WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.993
(electronic boom)
2
00:00:00.993 --> 00:00:04.060
When I was a kid, I was super into Superman.
3
00:00:04.060 --> 00:00:05.300 line:15%
We grab on to our heroes
4
00:00:05.300 --> 00:00:06.890 line:15%
that are a little bit like us.
5
00:00:06.890 --> 00:00:08.640
There's the appeal of just seeing someone
6
00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:13.110
who's fully able to gallivant across the world, you know?
7
00:00:13.110 --> 00:00:14.840
The whole spying genre,
8
00:00:14.840 --> 00:00:15.953 line:15%
there's something inherently
9
00:00:15.953 --> 00:00:17.780
queer about that.
10
00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:20.650
That was really big for me was women kicking ass.
11
00:00:20.650 --> 00:00:22.320
Linda Hamilton did it first.
12
00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:23.153
Power Rangers.
13
00:00:23.153 --> 00:00:24.797
I was mesmerized with this idea
14
00:00:24.797 --> 00:00:26.260
of such a quick transformation.
15
00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:28.610
It's fun to look at these people but the end of the day,
16
00:00:28.610 --> 00:00:29.840
I'm Jean Gray.
17
00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:31.910
This is the AV Club's Why We Love,
18
00:00:31.910 --> 00:00:34.830
an examination into the sometimes subconscious reasons
19
00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:37.010
we're drawn to our pop culture obsessions.
20
00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:38.560
In this special Pride Edition,
21
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:39.890
celebrities and thought leaders
22
00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:42.250
look back at the action heroes they emulated
23
00:00:42.250 --> 00:00:44.530
for more than just their heroic deeds.
24
00:00:44.530 --> 00:00:46.270
Beyond the spandex and gadgets,
25
00:00:46.270 --> 00:00:49.510
these figures helped LGBTQ people navigate who they were
26
00:00:49.510 --> 00:00:51.030
and who they wanted to be.
27
00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:53.800
This is Why We Love, Pride Edition.
28
00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:56.380 line:15%
The 1980s had this
29
00:00:56.380 --> 00:01:00.550 line:15%
late cold war roided-up mentality
30
00:01:00.550 --> 00:01:02.170
that shaped my sexual tastes
31
00:01:02.170 --> 00:01:03.600
more than I am comfortable with.
32
00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:06.365
But so much of it was He-Man and super heroes.
33
00:01:06.365 --> 00:01:07.198
♪ He Man ♪
34
00:01:07.198 --> 00:01:08.240
They were ripped,
35
00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:12.090
they wore clothes that just clung to all of their parts,
36
00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:14.544
and if you were going to draw something
37
00:01:14.544 --> 00:01:16.480
that was sort of what you were supposed to draw,
38
00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:20.900
so it really was the earliest comfortable sexual ideation
39
00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:22.350
that I was able to do,
40
00:01:22.350 --> 00:01:25.900
it really did infect my sexual fantasies
41
00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:27.663
for the first couple of years.
42
00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:33.273 line:15%
The thrill and escapism resonated really strongly with me.
43
00:01:33.273 --> 00:01:37.430 line:15%
I was super into the Batmans that no-one else was into.
44
00:01:37.430 --> 00:01:40.343 line:15%
I love Joel Schumacher Batman movies.
45
00:01:41.381 --> 00:01:42.470
(metallic crunch)
46
00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:44.400
That is not the popular opinion.
47
00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:45.630
I love Uma Thurman,
48
00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:46.570
do I love Uma Thurman
49
00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:49.500
when she's got leaves for eyebrows more?
50
00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:50.333
Yes!
51
00:01:50.333 --> 00:01:52.170
You two boys aren't gonna start fighting
52
00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:54.000
over little ol' me now are you?
53
00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.340
When it came down to identifying with
54
00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:58.990
or imagining myself a super hero,
55
00:01:58.990 --> 00:02:02.160
it was always the lady empathy powers.
56
00:02:02.160 --> 00:02:03.460
It's fun to look at these people
57
00:02:03.460 --> 00:02:06.080
but at the end of the day, I'm Jean Gray.
58
00:02:06.080 --> 00:02:07.960 line:15%
For a very long time, my favorite color
59
00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:10.390 line:15%
kind of depended on the Power Ranger.
60
00:02:10.390 --> 00:02:11.810
I'd say my favorite color's red
61
00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:14.050
because I really wanted to be the red Power Ranger.
62
00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:15.320
I wanted to be that one.
63
00:02:15.320 --> 00:02:19.250
Rogue, Rogue, Rogue, Rogue.
64
00:02:19.250 --> 00:02:20.373
I'm Rogue.
65
00:02:21.260 --> 00:02:22.500
I don't know if you heard my answer.
66
00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:26.120
Ultimately very powerful but it means she's set apart.
67
00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:27.910
Congratulations to Disney
68
00:02:27.910 --> 00:02:31.597
for finding the plot of Frozen in Rogue's story.
69
00:02:31.597 --> 00:02:33.130
Yeah, I think that feels very queer.
70
00:02:33.130 --> 00:02:34.440
That feels like a queer kid.
71
00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:37.510
I also was really obsessed with Colossus as a kid.
72
00:02:37.510 --> 00:02:41.740
His powers he just gets bigger and more made of metal,
73
00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:43.927
but for being a little guy, that was--
74
00:02:43.927 --> 00:02:46.910
if I played the arcade game I was always Colossus.
75
00:02:46.910 --> 00:02:47.970
I think all kids
76
00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:50.690
try out different relationships to gender,
77
00:02:50.690 --> 00:02:52.630
or start to begin to see
78
00:02:52.630 --> 00:02:54.900 line:15%
where they can map themselves
79
00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:57.840 line:15%
on to the spectrum of genders that they encounter
80
00:02:59.835 --> 00:03:00.750 line:15%
before online culture began
81
00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:03.130
we had to find avatars.
82
00:03:03.130 --> 00:03:06.400
We had to find figures that we could project ourselves into.
83
00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:08.880
I was super into Superman,
84
00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:11.453
so when I was around four years old,
85
00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:14.160
I basically ran around the house
86
00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:16.490
with a towel tucked behind my t-shirt.
87
00:03:16.490 --> 00:03:18.950
Superman moves from Clark Kent to Superman,
88
00:03:18.950 --> 00:03:22.070
I wanted to move from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
89
00:03:22.070 --> 00:03:24.750
And just shoving a towel down the back of my shirt,
90
00:03:24.750 --> 00:03:26.670
and that little bit of fantasy,
91
00:03:26.670 --> 00:03:27.690
that little bit of play,
92
00:03:27.690 --> 00:03:31.630
that little bit of costume joy
93
00:03:31.630 --> 00:03:33.350
helped me do that.
94
00:03:33.350 --> 00:03:36.954
I learned all the morphing sequences for Power Rangers
95
00:03:36.954 --> 00:03:38.165
for a really long time.
96
00:03:38.165 --> 00:03:40.000
(laughs)
97
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.920
That was at a time when I wasn't out as trans,
98
00:03:41.920 --> 00:03:46.380
I was just a very masculine tomboy,
99
00:03:46.380 --> 00:03:49.730
and I'm sure on some level it was about masculinity
100
00:03:49.730 --> 00:03:51.570
and about super heroes.
101
00:03:51.570 --> 00:03:55.223
In my eight year old brain being really excited
102
00:03:55.223 --> 00:03:56.410
that girl Power Rangers,
103
00:03:56.410 --> 00:03:58.440
some of them kicked butt
104
00:03:58.440 --> 00:03:59.550
but then they were in skirts,
105
00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:00.383
and I just remember being--
106
00:04:00.383 --> 00:04:01.253 line:15%
I don't want that.
107
00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:03.113 line:15%
What purpose does a skirt serve
108
00:04:03.113 --> 00:04:05.480
if you're already all suited up?
109
00:04:05.480 --> 00:04:06.920
Does it make your kicks any better?
110
00:04:06.920 --> 00:04:08.088
I don't think so.
111
00:04:08.088 --> 00:04:11.160
It was more their hero costumes,
112
00:04:11.160 --> 00:04:14.296
I remember being so fascinated
113
00:04:14.296 --> 00:04:16.190
and I knew in my eight year old brain
114
00:04:16.190 --> 00:04:17.460
that they weren't just a flash
115
00:04:17.460 --> 00:04:19.120
and they were in their costumes
116
00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:20.810
I knew there had to be editing, all these things,
117
00:04:20.810 --> 00:04:22.530
but I was mesmerized by this idea
118
00:04:22.530 --> 00:04:24.810
of such a quick transformation.
119
00:04:24.810 --> 00:04:26.140
It's not an accident
120
00:04:26.140 --> 00:04:29.600
that so many of these categories
121
00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.350
of the things that we love
122
00:04:31.350 --> 00:04:35.050
have to do with exploring a public self
123
00:04:35.050 --> 00:04:36.590
and a private self.
124
00:04:36.590 --> 00:04:39.430
Knowing when you could be a certain way
125
00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:43.640
in the broader culture and when you did your true work,
126
00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:45.930
what you were there and called to this earth for,
127
00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:47.440
like you were there spying,
128
00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:50.120
you were there Karate chopping villains
129
00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:52.923
all the Charlie's Angels and that kind of thing.
130
00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:55.560
The whole spying genre,
131
00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:58.630 line:15%
there's something inherently queer about that,
132
00:04:58.630 --> 00:05:01.440
spy stories are inherently stories
133
00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:02.980
about the search for identity,
134
00:05:02.980 --> 00:05:06.210
because often spies are having a crisis of identity.
135
00:05:06.210 --> 00:05:07.700
It's very existential,
136
00:05:07.700 --> 00:05:09.800
you know, what am I doing this job for?
137
00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:11.700
Why am I doing all these horrible things?
138
00:05:11.700 --> 00:05:13.490
I spend day in, day out,
139
00:05:13.490 --> 00:05:16.240
disguised using aliases,
140
00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.280
when I can't really be myself.
141
00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:21.330
When masculinity is expressed
142
00:05:21.330 --> 00:05:23.765
within a spectrum that is about this wide
143
00:05:23.765 --> 00:05:24.598
(laughs)
144
00:05:24.598 --> 00:05:26.850
the things that Bond cares about
145
00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:30.770
are things that I think we now sort of position
146
00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:32.000
within the queer community.
147
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:33.110
He cares about what he wears,
148
00:05:33.110 --> 00:05:34.930
he cares about how it fits him,
149
00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:39.690
he cares about how he moves through a room,
150
00:05:39.690 --> 00:05:42.240
he's very in his body
151
00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.690
and wearing trim, tailored things.
152
00:05:45.690 --> 00:05:47.770 line:15%
It's fun just seeing a character
153
00:05:47.770 --> 00:05:51.000 line:15%
who seems to have some sense of style.
154
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:52.870
There's the appeal of just seeing someone
155
00:05:52.870 --> 00:05:57.847
who's fully able to gallivant across the world.
156
00:05:57.847 --> 00:06:00.700
The fact that that person is straight
157
00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:05.240
I think bought a lot of men across the board
158
00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.610
some larger expression.
159
00:06:07.610 --> 00:06:10.530
Halle Berry, I was obsessed with Halle Berry,
160
00:06:10.530 --> 00:06:14.011 line:15%
like will literally risk it all for Halle Berry.
161
00:06:14.011 --> 00:06:14.844 line:15%
(laughs)
162
00:06:14.844 --> 00:06:16.470 line:15%
But I remember her walking out of the water
163
00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.955
in that burnt orange bathing suit,
164
00:06:18.955 --> 00:06:22.320
that's iconic, just as much as Bond,
165
00:06:22.320 --> 00:06:24.270
the Bond girls play a significant role
166
00:06:24.270 --> 00:06:26.650
in making those movies significant as well.
167
00:06:26.650 --> 00:06:29.030
There's something really performative
168
00:06:29.030 --> 00:06:31.520
about James Bond's masculinity.
169
00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:33.450
I think that's probably helped by the fact
170
00:06:33.450 --> 00:06:36.660
that six men have played the character.
171
00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:40.160
There's a big difference between those performances
172
00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:43.900
and I think that probably appealed to me.
173
00:06:43.900 --> 00:06:46.660
I saw that James Bond could change,
174
00:06:46.660 --> 00:06:47.950
he was constantly undergoing
175
00:06:47.950 --> 00:06:49.780
something of an identity crisis,
176
00:06:49.780 --> 00:06:51.840
I've never had an issue with that.
177
00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:54.740
I think it is because I've always seen James Bond
178
00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:56.623
as performing in a way.
179
00:06:57.529 --> 00:07:00.612
(punches and grunts)
180
00:07:05.714 --> 00:07:07.447
(thumps)
181
00:07:07.447 --> 00:07:09.167
(thumps)
182
00:07:09.167 --> 00:07:10.700
Watching Xena as it was airing
183
00:07:10.700 --> 00:07:13.070
definitely did something to my brain.
184
00:07:13.070 --> 00:07:15.890 line:15%
I was like this lady is cool and she has a sword
185
00:07:15.890 --> 00:07:19.520 line:15%
and she fights, I was really into medieval times
186
00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:21.430 line:15%
and Dungeons and Dragons and whatever.
187
00:07:21.430 --> 00:07:24.240
But also these ladies sleep next to each other
188
00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:25.730
every single night
189
00:07:25.730 --> 00:07:28.150
on their single bed roll
190
00:07:28.150 --> 00:07:30.090
under their single fur.
191
00:07:30.090 --> 00:07:30.923
What's up?
192
00:07:30.923 --> 00:07:32.910
We had reality
193
00:07:32.910 --> 00:07:36.510
or everyone's personally curated version of reality
194
00:07:36.510 --> 00:07:40.810
being jammed into our rods and cones non-stop
195
00:07:40.810 --> 00:07:43.260
all day, every day, scroll, scroll, scroll.
196
00:07:43.260 --> 00:07:46.090
And there's something kind of purifying
197
00:07:46.090 --> 00:07:49.100
about stepping into a world
198
00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:51.550
where evil is more clearly defined.
199
00:07:51.550 --> 00:07:53.670
And the ways in which you fight evil
200
00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:55.780
are more clearly defined.
201
00:07:55.780 --> 00:07:57.160
And the good guys usually win.
202
00:07:57.160 --> 00:07:59.430
I guess one of the big turning points for me
203
00:07:59.430 --> 00:08:02.520
when my mind felt fully blown in a really big way
204
00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:05.800
was seeing Buffy the movie.
205
00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:07.560
I remember seeing that with my older sisters
206
00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:08.750
and their older friends
207
00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:11.360
and I think it kicked off this whole obsession with--
208
00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.749
I was obsessed with women who did back flips
209
00:08:13.749 --> 00:08:15.620
and who kicked ass.
210
00:08:15.620 --> 00:08:17.130
And it just became this whole genre
211
00:08:17.130 --> 00:08:18.970
and whenever that happened on screen
212
00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:20.700
I was just fully drawn to it.
213
00:08:20.700 --> 00:08:24.590
Another huge thing for me was in that same world
214
00:08:24.590 --> 00:08:26.010
but a little bit grittier
215
00:08:26.010 --> 00:08:30.070
Linda Hamilton in Terminator two was huge for me.
216
00:08:30.070 --> 00:08:32.450
And she also had that son who felt kind of gay
217
00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:35.280
but I'm not sure if he was, they never specified.
218
00:08:35.280 --> 00:08:37.140
Here's why Terminator one and two
219
00:08:37.140 --> 00:08:40.530
is one of the most interesting sequel situations
220
00:08:40.530 --> 00:08:42.680
of all time is that the damsel in distress
221
00:08:42.680 --> 00:08:44.080
becomes the hunter.
222
00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:45.990
That just doesn't happen.
223
00:08:45.990 --> 00:08:49.190
Even in Alien, Ripley's kind of a bad ass
224
00:08:49.190 --> 00:08:50.060
from the beginning.
225
00:08:50.060 --> 00:08:53.020
The idea that then "Oh my God" a female terminator
226
00:08:53.020 --> 00:08:54.840
it just brought the whole thing full circle.
227
00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:56.710
But the fact that she's doing the chin ups
228
00:08:56.710 --> 00:08:59.640
in the mental institution, that's all amazing.
229
00:08:59.640 --> 00:09:01.920
I'd never seen a woman doing pull ups on the screen before
230
00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:03.400
and that felt so powerful.
231
00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:06.630
They could kick ass but they could also be feminine,
232
00:09:06.630 --> 00:09:10.080
and they could say stuff about hair products
233
00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.240
and they could wear fabulous clothes
234
00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:13.680
and they could go shopping at the mall
235
00:09:13.680 --> 00:09:15.740
but then also kill a demon.
236
00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:18.200
It felt like everything I loved
237
00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.140
sort of like wrapped into one.
238
00:09:20.140 --> 00:09:21.670
Feels like it's telling my story
239
00:09:21.670 --> 00:09:25.860
even though I'm not a woman nor do I slay demons,
240
00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:27.960
it felt like it was tapping into something
241
00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:30.330
that was true.
242
00:09:30.330 --> 00:09:31.350
I think pop culture,
243
00:09:31.350 --> 00:09:33.870
what it does is that it gives us
244
00:09:33.870 --> 00:09:36.180
different pictures of gender,
245
00:09:36.180 --> 00:09:38.510
different idealizations of that
246
00:09:38.510 --> 00:09:42.330
through whatever society values at that given moment,
247
00:09:42.330 --> 00:09:44.540
but it also shows us moments
248
00:09:44.540 --> 00:09:48.080
that push up against what's valued by mainstream culture
249
00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.020
and the broader society.
250
00:09:50.020 --> 00:09:52.901 line:15%
My sci-fi example would be Doctor Who.
251
00:09:52.901 --> 00:09:56.020 line:15%
Shows like that though are all about awakening.
252
00:09:56.020 --> 00:09:57.900
Now the Doctor is a woman,
253
00:09:57.900 --> 00:10:00.130
but also is she or are they?
254
00:10:00.130 --> 00:10:02.450
Is my own non-binary insertion
255
00:10:02.450 --> 00:10:04.470
because the Doctor's able to regenerate,
256
00:10:04.470 --> 00:10:07.310
which is like an ability for actors
257
00:10:07.310 --> 00:10:10.700
to take over the role and let it exist for decades,
258
00:10:10.700 --> 00:10:14.600
but also is a way to think about the many facets
259
00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:16.000
that we have inside of ourselves,
260
00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:16.833
because each Doctor
261
00:10:16.833 --> 00:10:18.630
has a slightly different personality.
262
00:10:18.630 --> 00:10:21.630
They're not trying to be the same guy or person.
263
00:10:21.630 --> 00:10:23.790
I really appreciate sci-fi shows like that
264
00:10:23.790 --> 00:10:26.290
that are able to be like well who can you be now?
265
00:10:26.290 --> 00:10:27.780
Charmed was how I found my name.
266
00:10:27.780 --> 00:10:29.270
I was at a time where I was coming out
267
00:10:29.270 --> 00:10:31.030
and trying to figure out what my name--
268
00:10:31.030 --> 00:10:32.870
what fit and I looked at Charmed
269
00:10:32.870 --> 00:10:35.451
and I was like this character's name is Leo,
270
00:10:35.451 --> 00:10:37.570
maybe I'm not trying to be a paragon of good
271
00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:39.050
but I wanna be a good person
272
00:10:39.050 --> 00:10:42.060
and I want to have a well-developed moral compass
273
00:10:42.060 --> 00:10:44.344
and I felt like he represented that.
274
00:10:44.344 --> 00:10:46.053
I feel like he represented also
275
00:10:46.053 --> 00:10:48.024
in terms of a magical world
276
00:10:48.024 --> 00:10:50.363
and fantasy world's so male-dominated or men-dominated
277
00:10:50.363 --> 00:10:53.504
he's a man on this show but he's not the leading man.
278
00:10:53.504 --> 00:10:55.512
He often deferred to the judgment
279
00:10:55.512 --> 00:10:57.733
of the people he worked with who were women.
280
00:10:57.733 --> 00:10:58.940 line:15%
That's what's so cool about pop culture
281
00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:01.397 line:15%
in its own little way, and what it means,
282
00:11:01.397 --> 00:11:04.589 line:15%
especially to people who are "othered",
283
00:11:04.589 --> 00:11:07.343
what pop culture means to us is really unique and specific.
284
00:11:07.343 --> 00:11:09.250
Because we grab on to our heroes
285
00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:10.820
that are a little bit like us.
286
00:11:10.820 --> 00:11:13.133
Indiana Jones was a big hero of mine.
287
00:11:13.133 --> 00:11:14.980
(orchestral music)
288
00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:17.812
He was this really smart professor during the day,
289
00:11:17.812 --> 00:11:18.732
(punches)
290
00:11:18.732 --> 00:11:19.950
and at night or on the weekends
291
00:11:19.950 --> 00:11:22.200
he'd go and he'd save the Ark of the Covenant
292
00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:24.370
and protect it for people to learn.
293
00:11:24.370 --> 00:11:25.203
What a great--
294
00:11:25.203 --> 00:11:26.407
belongs in a museum, right?
295
00:11:26.407 --> 00:11:28.000
What a great moment.
296
00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:29.970
Back to the Future was another moment.
297
00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:30.853
1955?
298
00:11:35.890 --> 00:11:36.870
You're my mo--
299
00:11:36.870 --> 00:11:39.663
I just saw myself in Marty.
300
00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:42.680
Whether it was that I was already that,
301
00:11:42.680 --> 00:11:43.970
or that I wanted to be that,
302
00:11:43.970 --> 00:11:44.803
I don't really know,
303
00:11:44.803 --> 00:11:45.636 line:15%
it's probably both.
304
00:11:45.636 --> 00:11:47.610 line:15%
It's just the queer experience
305
00:11:47.610 --> 00:11:49.350 line:15%
of finding yourself in things
306
00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:51.050 line:15%
that don't explicitly include you.
307
00:11:51.050 --> 00:11:54.060
The experience of going, I can take what I like from that,
308
00:11:54.060 --> 00:11:55.350
and I could leave the rest of it,
309
00:11:55.350 --> 00:11:57.010
which is like, I relate to this,
310
00:11:57.010 --> 00:11:59.400
I relate to this person is attracted to me
311
00:11:59.400 --> 00:12:00.233
and they shouldn't be
312
00:12:00.233 --> 00:12:01.066
and this is wrong
313
00:12:01.066 --> 00:12:02.560
so I gotta go somewhere else.
314
00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:03.810
The movie speaks to me
315
00:12:03.810 --> 00:12:07.360
even though it's not written about me for me.
316
00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:12.360 line:15%
Sci-fi for me was an idealized world.
317
00:12:12.890 --> 00:12:14.660
If we're talking about Star Trek,
318
00:12:14.660 --> 00:12:16.060
which is what I was watching.
319
00:12:16.060 --> 00:12:18.980
Star Trek offered a view and a peek
320
00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:23.810
at a future in which someone like me could succeed
321
00:12:23.810 --> 00:12:28.810
and could be an equal member of society with no fear.
322
00:12:29.510 --> 00:12:31.310
It was a prayer in a lot of ways.
323
00:12:31.310 --> 00:12:34.500
It was a way of having a conversation with myself
324
00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:38.560
about how to get our world closer to that one.
325
00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:39.960
Sometimes it's aspirational,
326
00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:42.490
sometimes it's something that we wish to be,
327
00:12:42.490 --> 00:12:44.950
but sometimes it's also something that we are
328
00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:46.310
that calls to us.
329
00:12:46.310 --> 00:12:48.710
It could be their confidence,
330
00:12:48.710 --> 00:12:49.780
their sassiness,
331
00:12:49.780 --> 00:12:52.310
their intelligence and incisiveness,
332
00:12:52.310 --> 00:12:54.470
that we recognize about ourselves
333
00:12:54.470 --> 00:12:56.310
that doesn't seem like the thing
334
00:12:56.310 --> 00:12:57.690
that everybody else is,
335
00:12:57.690 --> 00:12:59.800
but that we feel we are.
336
00:12:59.800 --> 00:13:03.550
As queer people, we exercise that creative muscle
337
00:13:03.550 --> 00:13:04.383
a little bit,
338
00:13:04.383 --> 00:13:06.730
perhaps earlier than some people get to,
339
00:13:06.730 --> 00:13:08.530
especially the era that we're talking about,
340
00:13:08.530 --> 00:13:11.030
like now, there's queer characters all the time,
341
00:13:11.030 --> 00:13:12.730
and I'm just like what the hell's going on?
342
00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:17.330
But throughout older stuff you had to dig
343
00:13:17.330 --> 00:13:20.400
and you had to find yourself in it.
344
00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:22.115
I think both are great.
345
00:13:22.115 --> 00:13:24.698
(gentle music)