Needs Help: Queer Media

Wouldn't a mention of Allegory be fine?

Maybe an Analysis page if you really want to dive deep?

Re: last page: Yes, The Witch Boy also features queer characters, and I forgot to mention that the girl with the two fathers and another girl are also queer. The story's central conceit is to feature queer characters and to simplify a complex subject such as gender and transgenderism for children.

Did we discuss what to do with series made specifically to feature queer indenties targeted to children?

Edited by MegaJ on Dec 21st 2021 at 11:58:14 AM

We did, but there wasn't a conclusion. I don't see why we should have different standards for childrens media than we do for other types. Being trans, gay, etc. isn't such a complex or inappropriate topic that it can only be conveyed to them through allegory, and the existence of works like George and I Am Jazz is proof that children's media is perfectly capable of tackling the topics directly.

After reading the entire series, I can offer my opinion that The Witch Boy isn't something that's just simply LGBT representation, and to a lesser extent The Backstagers and Lumberjanes but we're still feeling this out so we'll see.

I went through Sandbox.Queer Media's fanworks section and removed the fanfics that had a queer major character but whose stories were otherwise unrelated to being being queer. Many of the remaining ones should probably be moved to Queer Romance, but I don't think we have a sandbox for that one yet.

We do have Sandbox.Queer Romance, actually.

Remember to move any "queer main characters" examples to the LGBT Representation TLP.

Thank you! Moving the those examples to Sandbox.Queer Romance and posting the others on the TLP draft.

Went through the Animated Movies section. Not sure what to do with Ryan- it's listed as having a bisexual main character, but while the real-life Ryan Larkin was bisexual, that is not touched on in the film.

Also, Thirteen is listed, but I can't find anything on either our page or Rotten Tomatoes that indicates any of the characters are queer.

Edited by Orbiting on Jan 3rd 2022 at 8:31:07 AM

Read through the wikipedia article and nothing mentions queer stuff either - maybe it got confused for one of the other 13s?

Maybe? But from looking at those pages, I don't see anything about any of them having queer characters either.

There seems to be some 13 movies that we don't have?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13#Film,_television,_and_theatre

I deleted 13; if someone finds what movie it's referring to, they can readd it.

I'm working through the live-action films section now, and have moved some to Queer Romance and others to the LGBT representation index. But I'm a Cheerleader is listed under both Queer Media and Queer Romance; which one does it fit as better?

Apparently it was Thirteen (2003), which is sorta Lez, with its protagonists? Being portrayed by LGBTQ actors and having a Practice Kiss between them apparently?

New info gotten from doing that Move.

Edited by Malady on Jan 4th 2022 at 8:31:01 AM

Ehhh, just because the actors are LGBTQ doesn't mean the characters are. I say keep it cut.

Continuing to work through the live-action films section, and there's several I'd like opinions on:

• Camp X-Ray is listed, but I can't find any info about it having queer characters or themes.

• Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a bioptic about Lee Israel. While the real Lee was a lesbian, this is not shown in the movie. Jack, her partner in crime, was a gay man, though the only thing we're shown of that in the film is that he died of AIDS.

• The Closet is about a straight man who pretends to be gay so that his company won't fire him due to Political Correctness Gone Mad.

• Cruel Intentions: A subplot in the film is the main character blackmailing a gay football player about his sexuality.

• Cube 2: Hypercube: The index claims it has a bisexual main character and a lesbian supporting character, but I can't find any info that confirms this.

• Different for Girls: Not sure if this fits better as Queer Media or Queer Romance.

Couldn't find anything on Camp X-Ray aside from queer subtext (or people seeing queer subtext), cut Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Cube 2, keep Different for Girls on Queer Media

The Closet's an interesting one, since it deals with gay stuff but from a straight man pretending to be gay. According to the trope page there's also a plot about an Armoured Closet Gay man falling for the main character, but I have no clue have prominent that is

I haven't been following this thread since I called the crowner, but what is there left to do here, since this thread is for an index and not a trope?

We still need to sort through Queer Media and remove anything that doesn't qualify.

Would Happiest Season and Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives fit better on Queer Media or Queer Romance?

I think both would go onto Queer Media? I could see Happiest Season on Queer Romance, but I'm not entirely sure about it

I'm going to make another case for The Witch Boy series, with a better write-up and backed by this interview from the author.

• The Witch Boy is a fantastical LGBT youth series that has Aster, a gender non-conforming boy at the center of the story, and features an allegory for being transgender: boys are shapeshifters and girls are witches, but Aster feels more like a witch. In addition to the previous, there is two supporting young girl characters that are queer and have feelings for one another and one of the girls has two fathers.

Also adding more context to the previous entries:

• The Backstagers is a LGBT youth series set at an all-boys private school revolving around the backstage crew of the drama club and their adventures. The cast, main and supporting, is primarily queer, with the romance between two of the members being a driving plot.

• Lumberjanes is an LGBT set a supernatural summer camp and a group of young girls, the main cast is primarily queer, with two of the members being in a romance and a transgender girl as the leader with two fathers.

Edited by MegaJ on Jan 9th 2022 at 4:59:36 AM

shapeshifts > shapeshifters...

That's Voluntary Shapeshifting, right?

To respond to each of these in turn:

• Is the main character actually trans, gay, or otherwise queer? If so, is the story about that? Because so far none of what I've heard indicates that's the case.

• If The Backstagers is primarily about a romance, then it should be on Queer Romance.

• Is Lumberjanes about the characters beong queer or is it an adventure/slice of life show like Steven Universe? If it's like Steven Universe, it should be on the representation index, not Queer Media.

Speaking of the representation index, how's that going? I saw that it hasn't been launched yet, and since I lack TLP experience, I thought I'd ask anyone here working on the draft about its progress.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 9th 2022 at 5:45:43 AM

It's going OK. I haven't contributed to it much and there's some uncertainty over the exact scope of it, but it's been collecting examples at a decent pace.