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https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/fag-wars-how-the-phantom-menace-inspired-a-generation-of-lgbt-youth
Fag Wars: How The Phantom Menace Inspired a Generation of LGBT Youth
by Diana Tourjee And Mitchell Sunderland
MOVIES
DEC 17, 2015
No one likes the Star Wars Episode I prequel, except the transgender and gay fans who showed up at the 1999 premiere. We talked to the fans to find out why the The Phantom Menace is actually an LGBT triumph.
A loud, lanky boy runs across a green field. He falls to the ground, and then a bearded, middle-aged man jumps upon him. The man is trying to save the kid, who has fallen, but the boy just giggles and shrieks, like a puppy in heat. This isn't a scene from daddy/twink porn or an Xavier Dolan movie. It's from the third act of George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The man is one Qwi Gon Jin, an older, paternal Jedi figure and the boy, of course, is Jar Jar Binks—a controversial character in a film that inspired a generation of LGBT youth.
In the face of mainstream condemnation, many gay and transgender people adore The Phantom Menace. When Episode I debuted in 1999, critics and fans lambasted it. Hostel director Eli Roth said it was "more like A Bug's Life than Star Wars," and a critic for the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "vacillates between ponderous solemnity and a distressing tendency towards silly shtick." An entire generation of gay and trans youth, on the other hand, disagreed with the general dismissal of Lucas' return to their fathers' beloved sci-fi saga.
In the 90s, many parents believed their children would grow up to be just like them: cis breeders. Little did they know that their kids were covert members of a rebel alliance whose mission was to destroy the evil, heteronormative empire. In 1999, fathers brought their sons to The Phantom Menace premiere. They believed they were handing the torch of Star Wars to their prodigies, like a Jedi Master who affectionately trains a young Padawan, or Jedi Initiate. But, much like Obi-Wan was unaware that Anakin would defy the norm and join Senator Palpatine on the Dark Side of the Force, American dads failed to foresee that The Phantom Menace was the forbidden fruit that would tempt their children toward the queer side of life. Sean, a young man in his 20s, remembers watching The Phantom Menace with his dad. He attended a conservative Catholic school, and viewed fantasy films as an escape. Walking out of the theatre, Sean says he asked his father, "Did you like that?"
"No," his dad replied. "No I did not. Did you?"
Sean did. "I liked the insane gay parts," he explains. "Queen Amidala , from a design standpoint, is very campy."
There are queer easter eggs throughout The Phantom Menace. Niv, a trans male dancer and artist in his 20s, says, "Everyone is in drag. That always wins me. Amidala does some fun identity switching too."
Niv and Sean aren't the only queer fans who were moved by the Queen of Naboo. Aimee, a transgender woman, watches all six of the Star Wars films annually and cries every time. Her favorite character is Queen Amidala. In The Phantom Menace, a handmaiden named Sabé (portrayed by Keira Knightly) acts as Padmé's decoy in order distract the Queen's political enemies. To throw the Trade Federation off Padmé's scent, Padmé dons drab brown robes, and Sabé, the decoy, dresses like a drag queen. It's that subterfuge that speaks to Aimee, who lived in secret with her trans female identity for years. "Disguising herself as a handmaiden so as not to reveal her true self, living that double life," Aimee says. "It's certainly something I can relate to."
"Everyone remembers Amidala in the first movie!" Aaron, a twenty-something trans femme Star Wars fan, exclaims. "Like, I still see her referenced as a icon 16 years later. had so many costume changes, and each one hinted at the history and culture of her home world." There was so much meticulous attention to detail, her whole wardrobe is beautiful and fascinating. They look like couture archive pieces. The costume designer made a lot of references to aspects of Japanese and Himalayan traditional costumes. I guess some people would call cultural appropriation, but it's hard for me to arbitrate the line between inspiration and appropriation."
The Phantom Menace was a campy and colorful film, whereas the original trilogy is dark and utilitarian. In Episodes IV, V, and VI culture has been stripped from the Star Wars universe, and there's a reason for that. "It reflects a different and darker time in the galaxy," Aaron explains. "In Episode I you see a different side of Star Wars. The spaceships are sleek and clean, the costumes are rich and elaborate, the cities on Naboo are bright and colorful. It lends a different texture and culture to the galaxy that reflects a happier time. The only things that really appear utilitarian are the exteriors of the Trade Federation's ships, which look very dull, militant, and lifeless."
Sean says that the film's campiness was subversive, because it was in the context of a traditionally masculine, science fiction niche. It made him feel like it was OK to appreciate something that was typically thought of as bad, because it's so gay. Furthermore, the camp of The Phantom Menace intensified because George Lucas believed it would become a classic—he was blissfully unaware of the ridiculousness mainstream society lampooned the film for. In a behind the scenes making of video produced prior to the film's release, Lucas said, "Jar Jar is key to all this."
"Jar Jar Binks is basically a gay Jamaican man," one gay millenial says. " around the time I realized I was gay."
Many transgender Star Wars fans have a complicated, critical relationship to Jar Jar. Niv elaborates, explaining that Jar Jar, "is a caricature of a Jamaican rasta man." As to whether or not the feminine freak could have been a role model for trans kids, Niv doubts it. "The alien humanoids of the Star Wars saga consistently challenge gender binaries, but to say Jar Jar was actually trans would be giving George too much credit. Jar Jar was a cheap jab at black masculinity—call it what it is."
Aaron agrees with Niv's analysis, stating that, "Jar Jar is a problem! I definitely vote no on queer icon. I don't see him as a trans or gay, but maybe asexual and aromantic or something."
For Sean, the contrast between his perception of Jar Jar and the public's reminds him of Faye Dunaway's performance in Mommie Dearest. "I loved the Mommie Dearest of it all," Sean explains. "Faye Dunaway was playing Oscar bait. George Lucas had these new Star Wars films." At the same time, Sean saw depth to the Episode I. In his maligned screenplay, Lucas crafted a complex relationship between Qui-Gon and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. These two characters remind Sean of two archetypal homosexual relationships: priests beside altar boys, and older gay men who date younger guys.
"It's almost an allegory for the young Catholic church; the Jedi counsel taking a young boy and introducing the world to him," Sean says. "There are elements straight people wouldn't understand or discuss. It's creepy: These two older guys show up and give this guy blood tests—that's the movie i want to see!" Anakin is a special kid in part because Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan detect that he has exceptional potential to master the Force. This potential is determined by the number of Midi-chlorians (microscopic lifeforms) in their blood; Anakin's Midi-chlorian count exceeds even that of Master Yoda.
Niv also noticed that pederastic interplay. "Obi-Wan's hair was pretty queer but my suspicions were more focused on the proximity of the two Jedis."
When Jacob, a gay male in his 20s, was preteen, he viewed queer themes in the fandom surrounding the Star Wars prequels. The same way queers obsessed over gay icons, like Madonna or Britney Spears, Star Wars fans dressed up and waited for days to see the movies.
The overarching theme of The Phantom Menace that makes it so appealing to queers is this inclusion of marginalized individuals, like Jar Jar Binks.
Trans fan Aaron also connects with the queer community of Star Wars fandom. "I saw Episode I the day it came out, midnight screening," she says. "I skipped school and waited in line all day. I was too scared and embarrassed to dress up like all the other nerds in line with me though—I've never liked calling too much attention to myself. It was an amazing shared experience, I love that about fandom, it brings people together. It's the sort of thing some people get from religion, but I get it from really good, epic sci-fi."
Jacob says that the queer connection goes deeper still. Although Anakin becomes the murderous Darth Vader in the films following Episode I, he appears as a young child in The Phantom Menace. The Jedi Counsel believes Anakin to be "the one," prophesied to restore balance in the Force, but Anakin worries about his fate. He constantly begs the older Jedis to explain how the world works. Critics have complained about Anakin appearing as a "whiney" kid, the archetypal emo, complaining about Obi-Wan ad nauseam to an ever patient Padmé. Isn't it ironic that stuffy critics would whine about whining? Jacob says he and other gays related to young Anakin's angst.
"Anakin may have been written as this alpha, force-and-hormone crazed boy, but in The Phantom Menace he's reluctant to accept his future as the chosen one," Jacob explains. "That's something that resonates with anyone queer who may have been afraid of, or confused by, the life that they were either already living or just coming to terms with. I guess the overarching theme of The Phantom Menace that makes it so appealing to queers is this inclusion of marginalized individuals, like Jar Jar Binks, against this larger, oppressive entity, that being the Trade Federation and the Sith."
Some LGBT people prefer the other two prequels: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. A cute boy that a Broadly staff member got drinks with (we'll call him Kyle) remembers despising Keira Knightley's drag queen-like character as a little kid. "I thought was dry as hell," Kyle says. " I was obsessed with Hayden Christensen—he was my dream boyfriend." Kyle also obsessed over Anakin's tragic character arc from optimistic slave boy to Darth Vader, who murders young children because the Sith Lord told him it would prevent his love, Padmé, from dying.
"I was obsessed with Darth Vader (generally always into the villain)," Kyle says. "He was vulnerable, but yet so powerful—a very conflicted/complicated character."
Complicated, dark characters are incredibly attractive to queer people, whose coming of age experiences often mirror the trials of misunderstood outcasts, who are perceived as, or forced to become, villains.
"Darth Maul is the real queer icon," Niv assures us. "He was born on a planet ruled by femme witches and was a part of the masculine species called Nightbrothers who are all subs." Though Darth Maul's backstory is minimally addressed in The Phantom Menace, it was elaborated upon in both the CGI series The Clone Wars and in Star Wars literature, such as Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. The ripped, horny devil comes from the planet Dathomir. He and his people, the Nightbrothers, are a male race that lives in total submission to women, the Dathomirian Nightsisters, who are the femme witches to which Niv refers. "Darth Maul is cute," Niv adds. "Mother Talzin, the ruling queen witch of Dathomir, gifts Darth Maul some super human strength, and with that apparently big muscles and little speech, not unlike the muscle head Toms and Brads of normative gay nightlife."
"Darth Sidious fell for Darth Maul," Niv explains, "and 'took him under his wing to master the Force.'" Niv believes that there are "too many innuendos to ignore." The radical, queer aspects that Niv and his contemporaries point out are fundamental to The Phantom Menace. "I wouldn't say this film was a seminal moment for me in my transition, for that I owe to explicitly queer films," Niv says. "Futurity and science fiction are home to so many possibilities for folks of marginal experience."
Feminist art historian and radical 1960s lesbian Camille Paglia is obsessed with the Star Wars prequels, especially Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. In her 2012 book, Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars, she describes the prequel trilogy's finale as one of the best works of art in the past 30 years. Paglia loves both the film's tragic story, and its art history-influenced visuals.
According to the Yale-educated academic, the movie's grand finale combines narrative with intricate imagery. On the '"storm-swept planet of Kamino," Jedi master Obi-Wan Kanobi battles his apprentice Anakin Skywalker over lava.
"The seething reds and yellows of the great lava river and waterfalls (based on Niagara Falls) flood the eye. It is a vision of hell," Paglia writes. "As in Dante, there is an allegorical level: 'I have the high ground,' declares Obi-Wan when he springs to the top of a black sandy slope. Hell, as in Marlowe, Milton, and Blake, is a psychological state—Anakin's self-destructive surrender to possessive love and jealous hate."
Paglia's celebration of the pop masterpiece has baffled many foolish journalists, but gays and trans people like Kyle, Jacob, Aaron, Aimee, Niv, and Sean understand Paglia's theory. Carefully crafted action and sci-fi films can deliver greater emotional moments than most Oscar bait. Lucas' saga is comprised of individual movies that each add to the increasingly rich culture of the Star Wars universe. Many straight moviegoers and critics are dumb, too hetero-normalized to appreciate what is right before their eyes, and what queer people inherently understand.
"What I've consistently found is that journalists or critics who scoff at my huge admiration of Revenge of the Sith (and many do scoff) have never actually seen it!" Paglia tells Broadly in an email. "They simply assume ALL of the Star Wars films have the same and tone of the first one."
Just as Anakin's limbless body writhed and whimpered in horror from the Paglian Hellscape, so too did a generation of gay and transgender youth cry from their seats in movie theaters across America in 1999. The Phantom Menace showed them that there is a place on this planet for trans people and gays. The judgement and generic disdain that straight people and other mainstream critics regurgitate upon Episode I parallels the thoughtless, cruel conformity of homo- and transphobias. Just as the rich cultural landscape of Naboo brought viewers back to a time of joy and peace in the galaxy, so too did The Phantom Menace bring hope and light to queers, whose world has been stripped and sterilized like the gray obelisk fleet of Darth Sidius' evil Galactic Empire.
"I went through a period when I, like many, talked trash about it," Aimee remembers. "But in the end, I am a fan and always will be. The year it came out, my mother bought me a Phantom Menace bathroom set. Shower curtain, trash can, toothbrush and cup. I still have all of them, and the trash can is still in my bathroom to this day."
Fag Wars: How The Phantom Menace Inspired a Generation of LGBT Youth
by Diana Tourjee And Mitchell Sunderland
MOVIES
DEC 17, 2015
No one likes the Star Wars Episode I prequel, except the transgender and gay fans who showed up at the 1999 premiere. We talked to the fans to find out why the The Phantom Menace is actually an LGBT triumph.
A loud, lanky boy runs across a green field. He falls to the ground, and then a bearded, middle-aged man jumps upon him. The man is trying to save the kid, who has fallen, but the boy just giggles and shrieks, like a puppy in heat. This isn't a scene from daddy/twink porn or an Xavier Dolan movie. It's from the third act of George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The man is one Qwi Gon Jin, an older, paternal Jedi figure and the boy, of course, is Jar Jar Binks—a controversial character in a film that inspired a generation of LGBT youth.
In the face of mainstream condemnation, many gay and transgender people adore The Phantom Menace. When Episode I debuted in 1999, critics and fans lambasted it. Hostel director Eli Roth said it was "more like A Bug's Life than Star Wars," and a critic for the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "vacillates between ponderous solemnity and a distressing tendency towards silly shtick." An entire generation of gay and trans youth, on the other hand, disagreed with the general dismissal of Lucas' return to their fathers' beloved sci-fi saga.
In the 90s, many parents believed their children would grow up to be just like them: cis breeders. Little did they know that their kids were covert members of a rebel alliance whose mission was to destroy the evil, heteronormative empire. In 1999, fathers brought their sons to The Phantom Menace premiere. They believed they were handing the torch of Star Wars to their prodigies, like a Jedi Master who affectionately trains a young Padawan, or Jedi Initiate. But, much like Obi-Wan was unaware that Anakin would defy the norm and join Senator Palpatine on the Dark Side of the Force, American dads failed to foresee that The Phantom Menace was the forbidden fruit that would tempt their children toward the queer side of life. Sean, a young man in his 20s, remembers watching The Phantom Menace with his dad. He attended a conservative Catholic school, and viewed fantasy films as an escape. Walking out of the theatre, Sean says he asked his father, "Did you like that?"
"No," his dad replied. "No I did not. Did you?"
Sean did. "I liked the insane gay parts," he explains. "Queen Amidala , from a design standpoint, is very campy."
There are queer easter eggs throughout The Phantom Menace. Niv, a trans male dancer and artist in his 20s, says, "Everyone is in drag. That always wins me. Amidala does some fun identity switching too."
Niv and Sean aren't the only queer fans who were moved by the Queen of Naboo. Aimee, a transgender woman, watches all six of the Star Wars films annually and cries every time. Her favorite character is Queen Amidala. In The Phantom Menace, a handmaiden named Sabé (portrayed by Keira Knightly) acts as Padmé's decoy in order distract the Queen's political enemies. To throw the Trade Federation off Padmé's scent, Padmé dons drab brown robes, and Sabé, the decoy, dresses like a drag queen. It's that subterfuge that speaks to Aimee, who lived in secret with her trans female identity for years. "Disguising herself as a handmaiden so as not to reveal her true self, living that double life," Aimee says. "It's certainly something I can relate to."
"Everyone remembers Amidala in the first movie!" Aaron, a twenty-something trans femme Star Wars fan, exclaims. "Like, I still see her referenced as a icon 16 years later. had so many costume changes, and each one hinted at the history and culture of her home world." There was so much meticulous attention to detail, her whole wardrobe is beautiful and fascinating. They look like couture archive pieces. The costume designer made a lot of references to aspects of Japanese and Himalayan traditional costumes. I guess some people would call cultural appropriation, but it's hard for me to arbitrate the line between inspiration and appropriation."
The Phantom Menace was a campy and colorful film, whereas the original trilogy is dark and utilitarian. In Episodes IV, V, and VI culture has been stripped from the Star Wars universe, and there's a reason for that. "It reflects a different and darker time in the galaxy," Aaron explains. "In Episode I you see a different side of Star Wars. The spaceships are sleek and clean, the costumes are rich and elaborate, the cities on Naboo are bright and colorful. It lends a different texture and culture to the galaxy that reflects a happier time. The only things that really appear utilitarian are the exteriors of the Trade Federation's ships, which look very dull, militant, and lifeless."
Sean says that the film's campiness was subversive, because it was in the context of a traditionally masculine, science fiction niche. It made him feel like it was OK to appreciate something that was typically thought of as bad, because it's so gay. Furthermore, the camp of The Phantom Menace intensified because George Lucas believed it would become a classic—he was blissfully unaware of the ridiculousness mainstream society lampooned the film for. In a behind the scenes making of video produced prior to the film's release, Lucas said, "Jar Jar is key to all this."
"Jar Jar Binks is basically a gay Jamaican man," one gay millenial says. " around the time I realized I was gay."
Many transgender Star Wars fans have a complicated, critical relationship to Jar Jar. Niv elaborates, explaining that Jar Jar, "is a caricature of a Jamaican rasta man." As to whether or not the feminine freak could have been a role model for trans kids, Niv doubts it. "The alien humanoids of the Star Wars saga consistently challenge gender binaries, but to say Jar Jar was actually trans would be giving George too much credit. Jar Jar was a cheap jab at black masculinity—call it what it is."
Aaron agrees with Niv's analysis, stating that, "Jar Jar is a problem! I definitely vote no on queer icon. I don't see him as a trans or gay, but maybe asexual and aromantic or something."
For Sean, the contrast between his perception of Jar Jar and the public's reminds him of Faye Dunaway's performance in Mommie Dearest. "I loved the Mommie Dearest of it all," Sean explains. "Faye Dunaway was playing Oscar bait. George Lucas had these new Star Wars films." At the same time, Sean saw depth to the Episode I. In his maligned screenplay, Lucas crafted a complex relationship between Qui-Gon and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. These two characters remind Sean of two archetypal homosexual relationships: priests beside altar boys, and older gay men who date younger guys.
"It's almost an allegory for the young Catholic church; the Jedi counsel taking a young boy and introducing the world to him," Sean says. "There are elements straight people wouldn't understand or discuss. It's creepy: These two older guys show up and give this guy blood tests—that's the movie i want to see!" Anakin is a special kid in part because Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan detect that he has exceptional potential to master the Force. This potential is determined by the number of Midi-chlorians (microscopic lifeforms) in their blood; Anakin's Midi-chlorian count exceeds even that of Master Yoda.
Niv also noticed that pederastic interplay. "Obi-Wan's hair was pretty queer but my suspicions were more focused on the proximity of the two Jedis."
When Jacob, a gay male in his 20s, was preteen, he viewed queer themes in the fandom surrounding the Star Wars prequels. The same way queers obsessed over gay icons, like Madonna or Britney Spears, Star Wars fans dressed up and waited for days to see the movies.
The overarching theme of The Phantom Menace that makes it so appealing to queers is this inclusion of marginalized individuals, like Jar Jar Binks.
Trans fan Aaron also connects with the queer community of Star Wars fandom. "I saw Episode I the day it came out, midnight screening," she says. "I skipped school and waited in line all day. I was too scared and embarrassed to dress up like all the other nerds in line with me though—I've never liked calling too much attention to myself. It was an amazing shared experience, I love that about fandom, it brings people together. It's the sort of thing some people get from religion, but I get it from really good, epic sci-fi."
Jacob says that the queer connection goes deeper still. Although Anakin becomes the murderous Darth Vader in the films following Episode I, he appears as a young child in The Phantom Menace. The Jedi Counsel believes Anakin to be "the one," prophesied to restore balance in the Force, but Anakin worries about his fate. He constantly begs the older Jedis to explain how the world works. Critics have complained about Anakin appearing as a "whiney" kid, the archetypal emo, complaining about Obi-Wan ad nauseam to an ever patient Padmé. Isn't it ironic that stuffy critics would whine about whining? Jacob says he and other gays related to young Anakin's angst.
"Anakin may have been written as this alpha, force-and-hormone crazed boy, but in The Phantom Menace he's reluctant to accept his future as the chosen one," Jacob explains. "That's something that resonates with anyone queer who may have been afraid of, or confused by, the life that they were either already living or just coming to terms with. I guess the overarching theme of The Phantom Menace that makes it so appealing to queers is this inclusion of marginalized individuals, like Jar Jar Binks, against this larger, oppressive entity, that being the Trade Federation and the Sith."
Some LGBT people prefer the other two prequels: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. A cute boy that a Broadly staff member got drinks with (we'll call him Kyle) remembers despising Keira Knightley's drag queen-like character as a little kid. "I thought was dry as hell," Kyle says. " I was obsessed with Hayden Christensen—he was my dream boyfriend." Kyle also obsessed over Anakin's tragic character arc from optimistic slave boy to Darth Vader, who murders young children because the Sith Lord told him it would prevent his love, Padmé, from dying.
"I was obsessed with Darth Vader (generally always into the villain)," Kyle says. "He was vulnerable, but yet so powerful—a very conflicted/complicated character."
Complicated, dark characters are incredibly attractive to queer people, whose coming of age experiences often mirror the trials of misunderstood outcasts, who are perceived as, or forced to become, villains.
"Darth Maul is the real queer icon," Niv assures us. "He was born on a planet ruled by femme witches and was a part of the masculine species called Nightbrothers who are all subs." Though Darth Maul's backstory is minimally addressed in The Phantom Menace, it was elaborated upon in both the CGI series The Clone Wars and in Star Wars literature, such as Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. The ripped, horny devil comes from the planet Dathomir. He and his people, the Nightbrothers, are a male race that lives in total submission to women, the Dathomirian Nightsisters, who are the femme witches to which Niv refers. "Darth Maul is cute," Niv adds. "Mother Talzin, the ruling queen witch of Dathomir, gifts Darth Maul some super human strength, and with that apparently big muscles and little speech, not unlike the muscle head Toms and Brads of normative gay nightlife."
"Darth Sidious fell for Darth Maul," Niv explains, "and 'took him under his wing to master the Force.'" Niv believes that there are "too many innuendos to ignore." The radical, queer aspects that Niv and his contemporaries point out are fundamental to The Phantom Menace. "I wouldn't say this film was a seminal moment for me in my transition, for that I owe to explicitly queer films," Niv says. "Futurity and science fiction are home to so many possibilities for folks of marginal experience."
Feminist art historian and radical 1960s lesbian Camille Paglia is obsessed with the Star Wars prequels, especially Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. In her 2012 book, Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars, she describes the prequel trilogy's finale as one of the best works of art in the past 30 years. Paglia loves both the film's tragic story, and its art history-influenced visuals.
According to the Yale-educated academic, the movie's grand finale combines narrative with intricate imagery. On the '"storm-swept planet of Kamino," Jedi master Obi-Wan Kanobi battles his apprentice Anakin Skywalker over lava.
"The seething reds and yellows of the great lava river and waterfalls (based on Niagara Falls) flood the eye. It is a vision of hell," Paglia writes. "As in Dante, there is an allegorical level: 'I have the high ground,' declares Obi-Wan when he springs to the top of a black sandy slope. Hell, as in Marlowe, Milton, and Blake, is a psychological state—Anakin's self-destructive surrender to possessive love and jealous hate."
Paglia's celebration of the pop masterpiece has baffled many foolish journalists, but gays and trans people like Kyle, Jacob, Aaron, Aimee, Niv, and Sean understand Paglia's theory. Carefully crafted action and sci-fi films can deliver greater emotional moments than most Oscar bait. Lucas' saga is comprised of individual movies that each add to the increasingly rich culture of the Star Wars universe. Many straight moviegoers and critics are dumb, too hetero-normalized to appreciate what is right before their eyes, and what queer people inherently understand.
"What I've consistently found is that journalists or critics who scoff at my huge admiration of Revenge of the Sith (and many do scoff) have never actually seen it!" Paglia tells Broadly in an email. "They simply assume ALL of the Star Wars films have the same and tone of the first one."
Just as Anakin's limbless body writhed and whimpered in horror from the Paglian Hellscape, so too did a generation of gay and transgender youth cry from their seats in movie theaters across America in 1999. The Phantom Menace showed them that there is a place on this planet for trans people and gays. The judgement and generic disdain that straight people and other mainstream critics regurgitate upon Episode I parallels the thoughtless, cruel conformity of homo- and transphobias. Just as the rich cultural landscape of Naboo brought viewers back to a time of joy and peace in the galaxy, so too did The Phantom Menace bring hope and light to queers, whose world has been stripped and sterilized like the gray obelisk fleet of Darth Sidius' evil Galactic Empire.
"I went through a period when I, like many, talked trash about it," Aimee remembers. "But in the end, I am a fan and always will be. The year it came out, my mother bought me a Phantom Menace bathroom set. Shower curtain, trash can, toothbrush and cup. I still have all of them, and the trash can is still in my bathroom to this day."
[account deactivated]
methlabretriever
methlabretriever
Post rating:
~
cis breeders.
methlabretriever
methlabretriever
Post rating:
~
this article is hella dumb
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating:
+
i resolve to end one out of five things i say in 2016 with "not unlike the muscle head Toms and Brads of normative gay nightlife"
swirlsofhistory
swirlsofhistory
Post rating:
+
I can see the escapist appeal of a movie where a gay guy gets a blood test and finds out his 'midichlorian count' is the highest they've seen before, and that's a good thing.
methlabretriever
methlabretriever
Post rating:
~
everything is remote controllable
TheIneff
TheIneff
Post rating:
~
methlabretriever posted:everything is remote controllable
where's the one which has the button you can press that launches you off-screen by means of a comically oversized trap spring coil underneath your chair 😎
Peelzebub
Peelzebub
Post rating:
+
"straight people don't understand pedophilia like us."
dta
dta
Keven
Keven
Post rating:
+
FAG WARS EPISODE VII
THE FIRST ORDER, A GROUP OF INSANELY HETERO MEN WHO WANT TO FUCK GAY BOIS, ARE ON THE RISE. STRICTLY NON GAY STUFF, MUTUAL JO, SOME MOUTH STUFF, WATCH UFC AFTER. THE GAY BOIS ARE GOING TO HAVE SEX WITH THEM FOR SURE BUT THERE IS ONE EXTRA SECRET: THEYRE GOING TO FUCK THEM SO GOOD THE STRAIGHT MEN BECOME GAY.
THE FIRST ORDER, A GROUP OF INSANELY HETERO MEN WHO WANT TO FUCK GAY BOIS, ARE ON THE RISE. STRICTLY NON GAY STUFF, MUTUAL JO, SOME MOUTH STUFF, WATCH UFC AFTER. THE GAY BOIS ARE GOING TO HAVE SEX WITH THEM FOR SURE BUT THERE IS ONE EXTRA SECRET: THEYRE GOING TO FUCK THEM SO GOOD THE STRAIGHT MEN BECOME GAY.
ilmdge
ilmdge
Online
Post rating:
+
methlabretriever
methlabretriever
Post rating:
~
there is something to be said about the turn to autistic humour on the rhizzown
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating:
+
ilmdge posted:
i found this, and read it & turns out i don't understand liberalism anymore.
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating:
~
im really upset you guys
ilmdge
ilmdge
Online
Post rating:
+
cars posted:ilmdge posted:i found this, and read it & turns out i don't understand liberalism anymore.
here, allow me to help: http://i.imgur.com/vdorABb.jpg
COINTELBRO
COINTELBRO
Post rating:
~
LA ART SUCKS
vampire criticism and dick bass stories by Song Kwai Li
February 03, 2008
neo futurist mumbo jumbo without the accent
Why young american artist dress so bad, ugly hip. Why most american artist girls look like chubby dikes who rock mean keoroke. Why artist act stupid, like little kids pretending to be precious like, with annoying jubilance? Why do pretty girl artist always make too smart art that only excites french intellectuals in graves. Why do conceptual artist continue deliver punch lines with romantic vomit that taste like yesterday's shit? Why is weird still an art form and practical not? Why do white people keep making art for psychoanalytic masturbation and dark people make art for social debate? Where does terrorism, culture war, fascism, sadism, evil, power, death, addiction, hedonism fall in between fake american artist with precious pussies, boring dicks and the world of stupid curators who's education, by default of its distance from its subject matter of critique and appraisal, is no longer justified, wanted, needed, necessary.
Art is not a luxury. I remember meeting cute law student at bar 2 years ago and she said something that make me almost punch her in face. "so your an artist, that's great that you have the time to do things, I wish i could have more time to take photographs, i like take pictures" WTF ! Whole generations, whole cultures, whole universes can be condensed to this one bitch at that moment at the threes of club bar in Hollywood, off vine and santa monica, 10:30 pm on a thursday night in 2005. Art is not about pretty pictures in the sky bitch. I dont understand why artist continue to see and make art as process and state of excess, instead as a necessity of a cultural war, a mentality of combat, a definitive hate that is sharp, clear, demanding and vulnerable to the worst actions accessible to human behavior. This is art for me. This is nigger art in the way i have articulated it. It's not nice. it's not pretty. It doesnt come from upple middle class suburbian homes with garden state stories of pussy depression and american beauty dysfucntionality. It doesn't laugh at napoleon dynamite cause it hasn't grown to know irony. It hates Family Guy, excessive witty banter unrealistic and empty. It never takes a prosaic, its never been molested or abused but it makes no promise not to molest and hurt. nigger art has never seen a psychoanalysts nor has screamed injustice in court. Its politics is held with the erection of mandingo dick and the only sentiments it feels is that of the dog whos teeth is already found chewing the leg of young child. Nigger art is the last act of Haneke's 7th continent, Klaus Kinski in werner herzogs aguire the wrath of god, its R.Kelly in trapped in the closet, its the columbine kids, its aldof hitler, its kathy acker, jean genet, santiago serria, gasper noe, gang members, thugs, tupac, jack nicholson in carnal knowledge, michelle houellebecq in his better moments and of course me song kwai li....
Posted at 02:44 PM in crap art | Permalink
vampire criticism and dick bass stories by Song Kwai Li
February 03, 2008
neo futurist mumbo jumbo without the accent
Why young american artist dress so bad, ugly hip. Why most american artist girls look like chubby dikes who rock mean keoroke. Why artist act stupid, like little kids pretending to be precious like, with annoying jubilance? Why do pretty girl artist always make too smart art that only excites french intellectuals in graves. Why do conceptual artist continue deliver punch lines with romantic vomit that taste like yesterday's shit? Why is weird still an art form and practical not? Why do white people keep making art for psychoanalytic masturbation and dark people make art for social debate? Where does terrorism, culture war, fascism, sadism, evil, power, death, addiction, hedonism fall in between fake american artist with precious pussies, boring dicks and the world of stupid curators who's education, by default of its distance from its subject matter of critique and appraisal, is no longer justified, wanted, needed, necessary.
Art is not a luxury. I remember meeting cute law student at bar 2 years ago and she said something that make me almost punch her in face. "so your an artist, that's great that you have the time to do things, I wish i could have more time to take photographs, i like take pictures" WTF ! Whole generations, whole cultures, whole universes can be condensed to this one bitch at that moment at the threes of club bar in Hollywood, off vine and santa monica, 10:30 pm on a thursday night in 2005. Art is not about pretty pictures in the sky bitch. I dont understand why artist continue to see and make art as process and state of excess, instead as a necessity of a cultural war, a mentality of combat, a definitive hate that is sharp, clear, demanding and vulnerable to the worst actions accessible to human behavior. This is art for me. This is nigger art in the way i have articulated it. It's not nice. it's not pretty. It doesnt come from upple middle class suburbian homes with garden state stories of pussy depression and american beauty dysfucntionality. It doesn't laugh at napoleon dynamite cause it hasn't grown to know irony. It hates Family Guy, excessive witty banter unrealistic and empty. It never takes a prosaic, its never been molested or abused but it makes no promise not to molest and hurt. nigger art has never seen a psychoanalysts nor has screamed injustice in court. Its politics is held with the erection of mandingo dick and the only sentiments it feels is that of the dog whos teeth is already found chewing the leg of young child. Nigger art is the last act of Haneke's 7th continent, Klaus Kinski in werner herzogs aguire the wrath of god, its R.Kelly in trapped in the closet, its the columbine kids, its aldof hitler, its kathy acker, jean genet, santiago serria, gasper noe, gang members, thugs, tupac, jack nicholson in carnal knowledge, michelle houellebecq in his better moments and of course me song kwai li....
Posted at 02:44 PM in crap art | Permalink
animedad
animedad
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J-John Christy?
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
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great affected accents guys, this thread had such a great title / concept but of course people had to get offensive and ruin it for everyone.
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
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ilmdge posted:here, allow me to help: http://i.imgur.com/vdorABb.jpg
aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
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cars posted:i resolve to end one out of five things i say in 2016 with "not unlike the muscle head Toms and Brads of normative gay nightlife"
i actually only did this maybe three or four times
le_nelson_mandela_face
le_nelson_mandela_face
"Jpg." - Hank Hill
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OP i just decided to vote dominionist in all future elections
ilmdge
ilmdge
Online
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ilmdge posted:
[account deactivated]
[account deactivated]
[account deactivated]
[account deactivated]
[account deactivated]
Flying_horse_in_saudi_arabia
Flying_horse_in_saudi_arabia
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Root » Endless Shrimp is Back at Red Lobster » Fag Wars.
Horselord
Horselord
take a shit on the floor
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george lucas' gay jamaican frog fursona aside,
le_nelson_mandela_face
le_nelson_mandela_face
"Jpg." - Hank Hill
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You all criticize me for being a misanthrope but have you ever stood naked and quivering in the face of the supperating abyss that is "the Star Wars prequels are smart" and maintained your sense of individual continuity?. my soul is iron
cars
cars
UNUSUALY COOL
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le_nelson_mandela_face posted:You all criticize me for being a misanthrope but have you ever stood naked and quivering in the face of the supperating abyss that is "the Star Wars prequels are smart"
two birds one stone except i question the scope of goatstein's struggle against star war prequel thinkpieces
Horselord
Horselord
take a shit on the floor
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the best way to deal with star wars is to not watch it
lo
lo
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le_nelson_mandela_face posted:You all criticize me for being a misanthrope but have you ever stood naked and quivering in the face of the supperating abyss that is "the Star Wars prequels are smart" and maintained your sense of individual continuity?. my soul is iron
it sounds like you just can't deal with george lucas the auteur, goatstein