Your New Favourite Youtubers Part 2

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More queer youtube essays!

Part 1

Part 3

 

Exploring the Queer History of the Old West... Yeehaw Kaz Rowe: Seemed good but I just couldn't make myself care enough about the Old West enough to watch much.

Is this "Gay Content for Straight People"? Kat Blaque: A discussion of the questions about queer representation brought up by the cheesy m/m romcom Red, White, and Royal Blue, which tries to be even handed and nuanced, but sometimes falls into very binarist biphobic thinking despite the creator herself being trans and bi. She starts by putting down Twilight etc, and while she SORT OF acknowledges that 'straight women' enjoy them as escapism I nearly closed the tab there and kinda wish I had. She flipped between gay=queer and gay = "only into the same sex" inconsistently despite acknowledging that the bi male director was very focussed on representation of all mlm. Like she looked into "what gay men think": were any of them bi? Trans? Non-binary? And she acknowledges that the book's author is "afab non-binary" and has written all sorts of queer representation then uncritically repeats people saying this is a "female POV". YOU ARE TRANS KAT BLAQUE SURELY YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS SHITTY. I realise non-binary authors don't fit neatly into a "real mlm"/"(probably straight) woman who has no idea what it means to be a man" dichotomy but maybe that's a sign you SHOULDN'T USE THAT DICHOTOMY not an excuse to just classify us as our birth gender wtf.

Cinema's First Kiss Was Between Two Women Lily Alexandre: This was great! Just a nice exploration of a specific interesting historical moment in the context of broader trends to do with cinema, art, and gender.

Cadet Kelly has a gay agenda (but not in a fun way) max teeth: This was fine, discussing an arguably subtextually queer Disney movie about a girl being forced to go to military school that was made just before 9/11, in the broader context of white marginalised people being used by the state to prop up military violence.

race, taste, & instagram face in neoclassical sculpture drapetomania: This was great, they referred a lot to an earlier video I haven't seen but I got the gist. Mostly concentrates on the attitudes to literal colour, race, and (binary cis straight) gender in 19th century statuary, with the links to modern attitudes left implied (in this video, it's clear there's a whole connected series). I don't remember it actually discussing queerness at all but still a really interesting topic! The style is very informal with lots of repeated quick cuts to related imagery and clips, I liked it but ymmv.

Yaoi For the Love of Man Kameno -o: A gay guy discusses his feelings about Yaoi and BL. Ok. Still acts like the world divides into gay men and (implicitly straight) women, but is at least sympathetic to both and puts more thought into the Asian (including countries other than Japan!) context than many Western commentators.

we need to talk about Call Me By Your Name Lola Sebastian: This is GREAT. I was trepidatious since I have seen a lot of very annoying black and white anti-ish rhetoric about this movie, but the video is in part a critique of the rigidity of that rhetoric, in the face of a complex film that is (in the opinion of the vidder, I haven't seen it) both flawed and beautiful, and worthy of more thoughtful analysis beyond "is this ship problematic " from straight people who haven't even seen the movie. Doesn't have a "It's Art Stop Whining" approach, the vid creator is a survivor and has complicated feelings on the portrayal of teen sexuality in media, she just doesn't think anyone is served by being dogmatic and simplistic.

I Kissed a Girl: The Messy Legacy of a Queerbait Hit Princess Weekes: Really good! I have some bad associations with the term "queerbaiting" and I'm not sure it's totally the right term here, but otherwise this is a good discussion of the combination of fetishisation and erasure around bi women that happened in the music industry in the mid 2000s, and the general nature of biphobia. She has a rant about queer gatekeeping including of trans, non-binary, and asexual, as well as anyone whose label is fluid or ambiguous, while still celebrating the importance of labels like 'lesbian'. Which isn't everyone under the umbrella but does better than any of the other videos I've watched so far! (I wonder if anyone will mention aromanticism) And she ended with a discussion of how the song still ended up having positive effects, for her and society, and Katy Perry has learned to be better too.

When Marnie Was Gay CJ The X: An expressive rant about the relatable depiction of both queerness and depression in "When Marnie Was There" and how that experience is not invalidated by realising it was never intended to be read as gay. BRIEFLY SHOUTS OUT AROMANTIC PEOPLE, lol. They also talk about having BPD which doesn't get much rep. CJ the X has this way of expressing themself that's really charismatic and interesting even when I don't agree but also kinda frustratingly... forceful? idk, ymmv.

The Importance of Doctor Who's Trans Character | Jenny Geist Jenny Geist: A discussion of the trans character in the recent Doctor Who specials from the perspective of a trans woman who was a 13 year old “boy” into Harry Potter and Dr Who tens years ago during Tennant’s last run as doctor. This was simple but nice, and as someone who hasn’t gotten around to watching the specials I liked how both they and the vid creator talked about the Doctor being non-binary.

Is Star Wars Political? | Mia Mulder: A discussion of the historical context and subtext of the three Star Wars movie trilogies, by a Star Wars fan with training in historical analysis. Nothing groundbreaking, and not about queerness, but fine for what it is.