hey that is a great blouse backing up
the wrong tree pal
an elusive figure stalks film and tv
history with an ambiguous sexuality
that's only
hinted at enter the queer-coded
character
why can't a woman be more like a man
for many years when queerness couldn't
be spelled out on screen
recognizable signifiers tropes and stock
character types like the maiden
and or the confirmed bachelor sent a
message to
in the know audiences the classic
queer-coded male character takes great
pride in his appearance
no one appreciates clothes here barbie
good taste is almost more important to
him than being a good person
now is your chance to exit from the
audition gracefully hanging your heads
like dogs
he's emotional with a flare for the
dramatic you dirty
look what you've done to my face and
he's the last person you want on your
side in a fight
the person you do want on your side is
the classic female queer-coded character
you tried to gut me wandy you did the
same to me if you'd had the chance
let's have another go at it see you
lance on top she prefers to keep her
feelings inside
absolutely hates dresses surely i cannot
be expected to bear these fashions the
entire day
and prefers a suit or a well-worn
flannel shirt
you guys i've never had straight friends
before
some queer-coded characters have been
written for a queer audience
when explicitly queer characters haven't
been allowed in stories like in movies
under the haze code from the 1930s into
the 60s or in children's
stories today creators can hide clues
about a character's sexuality
to include queerness in the story you
guys have to create a diversion
what do you want me to do dress and drag
and do the hula you can be a big
other queer-coded characters exist for
the homophobic audience
hints of queerness serve as a shorthand
for villainy call it my woman's
intuition
or easy laughs passengers certain to die
airline negligence there's a sale at
pennies
reinforcing assumptions that anyone who
deviates from gender norms must be
wicked
even today queer coding continues in the
form of queerbaiting
this is your soulmate tahani which
panders to a queer audience through
teasing romance but never delivers for
fear of offending any homophobic viewers
here's our take on the history of queer
coding and why for the love of sappho it
needs to stop
are you sitting on the soap i was
wondering what that was
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the official history of the world says
that men like us have always been hidden
away in secret but then there's the real
world where we've been living together
for all this time
for this video we're defining queer
coding as using lgbtqia
tropes and stereotypes to allude to a
character's sexuality without
explicitly confirming it in the text oh
about such a morning in the high court i
could stamp my little feet the way those
qcs carry on
don't i know it though in cinema
starting in the 30s the haze code made
it strictly forbidden to depict quote
sex perversion which was understood to
include homosexuality
thus as vito russo's the celluloid
closet explores hollywood writers and
directors used queer coding to subvert
and evade the studio system's rules
you know the guys who ran that code
weren't rocket scientists they missed a
lot of stuff
and if a director was subtle enough and
clever enough they got around it
this led to an array of recognizable
queer-coded stock characters
starting with the [ __ ] here clarence
put that in the trunk and don't
wear them selfish
queer images a history of gay and
lesbian film in america
calls the [ __ ] a flowery fussy
effeminate soul given to limp wrists and
mincing steps
one of the most iconic sissies is peter
laurie's joel cairo in the maltese
falcon
you may have to falcon but we certainly
have you
he fusses over the treasured falcon his
business card is scented
and he has a complicated relationship
with his very phallic walking stick
see mr speed i'm trying to recover
ornament that shall we see has been
mislaid
many of the [ __ ] signifiers live on in
much later explicitly gay characters
like the stereotypical gay best friend
type
why are you talking like that um talking
like what like in a fancy version of a
gay guy
this girl thing bouffant please so the
[ __ ] is the classic example of how
queer coding started in order to include
queerness in a space that excluded it
but eventually became
limiting as over time stories kept
reducing gayness to the same
tired cliches that guy's not gay
you know how you can tell the muscles
good point dad second tip off no poodle
next
the artiste so much nicer here just
three apartments
hours the kaufman's upstairs and then
those two guys in the top floor and tear
decorators or something
this character seems to represent the
dangers of getting seduced by either the
arts or the queer community with its
bohemian depravity on the margins of
society
then there's the sycophantic servant the
baddie underling who
is a little too into their superior for
there's no man in town half as many
perfect a pure fairy gun in recent years
fans have increasingly expressed
love for versions of this type like mrs
danvers and rebecca whose
villainy from the protagonist's
perspective can if we shift our point of
view be interpreted as touching romantic
devotion to the elegant and gorgeous
rebecca
even in death this wasn't a job for me
rebecca was my
life and there's the truly villainous
sadist
an evil character whose cruelty carries
hints of gayness or a psychosexual feel
his body went limp and i knew it was
over
and then then i felt
tremendously exhilarated this character
might be shown to get pleasure out of
torturing people of their gender
violence can be used to code sublimated
sexual desire
like when a bond villain takes glee in
torturing double07
see what she's done to you well she
never tied me to a chair
her loss we can either eat each other or
eat everyone else
this kind of coded portrayal is damaging
because it encourages us to vaguely link
signifiers of queerness
since you and me get acquainted honey
you may be a number to the others but
not to me
with being a terrible person break them
in two if they talk out of
turn anyone who doesn't tow the marxists
in solitary for one month
and to this day we can spot characters
who play into this general association
between queerness and villainy
you want to steal them no
we want to change their location for a
while for a safe keeping
see what happens characters or
performers who seem
obviously queer to modernize flew under
the radar pre-stonewall
yeah and i can't believe liberace was
gay
i mean women loved him i didn't see that
one coming no
but the growing influence of the gay
rights movement didn't end the
stereotypes if anything hollywood
doubled down on these types by the 90s
because it became
easier for the average viewer to
recognize the signs we continued to see
the modern [ __ ]
the artiste the sadist and the
sycophantic servant
the main difference is that queer-coded
characters in this period and later were
sometimes allowed to come
out yet if a character still plays into
a negative stock type making their
queerness explicit isn't necessarily a
good thing
billy is not a real transsexual but he
thinks he is he tries to be
ever since 1960 psycho filmmakers have
been making their killers cross-dressers
or
transgender to add a little freudian
spice and doing plenty of damage in the
process
he's making himself a woman's suit mr
crawford out of real women
meanwhile queerness still needed to be
hidden in children's media
it's one thing to make a serial killer
explicitly gay but a disney princess
unthinkable starting in the late 80s
broadway lyricist howard ashman an
out gay man intentionally started
queering the disney canon through the
three films he worked on before dying of
aids the little mermaid beauty and the
beast
and aladdin he suggested ursula the sea
witch be modeled after the drag queen
divine
but queer coding really sings out in
beauty and the beast
belle is shunned by the town for not
following gender norms
look there she goes the girl is strange
no question
the villain of that story is the
personification of toxic masculinity
combining the looks of a fitness queen
with the misogyny of a frat bro
who does she think she is that girl has
tangled with the wrong man
no one says no to gaston lefou is a
classic sycophantic servant that disney
even made
canonically gay in the live-action
remake and many have read the song
kill the beast as an allegory for
homophobia and the aids panic
he'll wreak havoc on our village if we
let him wander free
the mob song is a perfect manifestation
of people identifying a villain and
wanting to exterminate it
these are examples of queer coding done
by a gay man to serve a story about
prejudice he didn't want to make
political theater
i think he wanted to present characters
that
cast some kind of light on certain
topics they feel very different to later
disney queer coding moments like in
pocahontas where the entire native
american genocide is blamed on
one sissified villain
and his little dog too we continue to
see questionable queer coding in post
2000 disney films like treasure planet
and wreck-it ralph which perpetuate the
cliche of a [ __ ] man
and a butch woman getting married to
each other your face is still red you
might want to hit it again with your
hammer
oh that's not blunt force trauma ma'am
that's just the honey glow in my cheeks
disney's history of queer coding
illustrates what a mixed bag the process
can be
on the one hand it can be a form of
representation or commentary
on the other gestures at representation
aren't actual representation
when it comes to brute strength
i'm afraid i'm at the shallow end of the
dream cool
and if your one lgbt character is a
queer-coded villain
that just reinforces the belief that
being gay is evil
i shall practice my curtsy and yet queer
audiences have rallied around these
characters the disney villains are gay
icons and don't underestimate the
importance of
a body language
frazier embodied the 90s sitcom attitude
toward queer coding
when he was 10 he forged letters from
leonard bernstein then told everyone
they were pen pals
we were all a gog until mr bernstein
wrote that his broadway debut was
candide when everyone knows
that it was on the town it challenged
reductive portraits of queer or straight
masculine identity as frasier and
especially niles
read as gay according to classic
signifiers it never even occurred to me
that you might be gay
well it never even occurred to me that
you might be straight while their dad
marty's ideas of gay signifiers like
when he pretends to be gay and makes
niles play his boyfriend
are funny because they're so cartoonish
darling
am i interrupting something oh not a
thing honey just take off your court and
stay
it's never seen as insulting or scary to
frasier when he's mistaken for gay he
almost wishes he were
i'm afraid i could never really be more
than friends would three weeks on capri
in bertolucci's villa change your mind
it's worth a try
at the same time the cast featured gay
men both out and closeted
playing straight characters while ellen
was cancelled shortly after ellen
degeneres came out
i'm gay
frasier enjoyed 11 seasons and the most
emmys of any sitcom
ever through dancing with acknowledging
homosexuality usually without making
anything explicit
take a risk be a man the chardonnay rose
hip
salt globe it took shows like will and
grace queer as folk and the l word to
truly move beyond
a coded approach to queerness on tv
today the old school [ __ ] or butch
signifiers of queer coding are
noticeably outdated as gender norms
continue to break down
well that's just her gender performance
it's different from her sexual
orientation
but there continue to be ever evolving
signifiers within queer communities
they might be things like enjoying an
iced coffee honestly i don't really love
this whole like
gays only drink iced coffee stereotype i
don't know
anyway can't sit in a chair properly for
queer women or
walks faster than straight people for
gay men move i'm gay
in the workplace being gay just has its
perks
and as studios have learned that the
slightest whiff of representation will
bring a loyal queer audience this has
led to a new
problem
so you also like boys absolutely
do you we're defining queerbaiting as
implying
queer characters or hinting at a future
queer romance in an attempt to secure a
queer audience without ever delivering
on anything explicit enough to alienate
a homophobic audience
i'm here because i want to be here
i love you seaman
[Music]
i love you too gabrielle with
queerbaiting the story will often
romance code two characters of the same
gender
that's my jacket oh no no no
keep it it suits you the bbc show
sherlock loved to tease shippers
you're a great boyfriend sherlock holmes
is a very lucky man
the creators of the show one of whom is
gay went from hinting at queer
subtext we're not a couple yes you are
to making an entire
episode mocking fans for their fan
theories including the gay ones
what are you out of your mind
i don't see why not sometimes baiting is
also
fueled by the actors or marketing
outside of the actual text
we really appreciate it and we'll take
more naps like these for you
supernatural concluded its 15-year run
with one of the weirdest resolutions to
queerbaiting in tv history
for years dean had been bi-coded he
casually dropped the name of a florida
gay bar
i was in purgatory like the purgatory
purgatory
another one in miami and was flustered
when he met a heartthrob on one of his
favorite shows
it's him it's dr sexy he and the angel
castiel had been romance coded since
cass's introduction in season four
but the show ended with one of them
confessing their feelings
i love you they'll do this only to be
sucked into what fans called
super hell as a direct result it's the
shortest amount of time between coming
out and bury your gaze
since scream four i'm gay if it helps
disney has also seamlessly transitioned
from queer coding to queer baiting like
when the studio promised an exclusively
gay moment in the live-action version of
beauty and the beast
this translated to lefou being a little
swishier and
slightly more sympathetic well i used to
be on gaston's side but we are
so in a bad place right now you're too
good for him anyway
and this allegedly groundbreaking moment
of inclusion
turned out to be two men briefly dancing
and then there's frozen
everything about elsa is queer coded her
dad makes her hide what makes her
special
conceal it don't feel it if she ever
lets her feelings slip for a second she
is convinced it will destroy her life
don't touch me please i don't want to
hurt you
her big moment of self-discovery comes
with a new outfit
her storyline does not revolve around
finding prince charming
rather she runs away to find herself
it's time to
see what i can do give elsa a girlfriend
was trending on twitter before frozen
2's release
elsa doesn't get a girlfriend in frozen
2 but she doesn't get a boyfriend either
she gets pants i also doesn't focus on
romantic love that's what we love about
the entire
franchise for those who can see it
frozen 2 is gigantically flamboyantly
doc martin's wearingly queer
every lesbian can relate to following
the voice of a strange woman as it leads
you away from your family
as vox critic emily vanderworth puts it
frozen 2 doesn't tell us that elsa's gay
but
it all but begs writers like me to say
things like elsa from frozen is queer
and i can prove it i want to show you
something
may i
[Music]
frustrated queer shippers lately have
really leaned into death of the author
first devised by ron barth death of the
author proposes that a creator's intent
matters less than the audience's
experience or interpretation of the
final textual product
rather than hoping against hope that
their ship will be shown explicitly
fans assert a new reality where their
fan fiction is in many ways
as valid as what the author intended we
could hear his high heels clacking to
us is voldemort a job queen
viewers have long been queering the
canon or as professor elise ray helford
has done
in writing for the take reading
characters as queer not because they
without a doubt are but because we can
would you be wounded if i never sent you
flowers
why can't a woman be like you and
today's viewers more proactively and
decisively than ever
claim characters as queer regardless of
any counter arguments or lack of
confirmation presented by the text
gen z fans on tick tock have decided to
treat luke skywalker's homosexuality as
a fact
not up for debate do i think luke is gay
no honey i know luke is gay citing what
they call his chanel boots in return of
the jedi
the fact that the only woman we've seen
him kiss was his sister and the palpable
sexual tension he has was c3po when mark
hamill guested on the muppet show
could luke be gay and i would say you
know
it's meant to be interpreted by you if
you think he's gay of course he's gay
of course bart wasn't living in a world
where authors could tweet post scripts
to their books
blurring the line between the text and
the authorial intent
but the queer fanbase of harry potter
for example is increasingly indifferent
to the opinions of j.k rowling
while she may have hastily married two
queer-coded characters lupine and tonks
before killing them off
fans have imagined a boyhood romance
between padfoot and mooney in their
serious lupine slash pick
well you'd know all about the madness
within wouldn't you rumors
actor david thulas said he played lupin
as gay in the movies
quote alfonzo carone in the rehearsals
without jk rowling's knowledge
told me that my character was in fact
gay so i'd been playing a part like a
gay man for quite a long time
until it turned out that i indeed got
married to tonks
today lgbtqia plus fans have an
increasing
influence on creators and explicit
representation has been increasing both
on new tv shows and
new interpretations of old material
apple tv's dickinson reclaims emily
dickinson whose sexuality has long been
a matter of academic debate for the
women who love women crowd
what are they so afraid of maybe they're
scared that if they teach us how the
world works we'll figure out how to take
over
still there are shockingly few
explicitly queer characters in
mainstream movie franchises
international markets now determine what
big blockbusters get made and studios
are hesitant to center explicitly queer
characters to allegedly intolerant
audiences
while a number of mcu characters are
queer and comics the closest
a marvel movie has come is a deleted
scene in thor ragnarok and one
unnamed man in a support group i went on
a date the other day
i didn't even know what to talk about
what did you talk about my job his job
skittishness about international markets
was also long the explanation for why
black men couldn't be cast as heroic
leads too
until black panther disproved that myth
as the voices for transparent
representation grow stronger
creators and studios need to decide
which side of history they want to be on
they can contribute to a history of
hiding lgbtqia people behind
jokes and metaphor or they can show the
world as it really is super queer
i'm bisexual and i don't care what you
think about it
this is the take on your favorite movie
shows and culture thank you so much for
watching and for supporting us
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you