Pop Culture Fix: This Campy Sexy Lesbian Separatist Cult Flick “The Misandrists” and Other Cool Things
Hello, welcome to your weekly pop culture fix, where we live in a world of fantasy and magic, surrounded by stories and attractive people in carefully chosen outfits, wondering every day when the world beneath our feet will simply dissolve and we will all become space dust.
+ This weekend’s Berlin Film Festival saw the premiere of Bruce LaBruce’s The Misandrists, which Indiewire describes as “a low-budget, high-fantasy tale of radical lesbian separatists living a cult-like existence.” TELL ME MORE:
Unapologetically gay, LaBruce does his queer sisters a favor in “The Misandrists,” using his dirty eye to give life to the fantasy of a lesbian separatist commune. That LaBruce makes room for a nuanced critique of gender essentialism even as he celebrates this male-free utopia is what elevates “The Misandrists” beyond a merely (admittedly very) satisfying rendering of a salacious premise.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s (male) reviewer wasn’t as stoked on the movie as the Indiewire reviewer, describing the plotting as “haphazard” and noting that “the supposed celebration of feminist ideals merely trivializes them; and the satirical jabs at leftist extremists get diluted by increasingly lame repetition and an ineffectual finale.”
I also dug up this nine-month-old Dazed Magazine interview with Bruce LaBruce about the film, and also this one on Broadly. It looks like trans and non-binary issues will also play prominently into the plot, so uh, we’ll see how that goes!
+ In So often we get pigeonholed’: how queer women of color found a voice online, The Guardian talks about two new webseries, Brown Girls (which we loved) and 195 Lewis, which was apparently inspired by The L Word. Watching it made 195 Lewis’ writers want to do their own version about the queer black women they met in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Styvesant neighborhood. THIS SOUNDS SO GOOD.
+ Robinne Lee plays a lesbian in the upcoming cinematic masterpiece 50 Shades Darker, and had this to say about it: “It’s interesting to take on this role that was what would it be like to be a black lesbian running a business in Seattle. I had to sort of write my own back story. It was really interesting to step into someone else’s shoes while we were filming.”
+ The first essay in our Renaissance series for Black History Month is here, and you’re gonna love it: How Whitney Houston Taught Me the Greatest Love of All For My Queer Black Self.
+ Gigi Gorgeous talked to Popsugar about her new documentary, “This is Everything,” coming out as trans and then a lesbian, and also her relationship with her family. Also, Transgender YouTube Star Gigi Gorgeous Talks About The Moment She Realized She Was A Lesbian.
+ The Party: “The adulterous hostess cries in the bathroom with a gun, while in the back garden a lesbian, pregnant with triplets, threatens to leave her wife.”
+ The ILoveMakonnen Migos controversy shows rap is still wrestling with homophobia
+ Dana Piccoli asks How Gay Is Your Geek TV?
+ For Lesbian Artist Shura, Pulse Changed Everything: “Tegan and Sara’s mentorship challenged Shura to think consciously about her role as a queer artist.”
+ Autostraddle dot com created an updated version of our epic Best Lesbian Movies Of All Time list!
+ Doubt’s Creators Are Transforming TV for Their Trans Son
+ Celebrate Galentine’s Day By Watching One of These 23 Female-Directed Movies
+ The 11 Best Movies About Confused Sexuality
+ 21 Queer Romance Movies Worth Watching This Valentine’s Day