Latest news with #queerrepresentation
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'I came out in my 30s, there's no timeframe for figuring out who you are'
Ali Bromley is the 2024 winner of Big Brother UK, making history as the British edition's first ever lesbian victor. The reality star joins Yahoo's Queer Voices to discuss her experience on the series, queer representation in reality TV, and the fight required against ignorance and fear. It felt important while I was in the Big Brother House to share parts of my identity. Part of that was that I'm a late-to-life lesbian, and it took me quite a long time to work out all the aspects of my identity. I was quite open on the show about being married to a man before. It felt important to be open about those experiences because I'm sure that there are people watching who have those experiences, and it's representation that we don't often see. And something that I spoke about on the show is that you can't be what you can't see, and that's what felt important to me. The advice that I would give to young people who are trying to work out parts of their identity, particularly concerning their sexuality, is just to take your time. Don't put any pressure to put a label on yourself and work out exactly where you fit within the queer umbrella. Look for people who look like you, talk like you, act like you, find safe spaces to spend time with other queer people. Never feel under pressure to come out to someone if that's not safe or you don't feel welcome or comfortable. There is no time frame for figuring out who you are. I'm a really good testimony to that. I only came out when I was in my 30s. And also enjoy all aspects of figuring out who you are. It's a really difficult time. We are living in a world where there is increasing pressure from the Right to crack down on the queer community, particularly our trans siblings, and nobody should feel pressured to do anything outside of their own time frames. But the beautiful thing about the LGBTQIA+ community is that we come together really well, and there is some beauty in that coming together, especially in the face of adversity. So be you, be proud and keep going. It's been months since I left Big Brother, and it's been amazing to come out and see the reception that I've received. I've heard from supporters of the show who let me know that seeing somebody who was openly lesbian in the Big Brother house who's spoken about their experiences as a neurodivergent queer person was important for them to feel represented, to be seen on television. And that's felt really incredible because it's something that I didn't have when I was younger growing up. There was no one really like me on television. I also received lots of messages from people from all different age groups saying that because of seeing me on the show they were able to, for example, come out to their parents, their families. They were able to put me on the television and say 'this is who I am, this is somebody who has the same experiences as me'. But I also receive messages from people who are much older, who at the age of 50, for example, were able to come out and start living more authentically as themselves. Big Brother is a show that champions people from the queer community. Obviously, during 2023's Big Brother we had Jordan and Henry, and we were able to watch their romance develop. In my season there was myself, Dean, Dave and Martha who were from the queer community, and more recently in Celebrity Big Brother we've had JoJo Siwa and Danny Beard. This is queer representation that's really important. People from all demographics all within the queer umbrella, reality TV can be a safe space for queer people to be seen, and Big Brother is one of those places. But across the board, usually, on reality TV we're not very visible. It's really important that people from the queer community are seen on reality TV because we're not seen often in other parts of the mainstream media. Reality TV shows allow us to show who we are, they allow us to have conversations about who we are, also they create situations where we're meeting people who don't often meet people like us and that fosters conversation that can lead to learning and lead to understanding. Certainly it was something that I experienced with people writing to me, to the show, saying that it was helpful for them to see a queer person who was normal so they could show that we're just people like everybody else, living our lives, and we have the same experiences as other people. When I was growing up, there wasn't much on television that showed queer people, particularly lesbians. There was The L Word, I think that was the only representation of lesbians when I was a little bit younger, trying to work out who I was and work out my identity. I think, actually, it was the advance in the development of social media that helped me to understand myself and my identity. Because all of a sudden you're being exposed to a whole world of people that you wouldn't necessarily meet in your everyday life. And that's important because it can help you to understand that there are possibilities outside of the heteronormative relationships that are shown ordinarily on mainstream television. When I was growing up, there was a real absence of queer people in the media for me to look up to for role models, but in the present day I'm really inspired by the drag community. So we have our favourites. Danny Beard, Tia Kofi, these people really inspire me because they live so authentically as themselves, and they're able to celebrate parts of themselves that are really beautiful, really artistic, super creative. I think we as queer people are getting more room to share our stories, but again I think it isn't so clear. People are allowed a platform and we are getting spaces to be who we are on television, and Big Brother has always been quite queer as we've discussed. We've got queer dating shows and even on mainstream dating shows you're getting the odd queer couple slip through like on Married at First Sight. But it is in silo, it's not in mainstream TV. There's not that many people, for example, on morning breakfast shows or news shows that are openly queer. So it seems to be that we find our spaces and we sit there, which is fab, and it gives people the opportunity to see us. But I certainly think there is room for improvement, particularly given the current climate in terms of the Supreme Court ruling regarding the definition of a 'woman'. The rulings seem to be backed by ignorance or fear, or even anger and hatred, I think. All we can do is keep donating to charities that are pushing for legal challenges, for example, to the Supreme Court ruling, showing up to protests, sharing information on social media, and then on a smaller level having conversations with our friends and family about the situation. As it stands, there's a very small minority of people that are being scapegoated for a much larger issue, which is male violence towards women, which trans people are not responsible for. So I think there's lots of things that can be done on a wider level, but also on a sort of micro level within families, friends, the conversations that you have — even writing to your local MP and donating to charity.
Geek Feed
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
Queer Erasure: These Reveals for Disney Pixar's Elio are Getting Out of Hand
Even before Disney Pixar's Elio was released, the movie was already getting bashed for not having enough marketing and looking pretty generic; and while some fans were hoping it could pull off an Elemental and get good word of mouth, this latest reveal about the film may have just cemented the failure of Elio at the box office. According to a recent reveal from The Hollywood Reporter, some Pixar staffers had revealed that Elio underwent a major rework—particularly removing several queer elements associated with the character to make him more masculine and general audience friendly. ' I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made… The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work,' says former Pixar asst. editor Sarah Ligatich. As it turns out, much like the original director Adrian Molina, Elio was supposed to be queer-coded in the film, with implications that he was very much into fashion and that he even had a crush on a boy. While the movie was said to have been enjoyed by test audiences, they were then asked if any would watch it in theaters and nobody had raised their hand—resulting in the heads of Pixar to rework the movie and make Elio more 'masculine'. An anonymous Pixar staffer confirmed: 'It was pretty clear through the production of the first version of the film that [studio leaders] were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio's sexuality of being queer.' As you would expect, when this news broke out, several people online had decides to speak out about Pixar. This wasn't the only time they had done queer erasure. A few months back, they were also getting flak for removing a transgender storyline in their Disney+ series Win or Lose. If anything, Elio is still getting some nice word-of-mouth from anyone whose seen it, but after the release of the THR report, fans are now thinking this could be the final nail in Elio 's box office coffin. For now, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, Elio is now showing in theaters.
BBC News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood
Twenty years ago, Ang Lee's drama about the love between two male sheep herders was finally released after a long struggle to get it made. It was a watershed moment for gay representation that balanced playing by Hollywood's rules and changing them. When it was released in 2005, Brokeback Mountain entered the collective consciousness in a way that is vanishingly rare for a film with queer subject matter. Even non-cinephiles would have been aware of the "gay cowboy movie", as it was often described in the press, and the subsequent controversy when it lost the Academy Award for best picture to Crash, a clumsy crime film that now regularly appears on lists of the worst Oscar winners ever. Brokeback Mountain did take home three Oscars, including a prestigious best director prize for Ang Lee, and remains a beloved gay touchstone. Actor Paul Mescal recently complained that it feels "lazy and frustrating' to compare his upcoming film The History of Sound, a period romance in which he and Josh O'Connor play travelling lovers in rural Maine, to Lee's tender neo-Western about romantically attracted sheep herders Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). Whether you agree with Mescal or not, the persistent comparisons are a sign of Brokeback Mountain's enduring impact and popularity. Indeed, to mark its 20th anniversary, Lee's film is now being re-released in US cinemas this week for a limited engagement. Adapted by screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from a 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain was a relatively novel proposition back in 2004. "The fact its two leads were handsome A-list male stars and [it showed] their characters in a romantic story together was groundbreaking," says Tim Teeman, author of In Bed With Gore Vidal: Hustlers, Hollywood, and the Private World of an American Master. This view is broadly echoed by queer film critic Manuel Betancourt, author of Hello Stranger: Musings on Modern Intimacies, who says the film's success with critics and audiences alike felt like the start of a "new era of gay representation [on screen]". At the time, Brokeback Mountain looked like a surprising pivot from director Ang Lee, who had recently made the 2003 superhero film Hulk, though his other directing credits ranged from an acclaimed Jane Austen adaptation (1995's Sense and Sensibility) to a hugely successful martial arts film (2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The film's core cast was a quartet of hotly-tipped rising stars in their twenties: Ledger and Anne Hathaway would go on to win Oscars for subsequent roles, while Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams are rarely far from the awards season conversation. How it was pioneering "It's easy to take for granted the way that Brokeback Mountain, with its starry cast and A-list director, profoundly changed the shape of LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream," argues Kyle Turner, author of The Queer Film Guide: 100 Films That Tell LGBTIA+ Stories. Turner notes that "the wave of mainstream queer moves in the 90s" tended to "toggle between Aids-related dramas like Philadelphia (1993) and And the Band Played On (1993), and lighter comedies like The Birdcage (1996) and In & Out (1997)". By contrast, he believes that Brokeback Mountain carved out a new niche as a "straightforward and serious" film that won "newfound respectability" for a romantic story involving same-sex lovers. That story begins in rural Wyoming in 1963, when drifters Ennis and Jack are hired by a local rancher to herd sheep through grazing ground on the titular Brokeback Mountain. One night, with their inhibitions loosened by moonshine, Jack makes a pass at Ennis and the two men have sex in a tent – a pretty audacious scene for a mainstream film in 2005. When Brokeback Mountain came out in December 2005, Ossana, who was also the film's producer, made a point of attending screenings in some of the US's more conservative states to gauge the audience's reaction. "The theatres were packed, and in every theatre it was the same – after the tent scene, five or six people would get up to leave," she tells the BBC. Brokeback Mountain grows sadder and more anguished after Ennis and Jack consummate their relationship. Their sheep-herding summer ends with the two men scrapping, presumably in frustration at the romantic feelings they dare not acknowledge. Ennis then marries his fianceé Alma (Williams), while Jack meets and marries rodeo rider Lureen (Hathaway). It's four years before the two men meet again, at which point Jack asks Ennis to leave Alma and build a life with him. Heartbreakingly, it's a giant leap that Ennis can't bring himself to make. "Everyone talks about the 1960s being a time of 'free love', but it was actually a very narrow-minded and restrictive time for many people in America – that's what the hippies were rebelling against," Ossana says. For Ennis, the prospect of living in a gay relationship with Jack is simply too much to countenance, so for the next 20 years, their passion is limited to sporadic fishing trips that are separate from their everyday lives. The men are affected by overt external homophobia: when Jack returns to Brokeback Mountain, he is told by a prejudiced rancher that there is no work there for men "who stem the rose", a deceptively elegant euphemism for gay sex. But ultimately, it is Ennis' deep-rooted internalised homophobia that thwarts their potential happiness. The challenges of getting it produced Thinly-veiled homophobia – this time in early-2000s Hollywood – made Brokeback Mountain an immense challenge for Ossana and her fellow producer James Schamus. After she read Proulx's short story in 1997, Ossana and screenwriting partner McMurtry persuaded the author to let them adapt it for the screen. "Annie said, 'I don't see a film there, but have at it,'" Ossana recalls. They completed the screenplay in three months, but it took nearly eight years to get the film into production. "The biggest problem was casting Ennis. Actors would commit and then back out, or they just were too afraid based upon what their representatives were telling them," she explains – because for an aspiring leading man at the time, playing a gay character was widely viewed as "career suicide". After Lee joined the project in 2001, the producers found an actor willing to play Ennis, but this star dropped out around five months later. "I already had a feeling he might back out," Ossana says, alluding to the widely held trepidation about playing a gay character. By this point, she was already convinced that Ledger was perfect for the role based on his haunting performance in the 2001 romantic drama Monster's Ball. Crucially, too, he had previously "played a gay teenager in a soap opera" in his native Australia, so Ossana hoped he might be more "open" than his American peers. Her hunch was correct, but Ossana says studio executives were initially reluctant to cast Ledger because they felt he wasn't "macho enough" to play a cowboy – or even a "wannabe cowboy", as she sees the character. "It was probably helpful, in terms of the film's infiltration into the mainstream, that [Ennis and Jack] are two men who inhabit a conventional kind of masculinity," Turner says. Betancourt believes Brokeback Mountain was able to provide a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ representation precisely because it was rooted in proven Hollywood tropes. "As a Western and a melodrama, it played within two well-worn genres and infused them both with new vibrancy – mainly due to the fact it's a love story between two men," he says. At the same time, Brokeback Mountain also adheres to another Hollywood trope: what Teeman describes as depicting "queer love as beautiful but doomed", a narrative that plays out in the likes of The Children's Hour (1961) and Philadelphia (1993). The two men's flickering romance is finally extinguished when Jack dies in ambiguous circumstances. Lureen tells Ennis over the phone that Jack was killed by an exploding tyre – though at the same time, we see images of Jack being viciously beaten by a group of men. Ennis is envisioning, all too believably, his lover being killed in a homophobic hate crime. Its debatable legacy Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain's place in film history is assured. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, which recognises works that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It occupies an equally integral, though more complicated place, in the queer film pantheon. "As a piece of cinema, it remains as ravishing and disarming as ever," Betancourt argues, "but as a pivot point for queer representation, it remains as singular but limiting as it was then." It is, after all, the story of two closeted gay or possibly bisexual men who "pass" as straight in their everyday lives. More like this:• Why Requiem for a Dream still divides• The darkest children's film ever made?• The horror that traumatised millennials Though Brokeback Mountain remains important and influential, it's difficult to quantify its long-term impact on LGBTQ+ representation. Teeman notes that Hollywood gave a green light to several "mainstream queer-themed films" in its wake, notably Milk (2008) and The Kids Are All Right (2010); these were followed in turn by Carol (2014), Moonlight (2016) and Call Me by Your Name (2017). But he also believes "there's little consistency and regularity in the flow of queer-themed stories and lead characters to the screen". For Teeman, "TV and theatre are [still] more radical than film when it comes to queer representation." Brokeback Mountain also retains a unique relevance because of its place in the ongoing debate about whether straight actors should play gay roles. Both Gyllenhaal and Ledger, who died in 2008, are widely presumed to be heterosexual, though Ossana says it was "none of my business" as a producer to ask questions about their sexual orientation. "It's the old chestnut, and Brokeback Mountain is the ultimate exemplar," Teeman says. But even with these caveats, it remains a stunning and heartbreaking piece of cinema that strikes a particular chord with LGBTQ+ viewers. Brokeback Mountain offers a stark reminder that denying your true identity is a tragedy that can derail several lives at once. Brokeback Mountain is being re-released in US cinemas, beginning with special showings on June 22 and 25. -- If you liked this story sign up for The Essential List newsletter, a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Overcompensating' is Prime Video's latest streaming sensation. The queer coming-of-age comedy is about wanting to be loved.
At first glance, Overcompensating, Prime Video's new coming-of-age comedy, may seem like a light, raunchy watch — but it's more than that. Created, written and produced by Benito Skinner, who's also the show's star, Overcompensating tells the tale of closeted college freshman Benny, who finds himself suppressing his gay identity to better fit in. As the eight-episode season progresses, it becomes clear that Benny isn't alone in his pursuit of acceptance. He, along with his sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone), best friend, Carmen (Wally Baram), and her roommate, Hailee (Holmes), are all yearning for the same thing: to be loved for who they really are. 'All of these people are hurting and really want to be loved so badly,' Skinner told Elle for its Hollywood Rising issue. 'That's the whole point of the show — wanting to be loved so deeply and going about it in the totally wrong way. I don't think that's just a queer experience. I think that's everyone.' It's a simple yet honest sentiment, and it's one that appears to have resonated with Overcompensating's growing fanbase. Online, fans are sharing why Skinner's series has struck an emotional chord with them. 'I can't explain to you how seen I feel,' a creator named Sammy Talukder said in a video on TikTok. 'I feel so connected to that show. … It makes me so happy [that there's] actual queer representation and seeing what a lot of queer people deal with every single day. … I can't stop thinking about it.' Avery Herman, another TikTok user who felt similarly, wrote, 'Overcompensating is quite literally one of the best pieces of media I have seen in a long time. It is so funny but also feels so real??? I laugh out loud multiple times an episode. I'll be giddy one second and then have secondhand embarrassment the next.' On X, one fan declared, 'Overcompensating centering the love story between two best friends makes the entire series worth the watch. … Crying to the only person you feel comfortable coming out to? Cathartic.' Benny and Carmen's friendship is a focal point of the series. Carmen initially sees Benny as a romantic prospect but quickly comes to realize they're better off as friends. At the end of Episode 5, she realizes that Benny is gay, after seeing his gutted reaction to finding out his crush is straight. The episode's final scene, beloved by fans, shows Carmen and Benny approaching each other in the middle of the dance floor before falling into a tearful embrace. The moment has already received the TikTok treatment and has spawned video edits set to Charli xcx's viral track 'party 4 u' — a fitting choice, given that Charli also composed the show's original score. 'A beautiful, well-written, nostalgic show about figuring out who YOU are,' a TikTok user named BJ also said of the show. 'Thank you to Benito for creating such a beautiful reflection and inspiring me beyond.' Brandon, another X user, praised Skinner's series for depicting a group of college kids who are each ''overcompensating' for something,' showing that 'no matter who you are, we all can feel like we are falling short of what we should be.' For Skinner, overcompensating meant hiding behind a golden-boy facade. 'I think it was one of my first costumes in so many ways,' he said during an episode of CBC's Q with Tom Power. 'I'm going to be this version of a boy next door that it seems like everyone's cheering for, and they'll love me, and this costume will give me safety and social safety.' Overcompensating was quick to skyrocket to the top of Prime Video's ratings: As of May 22, it is the streamer's No. 1 show worldwide. With a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the college-set comedy has also been lauded by critics as a 'thoroughly charming show with a very sensitive soul' and 'one of the most promising comedies to hit television.' A second season has yet to be confirmed, though fans are hopeful that Skinner will get the opportunity to tell more of Benny's story. If ratings are any indication, the future of Overcompensating looks bright.
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bristol performer explores 'queer narratives' of Section 28
A performer says he wants to bring communities together to examine the effects of legislation that banned local authorities and schools from "promoting" Marshman, 51, based in Bristol, will be "sharing queer narratives of historical shame and invisibility" through his performance Section 28 and Me at the Bristol Old Vic from Thursday. Section 28 of the Local Government Act was passed in 1988 and meant school teachers were effectively banned from educating people about homosexuality. It was repealed in England and Wales in 2003. Mr Marshman said: "The route of the show for me is 'am I a show off' because I grew up in a time when identities like mine were hidden or invisible." When the legislation was active, Mr Marshman said "there were no role models for me in that period, [or] there were a few, but they were difficult to come by".Ahead of the performance he hosted tea parties to hear from the queer community about their experiences during that time. Mr Marshman said he was just coming out as a young gay man while the statute was active and trying to work out who he was."There was some queer representation on the TV and in pop music but it felt very distant," he said he was lucky he had started visiting and making friends in Bristol, where he was able to work out who he was, "but there were lots of people who didn't have that". The show is not just about him, but about other people and how everyone comes to their own realisation in different time frames, he previous performances, Mr Marshman said he has joined the audience afterwards and it has been "interesting [that] everyone wants to tell their S.28 story"."There's something about looking at out past, our history, and trying to learn from that," Mr Marshman 28 and Me is on at the Bristol Old Vic between 15 and 17 May.
