Queering the world: robbing those pesky cis-hets
As members of the “alphabet mafia” are well aware of, Queerness is often coded —think Miguel and Tulio from Road to El Dorado— and countless Disney villains. Because Queerness exists and manifests itself in both metaphysical and physical ways—and in tandem with both Queerphobia and heteronormativity—only a fraction of the world is Queer.
Oftentimes, it is necessary for folks to decode their own identities, be sanitized for the cis masses, or even isolated from society at large. So, due to slim pickings, and the violent act that is negating or denying Queerness in lieu of heterosexual monotony, I’ve decided to claim and reclaim various worldly things because lets be honest, the world is a bit gayer than we think.
I’m declaring that the entire costume design of “Selena: The Series” “Jawbreaker,” and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal 1973 film, “The Holy Mountain,” are now Queer.
Why you might ask? Well, for “Selena: The Series,” that’s an easy answer because both she and Hunter Reese Peña are, to put it simply, too iconic to not be Queer. The aesthetic of “Jawbreaker” marinates camp, 1990’s meta-chic, and deviant sensuality. Such a mash-up created looks that can only be described as Queer.
Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain” is a peek into 1970’s bathhouse camp—with a healthy dose of John Waters’ grotesque—avant-garde hench-people uniforms, and heels that screech beauty is pain… definitely a Queer totem.
I’m also declaring that The Patron Saint of Pegging Lady Dimitrescu of Resident Evil Village is Queer for obvious reasons. Retractable claws are one thing, but the wide brim hat and nouveau riche gowns? That entire aesthetic is a giant, neon, capital Q.
Despite Cora— from Mass Effect 3: Andromeda—being an alt-butch Asari commando, an elite soldier, developers cursed her with canonical heterosexuality. Rest assured, here at QueerCor(p)™, we decry lesbian erasure. No longer will fictional characters suffer, Cora is now Queer.
Glitter, high school English teachers, Wynx club, anyone who identifies with Blanche Devereux, coffee shops —cafes are for the French—, the Harpie Lady archetype from Yu-Gi-Oh —the American censorship of their artwork is analogous to Queer erasure—, all of these, they are all Queer.
Prince Wu from Legend of Korra? Besides serving himself up on silk sheets to his bodyguard, he’s got a back-arch, that gets you the rainbow stamp.
Deconstructing and Queering the world is key to liberation, Queerness must blend into the fabric of reality. With a reality that creates spaces of radical love and acceptance, liberation will be a world where Queer bodies are just bodies, not crimes.
