This is your weekly Pop Culture Fix, the place where Riese deep dives into the Instagrams of the latest crop of ANTM contestants to find out who’s gay and I think hard about which animated vegetable it makes the most sense for Ellen Page play.
Teevee
+ The Good Wife spin-off will prominently feature two lesbian, bisexual, gay, homosexual, or otherwise queer-identified women. One of those women will be played Rose Leslie. Hopefully her new gal pal knows more than Jon Snow.
One example:
A second example:
A third and final example:
+ Alex “I Kiss The Girls I Wanna Kiss” Danvers is looking mighty satisfied in the new Supergirl trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O91JzoGp73M
+ Is bisexual human Sara Ramirez coming back to Grey’s Anatomy to play bisexual human Callie Torres? Shonda Rhimes answered that question and a whole other question about Arizona’s new love life over at TV Line.
+ People are very psyched about Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian sci-fi book The Handmaid’s Tale. Samira Wiley is in it. Here is your first look at her.
+ A Pitch Perfect-esque TV show is going to happen on BBC and I swear to Sappho if the Beca and Chloe characters are not canonically gay for each other I will set myself on fire.
+ The psychotic lesbian tropes that sprang from Single White Female are still sprawling, 25 years later. That movie is going to be a TV show now.
+ The Sense8 Christmas special is here. I haven’t watched it yet, but I heard it’s two hours long and includes another orgy?
+ The 100 is getting Funko POP!ed and one of the six characters they’re commemorating is Lexa. LOL. LOLOLOLOL. LOLOLOLSOB.
Movies
+ The Swedish animated film My Life as a Zucchini is coming to America and Ellen Page is going to star in it (but not as a vegetable as I originally assumed when I read the headline of this story, which honestly: that’s fine by me. I’ve had enough animated gay food to last a lifetime).
+ Alaina will be reviewing Hidden Figures for us! In the meantime, you should read this very good interview with Octavia Spencer.
Then it was Saturday night at the Academy’s Governor’s Awards, when all of us were together — me and Janelle and Taraji and Pharrell (Williams) and Stacey Snider and Ted (Melfi) — and I had this epiphany. These women lived in du jour segregation, de facto misogyny and blatant racism. And in spite of that they rolled up their sleeves and did something extraordinary for the world. So I realized that instead of being the triumphant rallying cry I thought it was going to be, the film was going to ground me in this spirit of enlightening people, inspiring people and galvanizing people.
+ Can someone who has seen this documentary please tell me if all the cats live?
Queer Humans, Out and About
+ One magazine that exists is Guitar World. St. Vincent is on the cover of the February issue.
“I did a quick Google search of women on the cover, and all I really saw was girls in bikinis holding guitars like they’ve never held a guitar before,” says Clark. “I started thinking about that and just wanted to make my own absurdist comment on it. I couldn’t really let it slide without poking a bit of fun and taking the piss a little!”
You had me at “Two Women Smooching Nakedly In Bed.” =)
I’ve seen Kedi and it was adorable! I think all the cats love but I can’t remember, either way there are so many cats. One is a foodie who would visit a fancy restaurant and they would give it manchego cheese.
Did you even read the article you link to about the BBC Pitch Perfect show? It’s a reality contest so I’m not sure who the “characters” will be and what the “canon” will consist of there…
In fact, I did read it! What I was doing was making a joke.
Am I the only media-obsessed lesbian on earth for whom the statement “Lexa will literally never die” sounds like a fucking nightmare? Of all the flat, bland, racist, narratively inconsequential, racist, brownface lesbians to get riled up about, y’all…
Yeah, probably
I don’t particularly care about Lexa (probably because I wasn’t watching the show at the time it all happened, and now won’t), but I care that others care, and that their passion has raised new awareness of the BYG trope, and the death of lesbians on-screen in particular.
This. Also same, never watched the 100 and now I never will
Ooh racist x 2
I. Marlene King’s new show have ladies kissing in the promos, a new one came out recently.
Tracer of Overwatch (game) has a girlfriend, they released one of their short comics about it yesterday – was sweet.
There is a relationship of interest on Humans season 2, *SPOILERS* they are featured in half the episodes of the season (though, the show has a lot of storylines) and they have a happy ending.
I’m soooo excited for Tracer! She’s literally *the character on the packaging* for Overwatch, which, non-gaming folks: Overwatch has a competitive scene and is by the same people who make World of Warcraft. It’s kind of a big deal. <3 <3 <3
I think the Sense8 Christmas special comes out on the 23, so it’s not out to watch yet(at least not for us consumers).
I for one am disappointed not to see Ellen Page play a zucchini.
I wished she played a cucumber and made a video of cats being scared of her
Oh, those Kings keep trying to entice me back to their franchise but I’m still holding a grudge over what they did to Kalinda.
Shonda Rhimes is the QUEEN of doing interviews and not saying anything at all. It’s clear that Rhimes adores Sara, though, and that whenever Sara’s had enough of a break, she’ll be welcomed back at Seattle Grace.
Pecola! Will you email me? heather at autostraddle dot com
Done.
“Is bisexual human Sara Ramirez coming back to Grey’s Anatomy to play bisexual human Callie Torres? Shonda Rhimes answered that question and a whole other question about Arizona’s new love life over at TV Line.”
Did Shinya really answer anything or give us the run around like she normally does? She was asked flat out if she has a plan in mind to bring Sara/Callie back and her answer was just I love Sara and I love Callie. And when asked how Calzona compares to Arizona and Eliza she also just said she couldn’t comment on something that is just a flirtation right now.
And hey Heather, are you still writing the weekly Boobs on your Tube? Haven’t seen any for a few weeks.
This seems relevant to the Pop Culture Fix, so I’ll share it here: It was announced today (http://www.broadway.com/buzz/187149/falsettos-marches-to-your-home-broadway-revival-will-air-on-pbs-live-from-lincoln-center/) that the Broadway revival of Falsettos is going to be filmed for PBS’s Live at Lincoln Center, so everyone gets to see this absolute GEM of a production from the comfort of their own homes! I’m so excited for people across the country to get to know this “tight-knit family” (especially our favourite lesbians from next door, Dr. Charlotte and Cordelia–Betsy Wolfe and Tracie Thoms were featured in a past Pop Culture Fix just a few weeks ago!) and this story that taught me so much about how being an out queer individual is an act of bravery. I love this show, I LOVE this production, I love this CAST, and I’m so excited that this show gets to be preserved forever!
Rose Leslie! Eeeep!
I would appreciate if you guys could explain the hype for Handmaid’s Tale to me. A show about women forced into sexual slavery sounds neither exciting nor must-watch TV to me. It sounds excruciating in fact. Why should I be excited?
The book describes a type of dystopia that feels very relevant, especially with the way U.S. politics are currently going. It’s not just about women being forced into sexual slavery (btw, the main character mentions in the book that she wasn’t even exactly forced into that; she had a choice between different roles, and chose that one). It’s about life under an authoritarian Christian government in the former US, which came to power by slowly taking rights away from people, especially women, in the name of keeping people safe from threats like Islamic terrorism. Here’s a few quotes that a friend of mine picked out as relevant post-election:
“Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it. There were stories in the newspapers, of course, corpses in ditches or the woods, bludgeoned to death or mutilated, interfered with, as they used to say, but they were about other women, and the men who did such things were other men.”
“It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.
…
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets.”
“We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
And it’s about not only the horrors of life under that society, but also the ways that people resist. Sure, there’s plenty that’s depressing, but I wouldn’t consider it constant misery. Parts of it could be read as reassuring: even in this kind of world that makes it as hard as possible for people to make genuine connections, to resist, to escape, some manage it. To steal from Wikipedia: “The Handmaid’s Tale explores themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they gain agency.”
On a lighter note, I would consider Samira Wiley alone enough reason to be excited for it.
Also, if you’re thinking about the type of gratuitous rape scenes that are all too common in movies and TV these days, The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t really have those (or shouldn’t, if they’re being faithful to the book). The government-mandated sex is really just portrayed as a profoundly… awkward and lonely and weird thing?
I appreciate this info. Thank you. :) Still sounds like nothing I want to subject myself to. Especially not with President scum-fuck taking office. I’ve kind of had enough with women in subjugation stories on TV. Game Of Thrones alone has given us enough of that for a few decades. It’s kind of like how we’re done with stories of queer women in misery. That’s not the only story they could tell but they keep coming back to it. It’s played out for me.
Everything platypus said. The Handmaid’s Tale by (recently problematic) Margaret Atwood is my favorite book and one that I’ve been reading at least every other year since I was 19 in 1999; it’s always felt relevant to me, regardless of who the president has been. No matter how great the Hulu adaptation might end up being, I’d recommend reading the book first. That said, I can totally understand not being in a place to want to read this book.
I’m pretty sure “My life as a zucchini” is Swiss/French and not Swedish.
As a Swiss film studies major I can definitely say that My Life as a Zucchini is not Swedish. Although confusing Switzerland with Sweden is a fairly common mistake :)
It is a never-ending struggle trying to explain the difference between Sweden and Switzerland indeed ;) and also: hello fellow Swiss human on Autostraddle!
If you can not mix up Texas and Georgia, you can not mix up Sweden and Switzerland, who are not even that close to each other. Autostraddle does have a problematic history when it comes to European coverage, so this is not an isolated incident, let’s hope it gets bwtter in the future. According to the reader survey almost 20 % of AS’s readers live in Europe.
I watched the christmas special for the return of Last Tango in Halifax. It’s a return to form after what was soap opera last season. Carolina also has a new love interest.
A female love interest? I saw that there was a christmas episode but I haven’t finished the last series and didn’t know whether to give it a go?
Yes, a female love interest. TBH, I don’t really like her so far. She is nothing like Kate, which I suppose is the point the writers want to make. But I just find her REALLY obnoxious.
I do like her because she is very loud and dosen’t have any kind of filter which makes her a good foil to the cool and collected Caroline.
I can’t wait to see Hidden Figures in theaters. I’m from Huntsville, Alabama which is the space capital of the US and have never heard their stories before. Even in my engineering classes they weren’t mentioned. Hope it kills at the box office and everyone knows their names!
Shonda Rhimes is one of my dream Autostraddle interviews. That and Ellen DeGeneres.
I love that subtle throwback to the Great Sausage Party Debacle of 2016 *laughing/weeping emoji*
What is with calling a lesbian storyline “queer”. This is dishonest and politically transparent. The storyline is clearly lesbian and the writer needs to learn to do research or stop writing fictions.
Hey there little porcupine. Rose Leslie’s character is said to be a lesbian from the source this edition of Pop Culture Fix links us to, but it says nothing about her character Maia’s unnamed girlfriend. Other than that she exists and is in steady relationship with Maia.
So using queer is a curtesy to the unnamed character who’s identity we know nothing about.
Do you have a problem with curtesy?
What I called it was a storyline that will “prominently feature two lesbian, bisexual, gay, homosexual, or otherwise queer-identified women.” Because of how the writers have said one character is a lesbian and haven’t said how the other one identifies.