To L and Back Podcast: Ultimatum Queer Love Edition, Episodes 208 – 210

GREAT NEWS to all our To L and Back friends and family! We’ve gotten the band back together for two very special episodes covering the glorious mess known as The Ultimatum: Queer Love. The first episode, in which Drew defends A.J against the haters and we fear that Mel and Dayna are lying about their sexual activity, is already live wherever you get your podcasts.

The second episode, in which we discuss the final three episodes including that WILD reunion, is HERE, NOW, for our AF+ members, on video even though you know I hate to be on video. It’ll be out wherever you get your podcasts in a few days but we wanted to give you early, exclusive access.


Riese: Hi, I am Riese!

Drew: And I’m Drew.

Analyssa: and I’m Annalyssa!

All: And this is To L and Back The Ultimatum Queer Love Edition!

Riese: That was really good. No, no rust at all that time. It was perfect. Now we’re really back from the L.

Analyssa: Now we’re really in it.

Riese: Okay. So the first episodes have come out, you’ve already listened to our podcast on that topic. Everybody is responding on the internet to the first batch of episodes, including everyone who’s in it. Like, I think every single cast member has made a video reminding everybody that they’re real people and that nobody should be mean to them.

Drew: Fair.

Riese: I don’t know if this happened the first time around or not, but like on TikTok, like every other video I have, is a different Ultimatum cast member being like, “just remember that we’re trying hard to live, you know.”

Drew: This is maybe hypocritical of me since I’m literally recording a podcast about this show, but I can’t imagine caring enough to go after these individual people! Maybe it’s more — people like posting a reaction and then it just happens to cross the feed of the person they’re talking about — I don’t know how many people are like personally reaching out and like commenting on these people’s pages, ’cause that feels crazy to me.

But recording a full podcast, that’s just totally normal!

Riese: Just another day in the office.

Drew: It’s part of my job. So, you know, I’m just trying to get health insurance like everyone else.

Analyssa: That’s kind of the thing about reality tv, right? Once you’re on reality tv people can post about you on social media and say whatever they want.

I guess someone could do that about me, but I’m interacting with fewer people and fewer people know who I am. So like — where is the line of being mean and bullying? Are we not allowed to say anything about anyone who’s been on reality TV? I just find that very fascinating.

It’s happening in my Love Island discourse also.

Drew: Hmm.

Analyssa: They’re having a mean season.

Riese: Well, I for one love Islands. On that note, should we talk about the episodes? We’re gonna talk about eight, nine, and the reunion, which was a wild event. Our screeners for it haven’t been color corrected yet and the sound hadn’t been mixed yet. So I don’t know what you guys are gonna see, but what we saw, like color-wise also was just very fascinating. It had a, like a soft metallic glow. It felt like someone had spent a lot of time in Party City with a specific color palette in mind, and we’ll see how that turns out in the final episode. And I’m sure everybody’s on the edge of their seat as far as that’s concerned.

Analyssa: That’s the most exciting thing about the reunion to await.

Riese: So we return to our couples in strife.

Drew: I think we start with Pilar and Hailey.

Riese: Haley and Pilar are, believe it or not, having a bit of a rough go of it.

Drew: Kind of! I also think that the way they communicate is so much better than most of the other couples, in my opinion. Like, yeah, they’re going through a period of time where they’ve been together for 10 years. One of them just — I’m doing air quotes right now — “fell in love with someone else” — and they’re navigating that. There’s issues but you know, Pilar is saying to Hailey, I can’t tell you how to feel. I just think that they’re navigating it in a way that I would hope if I had good friends who I cared about, who were hoping to maybe at the end of this fight still be together and this rough patch still be together.

Like they are navigating all of this quite well, in my opinion.

Riese: I agree. It actually also did remind me of the Mal, Yoly, Xander thing from season one, where Mel was commended for communicating effectively, not flying off the handle. It feels like that’s the same case here where Pilar is like, “I’m gonna make space for the fact that you had this experience, but like, I’m still here and I’m still like fighting for you,” you know?

Drew: Yeah.

Riese: And isn’t that lovely?

Drew: It is.

Riese: Okay. Dayna and Magan. Magan says she missed Dayna, and she lost hope and isn’t sure if she would’ve slept with Hailey had the pool incident not occurred. The pool incident that we all know changed the course of human history. In my notes, I said, Dayna is still lying. And then said she needs surety, which is not a word. And Dayna’s through line for all of this to Magan is like That wasn’t you. That wasn’t really you. I can’t believe this is you. I don’t know what that’s about, but that’s like a really interesting approach. It’s interesting, you know? Okay.

Drew: Yeah, I think you can’t, I mean, you can, Dayna’s doing it, but be like, “I don’t know how to trust you again for doing this thing that I also did, but I’m lying about also having done it so.”

Analyssa: But even regardless of that, Magan called Dayna in the first few nights being like, “I don’t wanna do this.” And Dayna said, “if you’re committed to me, you will commit to this experience,” which is bananas, and Magan said, okay, I will do that

Riese: Yeah.

Analyssa: You can not like the way that she did it. That makes sense. But being like, “I can’t believe you would commit to this experience and do the thing that Netflix is trying to get us to do.” When Dayna has done the exact same thing and is committed to lying about it on camera, which is wild.

It doesn’t make any sense to me. Like the, I understand people are heartbroken, so the logic isn’t really the point, but the logic doesn’t track.

Riese: I felt like she was just using it to have the upper hand in the fight. I guess that’s her business. She’s a real person, so I dunno.

Analyssa: I think it’s in Kayla’s recap, she was like — I wish that Magan had revealed that she hooked up with Hailey earlier so that Dayna can’t just hide behind that the whole time. Like use that. and that was prophetic.

Riese: Indeed.

Drew: My next note is, “I don’t care about Marita and Ashley.” Sorry. So I’m gonna hand that off to any notes that you both have on, on this couple that’s just … clearly over.

Riese: I transcribed a quote? “We’re never promised tomorrow.”

Drew: Hmm

Riese: Someone said that, and I guess that’s true. We could all die tonight!

Drew: And do you wanna die being in a relationship with Ashley or not?

Riese: Yeah. Do you wanna die romantically or do you wanna die having to make your own dinner? Hard to say, but I wrote, “nobody opens their mouths.” Oh, they met up with Ashley’s sisters. Yeah. They’re all good real people who had the same hair and I thought that was adorable for everyone.

And it seems like they should break up.

Analyssa: It seemed like the sisters are also rooting for them to break up. They’re like, “no, we love you guys and we want you to be happy, but if you can’t be happy, maybe break up? And it doesn’t seem like you can be happy.” Like they kind of just keep cycling through that.

Riese: Well, we’re never promised tomorrow.

Analyssa: So true. I find them fascinating to watch because I think it’s so interesting to have chosen to be in a four year relationship with someone when you don’t like how they behave.

Like it’s not a values situation. It’s not like a, “I thought I wanted kids and I thought you did too, and now we’re four years in.”  It’s like, “I don’t like that you don’t do nice things for me.” And the other person being like, “well, I can’t do nice things for you.” And nobody’s been willing to change their position on that in four years is like shocking to me.

Like I’ve dated people for less time who have done things that are annoying and I’ve been like, well, that’s just who they are. Or I’ve been like, okay, I don’t wanna deal with that. Like those are the options.

Riese: They do a lot of stuff in this show and all the Netflix reality dating shows that I’ve seen where they talk about the other person and what they like about the other person. But usually it’s what they like about what the other person brings out in them.

But they don’t spend enough time, in my opinion, telling me like, what do they do as a couple? Like what are their things together? What TV shows do they watch? Like what’s the little bagel store they go to every Saturday? What are the ties that bind them together? Do they send each other cute emojis in the morning?

Do they text each other from the other room and say, I’m eating your Butterfinger, like my wife does? What are the things that they do? And I say, get your fingers off my Butterfinger!

Speaking of butter fingers. Mel and Marie. Uh, Marie wants Mel to feel safe and love and trust makes Mel happy.

Drew: Mel says that she might never want safe and stable. Mel’s still sort of like in that world of Dayna—

Riese: Bonnie and Clyde!

Drew: Bonnie and Clyde! True romance. We’re just gonna just ride it out until we can and leave as many bodies in our wake as we need to, to prove that we’re outlaws in love.

Which is a way that people feel —and you shouldn’t then be in a relationship with someone and have a business with them. Then it just feels like Mel’s in a place maybe to just like — run around and live life and be free.

Riese: Yeah, like a bird.

Drew: Like a bird.

Riese: We go back to Hailey and Pilar. Hailey never felt like Pilar was prioritizing her, and Pilar wants to show that. Apparently they ran into Dayna and Magan at a club, and Magan said that they needed to cut all contact. And I’ve got a feeling that was Dayna’s idea, just a theory here!

Drew: Yeah.

Riese: Dayna says — tells Magan — that her relationship with Hailey is not appropriate. Hailey ignored Magan at the gym. These are the days of our lives like sand through the hourglass. Again, Magan doesn’t “sound like herself” whenever she says something that Dayna doesn’t like. She’s like, “that’s not, that doesn’t sound like you, you don’t sound like yourself.” Yourself only says things that I like.

Drew: I just have. “Yikes. Yikes, yikes!” That’s the note that I have here. So I don’t know what that was exactly in response to, I’m not having fun, not being super detailed in my notes, but it was between Magan cutting off Hailey and Dayna saying Magan can’t be friends with Hailey. So in between there, someone said something.

I’m gonna guess Dayna said something that made me go, “yikes!”

Analyssa: They’re really mad that Hailey liked a photo of Magan’s on Instagram.

Riese: Yeah. More fights like that!

Drew: There’s a lot of Instagram drama.

Analyssa: We forgot to talk about Hailey blocking Pilar or Pilar blocking Hailey on Instagram After posting Kyle with heart eyes?

Riese: We should all be posting Kyle with heart eyes more often.

Drew: I’m not ever posting Kyle with heart eyes. Sorry.

Riese: That’s your prerogative. But they’re real people!

Drew: And you know what? Something brave about me — and they do, but  not all of them can be posted with hard eyes by me. I only have so many hours in the day. If we do the math here, there’s a limit to the number of people I can post with heart eyes.

Analyssa: And me and Riese are in the top 10.

Drew: Oh yeah. I’ll post both of you with heart eyes.

Riese: Thank you so much. I’ll post both of you with heart eyes too. I will And I’ll see if my wife blocks me. Or if Kyle blocks me! But speaking of Kyle, they meet up with the parents and Bridget just still doesn’t get why marriage as necessary. And Kyle’s Dad says, “you don’t have enough money to get married. What are you guys doing? ”

Drew: Another real person on this show who is obsessed with “for sicker and through sickness and health for richer and poorer.” I’m like, man, we’re really, it’s really getting brought up again!

Riese: Should we get rid of those?

Analyssa: Bridget is like, “what is marriage?” And the parents just start reciting the vows and it’s like, no, no, no. Yeah, we, we all are aware of that, but it’s like, again, Bridget’s point — fair. Yeah. You guys are already kind of doing that, you know?

Drew: Well, and then —

Analyssa: But what they really mean when they say that they are poor is that they can’t buy a home in Los Angeles, which is like—

Riese: No one! Who can?

Drew: Literally who is a homeowner?,

I did gasp when Kyle’s dad was like, you shouldn’t get married. Um, if I was Bridget, that would make me wanna get married more.

Analyssa: I was, I was just about to say!

Drew: Okay. We’re not gonna be able to own a home? Well, let’s, let’s do this.

Analyssa: Bridget being like, “marriage is maybe too traditional and not really for me.” Like someone saying like, “well, you can’t do it because you’re not traditional enough.” I’d be like, “hold on. That’s up to me!”

Riese: Exactly. AJ loves Brittany, she worries she’s not enough.

Analyssa: The crowd cheers!

Riese: We too love Brittany. This is a relatable emotion. She says she’s worried she’s just not enough, and Brittany’s like, ‘okay, be more!” And again, queen! No notes.

Drew: Yeah, this was really revealing in a way that, some of the stuff from the last batch around like AJ being like, “you care about your career too much and you’re not like around to make me food!” And that was a little bit eye rolly. Like it’s clear that it’s more attached to like self-esteem and wanting to also have a career path that feels equal and insecurities around not having that.

And that was the final sort of moment that made me go like, “okay, I can, I can root for these real people to work things out if that’s, if that’s what they want.”

Analyssa: They’re real people when we’re excited about them. In the way that, in the way that Magan’s only really being herself when Dayna likes what she says,

Riese: Exactly. Yeah.

Analyssa: They seal it with a very, very sexy kiss for the, like, sushi restaurant that they’re in!

Riese: That was a big day at the restaurant!

Analyssa: But the cameras do a lot of angles, so you know they’re not sitting right next to anybody. They’re like “we’re gonna be on the booth on the other side of them.”

Riese: Do you sit next to your partner?

Analyssa: We sit across from each other.

Drew: I would say usually across, Elise likes to sit next and I’m always a little bit, like, I just feel like I can talk to you more while, like, I, I not to not be

Analyssa: my head.

Riese: I have an ex who always wanted to scooch up next to me, and I was like “I don’t know!’ It was adorable, actually, but I prefer across. I don’t see any advantage to the side by side.

Uh, how do you feel about PDA? I don’t know if I would kiss in a restaurant. Is that internalized homophobia or is it because I’m afraid people think we’re sisters? And then is that internalized incest phobia?

Drew: Hmm. Wow. Lots of unpack there. Um, I also struggle with this sometimes where like, don’t want to be someone who worries about like, what am I actually worried about, right? Like, am I worried about people being weirded out and making a comment? ‘Cause okay, I can get through that.

I’m not actually worried about violence. I don’t think so. I’ve been pushing myself to be more PDA, I’m very good at PDA if I’m like drunk out late at night and then the vibes feel, you know, whatever. It’s the daytime walking around or sitting at a restaurant where I do have a hesitation. But I’m working on it. I like other people’s PDA. Put on a show for us, you know?

Riese: Yeah. What are we here for? No one’s promised a tomorrow.

Drew: Exactly.

Analyssa: So today, let me see you kiss!

Drew: Yeah.

Riese: Do you feel differently with having a male partner, PDA than you would with a female partner? Or the same?

Analyssa: I was thinking about that ’cause you guys were both like, well maybe it’s homophobia. And I was like, right, I don’t experience that in the relationship that I’m in. but I think I feel about the same. I think I’m not a PDA person. In the daylight, a peck is something I feel comfortable with and would do pretty much with anybody. But the more intense kissing, I don’t know. Tongue? I might feel differently.

Drew: It might be ageist.

Riese: I was thinking that too.

Drew: I’m 31. Should I really be like hooking up with my partner in public right now? But who says that in your thirties you can’t continue to do that?

I don’t know. I don’t have a strong answer on this. I really feel conflicted.

Analyssa: I think I feel most on board with that actually. I haven’t thought about that, but I feel like a little bit too old.

Riese: Yeah. I’m like, no one wants to see this old hag tongue.

Analyssa: Nobody wants to see all that. What am I doing?

Riese: But everybody should feel confident no matter what age they are, and everyone’s a real person.

Drew: Pilar says is talking to Hailey about seeing Magan and is like MAY-GAN? Megan?

Analyssa: “What’s her name?”

Drew: Hailey’s, like, it’s very clearly Magan. I have to say this whole episode’s gonna be a lot of me obsessed with Pilar.

I think this is the exact balance between being a mature good partner and being just petty enough that you can hold onto yourself through the hard times of little jokes that undermine the person who your partner has feelings for, but still giving space for the actual mature conversations.

I was cracking up and I was like, this is, this is a perfect vibe. No notes.

Riese: This is like when my ex-boyfriend had this relationship with this other person that he lied to me about. And anyway, I only called her by her AOL screenname, which was AllyBoo. Never Allison. Allyboo forever. If him and I spoke tomorrow, I would still call this girl Allyboo. And that’s what happens if you lie and you cheat!

Analyssa: Then I get to make fun of you a little bit.

Riese: Then I get to make fun of you a little bit.

Drew: It’s a pretty effective bullying tactic? Or undermining tactic?

Riese: In my defense, I was 21.

Drew: Look, I’m 31 and I’m still encouraging people to do this. I just think it’s a pretty, it’s a pretty good — you’re not really making fun of anyone. You’re just forgetting someone’s name!

Analyssa: It’s a little bit like the phrase, “your little friend.” Dayna said that at the Recoupling, which is not like the kindest tone, but being like, “oh, your, is your friend gonna be there?” It’s like that a little bit.

Drew: Look straight people have been using “your little friend” in order to undermine our relationships for years and years and years. So, you know, we could do it to each other. And that’s progress.

Riese: That’s equality.

Drew: Yeah.

Riese: So then there’s a cocktail party, which is wild. Dayna tells Mel she’s being weird. I don’t know why Dayna cares about how Mel’s behaving at all at this point. ’cause she’s already made it clear she’s all in on Magan. Mel is still hung up on Dayna and Dayna says she learned so much, but then also is telling Mel like, I never wanna see this behavior from you.

I mean, Dayna can, the character of Dayna on our television show can do whatever she wants and everyone else is can’t and is at fault. And that’s sort of that sort of her stance it.

Analyssa: I think it’s like that thing where you’re not supposed to be dating someone or hooking up with someone or pursuing someone anymore, but you do still want them to be obsessed with you and miss you and text you and so that you can be like, “no, I’m not doing this.” You know?

It becomes kind of clear that Dayna and Magan wanna be just as committed to each other in these three weeks as they were to their trial partners.

So not having contact with their trial partner while they’re back together with their original partner. But I think in sort of a Dayna character fashion, like it’s a little double sided of being like, well, I’m supposed to be committed to Magan, but it’s really pissing me off that you’re not trying to break through that at all.

Riese: They’ve decided to sort of rewrite history. Magan only did any of this, because first of all, they, of the pool incident. And second of all, ’cause now she’s saying Hailey was manipulating Magan and oh, “Magan knows she got manipulated.” “Hailey came here to leave Pilar.”

But Hailey is so benign as a person! I cannot imagine her manipulating anybody! Magan’s going along with this narrative and being so cold to Hailey. I understand they’re focusing on their own relationships, but Haley’s willing to make room for the fact that what they had was real, even if only temporary.

Analyssa: She even tries to, yeah, tell Hailey well, “did I say I loved you? Like, I don’t think I did.” And it’s like… you did. We all saw.

Riese: It was on camera! You guys say you’re in love with each other and that you love each other.

Drew: It did give us the episode title, which is “Backtrack of the Century/” which I thought was a great line.I think there’s just like a way that Meghan could have very kindly been like, look, I need some space for the next few weeks because I want to just see if there’s anything here with Dayna and really focus on this relationship.

And then let’s check back in to see what the energy is, whether that’s a friendship or something more. The problem is the structure of the show — you get your three weeks with the trial partner, then you get your three weeks with your original partner and then you make a decision.

In a real world scenario, you could be like, “Hey, I need the next three weeks to just focus — that’d be a weird period of time for some reason — two makes more sense. Gimme two weeks to reconnect and then I’ll let you know. And then the person can be like, fuck that, and then leave.

And then you don’t get to have those two weeks. But in the context of the show, it’s just a little tricky. It’s almost like this show is unnatural? Queerness — natural. The ultimatum? Unnatural.

Riese: Exactly. Ashley and Marita make vision boards. That was adorable, I thought.

Analyssa: First we have this very funny little montage of what everybody’s up to. Ashley and Marita are making vision boards. Brittany and AJ are doing Amazon Prime Spon Con. They’ve ordered a s’mores maker, but with really visible Amazon Prime tape. Haley and Pilar are going — paragliding? Is that what it’s called?

What’s it called when you fly behind the boat?

Riese: Jet skiing.

Analyssa: No, when you’re in the air?

Riese: Um, uh, flying?

Analyssa: Hailey and Pilar are flying, which I think is really funny. All the couples are doing boring things like Amazon Prime spon con dates. But then Hailey and Pilar who are kind of going through it — they’re like, let’s put ’em up in the air! Let’s add more chaos!

Riese: So, Pilar and Hailey have Haley’s dad?

Analyssa: For dinner. He comes over for dinner.

Drew: Hailey’s dad says “I’m not just here for Hailey. I’m also here for you.” And I did cry. This is actually a new update since To L and Back original episodes is— I cry now. I don’t know if it’s because I went off my SSRI or if I’ve just lhave a really good therapist or what’s going on—

Riese: You’re really depressed?

Analyssa: Maybe your eye thing traumatized you into not crying.

Drew: Oh, that’s true.

Analyssa: You’re pretty far out from your eye thing. Not to be sorry, not to be so former roommate coded.

Drew: No, I love it. You know, my deep lore. This really got me. It was really nice. I think something that does happen with queer relationships is you — whether it’s just with your partner, or with a partner’s family —you develop a family structure that’s, even when you’re not meant to be together, can be really hard to disentangle yourself from and you can feel like you’re like losing your family, not just losing your partner. Which is already, even for a straight person, like a family to some extent.

But it’s just bigger, I think for queer people, especially if you have issues with your family.

Riese: Absolutely. And basically Hailey’s feeling like she read Magan wrong and like now Dayna has her claws in and she feels bad and sad, and I do too. I read Magan wrong!

Analyssa: I probably wouldn’t tell my dad that I fell in love with somebody in three weeks?

Drew: I just don’t understand people with this kind of familial relationship. When we get later to the reunion montage of Kyle’s parents, I just, there’s no part of me that feels like, oh, this is so sweet.

And I know it’s probably jealousy.

Riese: Yeah, I think it’s sweet. Magan is proud of her relationship now. Feels hopeful about her parents, like in fixing it because of how great her relationship is with Dayna. Um, okay. Ashley and Marita. Marita still feels unfulfilled.

Analyssa: Marita starts sobbing.

Analyssa: She says doesn’t wanna just be friends forever, which is to me an insane thing to say to your partner of years. They’re not just friends!

Riese: Yeah, they’ve had sex! Sexuals. I think as we’ve discussed, things aren’t going well. Hailey and Pilar are still talking it out and Someone says, “I thought the grass was perfectly green with you.” That was sweet.

Analyssa: I think Hailey says that, I think Pilar is like, is it just a grass is greener situation? And Hailey was like, well before this I thought the grass was perfectly green. Which is lovely. They’re cute and they have a very funny conversation about what viewers at home might be saying about them, and they weren’t wrong.

Drew: I think that it shows the fact that they could work through this. The  fact that Pilar is like anyone watching this at home would say we shouldn’t be together. I’m like, you have no idea what’s going on in some, well, I guess they have some idea of what’s going on in some of these other couples, but like —

I’m gonna say something here, a theory, which is that for relationships to work, you need three things.

There’s like some more practical things.

Riese: A house in LA? Amazon Prime? A S’Mores kit?

Drew: You need to share a sense of humor, like be able to make each other laugh.

You have to be able to talk through conflict. Conflict is always gonna pop up. Youhave to be able to communicate through conflict well, and you have to have good kiss chemistry. These are the three things. If you’re someone who’s a sexual person, those are the things you need. Sexual chemistry can be found. Bodies are complicated, especially when you’re queer. But kiss chemistry? I’ve never been able to learn it.

So these are my, these are my three points that I think are the key to a happy, healthy relationship. And I’m seeing that from Pilar and Hailey.

Riese: I think you’re right. I think that’s true. I love that theory and you should patent it.

Analyssa: Mel and Marie are at home talking about Mel wanting to be at Stay at Home Masc. My only other note from this is like, it doesn’t seem like she’s ever gonna talk about having hooked up with Dayna. Like that’s just so,

Riese: I wrote, “who doesn’t wanna be a stay at home masc?” I’d do that tomorrow.

Analyssa: I am really worried about what they will both do for work if they break up.

Riese: They could sell Cutco knives. Have I tried to talk about this before on the podcast?

Drew: I’m familiar with Cutco.

Analyssa: My best friend’s sister sold Cutco Knives right out of college and she’s young, so that was recent.

Riese: Well, I’m saying, it’s a career. I wrote “Maria’s trying so hard to get Mel to be a person.” I don’t know what’s going on there, but I love love.

Drew: Great.

Analyssa: The only other thing is in Magan and Dayna’s last conversation, Magan says she wants her life to be like Fast and Furious.

Riese: I want that for her too. I did think — “Oh, Drew will love this.”

Analyssa: I was like, this is for Drew.

Drew: Honestly, I’m over Magan at this point. I do think Fast and Furious is a franchise I very much enjoy, though I feel complicated about Vin Diesel due to recent things that have come out. It’s also the kind of franchise that I don’t necessarily feel an immediate affinity to people in the fandom.

Riese: Magan wants to have backyard barbecues of chosen family, just like in Fast and the Furious. Whenever I watch Better Things and she has all of her smart, creative friends over, that’s when I think I want my life to be like that, like on Better Things. But anyway, there are other barbecues.

Drew: Fast and Furious is like Better Things, if the way they formed bonds was in the previous movie, one of them was the villain and now they’re in the crew. That’s how it…

Riese: So like a hero-to-villain trope.

Drew: Yeah. Villain, villain to Barbecue was sort of the.

Riese: Wait, in Killing Eve, was her name Villanelle because of the word “villain”?

Drew: Yeah, and a villanelle in poetry. But yes, she’s literally a villain character named Vielle, and her obsession is Eve, the first woman. It’s not a subtle show, but it is a good one.

Riese: Okay so episode nine — the proposal episode. Wow. No one’s sure about anything and everyone feels differently, and everything is happening.

Drew: Yeah. It starts with a conversation, or the first thing I noted was a conversation between Magan and Hailey. They meet up. Hailey gives her a gift she’s like, “I already ordered this anyway,” which again, I very much enjoy Hailey. The thing I had to say about this interaction is you fundamentally cannot get to know someone fully in three weeks. You cannot. We can all have different definitions of what love is. You cannot love someone in three weeks. You can have feelings, you can even fall in love. And I’ve said “I love you” very quickly in my relationships. I’m not… you can say anything, you can do anything, but what’s happening here is a very weird scenario created by this television program that forces you to cohabitate, and then you develop a real bond potentially, and that’s real. And you can have hurt feelings over it, but ultimately, it shouldn’t be surprising, specifically saying this to Hailey, that the person who you really connected with for three weeks… it didn’t… You’re like, “Oh, I actually don’t know you fully.” It’s like, you could date someone for three years and not really know them fully.

Riese: Well, I fell in love with Magan in three weeks and, like Hailey, felt betrayed by this conversation in which Magan said she feels differently and Hailey didn’t give her and Dayna the space they needed. I feel like Magan is doing a complete turnaround and it’s very mean.

Just acknowledge you have what you had, but you’ve moved on. But don’t deny it happened. It happened! And we saw it.

Analyssa: It feels like Magan and Dayna have locked elbows and been, “We’re, this is it. We are putting a fence around this.”

Riese: This is the new story and this is the story we believe in going forward.

Analyssa: Which is further to me proven when Magan says to Hailey, “if you want to be friends with me in the future, you owe an apology to Dayna.” Which is BEYOND.

Riese: Like, the fuck? For what?

Analyssa: For not respecting our relationship?

Riese: Insane!

Drew: Horrible.

Riese: At this point, I’m supposed to think Magan is a person who’s making choices with free will. I don’t know why I am not willing to accept that! But wild. It takes two to tango, my mom always says.

Drew: Yeah. It doesn’t mean that someone can’t be manipulative, but as a queer community in discourse, we really like to slot people into categories. It’d be very easy, and I’m sure we’ll see this and already have seen this in discussions of this show, to be like, “Dayna’s manipulative and Magan’s a victim.” Not to say that that can’t be possible, but I don’t think anything we’ve seen makes me think Dayna is some unique super-villain or even…

Magan’s making a choice to be with this person. Earlier, I think in the last episode, Hailey said something like, “Oh, I thought Dayna was the issue, but maybe it’s Magan.” Two people can be the issue or neither can really be the issue. It’s not good guy, bad guy. That’s not how life is.

Riese: But speaking of good guys, AJ and Brittany! AJ proposes and Brittany says yes, and they’re happy.

Analyssa: It is really…

Drew: Very sweet.

Riese: It is cute. They look great. I’m rooting for them.

Drew: I feel they could make it, which I’m not sure I said about anyone last year.

Riese: Now Pilar is ready for marriage. This show is really good at getting people suddenly ready for marriage. I mean, I have to say, at this point, the shoe works.

Drew: Okay, I would like to… we’ll get to this in the reunion, but no one is married yet. They are engaged. This show’s very good at getting people ready for engagements.

Analyssa: But I will say, weddings are very expensive.

Drew: Oh, totally, totally.

Riese: [Laughter]

Drew: I’m just saying, let’s hold off before we give Netflix and The Ultimatum too much credit.

Riese: But for the straight people, it has worked. Most of them are married.

Analyssa: Whoa.

Riese: The vast majority. Yep.

Analyssa: Good for them.

Riese: Good for them. Yeah. Good for straight people. Yeah, good for them. Whatever. And Pilar has a great blowout. They’ve grown together and they call Hailey’s dad and he’s happy, and I am happy for them.

Analyssa: They look really happy. Hailey says the ring is exactly what she wanted, and I thought all the rings got distributed at the beginning of this experiment.

Riese: Yeah.

Analyssa: So lucky she got the one she wanted, I guess.

Riese: She wanted one that Netflix picked out.

Riese: And isn’t Netflix kind of picking things out for all of us, if you think about it?

Drew: Maybe the exact ring she wanted was whatever ring that was given to her by Pilar!

Analyssa: Wow.

Drew: So it doesn’t matter.

Riese: Wasn’t there a point in this episode or another episode where they promoted a video game to us?

Drew: It’s at the end — at the very final moments in case your soul is still hanging on just a little bit. Just — BOOM!

Riese: Don’t worry!

Drew: Don’t worry.

Analyssa: You too could be involved in this!

Riese: Yes.

Drew: I was really happy for them and also — my unsolicited opinion, if these were L Word characters and not real people, would be that they should be non-monogamous.

That would be my advice. But I don’t know them in real life. And I also don’t know what happened in their little break. I just am always a little bit ehh with couples that have been together since they were really young. But maybe that’s just a me thing, maybe other people just wanna be with one person forever. It’s just that because Haley just had three weeks of being in love with someone else. I just still want Pilar to get to have — a throuple! Not even with Bridget and Kyle. I think she could do better. A little fling.

Riese: Yeah, they should. They should have a threesome with Alice Piasecki.

Drew: Who? Hailey and Pilar?

Riese: Yes.

Drew: Sure. Okay.

Riese: Good, we agree. Ashley and Marita. A black cat is lurking around. She’s like, “Is that a bad sign?” Yeah.

Analyssa: Ashley gives a speech that is so close to proposing, and then at the end…

Riese: Big Love is Blind vibes there. Those at the altar moments.

Analyssa: And then at the end I was like, “But you know, I just can’t do it.” And Marita reveals that she was ready to propose, which I do think is a very easy thing to say when someone has not proposed to you. We don’t know that that’s true.

Riese: But it is an unscripted show, but every now and then some poetic dialogue gets in there, and her being like, “I would’ve said yes, I was gonna say yes.” I was just like, “Ah, this is your rom-com moment.”

Drew: Is now a good time to say that I wrote dialogue for The Ultimatum: Queer Love? I also wrote the lyrics for the song. I was really…

Riese: Oh my God. Is that why the 405 was mentioned in a song that played during Hailey and Pilar’s convo? Because that took me out of the moment for sure. Kyle and Bridget. Bridget reiterates not understanding the point of marriage, but they say they’re going to get married. They’re

Analyssa: : They get married.

Riese: Mm-hmm. Yeah. They got married right on the spot.

Drew: I’m not that interested in this couple, but I did find something interesting, which was when Bridget says that Kyle has wanted to go by fiancé because it’s the one gender-neutral term. Someone was just telling me that, I literally was having a conversation with a friend who got engaged and they were like, “And you know, the name of their partner is so excited because this is the one period of time where the words we refer to each other as are gender neutral.”

Riese: People should, yeah.

Drew: Obviously make up new things to call each other, but…

Riese: Maybe “fiancé” will be the next neo-pronoun.

Drew: Mm-hmm. Much to consider.

Riese: Magan and Dayna. First, Netflix replays Magan telling Hailey that she’s in love with her, just so we all remember that happening. And then…

Drew: Also during this montage, the lyric — because I’m always listening to those beautiful lyrics — is, “Show me how I can live my life if we can’t be open.” Which I thought was a funny thing for a show that pretends that non-monogamy doesn’t exist.

Riese: At this point in my viewing experience, Jude was being really fussy. So I took Jude and Gretchen began taking notes for me on the program.

Drew: Hmm. Oh, fun.

Riese: Yeah. So here we have: “Mel looks like she’s cater-waitering a child’s golf tournament. Mel’s nervous because Dayna is an asshole. Mel’s in deep with Dayna, but Dayna’s heart is closed for business. Mel is crushed. Mel doesn’t want a friendship. Dayna’s boobs are out. Wow, wow, wow. So frustrating.” She wrote in all caps.

Drew: So frustrating that Dayna’s…

Analyssa: Boobs are out?

Riese: Oh, just the whole thing. Mel got a ring for Marie because that’s what Marie wants.

Drew: Well, okay, wait, before we… I love these notes from Gretchen. Don’t mean to interrupt, but Dayna says the letter that Mel wrote her was the most beautiful letter anyone has ever written her.

Riese: She should have heard what Brian Krakow wrote for Jordan Catalano to give to Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, and then he might rethink that.

Drew: yeah, I guess I don’t have much to add beyond that.

Analyssa: I’ve missed the opportunity a few times to point out Dayna’s insistence on telling people how they feel and what they want. Because when Mel is like, “I don’t want to be friends,” she calls her a liar and is like, “Yes, you do. You do want that.” Again, in toxic situations that you’re trying to walk away from, you can project a lot. I’m speaking from personal experience. You can project a lot and be like, “Well, they really want to be with me. They’re just scared.” Whatever. But what they’re saying to you is they don’t want to be with you, so you just have to kind of grow up and let that go. Dayna does it a lot with Magan, sometimes with Hailey, with Mel especially earlier when they were trial wives. Dayna’s like, “You don’t not want marriage. You’re just scared.”

Riese: I think that works both ways too with people like her. When you’re saying it in a positive way, like, “Oh, you want this,” or “You do this, but it’s a good thing,” then that makes… or it’s real, it’s true, then that makes me feel like, “Oh my God, this person who I just met really understands me,” because she’s telling me how I feel and it’s accurate and positive, and it makes me feel good about myself. So it’s a very interesting way to be a person, and that’s not the kind of person that I personally have a good time with anymore in my life.

Drew: Yeah, I just hope that the queer community will not lose sight of the fact that Dayna, at least the character Dayna, is very annoying and unpleasant to be around. And that doesn’t have to mean that she’s abusive or any sort of horrible, toxic, she shouldn’t date anyone ever, we should cancel her and chase her off the internet with pitchforks. She can simply be quite unpleasant. And so many people are.

Analyssa: Yeah, sometimes people are just hard to be around and unpleasant, bordering on mean, and that’s okay.

Drew: Yeah.

Analyssa: Mel says to Dayna that she has a ring, and Dayna’s like, “Well, is it because it’s what you want or because it’s what Marie wants?” And Mel says, “It’s because it’s what Marie wants.”

Riese: Like, Dayna, why are you still meddling? You’re about to go get married.

Drew: Once again, I’m asking this question, “Does Mel know that this is being filmed?” It’s an interesting thing from your interview with Mal about how, as it goes on, you sort of forget some of the cameras because they’re around so much, and that’s a technique of reality TV, et cetera. But Mel being like, “I’m gonna propose because that’s what Marie wants, but I don’t really want that, and I’m sad that you don’t want to talk to me more, and you’re back with Magan.” I’m like, this is going to be seen. If you propose to Marie a year from now, there’s going to be problems. Anyway, then you’re right. Magan is proposing. I wrote, “Magan proposing, my God, yikes.”

Analyssa: And then Dayna proposes back.

Riese: Then Mel says she learned a lot about herself. Marie says they’ve grown so much. Okay. And Mel got her a ring pop.

Analyssa: Oh my God, the ring pop.

Riese: Ring pops. So many flavors and colors!

Drew: Yeah. I don’t know if maybe if I’d seen a different couple, I would feel differently about this, but it felt a little bit like your relationship is not steady enough for you to be doing bits during the proposal. I don’t know about this one. I don’t even take proposals that seriously, or any of it that seriously, but I think given everything that’s been happening, you might want to put the Ring Pop away and get the real ring out first.

Analyssa: No, but it’s like last season when Aussie and Sam were like, Aussie was so commitment avoidant and then was like, “So penguins give each other rocks, so I found you a rock.” It’s like, okay.

Riese: They’re still together and happy. They give advice to other couples about how to be better.

Drew: Honestly, here’s the thing though, when I was giving the most dating advice out in my twenties, I think about that sometimes, and I’m like, “Wow.” I mean, some of the things I said were pretty good, but it’s wild to me that I was allowed to get on the internet and give dating advice.

Riese: We let a lot of people say a lot of things on the internet.

Drew: When I think about the things that I was…

Riese: Advice is pretty benign.

Drew: I mean, it was a real, “Do what I say, not what I do,” situation. And now, look, ultimately I eventually listened to myself and now I’m in a very happy relationship.

Analyssa: Right. Sometimes you have to learn to take your own advice. You probably were giving good advice, just not to yourself.

Drew: The last thing I’ll say about this before we get into the reunion is it is edited to be like, “Yay, love.” And I just think that I could get more on board with a reality television program—

Riese: Boo, love?

Drew: No, not boo love… that didn’t take the circumstances we see and smash it into these boxes. Because that’s actually what’s happening here. This show had to know that by the time we get to the reunion, the chances of Marie and Mel being together were slim. So this music, the cues and everything sort of going to this thing of like, “Love conquers all.” They even do this in the reunion, and it is very annoying to me in some ways. But it just gets, I guess, to the heteronormativity of the whole thing and the structure of this show. Anyway, speaking of, should we get into the reunion?

Riese: We should.

Analyssa: Boy, should we!

Riese: Once again, I have Gretchen’s notes.

Riese shows Gretchen’s notes to Drew + Analyssa

Drew: Wow!

Analyssa: Her handwriting is so cute.

Riese: I know. I love her handwriting!

Drew: Great handwriting.

Riese: She wrote “Reunion episode for Love is Gay Blind.” Okay,

Analyssa: So we messed up the title when we introduced the episode today.

Riese: I’ll tell you what. I did not think Magan and Dayna were still gonna be together.

Analyssa: I didn’t either. And I also thought that Kyle and Bridget would be like, “We are still together, but we’re not engaged.”

Riese: Interesting.

Analyssa: I just had a feeling that they would kind of, to the point we’ve been making of the… it’s like on The Bachelor too, the rules don’t always fit. And I like sometimes when people are like, “We love each other and we want to be together, but this game, the rules weren’t right for us.” And I thought if anybody was gonna be that, it was gonna be Kyle and Bridget.

Drew: Well, then how could Kyle prove to their parents that…?

Analyssa: That they’ve got it all together.

Drew: Yeah, if they’re not engaged, so.

Riese: So this reunion was chaotic and full of drama. Also interesting because after the first Ultimatum, Aussie and Sam were still together at the reunion, but everyone else had broken up. So I was prepared for a similar level of carnage here and surprised to see it was just Marie and Mel. And obviously Marita and Ashley, but also Marie and Mel. We open with AJ and Brit. The relationship is better. It appears. Gretchen would like them to have a threesome with Marita.

Drew: Well, they credit Marita for keeping their relationship working, which I didn’t necessarily see on camera, but love that for them. Love that for Marita.

Analyssa: I think that’s a really sweet, full circle of Marita in The Choice was devastated by AJ, and then ended up with Brittany kind of by accident, and they had a really lovely time. I thought that was very sweet that now she knows them both pretty well and got to play a role. They do spend some time on the AJ dating period of it, and the way everyone keeps being like, “Well, the issue is that she was being really sexual.” We did not see that. I’m sorry, but my definition of being very sexual in dating, in flirting, is not what we saw from AJ. I truly… I was so mad at all of these prudes for acting like she had done something so horrendous. Also, I don’t even know, I don’t need to make it political, but I don’t understand watching this, and maybe something happened off camera that I didn’t see, but to be like, “AJ was just so sexual,” and saying it in this way where it was like something was done wrong. I’m just…

Riese: Right? They’re supposed to flirt.

Drew: Grow up.

Riese: One thing that becomes clear throughout the reunion is that AJ and Brittany were in touch a lot more than we saw. Even Ashley being like, “I was out there with my dog. You guys were always together.” Because we saw AJ immediately switch, and I wonder if the way things went down at The Choice made it that AJ was sort of shamed so much for what was happening that in order to save the relationship with Brittany, she had to opt out of the whole experience in a major way immediately. Even as it was ongoing. AJ’s experience was not a trial marriage. AJ’s experience was dating. They all saw how that went and decided, “Okay, no, you’re off the market. Let’s get it back together.” And they, by the way, look at everyone’s outfits. I think they really killed it. The dress that Brittany’s pulling off is incredible, honestly. So.

Drew: Then we go to Marie, and Marie’s quite angry at AJ and Brittany, and it feels a little bit… also, just watching Marie this whole time, it was so miserable. She just feels very traumatized and very…

Riese: Mm-hmm.

Drew: Sad. It was very not fun. Not in a reality TV way fun. It was just very miserable to watch. But I was a little bit like, “Your anger’s misplaced.” And then it’s revealed later that AJ and Brittany are pals with Magan and Dayna, and I was like, “Oh, okay. This makes more sense why there’s more animosity from Marie towards AJ.”

Analyssa: Yeah. And I think it’s fair to be irritated or even a little bit angry, and I think Brittany and AJ say this, “We get that you might be upset by that. We did what we had to do, and we’re really sorry that that’s impacted your relationship.” I mean, maybe they don’t exactly say that, but…

Riese:  So we know that they see the show right before their reunion, right? Like they saw this yesterday and now they’re reunited. My sense is that for Marie, I think the thing that made her feel betrayed by watching it — and maybe I’m projecting, actually, definitely I am, but I think I’m correct — is that Mel telling people, “I’m telling you this thing about myself, about my health, or not having kids, and I haven’t told this to anybody, or I haven’t told this to Marie.” And I think seeing your partner of four years tell people that you are not a trustworthy receptacle of information about their physical health and their ability to have is so, so hurtful and insulting. It’s almost more hurtful and insulting than cheating, because that’s about becoming into somebody else. It’s more hurtful because that’s character slander in a way to be like, “Yeah, I can’t tell. I haven’t told her this.” And also it was cheesy, because as Mel was telling people this, I’m like, “You just told that to someone else. Why are you acting like this is exclusive information?” I think that’s why she felt the most betrayed.

Analyssa: Which, yeah, which they fight about when it comes their turn to discuss what went wrong. And she’s…

Riese: Right.

Analyssa: Again, kind of pointing to like, “I’m your partner. I’ve looked into everything that’s…”

Riese: You think, I don’t know.

Analyssa: “I’ve researched as much as I can,” all that stuff. So I think that’s probably definitely in there. Also…

Drew: Didn’t we get to the real surprise, which is Ashley and Marita? I didn’t know they had this in them. Honestly, I was a little bit bored of them the whole time, and then they did this and.. I don’t grasp what happened between them. I know it involved…

Riese: She was like, my grandpa’s dying.

Drew: And I know that at one point Marita says, “and that’s gaslighting”

Riese: And it was not! It was not gaslighting!

Analyssa: You know what that is? Gaslighting? Nope, wrong.

Riese: Yes. “I actually fucking hate you,” Marita said to Ashley

Analyssa: It sounds like both people have grandparents dying. We’re hurling… I mean, I think when you get to this level…

Riese: You should not be… you cannot be bringing your grandpa’s name into this Netflix reunion. You…

Analyssa: “Are we talking about my grandpa?”

Riese: I don’t know what happened with them. It is wild.

Analyssa: So Marita says that Ashley asked her dad for his blessing. So Marita, I think, went into proposal day assuming that Ashley was going to propose. I think that’s incident number one.

Drew: Mm-hmm.

Riese: Uh-huh.

Analyssa: Then it sounds like they broke up on the show. We saw that. After the show, they did a trip together where Ashley was kind of like, “Let’s still be together. The show doesn’t matter. Let’s, you know, be us.” Then maybe they were confused. My best read is that they were confused about whether that meant they were together, because Marita is accusing Ashley of cheating and Ashley is saying we weren’t together at that time. Everyone’s kind of getting involved on the side trying to parse it. It gets crazy in there.

Drew: A real classic Ross and Rachel, “We were on a break” situation.

Riese: Well, and then Ashley is like, “You cheated on me five times. I could name all the people,” and I’m like, “Name the people! Let’s get ’em in here! Stop talking about your grandpa! Leave him! Leave him out of it!”

Analyssa: Yeah, so Marita is like, “My grandpa was dying and Ashley cheated on me during that.” And Ashley in retort says, “Well, now my grandpa is dying,” which is an insane direction to take that claim.

Riese: Yes. And then Marita at one point storms off the set.

Drew: Well, Ashley…

Analyssa: No. Ashley storms off.

Riese: Ashley.

Drew: Because Marita says, “I don’t…” What does she say? I don’t want to misquote her, but she says, “I don’t care about your grandpa,” or something. It gets…

Analyssa: Which even… which causes all the rest of the cast to be like…

Drew: “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You don’t mean that. You don’t mean that. You don’t mean…”

Riese: “You love her, grandpa, Marita. Don’t talk about Earl like that.” Mel runs after Ashley.

Analyssa: Mel runs after Ashley. Marie inserts herself a lot. There are a lot of very confusing players in this, but Brittany and AJ go to comfort Marita, which makes sense given what we just learned about them. And then Mel runs off to hug Ashley.

Riese: Yes.

Analyssa: And then they come back, and Joanna, Joanna Garcia Swisher is like, “Well…”

Riese: “Everyone has their own perspective.”

Analyssa: Hmm.

Drew: Wait, can I just say that I accidentally called Joanna Garcia Swisher, “Joanna Kara Swisher,” in the first… the first…

Analyssa: I thought you were making a joke.

Riese: I did too. I thought you did it on purpose.

Drew: I learned that you both thought I was making a joke, which maybe I should just run with it, but I really wasn’t. It was in my notes as that because of the famous…

Riese: Lesbian.

Drew: I don’t actually know who Kara Swisher is, except that she’s a lesbian. But imagine if she was the host!

Riese: Yeah, exactly. That’s what they should do. They should be like, “We have a new Swisher in town.” You know, they could do a tie-in with Swiffer.

Analyssa: They kind of talk about Bridget. Marita’s like, “I don’t appreciate Bridget convincing Ashley to reverse the ultimatum,” which I think it was very clear that Bridget was joking and that was something they joked about in their trial marriage. But tensions are so high that I think let’s just let her have that.

Riese: Yeah.

Drew: This is the last time I’m going to be defending Bridget on this podcast episode, but I do think it’s pretty clear that she was responding to the things Ashley was saying. You are… you’re not convincing someone to break up with the person. If someone says, “I think I might not want to be with this person,” and you go, “Well, then maybe you shouldn’t be with that person,” you have not convinced them to do anything.

Riese: No one should be that easily convinced.

Analyssa: Would Bridget have an agenda of breaking up two people that she just met three weeks ago at Max? Like there’s…

Riese: Yeah. She didn’t have…

Analyssa: And Joanna is like, “So do you guys think you’ll ever reconcile?” Which I think is a grave misstep. They should not. I don’t think we should be promoting that at all.

Mel says the relationship is non-existent with like such a shit eating grin on her face that I felt instant rage. Like I was so upset during this whole thing. And when it pans to Marie and you can tell she’s feeling rage, I was like, “you know what? I understand.”

Riese: You know who else understood, according to these notes? At this point in time, Jude pooped his pants. All the way through his onesie through to his bouncer. “That’s how full of shit these people are,” Gretchen wrote.

Analyssa: Jude knew the vibe.

Drew: Even a generous read — like Mel’s clearly uncomfortable. I mean, it was clearly a coping mechanism, and that’s my most generous read. It’s still just, all of this is so unpleasant, and Dayna being so calm in her relationship is also… I was concerned about Marie throughout all of it. The good thing is that they broke up a couple months after the episodes. I was very worried about them watching the episodes still together. So they broke up a couple months after. And then we get into the whole playlist shenanigans. L

Analyssa: Which kind of seems like maybe it’s nothing?

Riese: People don’t seem to think it was a big deal and I still buy it.

Analyssa: The thing that is critical is like they did hook up, and I don’t appreciate what happens next, which is that we do a montage of “what do queer people think is sex?”

Riese: Joanna should have had to answer that! She should have been put on the spot, Joanna.

Analyssa: I just think it doesn’t matter that we all have the same definition of sex. Even a little bit. They did something that was beyond — there’s so much like technicality here and Mel even is like, “Well, by whose definition? He, he, hee.”

Riese: Well, Mel wants to tell the truth, I think,

Drew: Oh, you can tell that.

Riese: Mel is just bursting with it.

Drew: It’s also a thing of the emotions. The combination of emotionally connecting, as Mel and Dayna clearly did, and it getting physical to some extent. The sex acts do not matter. This is my general take: if you are talking to someone, this happens in media all the time where there are two people talking, and they’re like, “We can’t hook up. We’re coworkers, we’re each married, we can’t hook up, but we’re going to go out to eat together and lie to our partners about where we are and look at each other across the table.” But then at the end of the movie or TV season, it’s like they didn’t hook up, they’re so strong. I’m like, “You were just doing a weird kink thing.” This is sex. My definition of sex is whatever is happening right here where you’re sitting across the table, toes touch, but then you won’t let yourself have sex, but you’re talking about how you really want to have sex. This is a bigger betrayal than if you went out to a club and made out with someone, or went home with them and had, you know, all the sex. This highlights that this is a very narrow show. This is The Ultimatum: Queer Love. It’s really The Ultimatum: Cisgender Queer Love.

Riese: Cisgender queer love.

Drew: Yeah, with a few maybe non-binary people that we don’t talk about. Look, I’m not saying I want trans women on this show. In some ways, it’s kind of like…

Analyssa: Save them from this.

Drew: I’m sort of like, “Should trans women be allowed to be on this show?”

Riese: Or the military?

Drew: Yeah. I’ll give an added asterisk to military: people’s health insurance is at risk, and the military targets lower-income neighborhoods. I’ll also add an asterisk to that: in the military, you kill people. I don’t think anyone was killed on The Ultimatum: Queer Love.

Riese: Well, someone’s Grandpa.

Drew: I don’t think we’re allowed to make those jokes.

Riese: I’m allowed to make death jokes because I have had the worst deaths.

Drew: that’s so true. You are allowed to make death jokes. I will let it stand. All this to say, what’s fascinating to me about that exclusionary aspect of the show is it actually feels like they all have a very… I was a little bit like, I was waiting for them to be like, “Well, actually, sex is just when a penis goes into a vagina, so none of us could cheat on anyone.” I was so fascinated by them basically being like, “As queer people, we can’t really have sex and it really doesn’t matter. So you can’t really cheat.” It was so baffling and honestly, not that I ever care about this, but invalidating towards their queerness and towards queer relationships. Anyway, whatever.

Analyssa: Marie is like, “I think anything that’s intimate is sex.” And I was like, “Great.” There were some that were like, “Well, unless mouths are involved…”

Riese: Yeah, I think it was Mel or maybe Dayna who I’m like, “You guys are just fitting your definitions to get ou  Of what you did!”

Analyssa: Shape out of what sex is so that theirs is not included. They’re gerrymandering the sex definition.

Drew: Well I learned from a recent Autostraddle article that there’s a lot of people out there who don’t ever wanna do oral. So there’s a whole world.

Should we move on to Bridget and Kyle?

Riese: Oh, you don’t wanna go into the montage of their pets that somebody decided to subject us to?

Drew: No

Riese: Kyle and Bridget are still together. Kyle’s mom says, “because I knew you, I’ve been changed for good,” which is the second time those lyrics have been peddled to us this television season.

‘’Cause that also happened on And Just Like That! Um, so I don’t know what to say about them besides that Bridget has cute hair.

Analyssa: Bridget says, “I finally came to the conclusion, this matters a lot to the person that I love, and it doesn’t matter that much to me. So I’m on board.” And I was like, “Thank you. That makes sense.”

Riese: Yes, thanks for listening to the pod.

Analyssa: Yeah. Thank you for hearing our pod and concluding we were correct.

Riese: Correct.

Analyssa: Hailey and Pilar are also still engaged.

Riese: They’re going to elope, they’re living authentically.

Analyssa: Pilar has kind of just detached value from connecting with her parents, which is on one hand sad, and on the other hand seems to be very good for her, and she feels empowered and confident about it. I think that’s a really good outcome for…

Riese: Yeah. People will push you as far as you let them, and that’s what she learned by taking Hailey to her cousin’s wedding, just being like, “This is my fiancée,” and realizing that when you don’t give them the space they need to hate you.

Analyssa: They talk about their kiss. It seems like it was all just like a mistake.

Drew: Bridget’s still pissed and.

Analyssa: Bridget does react pretty

Drew: I think for someone whose whole thing, for someone whose whole thing during her and Kyle’s section was like, “Bridget is so kooky. Bridget is so crazy. Bridget is so weird.” I was like, “She cannot even handle…”

Riese: They just meant by that she is in the gig economy.

Analyssa: She’s an artist. She’s creative. Yeah.

Drew: I don’t know. I was very… I was very over that. I think I’m a bit of a Bridget-Kyle characters hater.

Riese: I have no negative feelings.

Analyssa: I don’t either. I feel fine.

Riese: I I feel… Dayna and Magan, we have to see a montage of that. That’s fine.

Drew: If I was Magan’s formerly homophobic family that’s working on it and I saw any part of the show, it would make me homophobic again so quickly.

Analyssa: Well, Dayna even says that, she’s like, “We really went on this show thinking it would show how good we were,” which to that I say, “Whoa, that’s a crazy thing to have thought.” And obviously it didn’t go that way. I don’t know. I can’t tell what has happened, but they do seem more on the same page. So I…

Riese: They seem happy.

Analyssa: I guess, yeah, they seem happy. And I guess in the vein of, I love love and especially love for queer people, I’m like, “Great. I love that.” For…

Riese: Love is, yeah.

Analyssa: It is surprising to me. Dayna mentions that having seen all this back, she can adjust based on what she has seen. Which I was like, “Actually, that’s mature.” That’s a good read. It’s like when you listen to your voice and you’re like, “Do I really sound like that?” She’s seeing weeks of footage of her being intense, to say the least, and seeing there’s adjustments to be made.

Riese: Gretchen wrote, “Dayna says she has a lot to work on, and we finally agree on something.”

Analyssa: That’s how I felt.

Drew: I said sigh. I guess I’m rooting for Dayna too. Mostly rooting for this show to get canceled.

Riese: Why do you want every show we try to do a podcast for to get canceled?

Drew: Why can’t we ever do a show that’s good? Like, no one cares about any of the good shows, and I honestly had a bit of an emotional crisis over the last couple weeks because of this show. I know, I know!

It’s just like media is so broken and Hollywood is so broken. Look, I am literally recording a podcast about this show, so I cannot judge anyone for caring about the show, talking about the show, writing about this show. But it’s just like when I look at the numbers that the coverage we do for this show versus the coverage we do of really good stuff that’s even still fun. I just, I feel deep despair about this show, which honestly, I guess I felt that way about Gen Q too. So I’m really just the person who is… sorry! I’m here. I just… I feel really depressed. I really don’t know what to do with. I just also like, Are You the One? Season 8 was fun queer reality TV that didn’t make me want to die, and that felt actually queer, and we didn’t get another Are You the One? Come One, Come All season? And it makes me really sad. I just wish we had more of that. If we’re going to be obsessing over a reality TV show, let it be the one where there’s a wide range of queer experiences, where they’re having a fivesome, where it’s good. This show just feels so nasty and sad. Maybe we can pivot from that to talking about all of them praising the show having a straight host, and…

Riese: I, for one, love this show and want it to get a million more seasons. I find it incredibly entertaining. I’m not even just doing it like Gen Q where I was like, “I’m doing it for the hits. Gotta get the hits.” I would watch this show even if we weren’t. I mean, I watched it last season. I didn’t write about, did I? Whatever. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I like this show, but it is sad that everything you said is true. It is sad though. But would anyone have listened to our Transparent podcast?

Analyssa: I would have at that time!

Drew: Oh yeah. In 2014, 2015, 2016. When there was an industry out there for queer media that wasn’t… I mean, not that Transparent‘s a perfect show by any means, but that was an exciting time. That was like, things were starting to happen and Pose came out. It really felt like, “Oh, wow.”

Riese: One Mississippi, Vida…

Drew: One Mississippi was so good. Vida‘s the best show ever. When does P-Valley come back? That’s not a show that I would host a podcast for, but it is a show that I would listen to a podcast for, and it is, I think, the best show on TV.

Riese: Well, in conclusion, I, for some reason, was genuinely moved by AJ and Kara’s conversation about how no one gives her enough credit. And I teared up.

Analyssa: I did not tear up, but I did think it was sweet. I thought it was a sweet ending, not because of praising Joanna Kara Garcia Swisher, but because it seems to get everybody else on the same page. And something we didn’t talk about earlier is Kyle kind of casually reveals that none of them have really spoken since.

Riese: Well, some of them are still friends.

Analyssa: Some of them are still friends, but that they kind of all ended in not really good places with each other, which I thought makes sense. And now after they’ve praised their straight mom, they’re like, “Maybe we could all go for a drink.” And they hug. The only person who leaves early is Marie.

Riese: Did you notice that? When they cut she was like —

Analyssa: She’s booking it out! She’s not doing the hugs with everybody!

Drew: Hashtag I’m with her.

Riese: I feel like if I was her, I could imagine that the next day I’d wake up and be like, “FUCK, I wish I could do that all over again,” because I would’ve known  I went into it with my blood boiling, and when that’s happening, I have minimal control over what I’m about to say or do. But also I think everything that she felt was legitimate. You know, I think everybody’s feelings about everything are legitimate — but I do not think Joanna Kara Swisher should do the wedding for AJ and Brittany.

Analyssa: I do hope they get to a place where Dayna and Magan and Hailey and Pilar can all be invited. If that’s what Brittany and AJ desire. Although, once you start looking at guest lists for a wedding, I’ll tell you, you start being like, maybe we could cut those people?

Riese: Are you inviting us to your wedding?

Analyssa: Yes.

Riese: Thank you. Okay.

Drew: Wow okay, very on the spot. I was gonna say it would be an honor to be invited, but no pressure!

Riese: It’s okay. It’s okay. You don’t have to.

Analyssa: Well currently the guest lists is 300 people. So.

Drew: Oh, okay. Well, if it was 300 people and I wasn’t invited, I’d be offended. But, but I, my thing about weddings, people that could invite me, don’t invite me. There’s a very small group of people where if I wasn’t invited, I would be deeply offended. It’s maybe two people. Like, it’s your wedding. Have it as big or small — invite who you want.

Riese: I get offended.

Drew: Really?

Riese: I do.

Drew: I guess I’ve just like, people get offended about not getting plus ones all the time…

Analyssa: I’ve never gotten offended about not having a plus one.

Riese: I think it’s ’cause I frequently do think I’m closer to someone than it turns out they feel like they are to me. So it’s really about hurt, it hurts me. Like, it’s about me not realizing where I stand with them, you know.

Analyssa: hmm.

Riese: To end it on a sad note!

Drew: Engagements are long. I don’t know if I’d want a long engagement. I sort of feel like once I’m engaged, I kind of wanna be married. But that means I can’t have a big wedding, obviously.

Analyssa: Yeah, if we wanted to like, elope, we would do it soon and be married. But once you start thinking about planning a wedding, a big wedding, that type of event, venues are booked out. You have to do catering, you have to do like all this shit. I would like a year and a half to plan for that and pay for that. But in my ideal world, we would get married a lot sooner than we’re thinking, but it’s not seeming possible.

Riese: On the note of things ending sooner. Do we have any last notes? Besides that, never on any season of Ultimatum or Love is Blind has anyone ever thanked Nick and Vanessa for anything. And I think that we know why. And it’s because they are bad at their jobs.

Drew: Um, I just wanna remind everyone that if you enjoyed the experience and you wanna feel more involved, that you can play the new Ultimatum Queer Love game that’s available now on Android and iOS. You can feel like you’re part of the action. And we don’t even have a sponcon deal with this.

Analyssa: I hope the pod has convinced you that you want to be a part of the action!

Riese: If you wanna be a REAL part of the action, you should join our membership program AF+. ‘Cause otherwise, who knows how much longer we’re gonna exist!

Drew: To take a note from AJ’s book. I’m gonna say that Drew might end it all if, if people don’t start supporting media beyond the Queer Ultimatum.

Riese: Mm-hmm.

Drew: Drew is very tired and very sad, but also so happy to be with Drew’s pals, you know!

Analyssa: Drew’s doing the best Drew can.

Drew: Drew’s doing the best Drew can and she’s  mostly happy to be here with the two of you. If One Mississippi ever comes back, let’s do a podcast about it.

Riese: Oh, that was such a good show!

Analyssa: It was so good.

Riese: Okay. Well, everyone’s gay. And bisexual.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3339 articles for us.

Every Al Pacino Movie Is Gay

Out the Movies is a bi-weekly newsletter about queer film for AF+ subscribers written by Drew Burnett Gregory.


“The two girls stood in front of that big wide window in broad daylight and began blatantly and passionately embracing and kissing each other. In defiance of their eviction, they were doing their thing so everybody in the bar could see them. It was a rift I was witnessing right there and then between these two separate worlds: the brazen girls outside who were the very essence of liberation and those old guys at the bar who were sitting there somewhat shell-shocked by something they’d never seen before.”

This is not an excerpt from a lesbian pulp novel. It’s an excerpt from Al Pacino’s recent memoir Sonny Boy. To the famous actor, this expression of queerness was a declaration of a changing time. To him, it was akin to the revolutions happening on the streets and at the cinema.

The 1970s are often discussed as a golden age of American cinema. The Hollywood studio system — and its Hays Code — had been destroyed and in its place were a collection of radical auteurs. Books like Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls helped to mythologize this era as a grand artistic achievement of drugs, genius, and masculinity.

Only in recent years, has the cultural canon broadened this American cinematic moment to include a wider range of voices. The artistic freedom allowed during this time didn’t just birth Scorsese and Coppola — it also included female voices like Barbara Loden and Elaine May, Black voices like Bill Gunn and Ivan Dixon, and queer voices like John Waters and Andy Warhol.

But I always say my goal is to expand the canon not replace it. I still love many of the films found on the AFI Top 100 and I believe they, too, can benefit from a broadening of perspective. The Godfather, arguably the mainstream Hollywood achievement of this era, is used to signal toxic film bro taste in both Barbie and the recent show Overcompensating. But its lead, Al Pacino, had a life and career touched by queerness. In fact, go through his filmography and you’ll start to wonder if every Pacino movie is gay.


A couple months ago I watched And Justice for All…, Norman Jewison’s late 70s courtroom drama about a defense attorney named Arthur Kirkland. Throughout the film, Kirkland (Pacino) tries to hold onto his principles while working in our inhumane justice system. The film is a critique of this system where winning and losing are prioritized over right and wrong, where overworked judges and lawyers make rash decisions that result in ruined lives for the most vulnerable.

One of these most vulnerable is a trans woman named Ralph Agee played by gay actor Robert Christian. This subplot is painful to watch due to the realities of how the law treated and treats Black trans women and due to the limits of even the most well-meaning 20th century depictions of trans people in Hollywood. But throughout the film Kirkland pleads for compassion for Agee in the courtroom and in life. There are no deep talks about gender identity, just a suggestion that if wearing a wig makes her happy, why can’t everyone accept it and treat her with respect?

I didn’t watch this film expecting a trans character. Despite years dedicated to the study of trans film and queer film history more broadly, I’d never seen mention of this subplot. Pacino’s greatest film, Dog Day Afternoon, finds his character robbing a bank to get the money to pay for his girlfriend’s sex change operation. But few people seem to mention that Dog Day was only one of Pacino’s movies that decade where he tried — and failed — to help a trans woman.

This revelation led me to watch his first on-screen appearance in Me, Natalie, a movie where a young woman moves to Greenwich Village and has gay neighbors. Then I watched The Local Stigmatic, an adaptation of a play by Pacino favorite Heathcoate Williams, about two gay sociopaths wandering the streets of London looking for violence. Then I finally watched Serpico, a film that isn’t gay but does emphasize Frank Serpico’s effeminate personality and appearance and their connection to his status as outsider in the NYPD he aims to legitimize.

Speaking of the NYPD, have you seen Cruising? It’s a movie where Pacino plays a cop who goes undercover as a gay man. He does poppers at the gay club and then all horned up goes home to fuck his girlfriend. It’s probably the best of his more problematic gay films — certainly better than The Humbling where he has an affair with a lesbian played by Greta Gerwig or Gigli another film with a male-amorous lesbian. (Also better than Jack and Jill if that counts. Pacino is obsessed with a woman — a woman played by Adam Sandler in bad drag.)

One of Pacino’s greatest on-screen performances is his turn as Roy Cohn in the limited series adaptation of Angels in America. Another one of his crowning achievements is Scarecrow, a film about two male drifters who form a homoerotic bond that has complex, explicit depictions of queerness. Then there’s Pacino’s Salomé passion project, a film based on Oscar Wilde’s play shot in conjunction with a run of the piece and a documentary about both. In the documentary, his obsession with Oscar Wilde takes him to the LGBTQ bookstore that holds Wilde’s name and inspires Pacino to play Wilde in recreations. When asked by a producer if his interpretation of Salomé’s King Herrod is bisexual, Pacino says, “Of course.”

In Sonny Boy, Pacino talks about how his performance in The Godfather films was inspired by a line in Mario Puzzo’s book. Michael is called the “sissy” of the Corleone family and that’s how Pacino decided to play him.


Al Pacino got into the Actors Studio with an audition scene where he played a gay sex worker. There he continued to learn method acting, participating in the tail-end of a revolution in the art of performance.

Since I started this viewing project, I’ve been joking with friends that Al Pacino is bisexual. The truth is Pacino’s real-life sexuality and gender mean less to me than the importance of queerness throughout his career. I don’t care if there’s a personal reason why Pacino was so drawn to these characters and stories — I care that in the previous paragraph when I mentioned method acting at least someone reading it rolled their eyes.

Method acting, like 1970s American cinema, has been twisted by its worst fans. Somehow Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix have convinced people “the method” is acting like an asshole rather than a series of teachings that encouraged actors to practice emotional replacement as a way to get closer to their characters. The method was about a reduction of artifice, a commitment to realism. Sometimes people mumble, sometimes images are dark.

By the time the method was fully adopted by Hollywood in the late 60s, the movies were responding to a moment in American history where the hope of progress was being crushed by American imperialism. The Hollywood films of the 70s weren’t a celebration of drugs, genius, and masculinity — they were a commitment to artistic purity and clear-eyed reality in a world desperate for both.

The queerness of Pacino’s filmography is a reminder. While the media and your worst uncle claim the newness of queer and trans people, the truth is we have always been here. This cinema belongs to us as much as it does any straight film bro. (Though I would like to note re: Overcompensating, when I went to film school at NYU in 2012, I was one of the only people in my class who had actually seen The Godfather. Film bros of a certain age really preferred Nolan and Fincher.)

To me, the most important film in Pacino’s queer canon is actually a much-maligned straight love story. During a Q&A in 2019, Pacino shared that his favorite of his films is Bobby Deerfield, the tale of a depressed racecar driver who falls in love with a terminally ill woman. While in some ways it’s a sort of prototypical Nicholas Sparks/John Green weepy romance with a dash of early Manic Pixie Dream Girl, there’s a real tenderness to Pacino’s performance that makes it all work.

Early in the film, Bobby’s brother mentions that as a kid Bobby would dance around doing a Mae West impression. Later in the film, the woman he falls for calls him feminine and asks if he’s a homo. At another point, he sits at a bar where he talks to a gay magician and two women dance behind him. (Is this a gay bar? Or just Europe?) Eventually, to show the woman he loves his vulnerability, he will do the Mae West impression he previously denied remembering.

During that same Q&A, he said of the scene, “I was criticized for that Mae West scene, because when I did it, they were saying, ‘Why is he really acting like Mae West?’”

Like Bobby, Al Pacino isn’t gay. But there were always gay people around, and he connected to them as someone with a type of masculinity that left him also feeling like an outsider. This is the history of method acting. This is the history of 1970s American cinema. It’s about connecting across difference. It’s about celebrating the personal. It’s about working outside the system until the systems themselves are forced to change.

When art and history are claimed by those with power, it’s tempting to dismiss the work and seek inspiration elsewhere. But I’m so glad I made my way back to Al Pacino. As we enter into another era of cultural conservatism, it’ll be up to us to hold on to our place in cinema. I refuse to be discovered again in thirty years. I refuse to lose art to its most shallow interpreters.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.

‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love’ Season 2, Episodes 8 and 9 Recap: Who Proposed?

And just like that, we’re BACK with the final three episodes of The Ultimatum: Queer Love season two, including two regular episodes leading up to and showing the six couples answer their ultimatums as well as a reunion that rattled me for DAYS when I first saw it. Catch up on past recaps, and read my recaps of episodes eight and nine below. My recap of the wild af reunion will publish tomorrow!


The Ultimatum: Queer Love Recap – Episode 8

I feel like we really ended on some emotionally devastating cliffhangers in episode seven, and crashing back into things here in episode eight feels…a little jarring? How much time has passed? How did we go from Dayna threatening to leave to Magan recommitting to her so fully???????!!!! Dayna’s influence is a bit unnerving! Anyway, let’s get into it.

Two Weeks Until Ultimatum Is Answered

Haley + Pilar

After their stressful balcony moment following Haley revealing she fell in love with Magan, Pilar is now worried that anything she does will only further push her away. She doesn’t want to tell Haley how to feel or project her own insecurities onto Haley.

And well, this episode basically made me sob straight out the gate, because everything Pilar is saying about how her behaviors and emotions have been impacted by her upbringing is so real. She did not get unconditional love from her family. She explains that the people who raised her are ashamed of her, and she doesn’t have a mom she can talk to about any of this.

Pilar doesn’t want Haley to just be with her because it’s all she has known for ten years, but she also believes in them as a couple. So do I tbh! I do think it is normal and natural for them to both crave other experiences outside of each other given that they’ve been together a decade and are only 29. I think Pilar wanted to experience something with Kyle, but when that was shut down she didn’t get the same kind of outside experience as Haley. I’m left wondering if nonmonogamy could work for them? And I say that as a deeply monogamous person! In any case, Pilar talking about her family makes me very sad. Losing Haley would mean losing the person who taught her real love in a way her family denied her.

Haley and Pilar kissing

Dayna + Magan

What a 180 these two have done!!!!! Magan apologizes for hurting Dayna, and Dayna wants to give this trial marriage everything so she can feel informed when she walks away from this experience. HELLO? I thought she was JUST wanting to go back to Michigan and/or have her mom come? Magan says she’s happy to be with Dayna and she is her home and comfort. WHAT???? I have whiplash with these two! I know people who have been in similar relationships where blowup fights were immediately followed by intense intimacy and closeness. IT IS A REALLY TROUBLESOME CYCLE.

Magan thinks she would not have had sex with Haley if the moment hadn’t happened where Dayna ignored her. WHAT? “It was a test and you failed,” Dayna says of the entire trial partner experience, and I am truly so confused. How does Haley suddenly have so much control and power here? Am I turning on Magan? Am I seeing her manipulated in real time? I can’t figure out what’s going on! Magan gently brings up the fact that Dayna was also sexual with Mel, which as we know Mel is denying, and Dayna downplays it by calling it kissing and a comfort thing, suggesting that what Magan did was different/”worse.” That balcony booty grab…that’s not how I personally comfort someone who is just my pal!

Marita + Ashley

These two who I think are fundamentally incompatible meet up with Ashley’s twin sister and regular sister. They seem close with Marita, which is cute. But again, I don’t think these two are meant to be together at all, and at this point I’m stressed out any time they’re on screen together!!! Ashley admits their first week back together was horrible. She’s still trying to figure out why it’s so hard for her to do these things Marita asks for. Her sisters are like you shouldn’t be together if you can’t get on the same page, and I agree!!!!!

Marie + Mel

Mel and a cat in Queer Ultimatum

Mel is still struggling to see herself in a long-term committed relationship, because she has never seen a happy married couple in her immediate life. No one has modeled that for her. I sympathize with the sentiment, but it’s almost like she completely absolves herself of any real agency or culpability in her own actions and decisions. Mel brings up the horrible relationship her uncle — who she lived with after her uncle died — was in. But Marie asks her if she thinks that’s how they’ll be.

The things that make Marie feel safe in a relationship, like trust and support, make Mel feel unsafe, Mel explains. Trusting and loving someone fully scares her. Okay, at a certain point I think Marie has to make a choice to walk away from this! Mel is essentially telling her she cannot be in a stable relationship. In fact, she says she doesn’t know if she wants safe and stable, because her life has always been chaotic. So…because she has only ever known dysfunction, she chooses dysfunction? GIRL, GET HELP!


10 Days Until Ultimatum Is Answered

Haley + Pilar

Haley and Pilar on a beach

These two are going hard on trying to reconnect. They wake up to watch the sunrise, their first on the east coast. Pilar asks Haley what she needs, and Haley says she doesn’t feel prioritized by Pilar the way Magan prioritized her. (It’s a lot easier to make someone your priority during three weeks than after ten years together, but alas.) Haley says sometimes she tells Pilar she doesn’t want to do something and Pilar convinces her to do it anyway. Well, I do feel like we saw a bit of that in Pilar’s interactions with Kyle, too, so that tracks.

Pilar is trying not to take the confusion Haley is experiencing personally. I do think both of these two are trying to work through their issues in emotionally intelligent and mature ways.

Haley now brings up that while she and Pilar were out at the club, they ran into Magan and Dayna. Magan didn’t even look at Haley. So Magan did the thing she accused Dayna of doing?! Magan also told Haley they needed to cut all contact. Haley is confused, and I don’t blame her! They told each other they loved each other, and now Magan is cutting off contact, obviously in a attempt to appease Dayna.

Dayna + Magan

Well, these two are snuggling and telling each other they love each other, so I guess things are all good between them! I’m sick! Dayna tells Magan she has to get really intentional with Haley, and Magan tries to suggest she and Haley can be friends who just support each other, but Dayna shuts that down real quick and says that the relationship right now is not appropriate. Magan says maybe it just needs time, and Dayna shuts that down, too, saying it will take a lot of time if Magan wants to be with Dayna.

I don’t think Magan is completely innocent in the way the rest of this episode is about to go down, but I do feel like I’m so clearly watching someone be manipulated?!

Magan then brings up Haley ignoring her in the gym but then liking her photo, and Dayna says Haley is playing games. I really don’t think Haley is playing any games! Dayna says Magan is acting like she’s being the crazy one when really it’s Haley who is, and I think Dayna should get an Olympic gold medal in the sport of the SPIN.

Magan has gotten a lot of clarity. She doesn’t feel uncertain about any future possibility with Haley. Magan is fully back to Dayna. Well then!

Magan and Dayna embrace

Bridget + Kyle

It has become increasingly evident that the worst offense committed by these two is just being kind of boring. Kyle’s parents are back, and Bridget still wants to know what actual marriage adds to anything. Kyle never really seems to have a convincing answer for this. Kyle’s mom says it’s commitment and building a life together. Kyle’s dad doesn’t think she’s ready for marriage because of insecurity in her job and finances. Kyle says she isn’t ready to buy a house. Kyle’s mom points out Pilar was very mature and had a more secure profession, whereas Bridget and Kyle are two artists which makes life hard.

Well EXCUSE ME, I am a writer married to another writer, and our marriage is very strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But yes life is hard lol she got me there, drag me to hell KYLE’S MOM.

But no really, Kyle and Bridget probably belong together. They just disagree about marriage as an institution.

Britney + AJ

Delightfully, these two are on a date at the same Gyu-Kaku my wife and I went on frequent dates to when we lived in Miami. I hope they get the s’mores. They do get the spicy shrimp, which is also a crucial order. Anyway, you’re probably not reading this to find out What To Order At Gyu-Kaku.

AJ is still scared Britney will wake up one day and know she can do better. Really the only problem here seems to be AJ’s insecurity. AJ, it’s just the risk you take when committing yourself to someone! Just take the plunge! Britney accurately points out that this is an AJ Problem, not something that Britney herself has made her feel. She sees AJ as her equal, and AJ is the one who does not and is taking that out on Britney. I think these two will probably make it out of here. AJ just needs to get over her insecurities. And Britney to her credit seems to have a pretty endless capacity of patience for that (well, besides the fact that she issued her an ultimatum I guess).

Britney and AJ smooching

Marie + Mel

Mel shares she tried to text Dayna, and then Dayna called her and said she was uncomfortable. Mel wonders if it’s coming from Dayna herself or from Magan. Mel agrees to step back. Dayna and Magan are basically trying to do damage control and lock in with each other, icing everyone else out in the process.

Magan + Dayna

Magan is grilling and living in her delusional bubble where apparently she did not fall in love with another woman and is ready to be Dayna’s wife. Dayna is stressed about the prospect of talking to Mel, who she feels is going to have an attitude. Dayna thinks their trial partners probably feel betrayed. Yeah, probably!!!! Cutting off contract is crazy work!

Pilar + Haley

Pilar asks what the pros and cons of talking to Magan are, and Haley says she’s going to make a game day decision about talking to her. Let’s see how it goes down at……….

The Cocktail Party

Everyone agrees this is pretty weird. Marita asks Britney and AJ if Britney made oxtail yet, and she did. So everything between Britney and AJ seems good! Oxtail for wifey!

Let’s zero in on the central conflicts that play out here in two separate private conversations:

Dayna + Mel

Dayna says Mel is being weird toward her, and Mel doesn’t feel like she’s being any type of way. Dayna’s spin work is already at play. Mel expresses she felt she and Dayna were really similar and that they grew together. Mel says Dayna made her feel less crazy whereas Marie has made her feel crazy for four years. Mel brings up that they left things saying they would be friends no matter what.

Dayna says that has all changed by the fact that Magan brought up that the matching tattoos were such a betrayal, because she and Dayna had apparently had a conversation that if they made it out of the show they would get matching tattoos. Mel says Dayna didn’t tell her that, and Dayna claims she doesn’t remember the conversation with Magan. SPIN CITY USA!!! POPULATION: DAYNA!!!!

Dayna tells Mel not to talk to her the way she talks to other people and criticizes her for not being patient enough. She tells her to drop the act. “I know you ride for me, but I also know you ride for Magan,” Mel says. Dayna apologizes for not being able to be there for her right now. I feel like Dayna is playing Mel and Magan at the same time and trying to keep them both as options for her?

Dayna and Mel also end up talking about Magan/Haley. Mel asks Dayna if she trusts Haley, and Dayna says hell no. But what has Haley done, literally! Dayna thinks Pilar and Haley came to the show to leave each other. “Magan knows she got manipulated,” Dayna tells Mel. Excuse me…Magan got manipulated…by HALEY??????? DAYNA, LOOK IN THE MIRROR.

Magan + Haley

Magan looking flabbergasted

Haley doesn’t really want to talk but agrees to anyway. Magan tells Haley that when things ended between them, because of how far they went, Dayna was in a hurt place and she wanted to maximize her time with Dayna. Haley says the cold turkey no contact was jarring though, and fair! Magan wanted to set a boundary and asks that Haley respects her trial marriage.

But Magan treated Haley the exact way Magan said Dayna was treating her during the first trial marriage. She ignored her! That’s what set Magan off in the first place! Points are being made! Magan says it hurt her not to say hi but that she felt like she had to choose between Haley and Dayna and chose Dayna. So, here it’s clear Magan’s decisions for how to interact with Haley are being determined primarily by Dayna.

Haley says Magan’s actions don’t line up with her words and she feels like she got to know a completely different person than whoever this Magan is. Haley has been really honest with Pilar, and that’s true! She told her she fell in love with Magan! And we saw Magan also tell Dayna she fell in love with Haley, but now she’s backtracking. She says she had an authentic few weeks and doesn’t regret things but that she also made certain promises she shouldn’t have because she thought she was at a point of no return with Dayna. She says she loves Magan for everything they’ve gone through but that she’s not in love with her.

Magan says Haley is making her feel crazy, and Haley says she’s making HER feel crazy, and I gotta say I’m on Haley’s side here! Magan! We all saw you fall for Haley and say you were falling for her! I know you’re trying to lock it down with Dayna now, but backtracking is so foolish! There’s footage! Appease Dayna I guess, but we’re all watching! And judging tbh!

One thing’s for sure: I’m glad my invitation to this cocktail party got lost in the mail.

One Week Until Ultimatum Is Answered

Haley and Pilar are parasailing! Marita is making a vision board! AJ got Britney a s’mores station to remind her of their date together! I guess they did get the s’mores at Gyu-Kaku.

Haley + Pilar

Pilar and Haley's hands holding each other

Haley’s dad comes over for dinner with these two, and Haley tearfully shares with her dad that she and Magan fell in love with each other and that Magan is now backtracking the narrative. Her dad very kindly tells her it isn’t the worst thing ever to read a situation wrong. Pilar posits that perhaps Magan was using Haley to make Dayna jealous, and I honestly don’t think it was that calculating, but I do think Magan and Dayna are two people who HAVE to be in a relationship so they go all-in on whoever they see as their most viable option. Magan went all-in with Haley, but now shes’ going all-in on Dayna in a way that requires her to push Haley away.

Haley’s dad tells Pilar he’s here for her, too, and Pilar starts crying and so do I!!!! Pilar doesn’t have a dad to talk to about any of this, and Haley gets to be so open with hers. And he’s supportive of Pilar, too, and that’s just so sad and sweet! Pilar says she hasn’t been proud of herself for a long time but has learned to stick up with herself and be patient.

Magan + Dayna

It’s time for People Having Serious Conversations Under Blankets on the Couch, Magan says she talks to her mom about Dayna a lot and that her mom will say something like but one day you’re going to marry a guy and have kids, right? But today when Magan called and was talking about Dayna, she said everything but the part about the guy. Progress! I’m rooting for Magan to make progress with her family even if I’m not rooting for Magan and Dayna to work out!

Ashley + Marita

Marita and Ashley holding each other

More couch time. Marita starts sobbing after telling Ashley again that there are so many things she’s not getting. I think she’s realizing it’s not going to work. She wants a relationship and love and romance and she doesn’t want to just feel like friends. I really struggle to understand these two. Ashley holds her while she sobs, and Marita says she doesn’t get why Ashley can’t do all these things for her. They’re so bad at communicating! I don’t even want them in couples therapy; I just want them both in individual therapy.

Haley + Pilar

Pilar checks in with Haley, who is grateful for what they have. Pilar realizes that when she takes herself out of it, they’re able to resolve things better. They’re both genuinely trying witheach other. Pilar says if she were on the outside — like us, as viewers — she’d think they were fucked. I don’t actually think that Pilar! Y’all are pretty chill compared to Ashley/Marita and Magan/Dayna AND Mel/Marie!

Pilar and Haley feel bad for Dayna, Haley saying she wonders if Magan is the real problem in that relationship. Counterpoint: I think they could both be a problem.

Pilar doesn’t want to leave this and feel she was a safe second option.

Trial Marriages Final Night

Marie + Mel

Marie and Mel are making meatballs and sauce together, apparently a Sunday tradition and recreation of their first date together. Mel doesn’t want to work; she wants to be a stay-at-home masc. But what about the FOOD TRUCK!!!!

Mel says what she thinks switches by the moment. Yeah girl, that’s a red flag! Marie says Mel should trust her when she says something is okay. She feels confident and sure of what she wants and feels. Marie, girl, you can’t change who Mel is though. And she has shown you who she is over and over and over.

Dayna + Magan

Magan on the balcony eating dinner

Though I am turning on her, Magan wins a small piece of me back by referencing the Fast & Furious film franchise’s conceptualization of chosen family. Magan says they both fucked up, and Dayna makes sure to reiterate that yeah but Magan fucked up WORSE. She says it’s not like Magan hooked up with a random girl at the club but rather built a connection with and fell in love with someone else, which is DIFFERENT AND BAD…even though it is baked into the premise of the reality show they not only both chose to do but that Dayna strong-armed Magan into following through with when she originally wanted to leave.

Dayna laments that Magan doesn’t seem to regret anything she did or think anything she did was wrong. I think she likes having this card to play. Any time the conversation turns to her actions, she pivots to talking about what Magan did and how she isn’t sure if she can get over it. Then don’t and leave! Do your little spins elsewhere! I’m honestly tired of the spins!


Next: Ultimatum Queer Love Season Two Recap Episode 9

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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 1050 articles for us.

8 Comments

  1. Kayla! I am DYING to read your reunion recap. Amazing work thus far…can you imagine if we got this kind of insight on the show from an actual queer host?! Dare to dream. Truly, I am reeling right now at the fact that there were engagements beyond Haley/Pilar and Britney/AJ…

  2. Oh gods, I didn’t know a reality television show could make me dry heave. I’m actually low key a little scared for Magan? Like, the oddest thing I see not mentioned anywhere is that she is not out to her very strict Lebanese parents but she quite literally went on a Netflix reality television show? Even in the best of the best situations there would still be a non-zero chance that somehow someone in her family found out that she was on it no? She just seems not very good at thinking things through and that reflects in her behaviour and her relationship with Dayna. And that’s not a criticism of her, it’s why I’m so worried. Going on this show was the worst possible idea for her in every way and it is very obvious that in her little bubble with Dayna it is Dayna spinning her way into making every and all decisions. I just hope that Magan can break away from Dayna, especially after seeing Dayna’s behaviour in the footage.

  3. The situation with Dayna and Magan is coercive control and is miserable to watch. It kills me that no one really pulls Dayna up on her controlling, manipulative and mean-spirited behaviour. Seeing how relaxed and happy Magan was with Haley versus how brittle, defensive and closed off she is with Dayna is heartbreaking. Yes, Magan is an adult and has her autonomy but that autonomy is being very seriously impeded by Dayna and I do really see Magan as a victim in all this because she quite literally doesn’t know any better. Imagine, actually imagine, living in the Dayna spin world every single day. Imagine never getting to express your own emotions without Dayna telling you “well actually THIS is how you feel”. It would break you and it’s clearly broken something in Magan. If society/Netflix took emotional abuse as seriously as physical abuse these episodes would come with a fucking warning about how Dayna’s behaviour is not ok. I’m so upset they got engaged. I hope they never get married.

  4. Also Mel and Marie …..lorde….Marie is a chump and Mel is an even bigger chump. Marie was so desperate for a ring she accepted that weak ass proposal? From the world’s least reliable, chaos loving and dishonest person? Couldn’t be me….

  5. – All the times people in this show said: “The biggest decision of my life” – that would have been a bingo in my bingo game of this show. Or when people say it will change their lives forever. Maybe, I don’t know what their lives are like! But it is also possible that a wedding changes something for a couple of years until they get divorced and then the other person is not really a part of their lives anymore. I’m also confused that people said the decision about the trial wife would be the second biggest decision of their lives.

    – Marita: You could also play bingo every time she says: “You are not giving me what I want.” I don’t see any introspection of herself, only that she demands so very much of her partner all the time. A relationship should be about giving and receiving, and she constantly demands to receive more and more and more. It is debatable whether it is possible to do/ be what/ who she wants in a partner, but these two are not a good fit. And I don’t recall that there was ever the question what Marita could do for Ashley? What Marita could change?
    Given Ashley’s prior history with intimate partner violence, I believe I see all these little moments with Marita that are certainly not abuse but are like a pattern in many people who experienced violence – Ashley not prioritizing their own feelings; not standing up for herself; agreeing with Marita when it looks like she does not; swallowing her anger. Ashley looks so annoyed on the couch when Marita cries but she holds her anyway and says: “You are right, I should consider your feelings more.” It is all about Marita’s feelings! Does Marita care about Ashley’s feelings!!
    Very happy Ashley walked away and did not propose.

    – Hayley: “I thought Danya was the problem, and now I thing Magan is the problem” – Me: They’re both the problem! Danya and Magan! Very painful to watch any scene Danya is in and how she manages to spin everything according what she wants at the moment. I want better for Magan even though she is not innocent in this. Their fights remind me of Tiff and Mildred, the drama in the fight and then making up and everything is peachy until it’s high drama again. (Everything we saw before we learned that Mildred was arrested for intimate partner violence after the show.)

    – Mel: I understand that if one grows up with chaos, imagining a life of stability does not seem to be in reach. But therapy exists! It is an option to change patterns that made sense in the past and are no longer serving you in the present (e.g. I don’t want safety). Please be accountable for your actions and do not just say “yeah, my childhood, this is me, the end.”

    – Brtitney: “The ultimate ‘I love you’ is marrying me” – yeah, I have to disagree on that. I’m glad they worked it out, and I hope AJ will work on her insecurities on the long-run and stop wanting (for some part) for Britney to be the housewife. Issues like that don’t disappear with a proposal.

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No Filter: Elliot Page Closes Out Pride by Hard Launching With Overcompensating’s Julia Shiplett

feature image photo via Elliot Page’s Instagram

Hello and a happy Lez Out July to you all! This is No Filter, the place where I tell you all about what our favorite queer celebrities were up to this week, via Instagram! Let’s rock and roll!


This is my favorite thing ever, I am very nearly ill trying to picture this hang — on a ranch no less! This is what RPF — I mean dreams! are made of!


Unsurprisingly, everything about this look, I am obsessed with. The fringe! Pulling off that shade of blonde! She really can do it all.


Cynthia. I know you are a Capricorn, but come on now! Two Wicked movies, a new album, hosting the Tony’s AND she wrote a book? I think we have officially found the one other human who has the same 24 hours that Beyoncé does!


Glastonbury is now my favorite festival, between all the calls for a free Palestine and having Brandi up there? Coachella found dead in a ditch, tbh!


As a person who watched this “Girls Like Girls” music video when it dropped, this does feel like a fever dream 25 year old me created? But good for me!


This is the dream level of famous, tbh. “Come by and bang this drum for Pride” is such a sick offer?


Cardi B? More like Cardi…Hitchcock, amirite! (We all know this joke didn’t work, please I beg, let us move on.)


A genre of photo that simply always hits! The bows on those shoes are wild and frankly a tripping hazard??


It actually rocks to have hair that is so powerfully influenced by nature around you!


Oh right New York Pride is the end of the month, I always forget that and then get confused when everyone is still partying hard. Go off you two!


Elliot Page has a boo on main! We love to see it, we love dating comedians!


Doechii was ready and did in fact eat down on that stage!


This look…I want to hate it? But I cannot! It eats, somehow!


There has never been an easier meme format for people to jump on than this one, but the thing is? It works! This is funny!


Oh wait maybe this trend is easier to jump on, lol. Also funny!


Sarah Paulson in a big suit? Yeah I am down for that, thank you!


Rooting for these two the ends of the earth!

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Christina Tucker

Christina Tucker is writer and podcaster living in Philadelphia. Find her on Twitter or Instagram!

Christina has written 359 articles for us.

3 Comments

  1. Just wanter to add that Diane Guerrero from OITNB and Encanto appears to have hard launched her GF on insta!

  2. there’s an old country song called “old dan tucker” but you’re neither old or named dan

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Saving the Everglades Is a Queer Issue

For all the jokes about Florida, the people who actually inhabit the state know its beauty. There’s a rich history in this state, not just in the buildings and communities that have been built over decades, but in the stunning natural landscapes that have always been there and, unfortunately, find themselves being regularly exploited and destroyed. To watch Sasha Wortzel’s feature documentary, River of Grass, is to experience a bit of the beauty and pain of existing in Florida surrounded by the Everglades.

Not to be mistaken with Kelly Reichardt’s only Floridian film of the same name, Wortzel’s River of Grass is a necessary document about the Everglades at this point in time anda personal reflection on what it means to connect with other communities for the greater good. By weaving together everything from archival material of the grasslands, Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ seminal text (The Everglades: River of Grass), Indigenous voices and activists Betty Osceola and Reverend Houston R. Cypress, and contemporary verité footage of prayer walks in the Everglades and around Lake Okeechobee, the film becomes a mirror of the vast scale of the Everglades themselves in our lives.

That it serves as a personal memoir, educational text, and call to action all at once is what makes River of Grass feel essential in a time when everything in Florida feels fraught with danger. As a fellow queer Floridian watching the film — as well as Wortzel’s past work like How to Carry Water, This Is Not An Address, and Happy Birthday Marsha (co-directed with Tourmaline) — I couldn’t help but get swept away by it. I found myself thinking a lot about the way so many communities in South Florida intersect and adapt. Coming up just before a screening at Frameline, Sasha and I sat down to talk about the film, the region’s history and politics, and the way queerness and nature intersect.


Juan: I feel like it’s a very Floridian thing to just grow up with the Everglades as something that’s always there, for airboat rides and swamp walks, but not something you’re connected with in any real capacity. What was your experience with it growing up?

Sasha: Like most Floridians, I grew up knowing that the Everglades existed and was there, yet I wasn’t necessarily spending a lot of time in the Everglades. My earliest memories are driving from the West Coast to the East Coast through them and I think that’s a common way that many Floridians experience this vast region of wetlands that our water comes from: as a place to pass through to get from one coast to the other. I think many Floridians also don’t understand what they are, might even find them scary and intimidating. Some people look and say “what’s there?” It seems like nothing’s there and though I did grow up having a pretty strong relationship with the environment – being on the water, being in coastal mangroves, kayaking, and I was like a junior naturalist – but I didn’t understand how my more immediate ecosystem that I grew up in was a part of this larger, vast interconnected system that is the Everglades. That’s something I really had to seek out on my own.

Juan: Yeah, Floridian schools don’t really educate you on this. There’s not enough weight placed on how integral the Everglades is.

Sasha: It was very much a thing of the 90s where our education around the environment was not stressing the interconnectedness of things and simply focused on teaching us to turn off the lights, recycle, and plant a tree on Earth Day. With that, you’ve done your part and we still see that today. The responsibility is often placed on the individual rather than on larger systems or corporations that are actually the culprit in extracting, polluting, and destroying our wetlands and natural wild spaces.

Juan: And I think your film speaks to that by actively involving various communities who are impacted and exist with the Everglades. Not to jump into the political immediacy of it, but I do wonder: do you consider your film something of a call to action, particularly in informing people about how much the Everglades impacts us?

Sasha: I believe my film is an invitation to learn more and to become engaged with the environment and educated in how interconnected everything is. I’m happy if it feels like a call to action too; I think it is in essence, with Betty’s last lines in the film [“Nature will always win in the end. You have to decide if you’re going to be there as a part of that win, and, if you don’t, she’s going to win without you.”] More than anything, I think the experience of making the film, for me, was sort of like getting to know a relative who’s always been there in a much deeper, more intimate, way.

An alligator in water filled with bright green runoff in River of Grass

Juan: The film kicks off with you dreaming about Marjory Stoneman Douglas and navigating the impact of hurricanes, so that makes sense. Were those the actual triggers that kicked off the creation of River of Grass?

Sasha: I was thinking about how, in my lifetime, I had seen many of our wetlands and wild spaces fundamentally change or disappear altogether. I was watching more frequent and intense storms and hurricanes, noticing that our water quality was really declining, and that, on both coasts, we were experiencing forms of harmful algal blooms. Red tides and green algae that were sucking the oxygen out of the water, causing these mass fish killings, and giving people health problems. I was feeling overwhelmed by it all, devastated and sad, and then realized that I didn’t quite understand why. I knew that it had something to do with the Everglades’ water system, and that our temperatures (in and out of the water) are rising, but I wanted to unpack that and understand it better for myself in order to process some of my grief and understand my place and what action I could take.

I started by picking up Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ book because, even today, it’s still considered one of the essential resource guides to the Everglades and the first non-fiction study of the Everglades. I’d also applied to Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) and arrived just after Hurricane Irma – there were tons of trees and phone lines down and the water levels were much higher than usual for that time of year – so, of course, hurricanes were on my mind. I spent that month reading Douglas’ book and using it to create a sort of roadmap of some of the stories, the sites, and the themes I might explore in the film, as well as reaching out to people who were removing pythons or riding around with rangers by boat taking water samples.

I met Houston Cypress at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Archives while doing some research after having written them prior to coming to the residency, knowing that one could not make a film about the Everglades without engaging Indigenous voices, and it was also at that time that I met Betty Osceola at Buffalo Tiger Air Boats. I was telling her what I was imagining and she said, “Hang on a second,” went and put gasoline in her airboat, and said “get on.” I went on a long ride with her and her late husband Jimmy and we walked and talked about a prayer walk she was organizing to walk the entire circumference of Lake Okeechobee. She invited me to join her, and so I did.

Juan: That is such a massive endeavor, but it sounds magnificent.

Sasha: From there, I just realized that it was going to be a film that reimagines Douglas’ book; her words in it felt very prescient and relevant, and yet it stopped in 1947. So much has followed that up to the present, so I wanted to weave her words alongside these portraits of what’s happening now. And that’s kind of how the project began, but then another hurricane came during the making of this and really destroyed where I’m from. Douglas did come to me in a dream during this time, telling me that she had more to say and felt she’d been forgotten. I felt that she wanted a direct address with the audience, not just through her book, and it launched me into doing more archival research and uncovering interviews with her where I was moved by her presence and bluntness.

She was so direct, so funny, so unapologetic, and a lot of what she said was extremely resonant with what’s happening now. She needed to be part of the story and all these elements needed some kind of grounding and a perspective, some kind of glue, and that had to be me. I realized it was also my story, but Douglas prompted me to pursue this project.

Juan: And you bring up trying to piece it all together, but I’m so interested in how you approached something as grand as the Everglades. There’s science, there’s spirituality, there’s history, there’s politics – obviously you’re grounding it in yourself, but how do you try to parse all of it down into something that isn’t just an info dump?

Sasha: It’s not an easy task and also why this was a project that took many years to make. I naively didn’t realize the education it would require of me; I’d need to learn Indigenous history, hydrology, legal frameworks around the Everglades, there’s just so many layers. Once I started meeting and engaging with people on the ground who call this region home, that would lead me to another story and another. It was through the making of this project that I became connected with the Stop the Burn campaign [which aims to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the Everglades] and learned about that. It really took a lot of time and refining, and it was through the editing process that it became clear what would remain and what might be cast out to create something that could tell a very expansive story but wasn’t bogged down in too much detail. I hope people learn a lot about this place through watching, but I wanted it to feel more like you were sort of flowing with the water, digesting and absorbing and learning along the way.

Juan: That makes a lot of sense in how meditative the doc is. It forces you to become one with the nature of the Everglades. Your last short film, How to Carry Water, also had this vibe that you’re just trying to exist in the same space as your subjects. Do you always try to find that connection with them in some capacity?

Sasha: I tend to work on projects where I’m engaging with places and communities that I’m somehow already embedded in on some level. It’s been really important for me to think about landscape not just as background but as a character and to foreground it and really sit with and film with the same kind of dignity and respect that I give to the people that I film. I spent a lot of time in these different ecosystems that are collectively part of the Everglades with J. Bennett, the director of photography.

A really important part of the process for me is also relationship building. During the making of the film, Betty Osceola walked Lake Okeechobee twice. There were two separate prayer walks and I filmed one of them and went on another from start to finish without my camera. I think it was about 120 miles around the lake, mostly in silence. That sort of intention and process is hopefully embedded in the feeling of the film.

Betty Osceola in an orange shirt and ear covers in River of Grass

Juan: How much of those prayer walks and that journey is just walking and experiencing nature as opposed to moments where people stop and engage with each other?

Sasha: When you’re walking in pairs in a single file line through the Everglades, you’re meant to be silent and listen and pray, to look and witness the environment and connect with it. There’s a rhythm to these moments where you’re moving through the landscape and looking in a way that I think we often don’t look, especially while you’re on foot because of the pace and scale of things. In breaks, Betty would share a story or some kind of knowledge, ones that have been passed down from her ancestors about the ways the land looked when they were there or specific plants. Sometimes there’s breaks where we’re all just hanging out and laughing, eating snacks and enjoying being out there with each other.

It’s about community building when you’re out there with people from all walks of life. Over the course of filming, I watched the prayer walks really grow. Of course, Lake Okeechobee is a particularly long seven-day walk, so not everyone’s going to be able to participate in the full walk due to its intensity. But something really beautiful that I felt over the course of the film was the number of people participating in these walks, these spiritual actions, and the Everglades growing and finding intersections between these community members. So Donna and her daughter, I’d been out with them removing pythons, and then a few months later, we were on this walk together. It was interesting to see not only the interconnectedness of the different ecosystems that make up the Everglades, but the people themselves, and I wanted the structure of the film to reflect that as well.

One of the teachings that Betty spoke about during the making of the film was this Miccosukee teaching of land as ancestor, with trees and animals that are all our relatives. And in Douglas’ book, she very intentionally uses the pronoun “they” to describe the Everglades – this non-binary, plural pronoun – and I was really moved by these two ideas.

Juan: That makes a lot of sense to me because the film kind of ebbs and flows through all these different facets of community and ecosystem. I actually love that you bring up the non-binary pronoun for the Everglades because I’m wondering: How did your own queerness and your past work that looks at queer bodies in natural (and unnatural) spaces influence this film?

Sasha: I mean, how could it not? It’s just one of the lenses through which I experience and engage with the world, and the idea of the collective, the “they”, this sort of expansiveness of gender and community with plants, animals, and the unknown, like our ancestors and spirits. I think there are moments that do feel more explicitly queer in the film, like Houston walking through this beautiful cypress dome and saying that chosen family is a survival strategy.

Even something like Marjory being asked by a journalist why she never remarried. Would a journalist ever ask a man that? Of course not. I was moved by her answer being that she couldn’t be bothered with a man and was busy. Marjory may not have been queer, yet the way she lived her life defied a lot of prescribed gender roles. She did not marry, she did not have kids, and she wasn’t focused on this nuclear family unit because her family was the Everglades, her friends, her writing, and her art, the things she devoted her time to.

Something that really informed my approach to this project and How to Carry Water was thinking about the way in which queer bodies and trans bodies, like the wetlands, defy or refuse tidy binary categories. Wetlands are both land and water; the Everglades are sometimes dry as a bone and you can walk across and, other times, it’s flooded. It’s not any one thing, and there’s an interesting connection too in the way that wetlands have been demonized, extracted, drained, and reengineered that mirrors what we see happening in dominant culture with violent transphobic narratives.

Juan: So many people outside of these lived experiences and natural bodies are trying to force their will onto them, but you can’t change or stop what exists.

Sasha: Yeah, I think the same violent forces that deem a trans body, or a disabled body, or a fat body, unworthy or disposable in this world are the same forces that deem a swamp as unworthy or something we don’t need. And that is intimately connected to all kinds of violence and settler colonialism here in the United States and with what we’re seeing happening abroad.

Juan: And your film is explicitly in conversation with the fact that the world is comfortable destroying these things. Obviously your work is political – even thinking back to something like This is an Address, which features Sylvia Rivera – because you can’t make work like this without it being political, but what do you hope for with a film like River of Grass? Are you hoping for it to spark conversations about gentrification or destruction or faulty politics in Florida that make nothing last here?

Sasha: That’s the very story of Florida: Build as fast as you can before things sink or build and make as much money as you can before the next hurricane.

Juan: Does it feel like you ended up capturing the Everglades before it’s too late?

Sasha: There is an awareness that I am trying to tell a story that covers such a wide span of time and that connects the past to the present. To make this film is to create a document of a specific time and place because the way things look and feel are constantly changing. I hope the film is an invitation to become more connected to our environment and to each other, to our larger collective movements. Something that’s important to me with this film – that’s maybe not said explicitly but hopefully embedded in the architecture – is that climate justice is very intersectional. It cuts across race, class, gender, and sexuality, and connects to everything. Finding these interconnections between our movements and coalition building is really the way forward.

We are stronger together when we are thinking about how we can all get free and how our liberation is connected to our neighbors. We also need to listen to and support Indigenous voices and center those who are most impacted in our movements. Those are the experts and recognizing and dismantling these ongoing legacies of settler colonialism is central to the environmental justice movement. Those are some of the many things I’ve learned and taken away from the process of making this film. I started in this place of devastation and grief, feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do, and now I have all these answers and solutions. Through the making of the film, through learning our history and who came before, and by connecting with a broader coalition of neighbors in the region, I now feel more hope.

The swampy Everglades in River of Grass

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Juan Barquin

Juan Barquin is a queer Miami-based writer and programmer who aspires to be Bridget Jones.

Juan has written 7 articles for us.

2 Comments

  1. “I hope people learn a lot about this place through watching, but I wanted it to feel more like you were sort of flowing with the water, digesting and absorbing and learning along the way.”

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Mini Crossword Is Naked in Manhattan

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Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for July 2025

June was of course a very busy month for LGBTQ+ book releases, but we still have a decent amount of new queer and trans books coming your way in July, too! Because it turns out gay people still exist after Pride month! Who knew! Below, find our top picks for the month, followed by the rest of our mostly anticipated queer books for July 2025. And feel free to shoutout additional books in the comments!


Autostraddle’s Top Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books for July 2025

Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyễn (July 1, Literary Fiction)

Hilarious in its excavations of internet fame and the content-ification of relationships, Hot Girls with Balls follows Six and Green, two late-twenties Asian trans women on rival teams in the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. The influencer athletes have a massive platform where they document their long-distance relationship and often disagree about how much to make public and keep private. It’s a great “internet novel” and specifically a queer internet novel, so it’s extremely up my alley and I think if you get your book recommendations from Autostraddle dot com, it’ll be up yours, too.

No Body No Crime, by Tess Sharpe (July 15, Thriller)

Nothing bonds two girls quite like burying a body in the woods. Chloe Harper and Mel Tillman end up in a secret relationship after they spend a night in the woods burying the body of teen drug dealer Toby Dunne on Chloe’s 16th birthday. Six years later, Chloe has left town for the Canadian wilderness and Mel is working as a rural PI. Danger resurfaces from their past and brings the two women back together again.

The Other Wife, by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy (July 15, Literary Fiction)

Zuzu feels like an outsider growing up biracial in her small, rural town, but she finds deep friendship in her best friend Cash, whom she longs for but never pursues outright romance with. Now nearing her forties, she’s married to her wife Agnes while still yearning for Cash, who she reconnects with when a sudden loss brings her back to her hometown.

House of Beth by Kerry Cullen (July 15, Literary Fiction)

This twisty novel centers bisexual literary agency assistant Cassie Jackson, who flees Manhattan for her New Jersey hometown following the gruesome death of her boss, which also causes her harm OCD to flare up. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend Eli, who is a widowed father of two, and Cassie slides easily into his life as a new stepmother. But things get a little…messy…when the ghost of Eli’s dead homemaker wife Beth starts haunting the woods surrounding her home.

Subterrane, by Valérie Bah (July 17, Speculative Fiction)

Humor and political commentary collide in this kaleidoscopic work of speculative fiction featuring a chorus of Black and queer voices set in the fictional world of New Stockholm, a North American metropolis defined by class stratification. Zeynab is making a government-funded abstract documentary about the creatives and anti-capitalists of one of New Stockholm’s polluted and industrial neighborhoods, one of the last areas where housing is affordable.

Necessary Fiction, by Eloghosa Osunde (July 22, Literary Fiction)

The author of the outstanding Vagabonds! is back with another gorgeous literary exploration of queer life, family, friendship, desire in Nigeria. Featuring more than two dozen characters across generations and scattered throughout Lagos, it’s simultaneously sprawling and intimate.

First Time, Long Time, by Amy Silverberg (July 22, Literary Fiction)

A young aspiring writer moves to Los Angeles while grieving her dead brother and ends up in a relationship with a famous older radio host named Reid Steinman, beloved by her father and late brother. But things take an interesting turn when she ends up having an affair with his adult daughter Maddie.

Simplicity, by Mattie Lubchansky (July 29, Sci-Fi, Graphic Novel)

Whether you know her from her brilliant horror graphic novel Boys Weekend or just from her hilarious comics online, Mattie Lubchansky is a shining voice with a signature style in the queer and trans graphic narrative space, and you’re not going to want to miss her latest, an immersive and speculative story about Lucius Pasternak, who is hired by the Museum of the Former State of New York in 2081 to study a group called The Spiritual Association of Peers from the 1970s that took over a summer camp in the Catskills and called it Simplicity. Strangeness ensues. Expect sharp socio-political commentary wrapped up in eerie dystopian-horror imagery. And humor of course!

Lonely Crowds, by Stephanie Wambugu (July 29, Literary Fiction)

Set in the early-90s art world of NYC, this novel is about two friends: Ruth and Maria. Ruth is an only child of immigrants to New England attending a Catholic girl’s school on a scholarship, and Maria is an orphan whose Panamanian mother died by suicide and is being raised by her aunt and also on a scholarship to the school. They strike up an intense friendship. Ruth follows charming and free Maria, who embraces her sexuality and drive for an art career, to college and then NYC, where ambition and competition threaten their friendship. Toxic friendship novel, yes PLEASE!

And now enjoy the rest of our most anticipated LGBTQ books for July 2025!


July 1

Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe, by CB Lee (YA Romance/Fantasy)

A geeky science-lover and a prophesied Chosen One’s paths collide, and they start to fall for each other, but there’s one problem: They come from literally different universes. Second dates become a lot more complicated when they require a portal. For readers of sapphic cozy YA fantasy!

The Original, by Nell Stevens (Literary Fiction)

A suspenseful, gothic work of historical fiction, The Original follows Grace, who has predilections for art, forgery, and other girls. She’s saving up money in hopes of one day leaving her family for far away, but a letter from a long-presumed dead cousin staking potential claim in the family’s wealth complicates matters for Grace and the other members of her Oxfordshire estate.

Human Rites, by Juno Dawson (Fantasy)

This is the third book in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven trilogy. Five witches — Niamh, Ciara, Leonie, Elle and Theo — are chosen by Lucifer the demon of desire to fulfill a dark prophecy. Uh oh.

Tenderly, I Am Devoured, by Lyndall Clipstone (YA Romance)

Lacrimosa Arriscane AKA Lark is expelled from her boarding school and finds her family in financial ruin, so she accepts a marriage of convenience to a chthonic god, as one does. She becomes entangled in a sibling love triangle with a brother and sister. Romantic folk horror that promises a polyamorous bisexual romance!

Call Your Boyfriend, by Olivia A. Cole and Ashley Woodfolk (YA Romance)

This young adult sapphic rom-com follows Beau Carl, who is trying to figure out if Maia Moon, the popular girl she has been secretly hooking up with, really likes her. At the last big party before prom, Beau sees Maia about to kiss Charm Montgomery, who is thrilled that the vibes she has been picking up on in her tutoring sessions with Maia haven’t just been in her head. But then Beau interrupts the kiss, Maia accepts a promposal from her shitty boyfriend, and both Beau and Charm are left bereft. Beau and Charm team up to enact their revenge, but they start slipping into something sweeter along the way.

Am I Having Fun Now? Anxiety, Applause and Life’s Big Questions, Answered, by Suzi Ruffell (Memoir)

Comedian Suzi Ruffell writes humorously and authentically on masking anxiety with musical theater, coming out, falling in love, and becoming a parent.


July 8

The Gryphon King, by Sara Omer (Fantasy)

This is the first book in a fantasy trilogy inspired by Southwest Asian mythology. Ghouls, deadly monsters, and characters with dubious morals clash in a dynastic tale of romance, fantasy, and adventure.

Moonrising by Claire Barner (Sci-Fi)

The year is 2073, and agronomist Dr. Alex Cole moves to the first lunar colony where she falls in love. If you’re both a space nerd and a romance lover, the premise here sounds like it’ll be just for you. There’s also significant themes of climate horror and dystopia.

The Key To Everything: May Swenson, A Writer’s Life, by Margaret A. Brucia (Biography)

Whether you love lesbian poetry or lesbian literary history, you’re gonna want to get your hands on this biography of May Swenson, which pulls from her unpublished diaries as well as letters to people like fellow lesbian poet Elizabeth Bishop. The 20th century was such a fascinating time for lesbian poets, and this book particularly focuses on Swenson’s life from 1936 to 1959, during which she came of age and into her poetic voice in NYC.

Putafeminista, by Monique Prada, translated and edited by Amanda De Lisio (Nonfiction)

Activist and sex worker Monique Prada pens a work of sex-worker-centric feminism from Brazil, centering an anti-colonial and anti-whorephobia working women’s movement.

Climate, by Whitney Hanson (Poetry)

This is a revised re-release of Hanson’s collection, which features a new introduction and more than a dozen new weather-centric poems.

Sunburn, by Chloe Michelle Howarth (Literary Fiction)

This gorgeous novel about two girls falling in love in small-town Ireland in the 1990s is finally getting a U.S. publication after capturing hearts in the UK in 2023.


July 15

Wayward Girls, by Susan Wiggs (Historical Fiction)

This novel follows six different girls who have been locked away in the 1968 nun-run institution Good Shepherd for the mere facts of being pregnant, gay, or otherwise difficult.

Hit Me With Your Best Charm by Lillie Vale (YA Fantasy/Romance)

Nova Marwood has long been haunted by the tragedy of her missing father hiker but has become accustomed to pretending she’s okay. She’s also very good at pretending she doesn’t have a crush on the girl she pretends to hate. Nova ends up accidentally laying a hex on said faux-nemesis.

Climate of Chaos, by Cassandra Newbould (YA Sci-Fi)

July is disability pride month, and this book features a disabled protagonist navigating a dystopian world of climate crisis and medical debt, set in a near-future Seattle ravaged by storms and a virus. Healthcare can only be earned by logging hours in the pharmaceutical factories run by society’s resident evil corporation Aegis Corp.

The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris, by Jennifer Dasal (Nonfiction)

Hello history heads! Here is the clandestine history of a residence for American women artists in Paris from 1893 to 1914. The American Girls’ Club in Paris opened in 1893 and housed a generation of artist and activist expatriate American women during Belle Époque Paris. This meticulously researched book looks at the community that formed there and the legacy of its women.

Get it Out: On the Politics of Hysterectomy, by Andrea Becker (Nonfiction)

Get it Out offers an inclusive study of the hysterectomy and includes medical history as well as qualitative data gathered from 100 participants, including trans men and nonbinary people in addition to cis women. It looks at how gender and race impact access to reproductive healthcare and the pushback people seeking hysterectomies often receive.

Taste the Love, by Karelia Stetz-Waters and Fay Stetz-Waters (Romance)

A sapphic rom-com for foodies, Taste the Love centers eco-chef Alice Sullivan and social media and food truck sensation Kia, who go from complicated culinary school rivals to…a public fake marriage in an attempt to save both their careers.


July 22

The Library at Hellebore, by Cassandra Khaw (Horror Fantasy)

I had a lot of fun with Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth, and the author is back with a dark academia novel about the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, a prestigious academy for the “dangerously powerful,” including anti-christs, ragnaroks, world-eaters, and apocalypse-makers. In other words: school from hell.

Daughters of Flood and Fury, by Gabriella Buba (Fantasy)

This is a sequel to Saints of Storm and Sorrow and continues the saga’s exploration of Filipino-inspired fantasy, featuring magic, pirates, moon-eating dragons, and sapphic romance.

Volatile Memory, by Seth Haddon (Sci-Fi Romance)

This debut is a sapphic sci-fi/action-adventure novella with cyberpunk vibes.

Nothing Compares To You: What Sinead O’Connor Means to Us, edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne (Nonfiction)

A group of women and nonbinary artists and writers come together to remember the legacy of Sinead O’Connor in this anthology.

Evil-ish by Kennedy Tarrell (YA Fantasy Graphic Novel)

Hawthorne Vandercast wants to join the Brigade of Shade and leave behind their life as a potions barista. But their pursuit of villainy proves more complicated than they hoped.

Sky on Fire, by E.K Johnston (YA Sci-Fi)

A space fantasy that combines Arthurian myth and the history of North Atlantic fisheries — two things I bet you didn’t think could combine to compelling effect, but here we are! For readers of queer sci-fi/fantasy tales.

So What If I’m a Puta, by Amara Moira, edited by Amanda de Lisio, and translaed by Bruna Dantas Lobato (Essay Collection)

This essay collection from Feminist Press touches on transition, safe sex, desire, whorephobia, consent, and the history and current contexts of Brazil’s violence against trans women.


July 29

The Memory Hunters, by Mia Tsai (Romantasy)

A slow-burn romantasy with climate dystopia and dark academia vibes, this novel centers Kiana Strade, who has a special talent for collecting memories but refuses her post leading the temple she’s supposed to and instead does research for the Museum of Human Memory.

We Are The Match, by Mary E Roach (Romance)

Here we have a contemporary and queer reimagining of the Helen of Troy myth with Grecian mob families and a tale of murder and revenge.

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World, by J.R. Dawson (Fantasy)

A Midwestern fantasy tale, this novel features a waystation for the dead on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago. Every night, the dead travel through the city to this waystation, guided by the titular lighthouse, where they must reckon with their lives before moving on into the great beyond, ushered by the ferryman of the dead. That ferryman’s daughter Nera notices one night that something is afoot. A living girl named Charlie has somehow boarded the boat looking for someone she has lost.

Donut Summer, by Anita Kelly (YA Romance)

Two teens working at a donut shop for the summer band together to save it and fall in love along the way in this YA debut.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 1050 articles for us.

Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3339 articles for us.

1 Comment

  1. OH WOWW, thank you so much for including “The Club” on your awesome list! So, longtime Autostraddle reader, first-time commenter here– suffice to say that I was thrilled to see my book listed and I’m so grateful. (Kayla, I was especially excited to see you as one of the authors here… your coverage of “Yellowjackets” has been 100% critical to my viewership!). Thank you, thank you.

Comments are closed.

‘I’m a Thirty-Something Lesbian Worried I’ll Be Single Forever’

Q:

I’m a lesbian in my 30s who has been single for 5 years and not for lack of trying. And I mean that. I’ve gone on dozens of first dates through dating apps, I’ve collected many random hobbies over the years by taking classes to meet people, I attend things on my own all the time, and even recently I tried speed dating for the first time. Still, I haven’t had even the glimmer of a relationship. Haven’t even so much as kissed someone in a few years.

And I’m a total catch! I have a great job, I own my house, I’m smart, cute, and don’t speak to any of my exes! I even live in an area that is relatively queer. Yet, I’m starting to become convinced that it’ll never happen for me.

In some ways it feels like I’m waiting for the next part of my life to begin with a partner. I bought a house last year after putting it off because I had been waiting for someone to do it with and realized that I may be waiting forever. But it was an incredibly lonely experience. And I’ve had so many experiences over the last few years that I always pictured myself sharing with a partner.

If I had been sitting on my couch for the last 5 years without trying, I would understand. It’s much more painful to feel like I’ve been doing all the “right” things to try to meet someone and still come up short. Everyone in my life says I’m wonderful and to “put myself out there” but that doesn’t seem to matter. And as time passes, it becomes more difficult to hold onto the belief that I am worthy of love and will find it.

I guess my questions are: Where do I go from here? How do I keep trying without losing hope? Should I be doing anything differently?

A:

This is the thing that is most frustrating about dating imo! You can literally have everything going for you and also be truly putting yourself out there, and you can still struggle to find someone to actually date. It sucks! I have many friends spanning ages, locations, and sexualities for whom this exact situation you’ve described is true. You’re single, but you’re not alone. I believe you when you say you’re a catch! Being a homeowner ALONE should qualify you for a long line of prospective girlfriends. Owning a home?! In THIS economy?!?!! I’m impressed!

While your friends’ advice to put yourself out there is coming from a good place and indeed is the most common response to folks feeling like they’re stuck in singlehood, clearly you already are putting yourself very out there. I’m left wondering if you’re almost putting yourself too out there, casting too wide of net. That’s not a criticism! But I’m trying to figure out something else you could try so as to at least not feel like you’re in a slump. What are you looking for in a partner? What are your priorities in a relationship? Write these things down. Maybe instead of going on dozens of first dates via the dating apps, get a little more intentional with who you’re planning dates with and seek out people who fit certain things you’re looking for. I know this is sort of contrary to conventional How To Date advice, but I think it could accomplish a few things here.

For starters, the sheer volume of first dates you’re going on and attempts to date you’re making may be contributing to your feelings of exhaustion and the pain of continually putting yourself out there to no avail. It’s possible you have feelings of dating fatigue! That would be understandable! It could be better for your overall mental state to scale back some of your dating efforts while still managing to put yourself out there to some degree, which could set you up for long-term success with dating. It also could mean more of an emphasis on dating people you have some baseline compatibility with. Getting intentional about your priorities in a potential partnership can teach you a lot about what you’re looking for and then set you up to go out and find what you’re looking for!

But of course, it also isn’t as simple as just that. It takes time, but the thing we talk about less is that it takes luck. Especially when we’re queer, our dating pools are just naturally smaller. Even in a big city with a lot of queer people. You are worth of love, and I think you will find it. There is always time, and it’s never too late. If you’re low on hope, borrow some from me! I do have hope for you! I have hope for everyone when it comes to finding love, truly.


You can chime in with your advice in the comments and submit your own questions any time.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 1050 articles for us.

14 Comments

  1. Dear letter writer,
    I, too, know many people who are in a similar situation to you (but without the house:). Surely, this does not change that you feel something you wish for is missing from your life, but I want to second Kayla in two things: a) you are not alone, and b) there is so much luck (or the lack thereof) involved in dating.
    You asked if you could do something different. I just want to point out that you are doing a lot of work already, and sometimes, that only means that the discard pile gets really big.
    I have a few questions that might be paradoxical:
    → What if there is nothing to fix? What if you already do (or did) everything you could, and there is no need for self-improvement? What if you say to yourself: I am trying, and I know want something different for myself, but I also know the result is not in my hands and I cannot control the outcome? (It might make it easier to exhale because what you describe gives me an impression of breathlessness.)
    → Why are you trying to date? (That is not a judgment or a criticism. Nothing wrong about wanting to be in a relationship!) Maybe you can dive into what you would like from a relationship (if you haven’t already). What exactly do you miss? What exactly would you like to be different? Is there anything that people in your life at this point can provide that you would like to see from a romantic partner? Surely they cannot replace what you want, and it does not minimize this feeling of loss for you. Sometimes people feel like “If I don’t have this, I don’t have anything!” – and there is so much space between these scales.
    → What if you gave yourself a break? What you currently do sounds like a lot of pressure and as if you did everything to ace the test (of dating). What if you stopped for a while and see what’s that like for you? As an experiment. No good, no bad. I tried dating, and it made me feel______. I tried to take a beak from dating, and it made me feel______.
    → How can you take good care for yourself in the time you don’t have what you long for? How can you show up for yourself and meet your own needs as much as possible while recognizing that you would like a different life for yourself?
    Maybe you’re doing all of these things (and more) already. In that case, ignore everything that does not fit!

    If you are interested and you haven’t read these articles yet, I can highly recommend them:
    https://www.autostraddle.com/i-am-single-and-my-life-feels-meaningless/
    https://www.autostraddle.com/how-do-i-date-when-im-attracted-to-hardly-anyone/

    • This reads nearly verbatim to therapy advice I have received in the past.
      100% applicable and helpful for LGBTQIA+ folk with low to mild level mental health complications.

      Unfortunately CBT can only go so far and help a certain subset of individuals.
      Apologies to my former counselor Rebecca, for being a CBT resistant terror.

      I will be forever cross with Rebecca and her coworkers for ‘hiring’ me a few years later, just to surveil me and observe my behaviors. Like an animal in a zoo. I do believe this is a violation of social work ethics. Especially if information was passed along to outside parties. Sounds like breaking HIPPA and Social Work Ethical Code.

      On the off chance this is indeed the same Rebecca, I’m glad you can help some people. But when CBT is your specialty and that specialty isn’t working, do refer out. And for the love of god do not go along with hiring someone to surveil them. It might be a good time to review the Social Work Code of Ethics.

      https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

    • Hi, I am really sorry this happened to you! What a shitty thing to go through! I am actually a very different Rebecca – just a stranger on the internet who apparently said something similar, who isn’t trained in psychology and just had some thoughts to share.
      All the best to you!

      • Whoops, wrong Rebecca.
        The CBT is strong with you like the other Rebecca.
        Wishing you the best as well.

  2. I just want to tell you I was single for a full 10 years with no prospects! Idk why I too am a catch. It did finally happen for me and it will for you too!

  3. I have complicated feelings about telling someone that they will find a relationship. I know – the intention is very sweet & kind! However, we cannot “promise” someone something when in fact no one knows how other people’s futures will look like.
    To clarify, I don’t mean to attack anyone here. Receiving the message “you’ll find someone, it’ll happen for you one day, too” might be exactly be the letter writer loves to see/needs to hear! People are so different! Personally, I don’t feel good when someone tells me this. I spend a lot of time with grief activism. In grief, people are quick to point out to a grieving person that things will get better. And that is very possible. But they don’t know; things can become worse as well.
    Grief is not only a thing when it comes to death, but also when life doesn’t turn out the way we had hoped (ambiguous loss). From what I’ve seen so far, saying “it will be better/ you’ll find someone…” often takes place when it’s hard to hold space for someone’s despair / sadness / uncertainty. What I personally have found helpful is something like: whatever happens, I hope you can trust yourself to take care of yourself and that you have people in your life who support you. And: I hope you can live this in a way that feels true to yourself and that you can be proud of yourself, given this is the life you have now though you wanted differently.

  4. Isn’t there space for both Ellybelly and Yasmine’s sentiments?

    Ellybelly’s message seems to be one of hope. Although the message could have been more explicitly named hope, shouldn’t there be room for this? In context of online messages on forums, I think this type of message has a place without being dismissive. Having hope is not inherently a bad message.
    Living with or being close to and in contact with someone who couldn’t figure out how to ‘hold’ grief of, or be present with, a grieving person is a different story. That could ‘make the grief worse.’ I’m don’t think this incident is that situation, but it’s good to be aware of. Toxic positivity won’t lift the grief off a heavy grieving heart.

    Yasmine’s message is more focused on attention on what can be controlled, like building self-confidence, and creating a supportive community of likeminded people who share goals. Note the attention shift from the grief to action while simultaneously gently reminding those who are grieving that it’s okay to feel the grief, and that there is more immediate hope in other areas of their lives. Reviving agency is key, and I think it is a fantastic message of hope with some general direction for action.

    (I assume) We all know that life is a series of ups and downs. Things get better and worse all the time both in small everyday ways, and in chapters of years being ‘better or worse’ than the last. This is all in flux.
    Because that’s a given, I really do not think it’s helpful or worthwhile to use the framework of “you don’t know (the grief) it’ll get better- it could get worse.”
    Unless something seriously out of the norm happens, life kind of will drudge on like business as usual, with small moments of contentment, joy, inconvenience, anger, ect.
    Ideally, with the agency of the griever, the situation will improve due to their own efforts.
    That’s the hope at work.

    It is true, people today generally do struggle to know how to be present with someone who grieves and sometimes can do more harm than good in these interactions.
    At the end of the day, a message of hope seems essential. There are different ways to offer the message. Ellybelly’s message comes across as a more casual message of hope and validation (the ‘been there too, it’s real’ kind). This approach does well with general everyday encounters/interactions.
    Yasmine’s message offers the sit with you in the feelings validation plus attention shift to areas with more personal agency. Generally, I’d expect this with a small handful of people in life, or my therapist.
    It’s a wonderful approach, but should be used with discretion.
    Using Yasmine’s approach with everyone who grieves is almost certain to create emotional burnout. And perhaps the resentment that comes with it. Again, great approach, use at your own discretion.

    Anyways just the two cents from someone with too much time on a hot summer day.

    • I get that many people want hope. Hope can be wonderful. To me personally, hope is a big vague concept that can mean so much different things. When hope is mentioned generally, my question is: hope in what? Hope in whom? Hope in how?

      For example, if I hope that I will be in a wonderful relationship & have a good job in one year, that’s hope in a very specific outcome, and if this doesn’t happen, I will likely be disappointed & feel bad. I may consider myself a failure because it did not turn out the way I wanted, and I may think that I didn’t do my work “correctly.” But if I say to myself: how do I want to feel in the next year?, that feels different. Then, I can ask myself: what can I do / what is in my power to make it more likely that I will feel this way?

      Hope in something very specific (a speedy recovery, getting pregnant, someone waking up from a coma…) gets disappointed all the time. So my approach now is: how can I take care for myself and how can I carry myself through this – given that this is what I have to live?

      I agree with you that life is a series of ups & downs and things get better & worse in small & bigger ways. And then, there are a number of people who had major successive losses in a short time period. If someone tells them: “In five years, it can be much better!” they are like: “Well, it can also be worse. Five years ago, I had no idea that my mom would be murdered, my ex-partner would not survive their car accident, my friend would die of cancer and I would miscarry. So I am dreading the years to come.”
      That might not be the norm, but I cannot tell you how many people experience a number of deaths or other devastating and life-changing losses in a short period of time & consequently expect bad things to come their way precisely because this was their experience.

      You said that using my approach with everyone who grieves will almost certain to create emotional burnout. Can you say more about it? Personally, I have made better experiences with it than with casual hope/encouragement I used in the past because people felt I didn’t understand them/ their grief / pain / whatever the case. But I would like to hear more.

      • Sorry to hear about the unfortunate series of losses, ie: death of mother, partner, friend and miscarriage. That’s tough to hear.

        Grief work is incredibly emotionally exhausting. You don’t have to be a nurse or therapist to experience it. Although those professions will have high levels of exposure at the workplace, family members, partners, friends, or anyone emotionally close to someone who grieves has a higher risk level. Same goes for those with generally high levels of empathy.
        Our society isn’t really structured in a way to properly support many individuals, including those who are grieving, or those who care for the suffering.

        Hopefully this article can explain both burnout and compassion fatigue better than I can.

        https://www.verywellmind.com/compassion-fatigue-the-toll-of-caring-too-much-7377301

  5. I feel you, letter writer. Also, I love the thoughtfulness in the response and all of the comments.

    I have had a few relationships over the years with increasingly longer periods of being single. I have built a beautiful life with friends and community during my time as a single person, but I still deeply yearn for a romantic relationship. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself when I think about how it is that the one thing I want above all else is not attainable right now and the love for my amazing friends just doesn’t fully fill that void.

    Recently I spoke with my therapist about how to move forward in life and do things I always planned to do with a partner, like maybe buying a condo. It’s been a heartbreaking process in many ways but I just have to hold on to hope that I will find my person and they will fit into the life I have built and I into theirs. For me, this hope is what keeps me going. Some days the 30 somethings dating pool feels extra small, but I try to remind myself that people move, break up, come out, etc. every day and I do believe one day I will find my person.

  6. I was single for many years and what helped me was understanding that there is literally nothing wrong with me for not finding a partner.

    After a long break from dating, once I put myself back out there I was encouraged to pay attention to how I’m feeling during the date and be open to any outcome; rather than wait for the dating to “work” and result in a relationship.

  7. I’m mid 30s and have made peace with never finding a romantic partner. It is what it is. I find it easier to plan my life around never being in a romantic relationship than hoping it will happen one day.
    Very few people fit my standards and I refuse to budge on them, even if it means never dating again.

Comments are closed.

Alexandra Shipp Plays Reneé Rapp’s Girlfriend in New Music Video

Reneé Rapp has dropped another single from her upcoming album Bite Me and with it, a music video in which Barbie Movie’s Alexandra Shipp plays her girlfriend who is the embodiment of the song title: mad.

In the music video, Reneé is dressed like an Old Hollywood diva in furs, a scarf, and sunglasses, while her girlfriend (played by Shipp, who is dressed in a very fashionable suit) brushes off her attention, obviously pissed off at her gal pal. Reneé seems more annoyed at her girlfriend’s anger than apologetic, saying that she’s wasting time being mad…time that they could be spending having sex. While Reneé tries to get her angry beau’s attention, her and her friends also trash a hotel room, Alexandra’s character patently ignoring them and taking an angry phone call. Toward the end of the video, Reneé is swinging from a chandelier and falls, and Alexandra momentarily stops mean mugging to show genuine concern, and from there she looks a bit more bemused by Reneé’s antics than mad. Overall a very cute, fun, gay, and extremely on-brand music video for Miss Rapp.

In an interview with Variety, Alexandra Shipp said, “There’s a lot of things that I thought were going to be on my 2025 bingo card. Being a sexy lesbian video vixen was not on it. I am so honored to be a part of it. And I think that we definitely played off a very hot power couple.”

And I, for one, wholeheartedly agree. Check out the full music video here:


Swing Into More Headlines

+ Maisie Richardson-Sellers tells Out how she fought to make sure her Nine Perfect Strangers character’s queerness felt “full and authentic”

+ The L Word: Gen Q‘s Sepideh Moafi is going to be joining the cast of The Pitt and hopefully gaying up the place a bit

+ Good news, sports gays: the WNBA is expanding to more cities

+ ICYMI, Marvel’s Ironheart is finally here and features some queer actors/characters

+ I Wish You All the Best is a film about a non-binary teen (Corey Fogelmanis) who gets kicked out of their house and moves in with their estranged sister (Alexandra Daddario) and her husband (Cole Sprouse???)

+ Lorde released her full album Virgin, on which she covers topics including embracing “an evolving gender identity”

+ Eva Victor (who uses they/she pronouns) is the writer, director, and star of their independent film about sexual assault “Sorry, Baby” – which also features queer actress Kelly McCormack

+ Sex Education‘s Emma Mackey plays queer and the daughter of lesbian actress Fiona Shaw in the admittedly-unappealingly-named film Hot Milk

+ Sarah Michelle Gellar wants to bring everyone back from the dead (hopefully including the beloved Tara McClay) for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot

+ Also this is more of a “fun fact” than properly a news story, but if you’ve been watching the latest Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp) show Revival and were also confused as to how we went three episodes of a Canadian sci-fi show with no lesbians: Fear not, according to one of the showrunners, they are coming.

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Join AF+!

Valerie Anne

Valerie Anne (she/they) a TV-loving, video-game-playing nerd who loves reading, watching, and writing about stories in all forms. While having a penchant for sci-fi, Valerie will watch anything that promises a good story, and especially if that good story is queer.

Valerie has written 656 articles for us.

3 Comments

  1. the buffy link is behind a paywall D:

    also when did [i already forget dylan or cole] sprouse become kinda hot?

  2. the Pitt!! Plus sepideh!! ooh yes!

    The Pitt is my favourite new show of the last few years. I’m so happy!

Comments are closed.

Every Queer Criterion Closet Video

I’ve loved the Criterion Collection since the summer of 2007 when I got The Red Shoes, Seven Samurai, and Ace in the Hole in a Barnes & Noble buy-two-get-one-free sale. Not only did the home video label allow me to watch a wide range of new films — they also provided so many special features to obsess over as a child who wanted to be a filmmaker.

My love has only increased over the last five years since they became the rare company to hear critiques — including my own — and actually improve. Their vision of the canon used to be so limited and now it has expanded for the benefit of us all!

For many years, their Criterion Closet videos have shown celebrities — often people who are at the offices for one of their films — making selections of the Criterion releases that have meant the most to them or that they most want to check out. It’s such a joy to watch people geek out about movies! And so I’ve gathered all the videos from queer people with some thoughts on their selections.


Agnès Varda

As I discussed a couple weeks ago, yes, Agnès Varda was bisexual. She was also a fan of Girls! I love listening to Varda talk about art and her selections from Campion to Kiarostami to Lena Dunham are excellent. Also The Marriage of Maria Braun is the film that caused me to fall in love with Fassbinder’s work.

Favorite pick: An Angel at My Table (1990)


Andrew Haigh

Visiting the closet with actress Charlotte Rampling, the director of Weekend and All of Us Strangers has such fun banter with his 45 Years lead actress. His picks are also very British! Which I say with minimal judgment! How could a gay British boy not shout out Merchant/Ivory and Sunday Bloody Sunday I suppose.

Favorite pick: Black Narcissus (1947)


Aubrey Plaza

Visiting the closet with her late husband and collaborator Jeff Baena, Plaza’s picks feel very in line with her creative voice from Ghost World to Scenes from a Marriage to Harold and Maude to 3 Women to picking I Married a Witch based on the title and cover art — something I also did once.

Favorite pick: Safe (1995)


Ayo Edebiri

Ayo is a true cinephile!!! This is one of the best of these videos not just because of the picks — which are excellent — but because of how Ayo talks about movies.

Favorite pick: Charade (1963) or To Sleep with Anger (1990) (don’t make me choose)


Bowen Yang

I also really love how the picks are talked about here. And as someone whose favorite John Waters film is Multiple Maniacs, thrilled to see that represent the director. Also very relatable how in the final moments he snags two huge box sets.

Favorite pick: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda


Charlotte Wells

This gets extra points for her quoting Brief Encounter: “I’ve fallen in love. I’m an ordinary woman. I didn’t know such violent things could happen to ordinary people.” And for the confirmation that the final shot of Aftersun was inspired by La Chambre. (I hope Criterion sent her the Chantal Akerman Blu-Ray set once they finally rescued those early films from the Eclipse label.)

Favorite pick: Eclipse 19 Chantal Akerman in the 70s which is now Out of Print so get this even better Akerman set instead


Cheryl Dunye

The first of many closet jokes on this list! So cool hearing Cheryl Dunye talk about Hollis Frampton and the influence of video art and experimental cinema on her work. And her picks overall might be the very best since she snags the Akerman, Varda, and Marlon Riggs sets. Truly cannot put into words how happy it makes me that The Watermelon Woman is finally in the Criterion Collection.

Favorite pick: The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs


Desiree Akhavan

In this video, Desiree Akhavan talks about taking a directing class with Ira Sachs — more from him later — and being introduced to the films of John Cassavetes. She also talks about the influence of Safe on The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Perfect video.

Favorite pick: Do the Right Thing (1989)


Elegance Bratton

I love the shoutouts here to Douglas Sirk and Melvin Van Peebles. It kind of feels passé to single out Rashomon among Kurosawa’s work but it remains my favorite and I appreciate what Bratton has to say about the film here. Also he shares that The Battle of Algiers is his favorite film of all time which given The Inspection is… interesting!

Favorite pick: The Battle of Algiers (1966) or Some Like It Hot (1959) (simply cannot choose)


Gregg Araki

This is one of those director videos where every pick together makes so much sense for the artist’s voice. Bringing Up Baby meets Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me meets Pink Flamingos with a dash of Godard.. yeah I’ve seen The Doom Generation!

Favorite pick: Bringing Up Baby (1938)


Hari Nef

Leave it to a trans woman to pick some Almodóvar. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is among my favorites and a great pick along with so many other great choices like The Naked Kiss, Grey Gardens, and possibly my all-time favorite Criterion release: the restored edition of The Red Shoes. Also yes shoutout Design for Living, an incredible early throuple movie.

Favorite pick: The Red Shoes (1948)


Ira Sachs

Very relatable to call being in the Criterion Closet an erotic experience. This video also has some fun facts like how Sachs wanted to write about The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in college but Gena Rowlands wouldn’t send him a print so he wrote about Tati’s Playtime. He also shares that Little Men was inspired by Ozu’s I Was Born But… and Good Morning and a scene in Love Is Strange was inspired by a moment in Bergman’s The Magic Flute. Very good picks and a very good video from Passages director and Desiree Akhavan’s professor!

Favorite pick: Charulata (1964)


Isabel Sandoval

“This is the next best thing to transitioning” is an incredible way to start one of these. Picks like The Age of Innocence fit with the swooning romance of Isabel’s work! I also love the idea of spinning around and picking something at random.

Favorite pick: John Cassavetes Five Films or The Complete Films of Agnès Varda


Jaboukie Young-White and River L. Ramirez

A unique video since it’s five comics making their picks at the same time. I think only two are queer but correct me if I’m wrong. Not a ton of deep dives but everyone is having a good time!

Favorite pick: Some Like It Hot (1959)


Janelle Monáe

This is another unique one because icon Janelle Monáe kept her picks all on theme with Halloween. It’s like a fun little film school class on horror and horror-adjacent films taught by the hottest professor you could imagine.

Favorite pick: Eraserhead (1977)


Jenni Olson

I enjoy listening to Jenni talk about movies more than just about anyone. She has great picks here and I especially appreciate the choice of the Louis Malle documentaries Eclipse set, a collection I got when I was way too young that challenged me in the best way.

Favorite pick: Desert Hearts (1985)


Jeremy O. Harris

At eight minutes and nineteen seconds this is by far the longest of these videos, but it’s worth it. “There’s a lot of required to be gay in my opinion and a lot of that required reading is in movies. And a lot of those movies are weird and European.” Yes, agreed. Everyone should make their friends watch Teorema. Also love the reveal that he shares a birthday with the Marquis de Sade. This one is for the Geminis.

Favorite pick: Teorema (1968)


Joel Kim Booster

Despite starting the video saying he has bad taste, his picks are good! I am also thrilled and a bit surprised that The Others is now in the collection. And how could anyone not love The Philadelphia Story?

Favorite pick: In the Mood for Love (2000)


John Early

John Early has been in the Criterion Closet at least twice and I wish there was a video of his visit with Stress Positions director Theda Hammel but we do have this one with Jacqueline Novak. A fun, chaotic energy here and I do love that they stumble upon one of my favorite queer horror movies: The Uninvited. Also it’s the movie I love most that I’m least likely to recommend but I agree that Fat Girl is such a special movie and I’m sorry if you watch it because we’re saying that.

Favorite pick: Fat Girl (2001)


John Waters

The Blob to is so very John Waters and this video does not disappoint with his wide range of picks. I do not share his love for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls but something I love about Waters’ taste is it’s always a mix of work I love and work I do not.

Favorite pick: (1963)


Julia Fox

Pretty sure she is the only person to enter the closet with a briefcase, but she really gets points from me for crying as she talks about Almodóvar. She also does a random pick and ends up with Ugetsu which is such an incredible film to stumble upon!

Favorite pick: All About My Mother (1999)


Julio Torres

Overall such good picks from the creator of Fantasmas, one of the few TV shows I’ve seen in recent years that has made me feel the possibility of art. A mix of humor and horror and idosyncracity that fits right in with his own work. I love the way Where Is the Friend’s Home? and After Hours become in conversation with one another.

Favorite pick: Y Tu Mamá También (2001)


Karyn Kusama

Obsessed with Karyn Kusama going with a theme as specific as “how do we address power, what do we do with power.” Rewatching this video — and watching Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers for the first time this month — has reminded me I need to get the Criterion edition of The Damned because I’ve owned the same very old DVD for many years and I’m sure the Criterion version is gorgeous. God I love her selections so much and this is probably the video with the most choices I haven’t seen.

Favorite pick: Three Films by Luis Buñuel


Katya Zamolodchikova

I didn’t realize Katya was such a cinephile and this was such a delight to watch a few weeks ago. Starting with a Tarkovsky film and eventually making it to Todd Solondz’s Happiness does feel right for her though.

Favorite pick: Querelle (1982)


Lee Daniels

The Fellini set that Daniels starts with is going to be my next big Criterion purchase. Also more Querelle love here! Daniels describes his taste/inspirations as “a little euro, a little ghetto, a little homo” but then also throws in The Piano a movie that I loved so fiercely for so many years and really need to revisit. (The Paperboy should get a Criterion release.) Woah who said that?

Favorite pick: Essential Fellini


Lily Gladstone and Erica Tremblay

I’m obsessed with Lily Gladstone and Hirokazu Kore-eda becoming pals on the Cannes Jury. After Life was the movie I watched the night before my 30th birthday and it’s a really special one. I haven’t seen Gladstone’s first two picks so I need to change that, but once Erica Tremblay arrives her first pick is Certain Women and God do I love that film and Gladstone in it. Also very cute that they pick movies for each other.

Favorite pick: Certain Women (2016)


Maya Hawke

Imagine your dad was Ethan Hawke. Seems like fun! Their banter here is very sweet and I am also very much a Children of Paradise missionary. I’m dead at the reveal that Ethan Hawke took Uma Thurman to see Husbands on one of their first dates.

Favorite pick: Children of Paradise (1945)


Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane says his husband loves Rififi and that reminds me the two of them happened to be in my theatre for Black Bag. I bet his husband loved it! We’ve had Beyond the Valley of the Dolls gays but finally a Valley of the Dolls gay. I love how many of these he hasn’t seen and he’s just taking based on actors and vibes.

Favorite pick: Mikey and Nicky (1976)


St. Vincent

For some reason St. Vincent isn’t really on my radar anymore, but I was obsessed with her in high school and high school me would’ve melted at her saying, “Oh! Do we have The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant?” I think we should get an update on whether she watched the Chantal Akerman films and what she thought of them, because pretty sure based on her other picks she fell in love.

Favorite pick:  Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978


Todd Haynes

More beautiful Brief Encounter love! Everyone watch Brief Encounter! I always love when people pull out films to mention but then are like “I already have this” like he does. This video could be an hour long and I’d be happy.

Favorite pick: In a Lonely Place (1950)


Trace Lysette

Moonstruck and Love Jones are such incredible romance picks. Also Thelma and Louise lets be honest. I hope Trace did end up watching Satyricon with a joint because that sounds like a perfect experience.

Favorite pick: All About My Mother (1999)


Want to make some purchases of your own? The Barnes & Noble 50% off Criterion sale is now through July 27. Can’t afford to buy? Subscribe to The Criterion Channel or go to your local library!!! The library is how I watched most Criterions as a kid.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.

5 Comments

  1. Sometimes I decide I really am far too old for this site (and I don’t mean millennial-style “I’m so oooooold”–I am actually on the doorstep of elderly), but then there’s an article like this that I would find nowhere else. This must have been a chore to put together, and this old lady thanks you!

  2. This is so delightful! I’m just booking in my art house cinema movies for the summer so I’ll keep an eye out for ones here I’ve not seen!

    also yes brief encounter my god

  3. I think The Others has had a little bit of a renaissance in recent years. A lot of younger YouTube reactors have reacted to that movie, Nicole Kidman shouted it out as one of her favorites she’s ever done, and I’ve seen it on some Best of lists. It helps that a lot of people watching it for the first time now don’t know that it came out shortly after Sixth Sense (although it was written BEFORE Sixth Sense). And it’s actually still not an easy twist to guess. A lot of people give themselves credit for what’s essentially a half-guess, and most of them who did make the half-guess at some point get fooled out of it again because of the way the movie structures everything.

    But that’s almost beside the point: Unlike Sixth Sense, The Others is a movie that rewards re-watching, so even if you know the entire twist it’s still fantastic viewing. Perhaps the only thing in Sixth Sense that is worth re-watching is Toni Collette’s scene near the end.

Comments are closed.

‘King of Drag’ Embodies Masculinity Icons Steve Irwin, Sylvester Stallone, and Ira Glass

King of Drag is back for its second week and everyone gets a chance to show more of who they are and what they can do. On any competition show, each subsequent episode has less exposition and that’s especially true with a new series.

But this week we do get to start by meeting the kings out of drag. Drag Race really only does this in its final episodes when the queens talk to their younger selves. Here everyone goes around and says their out of drag names and most say their out of drag pronouns. I really appreciated this look at the wide range of people who can be drag kings!

Last week I said Big D was by far the oldest because that’s what he said, but Buck Wylde is almost 50 as well! They’re also both parents and married to men. The show gives them both space to talk about their relationships to gender and performing without trying to put them into easy boxes.

The theme is comedy and Murray’s Somebody Somewhere costar Jeff Hiller is there to coach the kings on improv. The weenie challenge is more of an exercise, one that will be familiar to anyone who did improv in high school. (Dick shares that he briefly did improv in high school to be near a crush which is a gorgeous adolescent experience.) They split into three teams and have to mansplain given topics one word at a time. The kings are not good at this !! As far as I’m concerned, the only king who does this well — listening and injecting comedy — is Big D. But Alexander, Henlo, and Buck Wylde win for at least being relatively in sync.

I don’t mind that the show feels as much like drag king school as it does a competition. An improv game before they have to improv more seriously was nice! Considering how many queens come on Drag Race All Stars still not being able to sew, a mini challenge crash course could probably serve them well. Teacher Jeff gives some key comedy advice: Don’t let the audience know when you screw up.

The beefy challenge this week is The Dong Show, a talent show where the kings have to do their talents while doing celebrity impersonations. They get two hours to prepare — a whole half hour more than last week!

Earlier Perka talks about being autistic, and this whole episode he seems very overwhelmed and insecure. He was an immediate favorite for me, but I fear his anxieties might get the best of him in this competition. Meanwhile, Dick has chilled out a bit since last week and I like him a lot more. And speaking of anxiety, Murray shares with Charles that the way he used to conquer stage fright was to engage directly with the audience.

We also get some moments of Dick talking about sobriety, Pressure K talking about having PCOS, and Buck talking about attending Catholic school.

Joining Jeff and the regular judges — Tenderoni, Sasha Velour, and Wang Newton — is another Somebody Somewhere costar Bridget Everett!

The celebrity impressions are Buck as the devil, Big D as Sylvester Stallone, Dick as Steve Irwin, Henlo as Jack Black, Molasses as Ira Glass, Charles as Nosferatu, Perka as Steve Urkel, Alexander as Justin Bieber, and Pressure K as Rick Ross. They all start off talking to Murray and then one by one do their performances followed by some questions from the judges.

Buck struggles and I think part of it is doing something like the devil is really hard. I get the appeal if impressions aren’t your thing, but I think we’ve learned from Drag Race that abstract impressions are even harder. Alexander has the look and is talented at dancing but there’s just no humor. Big D as Stallone trying to fold a fitted sheet is very funny but here’s where I nitpick… it bothers me when people do celebrity impressions but are just impersonating one of their characters. Stallone is not Rocky Balboa! If you’re impersonating Rocky then be Rocky! Henlo has the same problem! Playing the trombone with his feet was impressive but he was very specifically doing School of Rock which wasn’t even necessary because Jack Black was in a band.

Dick was one of the standouts especially with the improv. I thought they could’ve incorporated the brass instruments into their performance and a bit more organically but the banter with Murray and the judges was sharp. And then there’s Molasses. I’m curious how many of the kings are jealous, how many are horny, and how many are both. Ira Glass is such a funny choice for Molasses and also very smart because Glass talks so slowly that it allowed Molasses whose strength isn’t improv to have time to respond well. Also he did push ups! In a sleeveless shirt! I asked for horny and I got it.

I thought Charles as Nosferatu was so funny. His recitation of “What Does the Fox Say” as a poem wasn’t maybe the best choice for the character, but all his improv moments killed me. I also thought Pressure K was great as Rick Ross and his ribbon performance was very funny.

Sadly, Perka struggles a lot. Mostly because he changes from Urkel into Sonic which was baffling until he later explains that’s because Jaleel White voiced Sonic something he thought was common knowledge. Alas not for me or the judges! And once the joke didn’t land, his insecurity got the best of him and he kind of fell apart.

Charles, Pressure K, and Henlo are all safe. The tops are Big D, Dick, and Molasses. The bottoms are Buck, Alexander, and Perka. I thought the win would go to Dick to spread the love, but nope Molasses was the clear winner and he wins again!

The Final Thrust this week is one minute of stand up. Buck is doing okay but doesn’t time it well so doesn’t get to say his big punchline. Perka does pretty good even if it feels more like a roast than standup. I did think it was funny how everyone groaned when he said being a trans guy and a drag king have a lot in common since people call both male impersonation. Let the trans guy make a joke! Don’t groan to prove your ally bonafides!

With a four to one vote, Perka is saved and Buck says goodbye. Now I just need Perka to get some confidence!


Showbiz! Here are some random thoughts:

+ I didn’t mention this last time but the opening credits are really fun. My screener doesn’t have finished credits but I want to look up who designed them.

+ Alexander says he wants to save more of his talents for later in the competition and no that’s a bad idea! Give it all from the top!

+ Jeff says that Rocky didn’t win and Big D says yes he did and Jeff admits to not having seen Rocky. But Jeff was right?? In the first Rocky, he does not win!

+ I appreciate the standard of drag Sasha is holding them to as a judge. Even though Big D was in the top, she critiques him for his beard falling off.

+ King I’m rooting for: Molasses (even though he does not need it)

+ King I’m horniest for: Molasses

+ King I want to appreciate himself more: Perka

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.

7 Comments

  1. Can someone post a link to the Season 2 survey? There is a QR code that displays to take a survey for Season 2, but my fone cant take fotos so I cant access the link with only a QR code.

  2. omg i love this Everything Everywhere — I mean Somebody Somewhere! cast reunion!! I love that sweet show and it’s so nice to see them all together and clearly friends <3 :,)

  3. I’m loving this show so much so far! Thoughts about this episode:
    -The highlight was seeing the Somebody, Somewhere crew back together on my TV 😭
    -I feel like combining a talent challenge and impersonation challenge was maybe too much, for the episode and for the kings? I would have loved to see their individual talents showcased first, so the kings could demonstrate how their talents complement their drag personas. And then they could have a separate challenge for the impersonations later in the season. (Just like Drag Race does it…😬)
    -While Buck was doing the Devil, I kept thinking of Trinity the Tuck doing Satan in the All Star’s Season 7 Snatch Game episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wrJQhI1lQw). Conceptual can be funny, but you need a specific take!
    -Speaking of Drag Race, I keep wondering what this show would be like without Drag Race setting the blueprint. Impossible to say, but I would love to see this show evolve more into its own thing in future seasons. (Manifesting more seasons for them!!)
    -Molasses and Dick: call me?

  4. Big D’s set had me in TEARS i get the facial hair was coming off but i will now be laughing my ass off every time i fold fitted sheets

  5. I do agree with your comment about being annoyed when people do impressions of a character not the actor (it’s annoyed me since Ben De La Creme’s Maggie Smith so I have held this grudge for YEARS) but am I right in thinking part of the reason they have to do this is because of copyright risk for copyrighted characters?

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Quiz: Which Queer Discourse Are You?

It’s pride weekend and I hope you’re out celebrating with friends and NOT fighting with strangers on the internet. But if I learned one thing from Sarah Schulman’s early novels it’s that queer discourse has existed since before online spaces. You just used to have to knock on someone’s door to let them know you no longer consider them part of your community.

But have you ever wondered which common queer discourse is most like you? Which of these endless arguments shares your essence? Well, now you can find out by pausing the in-fighting and taking this quiz!


Which Queer Discourse Are You?

Who are you most likely to discourse with?(Required)
When are you most likely to discourse?(Required)
Which of these astrological signs do you identify with most either in other people or yourself?(Required)
Pick a recent Autostraddle article:(Required)
Pick an underrated queer movie (that you probably haven’t seen) based on the title:(Required)
Who would you most want to celebrate Pride with?(Required)
Who would you least want to celebrate Pride with?(Required)
How would you most want to celebrate Pride?(Required)
Which of these supernatural creatures shouldn’t be allowed at Pride?(Required)
What’s your favorite part of being queer?(Required)

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.

7 Comments

  1. Is Marriage Heternormative!!

    You have no idea how accurate this is for me, because one of the first thoughts I had after realising I was gay in the mid 90s was “thank god I don’t have to get married.”

    Obvs in the intervening 30 years I’ve realised legal protections are kind of important, but I remain baffled at all the hetero-style gay weddings that abound. Discoursify me at your peril!!!!!

  2. Bury Your Gays!

    Hah! I don’t care much about this particular trope but I’m feeling pretty seen / called out by the description:

    Yes, it’s a trope, but it’s also a discourse! And at the core of this discourse is a love of fiction and a belief in its power. You share that love and that belief. You’re someone who is as invested in people on-screen and on the page as you are real life. You can sometimes get lost in your fantasy space, but there are worse places to wander.

  3. No Cops at Pride!

    Thank the Gods I got something simple and clear cut, I don’t think I could handle much more.

    (And thank you for including the option to ban fairies from Pride. I feel seen!)

  4. I got kink at pride and I feel so seen 💛💛💛💛 Seen just like my full on bare tits and my snazzy leather harness may be ~seen~ by people attending various dyke marches throughout the country.

  5. You are Can Trans Men Be Lesbians!

    You are a logical, intellectual person. You view the world through facts and find meaning in organization. Is that not what’s happening on both sides of this discourse? One group says “lesbian means women who love women so logically men can’t be lesbians”, while another correct group says “actually your dictionary is wrong, open up a history book instead.”

    I.. I’m gonna use another “problematic” refence to explain this but.. Drew you have have no scope headshot me with this one and I’m honored. I’m also literally in Romania because I need to push that metaphor even further and I cannot stress how much of a callout this is to me personally.

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What’s a Normal Human Behavior That Gives You the Ick?

Listen, did we have a little TOO MUCH FUN ranting about our various icks? Maybe so. And now you can have some fun with us, too, delving into the various things that give us pause, squick us out, and just straight up annoy or piss us off. Also, hopefully this goes without saying, but we’re mostly having silly good fun here! Don’t take it too seriously! And please, tell us YOUR icks! Let it all out!

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Related:

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 1050 articles for us.

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12 Comments

  1. Most of these focus on things people do that are being inflicted on others by dint of us all being crushed alongside each other and trying to rub along on things like public transport.

    However, I laughed out loud at:

    only doing cardio and not strength training
    Like, what? Unless this is someone painstakingly detailing their workout (in itself annoying) how hard would you have to work to get this ick, are you stalking people at the gym and checking their medical history?

  2. “The biggest problem with the US is that everyone is too divided/polarized” and other sanctimonious centrist sentiments (alternatively, people who proudly read the New York Times, Atlantic, or Wall Street Journal). Also people who are afraid of/hostile towards birds, bats, insects, or other non-human lifeforms.

  3. Oh I love these and so glad to see AI ick popping up in multiple places! And Ashni is so right with “we” for couples and I have a reverse ick for that also! Multiple times new potential friends have invited me to a hang/event and then been like “hey could [partners name] not make it?” surprised that an invite only expressed to and about me wasn’t just assumed to include them! It’s exactly as you say – why WOULD I assume they were invited when you say “you’re invited to my 30th bday/house party/movie viewing”?? Sorry I’m a unit now who must always sense the plural “you” with my mind.

  4. I Dunno Jackie off or PDA? But that’s not normal it wierd. In appropriate kiss on cheek

  5. Not having ANY taste in music, or listen to “just what’s on the radio.” And I don’t mean they have to like one genre or band over another, they just don’t care about music at all. Don’t read fiction or books in general? Might have attention difficulties or dyslexia. Same goes for movies, or television. But music? Not even something completely generic like Ed Sheeran? It’s like you’ve told me you don’t have a soul! If you listened to something problematic, you’d still have a soul, just a bad one.

  6. I have a an intense ick for Princesses and Brats : I use this word as gender neutral for people with too many icks (and who are very vocal about them)! Those who feel entitled to tell you how you should speak, behave, take you hostage with their emotions to silent or control you . I mean, if what i do have zero impact on you, why should you scold me about it ? 9 times out of 10 those people have class privilege or they’re white. In queer or activist circles, they use the safe spaces as an excuse to dictate absurd rules and foster purity and call out culture.
    I am still working on getting rid of the internalized sexism and racism which controls my body, so don’t tell me to not sneeze or lick my fingers, that’s ridiculous and it sounds like your problem not mine !

  7. Abuse, my abuser, anyone in contact with my abuser or in my abuser’s circle. Friends, work, acquaintances, doesn’t matter. I can’t have connection with you.

    Some of the abuse took place online and there are people here and everywhere that share mannerisms like the abuser. I really can’t be that active online. Or in person.

    I’ve lost so many people and fail to make new connections because I struggle to tolerate the ‘normal human behaviors’ that my abuser had. I’ve had lots of mental health support but it is still difficult.

    Forever lost

  8. My ick is When straight women younger than 50 use “girlfriend” to mean a friend who is a a girl. If you don’t enjoy sleeping with her, she’s not your gf, she’s just a friend, maybe even a best friend. Save gf for romance.

    • The feeling when both your mom and her mother have done this your whole life.

      Normalizing the word “girlfriend” as an exclusively friendship term and never a romantic term.

      Growing up in this environment.
      Not confusing at all. 🙃

  9. This was an entertaining list! Mine is when people capitalize the first letter of every word in a sentence (not talking about in a book title, for proper nouns that should be capitalized, or someplace where capitalization would be appropriate, but in general). Or when people put a space between a word and a comma MY GOD sends me into a burning rage

  10. Bad tippers, people who don’t bathe regularly, patchouli., pushy religious people..Sandals seriously gross me out, because feet are disgusting. I can only deal with them if you’re at the beach or poolside. I don’t need to see your feet unless we’re close friends, family, or dating, and even then, I won’t be enjoying it. And I agree about the previous posted point about people always using “we” and talking about their partners like they are the same person all the time. I don’t even like it when people who are not the pregnant member of the couple says “We’re pregnant.” No you’re not, dude. Unless you’re carrying the baby, you’re not pregnant. You’re life is still getting taken over by it, so I get it in that way, but it’s not the same as having to physically carry the baby (This is directed toward cis het men, especially). Also I get a visceral reaction to watching people eat shellfish of any kind, and it’s been hard to serve it at bars I’ve worked at without throwing up on the plate (I never did throw up on the plate, though I sometimes did after, in the bathroom. For over a decade). I may be a overly-sensitive, but it’s never gotten less disgusting for me. It’s like, you do know you’re basically eating a giant insect, right?

    I also can’t handle when people post or talk about the following:

    -their diets/what they ate that day
    -their workout routines
    -whatever they are giving up in general or for Lent or whatever (Good for you; stop rubbing it in everyone else’s faces/being so smug about it).
    -self-improvement stuff in general

    It’s like, who cares! You do what’s best for you, and that’s great. But I don’t tell you about how I blow my nose or shave my legs or whatever, so I don’t need to hear about that kind of physical personal stuff from you, especially with an attitude. Just keep a journal or something.

  11. My icks are eating a lot of meat (girl, the planet) and flying a lot (see prev), spitting on the street, being very online (ofc, my very presence here means I am very online so this effectively just means being more online than me), smug introverts (misanthropy is fine in adolescents but unbearably dull in adults), believing in astrology (basically space racism) and not reading books. Also people online who ask questions that they could find the answer to in seconds if they had any self-motivation, though I’m easing up on this now that every search engine has onboarded AI bots that often straight up lie to people :/

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AF+ Crossword Is Not So Odd

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Emet Ozar

Emet is a queer and genderqueer program manager, crossword constructor, and married parent to four children.

Emet has written 60 articles for us.

Rachel

Rachel is a queer crossword constructor, writer, and bioethicist.

Rachel has written 20 articles for us.

‘And Just Like That’ Has Become Unforgivably Boring

The thing about rich people problems is that I am open to them! I am open to the soapy scandals and the endless themed fundraiser galas. I love Beverly Hills 90210, The O.C., Bel-Air, Succession, Big Little Lies, Pretty Little Liars, White Lotus. The copious wealth of the characters in these universes and the scenarios this wealth affords them can certainly be interesting, and their freedom from the slings and arrows of financial restraint opens up their calendar to entertain all kinds of activities the rest of us cannot. The original series was made possible entirely by Carrie Bradshaw’s ability to spend all her time dating and eating brunch and only a few hours a week working (writing a column about dating). How lovely! For her, and for us!

Her current storyline with Aidan is also enabled by unspoken wealth — she can chill in their shared mansion, waiting for him to be ready for her while he, on his own Virginia estate, can devote himself completely to his son’s well-being. They are not encumbered by work or by the need to make concrete plans for the future, like people who need to split rent and maintain stable employment are. There are many things about Carrie and Aidan’s relationship that confuses me, but that aspect of it I have simply accepted, like so many other things we accept in the world of “gay men playing with female paper dolls” known as Sex and the City / And Just Like That.

Which brings me, at long last, to this week’s episode.


This week’s episode was chock-full of tedious rich people problems but ones that were not interesting or exciting, just annoying and un-relatable! The episode’s A Plot, bafflingly enough, concerns Carrie’s downstairs neighbor — a novelist who writes at night and sleeps during the day — requesting she stop walking around her home alone all day in high heels. Why is a 55-year-old woman walking around her own home in high heels to begin with? Has she not considered the musculoskeletal repercussions of this behavior!!?

man yelling at carrie

I KNOW you’re making multiple hot dogs a day because the HOT DOG WATER is leaking through the floor onto my face!

carrie bradshaw opening the door

Mister, if you wanted a hot dog you could’ve just said so

When Duncan first arrives on her doorstep to register this complaint, Carrie explains that she’s yet to find a rug that truly speaks to her, but as soon as she does, the noise of her indoor heels will surely be sufficiently muffled. Duncan explains his own privileged situation: he spends half the year in London, enjoying life, and the other half in New York City, writing. It is bold to expect your neighbors to abide your unnecessarily nocturnal work schedule BUT, Carrie’s position is far bolder!

If she was a musician who had to practice sometimes, or perhaps a person who wants to do some aerobic exercises for 25 minutes in the afternoon a few times a week, or a person who sometimes has loud sex, or a person who has a party once a month — these are the machinations of everyday life. These are the things we must sometimes endure, as humans living in crowded cities with other humans. The things I have endured!

But nobody needs to walk around their home alone in high heels by themselves all day long! At brunch, Carrie’s friend’s are more entertained by her situation than I am.

Carrie: “He asked me to take off my heels.”
Charlotte: “To play devil’s advocate, taking your shoes off at home is more sanitary.”
Carrie: “To play the Devil Wears Prada’s advocate, I have rights, a woman’s right to shoes.”

The conversational tide turns when it’s revealed that he’s the novelist who wrote a very long book about one of the King Henrys that Miranda read in one weekend and Harry has been reading for three years. Miranda boldly encourages Carrie to compromise so that Duncan can finish his next book so she can read it.

Miranda sucking on her straw while Seems looks at her purse

You know I really do feel like this soda water might have a little bit of poison in it

Miranda says that “according to Goodreads,” Duncan has writer’s block. I’m sorry but what Goodreads is this? Anyhow, Miranda can relate to Duncan ’cause in her West Village AirBnB she has a neighbor who plays loud music.

Also, Carrie tells her friends that she has let go of expectations with Aidan, probably because she is afraid that Aidan’s son is going to murder her with a pickaxe in her sleep if Duncan doesn’t do it first. Then Charlotte says she doesn’t know what she’d do without having Harry there with her in her life every single minute. After she said that, I was emotionally prepared, when we transitioned into a scene of Charlotte and Harry going for a walk at night, for a grand piano to fall off a crane and smash him into a million pieces outside the Getty Center while their dog howled at the moon, but instead what happens is that Harry reveals that he has prostate cancer but that they caught it early so everything will be okay and he will survive. He asks Charlotte to keep it a secret from everybody which will obviously push Charlotte over the edge!

charlotte and harry on a walk

He didn’t say the entire idea of putting a little picture of your dog on a leather purse was inherently flawed, just that it’s not what they’re ready to bring to market at this time

Let’s go back to Carrie’s dilemma, however, as it eventually intersects with Miranda’s, and Miranda is the lesbian we’re all here to discuss. Carrie brings Duncan a ‘welcome wagon’ basket, curated from her favorite local merchants. He’s uninterested in the neighborhood because he is brooding and can afford to live in New York despite not wanting to enjoy all the city has to offer. He gives Carrie a present too: slippers from Amazon Prime. It’s so cute!

Carrie at Duncan's door

It is I, a messenger from Prince Harry and King David

Miranda’s Air BnB host refuses to help Miranda with the noisy neighbor situation due to him violating his lease by Air BnBing it to begin with. Miranda finds a temporary fix after slipping a written request for a volume lowering under her neighbor’s door, but soon enough he’s back at it.

miranda with a glass of water

Once again Miranda felt that the glass of water in her hand potentially contained something far more sinister than the actual water she’d been promised

Carrie invites Miranda to come shack up with her at her 17-room Gramercy Park mansion, currently only occupied by a small cat, several hat-boxes, a bed, a tiny kitchen table, and Carrie herself, walking around in stilettos composing texts to Aidan she will never send. Miranda declines, attesting she’s an old lady who needs her own space. (Which technically seems available, even at Carrie’s, due to its expansive nature.) Miranda asks Carrie if she can ask Seema to find her a new apartment because Miranda’s real estate agent is “lame” (???!) but Carrie doesn’t want to mix friends and business, although Seema is Carrie’s real estate agent. I suspect there are other Air BnBs in the world but who am I but a writer who wasn’t hired to write this, or any, television show.

Miranda once again traverses the wasteland of her building to slip her neighbor a note, but this time he cannot abide:

naked man with knife

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BORROW MY VERY SHARP KNIFE

miranda shock

Heavens that’s the most glorious sharp knife i have ever seen

Thus, Miranda agrees to move in temporarily with Carrie, just like when they were freewheeling twentysomethings on Bond Street. As Miranda moves in, so does a special gift from Aidan: the table Carrie wanted! Turns out he’d bought it himself before sending the thumbs-down emoji, and that’s why it wasn’t available. This is actually cute.

Miranda borrows a scarf from Carrie and goes to Joy’s for their “first sleepover” which begins with them standing facing each other kissing like middle schoolers playing spin the bottle except slightly less erotic. Joy’s greyhounds are leering at them so Joy puts them out of the room so the makeout can continue. This scene lasts about 45 seconds because the episode needed as much room as possible for Carrie’s shoes.

Miranda and Joy observe each other

Admit it, you want to see my wild cunt

Due to Joy’s dogs, Miranda ends up not sleeping over, which we learn because Carrie’s shocked to run into a naked Miranda in her mansion later that evening. That’s all we end up hearing about that!

In the morning, Carrie’s appalled to see Miranda sitting at her tiny breakfast table, eating Carrie’s yogurt and Carrie’s banana, which is honestly also very bold roommate behavior! Go to the bodega and get your own yogurt and banana you absolute weirdo! This is like a Seinfeld episode but not funny.

miranda eating her yogurt

Carrie don’t look now but there’s a man in your backyard with a foot-long hot dog and a jar of sauerkraut and he looks absolutely furious

Their blissful cohabitation is further disturbed when Miranda does her work all over the new table from Aidan while drinking Carrie’s last Mexican Coke (Which why would she do that? Get your own Coke when you ordered your food? Everybody knows not to take the last of anything from someone else’s fridge?) which of course spills, which then Miranda mops up with Carrie’s expensive scarf, and again, what and why and howforth what are we doing with our wild and precious lives on this earth!

miranda and carrie in a fight

You told me Samantha moved to London but it says here she just didn’t want to be on the show!!

Seema is present for the Table Incident which’s my opportunity to tell you that this episode her storyline is that she needs a loan to start her real estate empire, insists that a Mercedes and a personal driver are necessary elements of her business plan, and believes the low-level bank employee who she submits her paperwork to should somehow assure loan approval because she is a woman and Seema is a woman and isn’t this, ultimately, what our foremothers burned their bras for? So Seema could get a loan to start her real estate empire?!?!!

Anyhow, great news: Seema will be Miranda’s real estate agent because Carrie and Miranda agree that living together isn’t working out. Seema’s first sale is already in the pipeline!

Seema and Carrie in the kitche n

And Just Like That, Seema wished Carrie had a sofa so she could lie down

Down in the garden, Seema smokes a cigarette with Adam Gardens who asks her if she’s ever tried yoga. So that’s neat!


Speaking of women, let me tell you about what Charlotte and Lisa are up to this episode: GLAMPING at Collective Governors Island, a private six-acre retreat encircled by private, car-free parkland, where 29 upscale tents and private suites open to skyline views and harbor breezes, offering visitors a chance to unplug with wood-grilled flavors, luxurious spa experiences and sunset cocktails.

Unfortunately nobody seems to actually want to go glamping, especially Lily.  “Lily you are spending the weekend with your family end of story,” Charlotte tells her heartbroken daughter. “I am sure you can make up this time with your polyamorous polysexual boyfriend some other weekend.” Charlotte insists Harry’s the one itching to glamp because she is worried that he will die and they will regret not spending the weekend together as a family:

charlotte talking to her family

Ok I don’t want to be weird but do you guys all have a group chat without me?

cahrlotte's family in the tent

[typing]

Lisa’s husband doesn’t want to go Glamping either and says Lisa didn’t tell him about the Glamping and this will interfere with his city comptroller “regular guy” photoshoot. Lisa says they can take plenty of relatable photos on their trip, like this one:

the wexley family glamping

Everybody say “CHEESE PLATE!”

Furthermore, he’s upset that Lisa’s new editor is a Hotty McDreamypants. Fortunately they are married with children and even though LTW admits to Charlotte that she’s got a little crush, it will be okay. Just like Harry I hope ’cause they can’t kill anyone else on this show! Immediately upon arrival at the Glamping Site, Herbert busts out the s’mores equipment. It is three in the afternoon! Too early for s’mores. Nobody understands anything.

“There’s chocolate in the gift shop!” Charlotte yells. “It’s chocolate, not cancer!”

Lily glamping

FACT: Black bears can smell a salami from five miles away.

Also Rock is a vegan now but she misses cheese.


In conclusion, Carrie texts Samantha Jones who says Duncan is supposed to be a lot of fun, which Carrie is not so sure about. She goes to the garden to tell Adam Gardens what a good job he is doing and then Duncan lights his house on fire and Carrie puts it out with her heels and says, “aren’t you glad I’m wearing heels?” There were multiple ways to put out the fire but ok.

carrie looking serious

Only she can prevent basement fires

Thus Carrie and Duncan head out for a little bite to eat and they finally bond as writers — because he’s out of his comfort zone writing a book about a woman, and she’s out of her comfort zone writing historical fiction. When it’s all said and done, everyone has food, shelter, and the love and support of their dearest friends. And I don’t know, maybe we had more fun at the comedy concert?

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3339 articles for us.

1 Comment

  1. I commend you for your service, truly above and beyond.

    How wild for the writers to obfuscate the lives of rich people so completely I think you’re spot-on with the hot dogs.

    Wait, are they setting us up for a zany author switcheroo ? Carrie-Duncan will ghost-write each others’ novels ? How madcap !

Comments are closed.

‘Ponyboi’ Is a Crime Drama with Cowboys, Springsteen, and an Intersex Lead

This review of Ponyboi was originally published as part of our Sundance 2024 coverage. 


The thing you need to know about Ponyboi is that it’s so fucking fun.

It’s true writer and star River Gallo has crafted a movie with intersex representation unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s true there is an emotional arc of an intersex sex worker struggling to forgive his family for the surgeries forced upon him as a child. It’s true the film is filled with a range of violence and heartbreak.

But, my God, is this film FUN.

The brilliance of Ponyboi — an expansion of Gallo’s short film of the same name — is the way it wraps itself in both a romantic fantasy and a delicious crime story. You can see the beats one might expect from a Sundance film focusing on an underrepresented identity. But they’re presented with laughs and gasps and eroticism.

Ponyboi is about an intersex person named Ponyboi (Gallo) who works as a sex worker out of a laundromat owned by pimp/drug dealer Vinny (Dylan O’Brien). Vinny is about to have a baby with Ponyboi’s best friend Angel (Victoria Pedretti), but Vinny and Ponyboi are also fucking on the side. Vinny is trying to get Ponyboi to switch from testosterone to estrogen and to get his tits done — less because that’s something Ponyboi wants and more because it would be good for business.

On Valentine’s Day, Ponyboi’s melancholy life is upended when Vinny’s shitty latest batch gets them in trouble with some gangsters. Ponyboi wants to run away — possibly with sexy cowboy Bruce (Murray Bartlett) — but first he needs to refill his hormones. All before Vinny or the gangster catch up with him.

The genre conventions aren’t just a way to serve an ignorant audience intersex knowledge. Gallo, director Esteban Arango, and the entire cast are having a blast playing in this world. O’Brien is alternately hilarious and terrifying as a cliché Jersey boy and Pedretti is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking as a cliché Jersey girl. All the gangsters flounce around with the subtlety of a Tarantino movie. And Bartlett is a fantasy of masculinity come to life. All of these ingredients combine for a plot that may not be original outside of its lead, but does always remain tight and propulsive.

The first scene with Bartlett is especially wonderful as his cowboy Bruce and Ponyboi flirt over a shared Jersey love of Bruce Springsteen. Their duet of “I’m On Fire” that could have been trite, feels only hot and sweet with performers this talented.

There are multiple ways to read the reality of the action on-screen. I love that the film lives in the fantasy space without over-explaining. Is Bruce a fiction? Maybe. Is he any more fictional than the crime plot of Ponyboi’s life? Not really. Are these genre conventions any more absurd than the horror movie of operating on children to conform their bodies to socially constructed ideas of gender? No.

Reminiscent of the Wachowskis’ Bound, Ponyboi is a queer cinema genre pastiche that understands a movie can be artful, emotional, and incredibly entertaining.

My only complaint is that Springsteen’s “Pony Boy” doesn’t play over the end credits. But that’s okay — “I’m On Fire” is better anyway.


Ponyboi is now in theatres.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.

5 Comments

  1. Can’t wait!!!!!! Just read Middlesex and am eagerly seeking genuine intersex narratives instead of appropriated fictions

  2. Sold on the headline and deck alone! Looking forward to coming back and reading the rest once I’ve managed to see it.

Comments are closed.

My Boyfriend Doesn’t Trust Me to Party at Pride This Year

Is he cutting you off from community, or are these merely the consequences of your own actions? LET’S FIND OUT.

Q

Last Pride I got wasted and made out with a girl at a queer party.  I’d gone to the party without my boyfriend because I didn’t want to be the girl who brought her boyfriend to a girl party and well I knew I would have more fun without him, not feeling like I had to make him feel included in something that’s not really for him. But then I was so messy I had to call him to pick me up. I told him what happened and he was pretty hurt and we had a lot to work through but got back to a good place. I felt awful for hurting him and I’ve gotten my shit together since then, that was the last time I got wasted for example, now I never have more than a few drinks. Pride has come around again and he doesn’t want me going to any parties like I did last year, without him. I brought him to a brunch and to the parade, but when it comes to the night parties I just decided not to go at all, but I feel really sad about it. I understand that he’s triggered by it, but it feels like he’s cutting me off from community that means a lot to me? Should I just accept the consequences of my actions or push back?

A

Summer: The one time I cheated on a partner was under very similar circumstances. A night out. Exciting and interesting people. A tipsy make-out session. And yes, followed by the horror of disclosing it to my partner and watching our relationship be forever changed by the violation of trust.

From one person who’s cheated to another: I don’t think your boyfriend is in the wrong for wanting you to avoid the circumstances that allowed you to cheat once. You’re not a victim. You’re experiencing the consequences of decisions that led to a violation of trust. And while I do believe that anyone is capable of change (including us cheaters), it’s hardly unreasonable of the people we most pointedly hurt to not want a repeat event.

I recognize and believe in the work you’ve done since then regarding alcohol and personal reflection. That’s exactly how we reform ourselves. By doing the work. That work also includes accommodating the needs and comfort of the person we harmed. In your case, it means not going to the nighttime parties. Pride can be celebrated in countless ways. You’ve done the parade and brunch. There are other options to connect with your queer community, and the loss of one celebratory avenue does not deprive you of access to Pride entirely. I firmly believe that if you wish to rebuild that goodwill with your boyfriend, his feelings in this area are important.

Valerie:  I think you should ask yourself, why are the night parties important to you? Like Summer said, there are other ways to connect to your queer community, with AND without your boyfriend, that don’t have to include night parties at Pride. Do you want to go because you WANT to make out with more girls? If so, this might be something to dig into about yourself; maybe you’re not as willing to be in a monogamous relationship with your boyfriend as you thought. Maybe it’s something you have to reflect on with yourself, and maybe even discuss with him. I personally hate the idea of someone disallowing you to do anything, as an adult person with autonomy, but I do think you have to consider what’s more important to you, respecting the boundaries he’s set to make him feel comfortable and secure in the relationship, or going to these Pride night parties. It’s okay if the answer is the latter, but it’s less okay to resent the boundaries your past choices have led him to feel he has to put in place.

Eva: I have to agree with Summer and Valerie. Trust has been broken between you and your boyfriend. He is totally valid for feeling a way about you going right back into the environment where you cheated. Pride parties are fun and they can be freeing spaces, but it’s more than a nighttime affair. Like Valerie said, if you really feel compelled to go to the night parties, interrogate why. If your relationship is not fulfilling to the point that you want to go against his boundary, then you need to do some more self-reflection.

Nico: I agree with Summer that it’s reasonable of your boyfriend to not want a complete repeat of the circumstances in which you cheated last year. You mention that you’d have more fun at the parties without your boyfriend, and I think it would be valuable to explore if there’s anything more here than just his sexual orientation. Do you generally not have fun with him at parties? Do you want to be flirting with other people? Do you wish you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted without having to consider the needs of a partner? As in: is there something that this desire is telling you about something in your relationship or unmet needs you might have? If yes, that’s worth exploring outside of this context, even if it leads you to some uncomfortable conclusions.

And if it is really about the parties, and you want to go, maybe a good compromise is for your boyfriend to don his best Straight Ally attire and go with you to the night parties, anyway. That is, if he consents and wants to. It sounds like he’s been fine at the parade and at brunch, so I don’t see why a queer night party would be too, too different. Even though you mention it not really being for him, I can guarantee you he’s not the only Straight Ally Boyfriend making an appearance at Pride parties this year. While straight people should not be infiltrating Pride parties en masse, I think you can make your own choices about your plus one.

Finally, this just might be a year without the night parties, if you conclude that you’re going to prioritize your boyfriend’s comfort this go round and he doesn’t want to tag along.  After all, it’s true that he’s not the one who cheated, so it is considerate to take his feelings into account. However, I would encourage you to talk with your boyfriend about how long this boundary will last, because it’s not reasonable for it to last forever just for a makeout, in my opinion.

Riese: These answers are so interesting to me! I do think it would be really kind of you to not go. Like that would be a nice thing you could do for your boyfriend to show him that you don’t want him to spend the evening wrecked with anxiety. But I don’t think he can tell you that you can’t go. Either you’ve been forgiven or you haven’t, either he trusts you now or he doesn’t. I’d understand if it was a few weeks later or something but it has been a year, and you’ve changed your drinking behavior.. Although honestly now reading all these answers I am like, maybe I was wrong to apply this to my past relationships where I was cheated on and felt like it would be too controlling to tell the cheater not to continue to be around the same scenarios or people?! It just seemed like either you forgive someone or you don’t, right? Not that this ever really worked out for me….


Ok but who’s the real activist here??

Q

So, my wife and I are pretty in sync politically, mostly. The one big thing we differ on is showing up to protests, which came to a head this past weekend for the No Kings protest. She was burned out from her workweek (she’s an elementary school teacher and it was their last week of classes for the regular school year) and just wanted to relax and unwind. Her sister had invited us over to their pool, and that sounded way better to her. She says that being an elementary school teacher makes her feel like she’s really contributing to society, and maybe the reason I feel like I have to be at every protest is because my job doesn’t give back. It’s true that I work for a huge, pretty awful corporation, I do enjoy the work because I like the people I work with, and I enjoy that the pay makes it possible for us to live well and for her to be a teacher. So, she went to the pool and I went to the protest with some friends. But then we had a big fight about all of this when we got back. I wonder, isn’t progressives sitting by the pool while the world burns like, how fascist dictatorships sneak in and take over? What do you think?

A

Eva: Being a schoolteacher is a major way to give back to the world and the community. I also think it is fair for you to be critical about why she does not want to be more involved. That said, going to protests can be a very frightening thing for people especially if they have never gone before. I want to name that in case that is a reservation for you and if it is something that you two have not discussed. Your wife may very well be scared, and that is valid and real. Also while it is important that we all get our rest as we continue this fight, you are right in your dissonant feelings as you protest and she lays out poolside. Going to the pool instead of finding another way to be politically engaged is not comparable. There are many ways to stay engaged and support sociopolitical causes without physically going to a protest. Some of these ways include going to candlelight vigils for those detained by ICE, brutalized by law enforcement and/or murdered by the powers that be. As a schoolteacher, she can join the teacher’s union of the nearest large city and even engage her students in worthwhile political education, whether that be class discussions, hanging up posters that support certain causes and/or bringing reading materials written by diverse authors into the classroom. It’s important to note that some of these options may or may not be possible for her to do depending on her school district. If being a teacher is her way of being engaged, then she needs to not only talk that talk but walk that walk. I encourage you to bring some of these things up with her. Tread lightly because it is all too easy to offend people when you might be harboring resentment. Wishing you both all the best as you navigate these murky waters.

Summer: Well, us lefties sure aren’t beating the allegations that we’re more committed to fighting amongst ourselves than the opposition.

What I see is that you both have a belief in shaping society to your vision of common good. That’s a great thing. I think you’re already approaching the topic that everyone has different circumstances and means that determine how we can affect change in the world. That’s what I’d sit on: during this past month, you both did things that serve the good you want to see in this world. There’s no tier list of the impact or ‘goodness’ of activism. Activism and social change are exhausting to affect and no person can be committed to the cause 24/7. I don’t think a fight was necessary, nor do I think choosing to take a break from work rather than protest was a morally questionable decision.

During WWII, the most destructive armed conflict in human history, there were countless acts of resistance against the antagonists. Some people fought in the war itself. Some people incorrectly marked dipsticks to sabotage Nazi vehicles. Some protested peacefully. Some marked property with graffiti. Some transmitted coded messages. Some harbored fugitives. Given the nature of the war, every single one of these acts of resistance placed the participants at extreme risk. And in hindsight, none of them can be ranked above the other. People took part in the resistance that their circumstances permitted.

While the consequences for your resistance aren’t nearly as dire, I think the principle applies. You both believe in the shared cause and are doing your parts. The collective cause you believe in doesn’t benefit from infighting or resentment from within. Nor will something as nebulous as your freedoms and rights ever remember what you did to preserve them. Only that you tried something.

Valerie Anne: I’m basically going to just be reiterating things Eva and Summer said, I think there are so many different ways to protest besides showing up in person to physical protests. There are a lot of people who CAN’T physically attend protests—because of physical or mental limitations, job limitations, logistical issues, etc—that you would never accuse of not participating in the general resistance effort. Is your wife posting on social media, participating in any boycotts, signing petitions or emailing/calling local representatives, voting in local elections? Is she using her position as a queer person in the educational system to stand up for what she believes in, engaging in discussion with coworkers and school boards, pushing back against book bans, etc? Because I highly doubt, if your political beliefs align the way you say they do, that she is doing NOTHING besides going to the pool. Hell, even queer joy is a form of resistance in this current political climate. I think it’s awesome that you’re willing and able to attend protests; they ARE a vital part of resisting and making real, effective change. But it’s not the ONLY way, and accusing people who don’t go to protests of not being as committed to the cause is reductive and harmful. I am a theater nerd so I can’t help myself and have to quote Hamilton here to sum up my point: “This war is hard enough without infighting.”

Sa’iyda: I had a really strong visceral reaction to this question! This was a conversation that took place in my house very recently. My wife was very adamant about going to a protest and wanting us to go as a family. I’m not the type of person who feels comfortable at protests, and I have been going through some hardcore mental health struggles due to burnout, which made me feel uncomfortable about being in public. And given that we live in LA, I was feeling extra cautious, especially because we have an 11-year-old. I argued that there are multiple ways to show up for our community; I do a lot of volunteer work at our kid’s school, which is in a marginalized neighborhood. Showing up and being there felt like a good contribution for me, and I was willing to donate money to funds or find other ways we could get involved. But my wife was firm about wanting to go to the protest. Ultimately, I decided to go, and we put parameters on our participation. And if I’m being honest, I was miserable the entire time due to my mental state. Actively showing up at a protest isn’t the only way to show up; and your wife’s work as a teacher is incredibly admirable. Fascism is here babe; your wife trying to recharge by the pool is going to change that. We’re only six months into what is going to be a long four years. Maybe you two can find a way to show up together. Writing letters to kids in detention centers is another way to show up, and something my family has been talking about doing. It’s not a matter of who is right or wrong in this situation. You’re on the same side, don’t forget that.

Nico: Honestly, I do think it’s really okay that your wife missed the No Kings protest. Everyone has to figure out their own personal values and negotiate the balance and tension between caring for themselves and caring for others and participating in actions. It sounds like your wife knew what she needed, and it is okay for her to rest and recover and spend time with her family. Now, if you find that yours and your wife’s values and ideas around political action don’t align, that your wife is not engaging in any additional action outside of the parameters of her job, and this is causing conflict in an ongoing way, then that’s a different conversation, one that like Eve suggests, might include you gently talking with your wife about ways she can be more involved. But like Sa’iyda said, you’re ultimately on the same side here.

You mention fascism creeping in, and you also mention working for a big terrible corporation with a salary that allows you to live well. I’m going to assume that you mean you work for something that, while big and corporate, is hopefully not a weapons, intelligence, or defense company or something similarly implicated — because in that case, I would say that attending a protest is probably the least important action you could take if you’re concerned about fighting fascism. With that out of the way because it’s hopefully not relevant, like Eve, Summer, and Valerie have said: protests are not the only way to fight. I think if you’re feeling driven, then there are ways you can tap in more deeply. Are there organizations near you asking for volunteers to help witness or document ICE raids or who need volunteer or financial support in supporting immigrant communities? Are there abortion clinics where you could volunteer as an escort? Putting yourself in situations where you’re on the ground and meeting people, working with others directly, will likely help ground you, and give you something to do with more regularity. This work happens every day, not just when there are scheduled demonstrations. These kinds of things, usually involving much smaller groups than large protests, might be easier for your wife to participate in, too. To the idea of talking with your wife about this, wouldn’t it be good to engage in work like this together? It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and days at the pool are a part of maintaining your sanity while you also, hopefully, find ways to plug in and participate with regularity and for the long run.


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6 Comments

  1. I laughed (bitterly) when I read the second question because it’s so relatable.

    In 2016, I had a corporate bullshit email desk job where I had the bandwidth to doomscroll all day and, yes, I *did* feel like I *had* to be at every protest, and also like I had to be *seen* protesting so people would know that I was Doing Resistance. The whole point of protest is to be demonstrative, but that’s not how the emotional grind of teaching works. You see social media posts abt protests, you plan your weekend around a protest, etc; you don’t see your wife spending time every day justifying the existence of queer books in her library or finding spare clothes and snacks to meet the material needs of her students or sitting in a meeting with colleagues talking about what to do if ICE comes knocking. If your wife is teaching at a bougie private school or at a well-resourced public school where most students have their basic needs met and are not experiencing immigration concerns, systemic racism, economic disenfranchisement, etc, then maybe she really is just being a lazy progressive and should do more.

    But this attachment to protest as the One True Means to Resist feels 1) performative 2) related to your own insecurity or self-consciousness around working for a “huge, pretty awful corporation.”

  2. “…and I enjoy that the pay makes it possible for us to live well and for her to be a teacher.” Her education, professional qualifications and desire make it possible for her to be a teacher. It’s a respectable career. She deserves an afternoon in the pool.

    • I agree with the let your wife hang out by the pool, but I also will say that teachers in (at least most public school systems) get paid dirt, so I think it’s less of OP’s job lets her wife be a teacher and more OP’s job allows her to provide the main financial support for her family unit

  3. I see the point about insecurity about working for a big awful corp. Relatable and sounds true.

    At the same time, the writer seems to have asked upfront for support from their partner to do this “performative” yet potentially risky political act together.

    Since the writer’s partner is burnt out, needs to recharge, and feels their societal obligation for resistance has already been ‘fulfilled’ and thus can’t be there for the protest (which may be disappointing, but fair), GO SEEK OUT community that you can attend with.
    Chances are good you have friends somewhere in your circle, or your partner’s circle, as you share similar political views, who may be interested in supporting the resistance on the literal ground with you. Unlike other forms of partner rejection, this is 100% the kind of support that can be supplemented by friends and others outside of the romantic partnership. Although I get it. Political resistance together does sound very compelling. But unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

    If you are still disappointed by not being able to engage in political resistance together on the ground, I recommend letting your partner know. Consider brainstorming together. There is probably another way to stay involved that is appropriate for the mental/physical/emotional capacity of both persons in the partnership. Keeps your ears open for other opportunities.

    While you both actively or passively brainstorm future respectable co-resistance ideas, going alone is another option. I’ve gone to protests by myself before and found them to be worthwhile. Depending on the nature and location of the protest, having someone to go with is probably a safer bet. Play by ear and play it safe if/when possible.
    Don’t forget to bring water and hydrate.

  4. For the woman whose boyfriend doesn’t want her to go to nighttime pride parties…. when I was polyamorous, I did a coaching session with an expert who gave my ex-partner and I some really thoughtful advice — I want to share it with you in case you read these comments. I had broken trust with my partner and because of that broken trust, my partner was restricting me from doing things I wanted to do when we’d go to parties. The coach’s advice was: how can you build trust that you won’t do the bad thing again, if you aren’t able to go out into that environment again and demonstrate your newfound trustworthiness? I.e., you should lose the restriction and show your partner that you can go to these nighttime parties and not violate your monogamous agreement. That will build trust while also allowing you to feel your queerness. (Separately, you don’t have to be monogamous. if you’re feeling sad about not being able to be fully queer, that’s either a sign that you (a) should explore non-monogamy or (b) should break up with your boyfriend! Life is too short to not be true to yourself.)

    • yes, this is what I think I was trying to say, you put it so well — “how can you build trust that you won’t do the bad thing again, if you aren’t able to go out into that environment again and demonstrate your newfound trustworthiness?”

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‘Hot Milk’ Is an Imperfect Movie About Bad Mothers and Worse Lovers

Everyone dates their parents, says Freud and also gay people online thirsting over actresses twice their age. Our most formative relationships play out again and again through friends, through lovers, through teachers, through employers, even through therapists. But these repetitions are not always so obvious. Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut Hot Milk, based on Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name, understands the complex ways parental relationships can seep into the rest of our lives.

Hot Milk is about a young British woman named Sofia (Emma Mackey) who accompanies her mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) to the Spanish coast in an attempt to cure Rose’s mysterious illness. A perpetual student with a focus on anthropology, Sofia’s life is in limbo, her true focus on her difficult mother’s well-being. As Rose begins to work with her new doctor (Vincent Perez), Sofia wanders the Spanish beaches and meets a Berlin transplant named Ingrid (Vicky Krieps).

From the beginning, Ingrid provides further concern for Sofia as much as she provides escape. It’s a relief to watch Sofia create a distance from her mother and seek out her own life and own pleasure, but Ingrid has flags redder than Sofia’s jellyfish sting. She’s immediately controlling, emotional, and overly affectionate. She also seems to be in a relationship with a man named Matty (Yann Gael) who may or may not be aware that Ingrid has sexual pursuits elsewhere.

On the surface, Ingrid and Rose have little in common. Rose is scared of the world while Ingrid seems to hunger for it. One can even imagine Sofia looking at Ingrid and seeing her as the complete opposite of her mother. Alas, two people don’t need to share surface similarities to treat someone the same way. And the closer Sofia gets to Ingrid, the more their twisted dynamic resembles the one she’s trying to escape with Rose.

The acting in this film is remarkable. Shaw, Krieps, and Patsy Ferran in a small role as Rose’s nurse are all excellent. But it’s Mackey who holds the film together. She was great throughout all four seasons of Sex Education and this film is proof that wasn’t just the magic of Maeve Wiley. With the right roles, Mackey could establish herself as one of the best young actresses working today. Unfortunately, the film does not quite match her performance.

Lenkiewicz’s directorial work is strong with an effective controlled style, a tight pace, and a clear ability to garner great acting. If anything the writer of queer films such as Disobedience and Colette, should’ve trusted her direction more. The script is overwritten, stating things bluntly that have already been communicated — and communicated better — in the silences. Every extended dialogue scene felt stuffed with confused exposition that weakened the characters rather than deepening them.

The film will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to solve their mommy issues in the bed of another woman. But it’s frustrating how often the film ignores its strengths, instead ending up an overwrought series of clichés. And yet, there are sequences — single glances from Mackey even — that still make it worth a watch. I just wish Lenkiewicz had trusted her images over her words. Sometimes the sharpest writing happens in the gaps.


Hot Milk is now in theatres.

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 739 articles for us.