LIBRARY WITHOUT DUST
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Television
  • Music
  • Films
  • Books
  • Fandom

Queer Nostalgia and LGBT Young Adult Fiction

3/13/2017

 
Picture
Image: Hannah Burton/Bustle 
I've just had a piece published in Bustle on the queer nostalgia of reading LGBTQ+ YA fiction as an adult. Check it out if you, like me, were a teen of the 90s and if you love reading LGBTQ+ YA and discovering new books as well as reminiscing about old favourites. Remember Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High? Yep, they get a mention.

The article can be found HERE.

Queerbaiting and Heteronormativity in Television

3/10/2017

 
Picture
Queerbaiting is a complicated topic with nuances which take some significant space to grapple with in detail. There are concerns with linking shipping with LGBTQ+ activism, complexities around drawing a distinction between queerbaiting and homoerotic subtext, discourse around why certain pairings become such fandom behemoths and arguments which suggest investment in shipping those characters pushes shows with plenty of LGBTQ+ visibility to the margins. Then of course there's the issue of ace erasure and a desire for more platonic male intimacy in pop culture in general.

Despite these complexities I attempt to reframe the debate in this short piece for The Mary Sue, with reference to a simple bugbear of mine. Why does desire for romantic endgames for same-sex pairings get side-eyed, when the same is rarely true when people hope for a romantic culmination to the story arcs of an opposite sex pairing? What does assumed heterosexuality of mainstream television characters and arguments which insist a character is 'straight' tell us about a general lack of LGBTQ+ diversity in television, bierasure and heteronormativity in the mainstream?

​The article can be found HERE.


Dragging popular Culture Through Cosplay

1/4/2017

 
Picture
Lee Roberts cosplaying as Mr Clever from Doctor Who episode Nightmare in Silver
Image: Juarez Films and Photography
Well, it's been a much busier December than anticipated. With the holidays, a PhD proposal and a chapter for a Harry Potter book to submit, lots of overdue fanfiction and two assessed essays to work on, I haven't found as much time for my blog as I had hoped. However, I did have the pleasure of recently of writing for The Mary Sue on Cosplay, Drag and the Transformative Nature of Living Out Your Fandom. 
​

​A very happy 2017 to you all.

Book Review: Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan

12/2/2016

 
Picture
1 December marks World AIDS Day and this book remains one of my favourite pieces of YA fiction that tackles the subject of the AIDS pandemic. It has a unique narrative voice and it brings two different generations together in a poetic, powerful and poignant way.

Full review can be found HERE.

Strangest of the Strange: Queering 'Stranger Things'

9/6/2016

 
Picture
I've thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Netflix Original series Stranger Things. If you would like to read my queer perspectives on and initial thoughts you can find my review HERE.

PUBLICATION UPDATE: Since posting these rough early thoughts, my analysis has been updated and expanded to take into account Season 2. That analysis, 'AIDS, Homophobia and the Monstrous Upside Down' has been published in an edited collection Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Innocence and Cynicism in the Series (2018, ed. Kevin J. Wetmore). You can buy the book from Amazon HERE.

Revisiting HBO's 'Looking' - representation, Responsibility and LGBT Television

6/27/2016

 
Picture
In anticipation of Looking: The Movie which premiers at 10PM on 23 July 2016 on HBO, I discuss why I am a big fan of the original television series, Looking, and my expectations for the upcoming film. I also discuss the inevitable comparisons between Looking and Queer as Folk and touch briefly on the burden of responsibility which critics and fans place on LGBTQ+ television. 

You can read the full piece HERE.

Orlando

6/17/2016

0 Comments

 
This week's massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando was a direct attack on LGBTQ+ people and predominately queer people of colour. The bars which have provided a safe space for generations of LGBTQ+ people were violated again. Again, because it is not the first time these spaces have come under threat. LGBTQ+ spaces are constantly under threat from closure, but as recent events have highlighted, the threat of violence also remains. Whether people attack with bombs like the nail bomb at Soho's Admiral Duncan pub in England, firearms like those used in the Pulse shooting in America, or their fists because individuals dare to hold hands walking down the street or kiss in public.

Read More
0 Comments

YA Fiction: What's the Issue?

3/15/2016

 
Picture
I discuss why I think we still need LGBTQ coming out and coming of age stories and why 'issues' based YA still matters.  

READ DISCUSSION HERE

Series Review: Don't ever wipe tears without gloves

12/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I have reviewed the award-winning Swedish television drama Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves to coincide with World AIDS Day on 1 December 2015.  

Full review HERE. 
0 Comments

What About the 'B' Word? Bisexual Erasure from 'The L Word' to 'Orange is the New Black'

11/4/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Discussion of bisexual erasure and biphobia in popular LGBT television.

DISCUSSION POST HERE.
1 Comment
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Categories

    All
    Analysis
    Bisexuality
    Long Post
    Music
    Personal
    Rainbow Capitalism

    Archives

    August 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015

Proudly powered by Weebly