left. That both of them need to find themselves in each other. He finds himself over time letting Oliver control him and letting go of his “social” masculinity.  

 By the end of the film, the audience is reeled by Elio and Oliver’s relationship. The film ends as Elio gets the news of his lover’s engagement. He is heartbroken as well as the audience. Their unrequited love helped him explore himself within the lines of sexual, gender, and lifestyle growth. Nevertheless this heartbreaking news causes him to turn to self-hatred and loneliness. 

[queerrangels]

It is a performance of masculinity that is influenced by gendered expectations

Todd Migliaccio 

[queerrangels]

Week Eleven: International Movies and Their Queer Characters

For Week Eleven, the posts before this one will examine international cinema from France, Korea, and Spain. The films below are Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Pain & Glory, The Handmaiden, and Knife + Heart. Every one of these films deal with a queer lifestyle. Each film explored have still images, gifs, quotes and the trailer. I hope it is easy to explore each film and their queer representation. 

[queerrangels]

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, Korean 2016).

[gretagerwisg]

Even like this, dying is a luxury.

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook

[queerrangels]

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, Korean 2016).

[sissyspaceks]

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook

[queerrangels]

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, Korean 2016).