The other thing about the word “queer” is that almost everyone I’ve seen opposed to it have been cis, binary gays and lesbians. Not wanting it applied to yourself is fine, but I think people underestimate the appeal of vague, inclusive terminology when they already have language to easily and non-invasively describe themselves.
Saying “I’m gay/lesbian/bi” is pretty simple. Just about everyone knows what you mean, and you quickly establish yourself as a member of a community. Saying “I’m a trans nonbinary bi woman who’s celibate due to dysphoria and possibly on the ace spectrum”… not so much. You’re lucky to find anyone who understands even half of that, and explaining it requires revealing a ton of personal information. The appeal of “queer” is being able to identify yourself without profiling yourself. It’s welcoming and functional terminology to those who do not have the luxury of simplified language and occupy complicated identities. *That’s* why people use it – there are currently not alternatives to express the same sentiment.
It’s not people “oppressing themselves” or naively and irresponsibly using a word with loaded history. It’s easy to dismiss it as bad or unnecessary if you already have the luxury of language to comfortably describe yourself.
There’s another dimension that always, always gets overlooked in contemporary discussions about the word “queer:” class. The last paragraph here reminds me of a old quote: “rich lesbians are ‘sapphic,’ poor lesbians are ‘dykes’.”
The reclaiming of the slur “queer” was an intensely political process, and people who came up during the 90s, or who came up mostly around people who did so, were divided on class and political lines on questions of assimilation into straight capitalist society.
Bourgeois gays and lesbians already had “the luxury of language” to describe themselves – normalized through struggle, thanks to groups like the Gay Liberation Front.
Everyone else, from poor gays and lesbians to bi and trans people and so on, had no such language. These people were the ones for whom social/economic assimilation was not an option.
The only language left, the only word which united this particular underclass, was “queer.” “Queer” came to mean an opposition to assimilation – to straight culture, capitalism, patriarchy, and to upper class gays and lesbians who wanted to throw the rest of us under the bus for a seat at that table – and a solidarity among those marginalized for their sexuality/gender id/presentation.
(Groups which reclaimed “queer,” like Queer Patrol (armed against homophobic violence), (Queers) Bash Back! (action and theory against fascism, homophobia, and transphobia), and Queerbomb (in response to corporate/state co-optation of mainstream Gay Pride), were “ultraleft,” working-class, anti-capitalist, and functioned around solidarity and direct action.)
The contemporary discourse around “queer” as a reclaimed-or-not slur both ignores and reproduces this history. The most marginalized among us, as OP notes, need this language. The ones who have problems with it are, generally, among those who have language – or “community,” or social/economic/political support – of their own.
i’m reading a very manly 1950s account of a hunt for el dorado but i’m thirty pages in and the narrator has already described his traveling companion as “handsome” 4 times, “extremely handsome” twice, “exceedingly handsome” once, his voice as “quietly husky” and “a husky whisper,” his fingers as long and deft, his body as “tall and cat-like,” and his eyes as some variation of ice-blue at least three times.
just men being dudes. dudes being pals. it’s great. this is great.
“Ever since he had aimed that gun at my throat, I had liked him immensely. And now I liked him even better.”
oh my god
“I awoke when a beam of light fell across my eyes. Jorge had come into my room carrying a lighted candle.
‘I’m going with you,’ he said quietly.
‘I can’t pay you.’
He smiled. ‘I thought I was a partner?’”
OH MY GOD
according to apparently every adaptation of a search of el dorado, i think we can conclude that maybe the real el dorado was the homosexuality we found along the way
listen, there is absolutely nothing that gets me going like mutual seemingly unrequited pining like? i live for both people losing their minds over the other person in bitter silence. savoring every single accidental brush of their fingers, elbows, thighs, every stray glance, memorizing every gesture or expression they catch while the other isn’t looking, all while being absolutely convinced that it’s one-sided only to finally!! finally find out it wasn’t in a triumphant moment of bliss after years and years of delicious, soul-rending, torturous, heart-wrenching pining. i literally don’t care about the fact that this trope is predictable af and always plays out the same way i will still go wild over it every single time like they’ll be doing the same reveal scene i have seen a million times and i’m still on the edge of my seat gasping “are they gonna kiss???”
This car is “Hero #3” (with the first and second cars being on set the day we visited). Picture Car Coordinator Jeff Budnick is in charge of looking after all of the Impalas on set. SUPERNATURAL has nine of its signature car in total – three “Hero” cars, three stunt cars, a few versions that are wrecked, and a cut-up car. The cup-up car is basically a shell of a car and the roof and doors are all able to come off easily so they “can get different angles” when filming.
Hero #1 has a “big block motor in it, a 502”, while the rest of them have “small block” motors. For example, Hero #3 is not a high-performance car, but it runs fine.
Three of the cars have the rearview mirrors on magnets so they can easily come off for shooting. Some of the windshields are also clear, while others have a blue-tinted band to them. They try to use the clear windshields for the “PMP shots”. Some cars also have tinted glass and those are primarily used when they have a double driving the car at night so that the identity of the driver is less noticeable.
Budnick thinks that SUPERNATURAL’s early years of utilizing the PMP technique looked a bit fake, but that the show has come a long way in achieving a far more natural look over the years.
Fans all over the world are building the cars – as far away as Brazil and Sweden, according to Budnick. Fans even contact Budnick to find out “what color I use for this [piece], or stuff like that”. But the interest in the car has made it a bit difficult to find parts, and the parts that Budnick and other fans find are much more expensive than they were when SUPERNATURAL began. “You can’t find a rusted-out basket case for under $10,000 now”, when the car used to be worth $2,500. But apparently car manufacturers are making more reproduction parts for the Impala now because the interest in the model has grown with the show, and so that is making things a bit easier for Budnick.
Back in the very early seasons of the show, the Impala used to have the “spotlights” that you can see on the side of the windshield here. But they were “taken off because the director/producer at the time, Kim Manners, [said] they were always in the way of the camera. So they were always moving them out of the way. One day he goes ‘just take them off’. So I did,” Budnick said. “And then the fans went crazy. It really showed you how passionate the fans were about the car.”
Another reason they picked the Impala (other than creator Eric Kripke’s oft-quoted desire for a cool car with a big trunk), is the fact that the cameras in the earlier years used to be very big. And so production wanted a big “four-door sedan to get in and out of.” Now they have smaller HD cameras and don’t need such a large car, and yet the car has become iconic.
Behind the scenes tidbit: apparently “Jared [Padalecki]’s hit a few things over the years” when driving the car.
SUPERNATURAL: Behind the Scenes With Set Design and the Impala (x)
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