grindr in skam and other things
so someone pointed out in another post(here is an updated version i think of that post, it’s really clever too) that they think Martino’s season is gonna focus more on external homophobia and struggles, while Isak’s season focused on his internal struggles and internalized homophobia - which I think would make sense in the Italian context, bc Italy is famously homophobic.
These shots below really capture and exemplifies that shift in narrative.
That they physically arranged the characters so that in Isaks case he is in between Emma and Even, to show that he is stuck in an internal battle between what he wants and what he thinks society wants from him
and in Martinos case, Emma is placed between Niccoló and Martino to show that something external is keeping them apart.
So I wanted to add on, 1) that I think that that point is also exemplified via the very firsts clips opening montage/shot. Where they broadcast stories of young gay people being mistreated by other people showing us that there are present outside forces, and additionally giving us some background info on what it’s like being LGBT in Italy.
and 2) I just wanted to pipe in with something from yesterdays clip that I haven’t really seen talked about, Martino downloading Grindr.
I found it interesting that there is such a difference between the two portrayals of Grindr in skam Italia and the OG skam.
Isak downloads Grindr to find Even but it instead gets him a bunch of really sexual messages, which overwhelms him and causes him to pull back.
This is used to show that while he is edging closer to self-realization, he really just wants Even, and is maybe willing to realize his feelings for Even, but he isn’t ready to do “everything else” he isn’t ready to come out, or to be gay - the part all the sexts represents, because a nasty ( but very present) stereotype is that gay men are inherently sexual and/or predatory - and he feels disconnected from that.
Martino’s version wasn’t as meaningful as isaks, but thats okay, it still tells us something.
In this version, we are introduced to Grindr as a pretty, dare i say it, lame place. It’s not violently sexual, it’s actually pretty casual. There are a couple of shirtless pics but it’s not a lot, and it definitely has a more calm vibe.
This is showing us that some of Martino’s early experiences with the gay community are positive (also counting his convo with Filippo)
Martino is being told that gay men actually are just normal dudes, and that hopefully helps to not create that disconnect from the ‘identity gay’ which was a present theme in the og season 3.
And then the finishing touch is him being interrupted by another person and quickly closing down the app. To show us that he is scared of being found out by other people and that the conflict comes from the outside = there is an external conflict.
