The superhero in the Rainbow Tights: LGBT+ in the media Part 3

Lastly LGBTQ+ have also broken into the comics genre. The last part of media that has included them already they have many great strides.

One of the first companys to have Gay superheroes or even mention of gay prominent was DC . Although a subdivision later named DC Noir, they were both written by Alan Moore. 

The first one where one of the main characters who helps the heroine Evie escape to help the cause is Gordon Deitriech. In the movie adaptation of the comic, they make Gordon Dietriech gay and he has to hide his sexuality by pretending to be a womanizer. He agrees to help Evie as long as she keeps his secret. When she is being chased by the "Fingermen" she hides in his home and he as a result gets brutally beaten and subsequently killed. 

Also in the DC family is The Shilouhette, she is a part of the Watchmen. The Watchmen is also a comic strip by the same author Alan Moore. She is glorified and taken up to God status but when the tables start to turn on the vigilantes she is one of the first to be chased and killed. As one of the few Lesbian superheroes she wasn't in the comics much but she was  at least more famous then most gay superheroes. 

Then we have the already mentioned but worth mentioning again superheroes: Haruka and Michiru, Or as we know the Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. As the first lesbian superheroes that not  only I but a generation of 90's children brought up during the Anime Domination that we knew, in the English translation they were straight and were they're supposed to be cousins. It wasn't until I watched the later seasons in Japanese that they're relationship came out of the closet. It made so much more sense that now that they were not cousins but partners. 

 Lastly we have Holly Robinson. She is also part of the DC Universe. Sometimes she is seen as Cat Woman's sidekick but after Cat Woman gets pregnant and gives birth holly takes her place. Holly was one of the wards that Selina Kyle sort of adopted as a younger sister. Having been part of the system for so long and after having been abused for so long she decided to follow in Selina's steps and fight crime. She is the first lesbian in the central DC universe. 

Music made me do it: LGBT+ in the media Part 2

There is no better way to express one's sentiments than through the written word. One of the greatest ways to express emotions is through music. For many years music has been the sole comfort of many confused, frightened and bullied youths. Some artists have become super megastars because they have been champions of the crusade to be oneself.

The queen of the Gays: Madonna 

The Princess: Lady Gaga

The Godmother 

Queen B

And the Reyna 

Welcome to TV Now: LGBT+ in the media Part 1

To end this, let's introduce the new queer people to contemporary media.

Cult Films like

Rocky Horror Picture Show:
This is a film from 1975, it was a b-picture movie because it was low budget. It was not well received when it came out but now has formed a cult following. It was one of the main components of the modern novel "Perks of being a Wallflower." The movies is about a Transexual Transylvania who is called Dr. Frankenfurter and his monster Rocky Horror. It's great. The music is fantastic and it'll get stuck in your head. Even though Dr. Frankenfurter is an alien, the movie put a small spotlight on transexuals.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch:
This movie is about a man who is desperate to leave East Germany and when his boyfriend an American decides to bring him back, he agrees. However this means that he has to have a gender reassignment surgery, but the surgery is botched and he is left with an inch of skin between her legs. Hence the title. She is abandoned by her husband as soon as she comes to the states. She forms a rock band and writes songs. I haven't seen the movie but have heard about it everywhere. I predict this to be like the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Ru Pauls Drag Race:
When this show came out it was official. We love Drag Queens!

Sailor Moon Crystal :
Sailor Moon was an anime from the early nineties. It was about superhero girl warriors from Space. It's freaking great, but the reason it's relevant to this is because two of the protagonists were lesbians. In the English dub of the show they were portrayed as cousins. However now in the revamped version of the show, they have come out of the anime closet. Uranus and Neptune have a love that rivals the main protagonist.

Orange is the New Black: Laverne Cox:
And last but certainly not least we have the great Laverne Cox. She plays a transgender woman who has been sent to jail. She is the unofficial hairdresser of the prison and she is also one of the kindest in the whole series. For numerous reasons I love her, but number one is because she is always striving to be Flawless!

All of these have one thing in common, they all have leading queer characters. Thanks to the ever increasing change of "norms"

Rate the Murderer

"The Road to excess, leads to the palace of wisdom. Blake, William. That's really all you need to know. "

Welcome to English 143K.: Queers that Kill, literally. 

Throughout the course we have been studying New Queer Cinema and the theology behind it. The  theory states that because of the total removal of the queer from society the queer began to reject heteronormative ideals and pursues a deviant nature that becomes a new social identity. In the films presented to us throughout the term, the directors have chosen to represent their chosen "queer" murder/murderess as unlikable characters. Or at least that is what they are supposed to do. So I decided to pick my top two worst murderers and my top two favorites.

Poison:

Even though there were several murderers in the film I choose to focus on the ego-centric Dr. As prof. Harris said I felt no empathy for this man. I think it had to do with the fact that almost as soon as he found out that he had a contagious disease he not only closed himself in but then he started spreading his disease without any cares. He was so selfish that he even allowed himself to let Nancy into his life without telling her the truth. He did not warn her that he was contagious and that his disfigurement was a product of his doing. Instead not only does he infect her with his disease but she dies knowing that he lied to her the whole time.
Downright opinion this dude was a d-bag

Swoon:

Although they were not technically considered gay. Or at least they didn't consider themselves gay, they still had a power sexual relationship that was the motive for the murder. Of the two, I only like Leopold. The movie was supposed to have the viewer not feel any empathy for either, however I still felt sad for Leopold. He was a complete sidekick to Richard. Richard was the more violent one, which is why he was in control of the relationship. He withheld sex from Leopold until they would commit a crime. Although Loeb could not be held accountable for Leopolds actions, he was the only reason I felt some semblance of pity for Leopold. I felt even more saddened with the fact that Loeb decided to lie and blame Leopold for the entire murder and the planning. Loeb had been so proud of himself, even introducing himself as a murderer to the old gentleman that they had met on the road as,"Congratulations sir, you have just shook hands with a murderer." Then when he achieved the stardom he back tracked and betrayed his partner.  
I disliked Loeb 
But Leopold was one of my favorites.

Heavenly Creatures: 

In Heavenly Creatures the audience is put forth into a whole new situation. Here we have to young girls who commit a murder because they were not allowed to continue their intensely close friendship. My problem here was mostly with Pauline. I think it had something to do with the way she set her mouth whenever she was upset. Truthfully she struck me as one of those kids that you see at the store who throw tantrums when their parent wont buy them things and they cry and scream. Except this petulant child was devious and full of murderous intent. I did not like Pauline. Juliet on the other hand I could understand on some level. She came from a home where her parents were rather cold to her. They left her to her own devices and so she was always dreaming and looking for constant companionship. However she did not have any plans to commit matricide. Although she also committed a crime she wasn't as annoying as Pauline, plus she was played by the Kate Winslet who happens to be one of my favorite actress.
Hated Pauline but loved Kate... I mean Juliet

Party Monster:

And lastly we have Micheal Alig. Who I absolutely love. In the movie he is always looking for attention and always wants to have the world revolved around him. However there was something endearing about the way that he was always looking for acceptance. Early Michael Alig was supremely likable in his innocence and his D.A.R.E stance on drugs. Maybe it was because the movie is one of my favorites and because murder was bound to happen whenever drugs are involved I grew to have a pathetic attitude towards him.
Michael Alig, the King of the Skroods 










You're just some lame-ass, Johnny-come-lately, fairy, faggot, copycat! You don't even know your skrink from your skrod! You stupid logger blogger!

Partners In Crime

         For the most part, all of the queers that've killed had been in pairs. Everyone seemed to have had a partner in crime in some shape or form, and in a way, a lot of them reminded me of Android 17 and 18 from the popular anime Dragon Ball Z.  Android 17 and 18 are twin siblings, 17 being the boy and 18 being the girl. They were created to kill without any remorse by a guy named Dr. Gero. They've been characterized as being murderous sociopaths who care about no one but themselves. And that description fits a lot of the characters that we've looked at throughout the quarter. Leopold and Loeb, Angel y Nene, Christine and Lea, Pauline and Juliet, and the list goes on. Some fall under the "bad-ass" category like Angel & Nene. Those two guys were some bad-ass criminals. They put fear aside and went about their job of stealing money and if that process required them to kill people, they were going to do it. So they're like 17 & 18 in the way that they too are a pair of bad-asses who won't hesitate to kill anyone in their way of reaching their goal of killing Goku. Also, the Androids are siblings and their relationship consist of doing anything for eachother, just like the sisters that we saw in Sister My Sister, except there is no incest between the Androids. I wish these two were somehow in a way featured in the class because they're two of the coolest  characters ever invented.  It's just a shame that they aren't queer.

Cannibalism

I had never really thought about cannibalism until after I saw the film Cannibal. Yes, I knew what cannibalism was, but the concept of it isn't really a big part of pop culture. The only reference to it that I've seen has been on Family Guy, but even then, it was like a 5 second joke. So after watching this movie, I started to look back and tried to find cannibalism in my memories of t.v. and stories, but I couldn't find any. In The Little Red Riding Hood, it was a wolf trying to eat the grandma and little red. In the Three Little Pigs, it was also a wolf trying to eat the pigs. In Goldilocks, it was a little girl and three bears. And even in Hazel and Gretyl, it was a witch trying to eat the kids, so since it was a witch I don't consider her to be human. So none of these stories contain cannibalism because everyone is of a different species. And whenever I thought of cannibalism, I thought of a human eating another human, but it was raw. In the film, the guy cooks the other guy; isn't that kind of like going camping with an RV that contains a tv, couch, bathroom and kitchen? It's still camping but it's cheating. But at the end of the day, if I had to eat a human, I would cook them too because the taste would probably be better.

Skrinkle, Skroodle and La dee da

Finally the week has arrived where the class can watch the greatest movie on the syllabus! Party Monster!Party Monster

I have been waiting for this quarter has been this one! Party Monster is the biopic of James St. James, murderous protegee Michael Alig. Michael Alig was the King of the Club Kid scene. The Club Kids were a movement of out of the box people who would party anywhere and everywhere. They believed in doing extravagant forms of partying. However most people associated them with drugs, sex and rampant wantoness. 

Everything about this movie is absolutely fantastic. The casting, the soundtrack, the cinematography and the set design are perfection.

The casting :

Michael Alig: Maculay Culkin

James St. James: Seth Green

DJ Keoki: Wilmer Valderama

Gitzkie: Chole Sevigny

Angel: Wilson Cruz

Christina: Marilyn Manson

Club Owner: Dylan McDermott

\

The soundtrack to this movie is also pretty great. Try getting those four words out of your head. Money. Success. Fame. Glamour. 

As Michael Alig, I can now never envision anyone but Maculay Culkin. His acting was just on point. His portrayal of a soft and innocent young gay man who is ambitious enough to want to join the new and enticing Club Kid scene. Maculay Culkin was the little boy from the Home Alone series in the ealy nineties. Growing up with his surprised face shown every Christmas Holiday I was surprised to see him all grown up. However he is so convincing I forgot who Culkin was. Seth Green was one of the major surprises to me. I’m not sure what James St. James looked like when he was younger but a short, ginger and slightly stocky was not what I pictured. However he was James St. James. The relationship that Seth and Maculay had to portray was two friends with alternating roles of dominance.

In the beginning of the friendship, James was the dominant. He was the one who showed Michael the ropes. He taught him how to make himself known to everybody at a party. Later however when Michael begins to realize his ambitions the tables turn and James becomes his live in dependent. The  movie tries to portray Micheal as an ambitious young gay kid who wants to fit in and play with others. He wants in on the Club Kid Scene. He initially refuses to do drugs but is coerced into by James St. James and later DJ Keoki. He loses sight of the person he wants to be, while becoming a semblance of what he wanted to become. In this movie although we do not pity Micheal Alig, since he had no pity for Angel the drug dealer, -you do get sad when you see his life deteriorating. His friendships are based on a tit-for-tat basis. He has refused to pay Angel for his drug services and when Angel comes to collect payment and Michael refuses to pay, Angel gets violent and Freeze hits him in the back of the head. The story of murder is told to James after he has had a lot of drugs through a rat who says that he was witness to the whole thing. 

How does Michael Alig compare to the other queer murders in class?

Micheal Alig is one of the few murderers on the syllabus that we can feel some sort of pity for. His story is one of the many thousands of stories told throughout the federal prison system. His world was chaotic and the ground that he was standing on was continually slipping away from him. Also he was the only one who had more than one lover. DJ Keoki was his boyfriend and he was always with him, however Gitsy was also his sometimes lover and toward the end when DJ Keoki starts to get noticed more for his DJ skills she becomes his constant companion. 

In the end when Michael tells James that he and Freeze killed Angel it is told by this rat. Michael Alig was not the sole murderer of Angel, Freeze one of the club kids who lived with Michael was the one to deliver the head wound that caused the most damage. However it was Michael who injected the Draino into his system.

The movie is based on the tell-all novel by James St. James titled Disco Bloodbath. The book although it is better than the movie (what a surprise there!) is faithfully rendered by the movie. The most prominent part of the book is that it is told thru James St. James using his voice. You can almost physically hear him say the words.