queerasfolk

1.08: All in the Chosen Family

Posted on by Queer as Folklore

In 1999 in the faraway land of Manchester there are many ways to form family. What does episode six of Queer as Folk teach us about family?

We found many opposites at work here: marriage/divorce, family of origin/chosen family and the spectrum between accepting and non-accepting parents. Do we owe our parents to come out to them?

At the end of episode 1.06: Stay here, stay queer, get used to it we found parallels between the Harry Potter books and Queer as Folk. In Queer as Folk Nathan is the Harry that enters a magical, partially hidden world of queer Manchester. So in this episode the overview is fantasy themed and there’s art to go along (see below)! We haven’t yet decided who all of the characters correspond to in the Potterverse (who is Hagrid?) but we are firmly decided that Donna is Hermione, and maybe also Ron.

Outline

00:00 Intro
04:10 Episode overview reading
10:38 Mind mapping the episode
15:41 Alexander's non-accepting parents
22:57 More or less accepting parents
27:25 Tea bagging tangent
31:51 Fake engagement & marriage equality
48:14 Liza spills the beans about Stuart and Vince
52:17 Cameron's notion of "make-believe" family
01:03:07 Straight marriage & divorce
01:16:05 Family folklore
01:22:00 Fun fact - Gay club history

Maria Doyle Kennedy plays Marie in Queer as Folk and Siobhan Sadler in Orphan Black.

The character Lance is not an Ampelmann, but rather these German pedestraian symbols are.

Helsinki gay club DTM pictures and info (in Finnish) taken from here and here.

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In the back from left to right: Alexander, Vince, Hazel (Molly Weasly), Liza & Romy. In the front: Stuart, Nathan (Potter), Donna (Hermione/Ron).

Dagmar illustrations

1.04: Good Things Come in Threes?

Posted on by Queer as Folklore

Death, disease and drugs. Camp, queer and characterizations. Fat, food and phobias. Spaces, scenes and sex, notably threesomes.

Episode three of Queer as Folk: It happened one night…

Camp Alexander arrives in Manchester with his friend Dane and his boy toy Lee, and the rest of the Gay Gaggle (Stuart, Vince, Phil) head out to the clubs on Canal Street. Nathan comes clean to Donna about Stuart dumping him. They follow the Gay Gaggle to the club Babylon and witness Stuart using his magic words to land a threesome. Alexander and his friend Dane are less choosy and head off with a creepy undertaker. Phil takes home a man who offers him drugs and consequently leaves him to overdose and pass away on his kitchen floor.

References

“I’ve seen Kate Moss in that advert and I felt nothing”

At the end of the episode we look at the Calvin Klein advertising campaign Obsession featuring Kate Moss. Coincidentally we looked at another CK-ad in our first episode, featuring Mark Wahlbergs crotch.

Head over to History is Gay for some lavender linguistics!

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The gaggle of gays

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From the left: Stuart, Lee, Nathan, Alexander, Vince, Dane and Phil

 

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1.03: Liminal Closet Space part 2

Posted on by Queer as Folklore

We get into queer history and sexual narratives.

We open with a piece of local Finnish queer history that relates to Queer as Folk in a surprising way! Then we head off into some sex talk: specifically sex acts seen in Queer as Folk and sexual narratives in general.

On a more personal note: Is it possible to re-write the sexual scripts that culture has taught us? And what is the difference between wanting sex and wanting orgasms? Towards the end we come back to the actual tv-show and talk about Stuarts online manhunt and the man he orders off the menu: “goodfuk” or Responsible Colin, as we call him.

Books & blogs

Sexologist Tanja Suhinina on the difference between wanting orgasms and wanting sex (in Swedish).

The history of gays and lesbians in Åbo/Turku, Finland: Yksityistilaisuus (2005) by Tarja Hautanen (in Finnish).

We use the Swedish Media Database & IMDB

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