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"Identifying with a horror icon offers great pleasures for the queer viewer who sees themselves as marginalized by 'normative' society," he says, "and sees the moments of fear that such icons provide as celebratory moments where the queer voice is valorized for its 'troubling' potential."Įlliott-Smith goes deep with this analysis.
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He says shows like American Horror Story and Scream Queens, which pay homage to classic cult horror movies via pastiche and parody, are prime examples.
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But Darren Elliott-Smith, who wrote " Queer Horror Film and Television: Sexuality and Masculinity at the Margins," says there's a long history of queer pleasure-taking in playing dress up as a villain. On the flipside, it makes sense to be a little skeptical of the Babadook, who is an evil monster, being suddenly portrayed as some kind of poster child for the gay community. "We only need look to another writer of a gothic novel, Oscar Wilde, to see how profoundly dangerous earnestness can be." In essence, the monster really could serve on the Drag Race main stage. "Queer gothic camp has always existed both to take the piss out of the normative," Bruhm explains. The monster's style appeals to queer, campy values, too. but it also allows one to look at a cultural creation like the Babadook as a figure for the refusal of norms, for the terrorizing of domestic normalcy, and for the compulsory command of 'family' (whether that be a gay or a straight family) that still surrounds us."īruhm adds: "If I can identify Babadook as queer and take some pleasure in identifying with him, it's because he transgresses what families are supposed to look like." "Resisting such normalcy does tend to make one monstrous. "Queer activism of the 1990s, as you doubtless know, was about disruption, transgression, not being a good citizen if that meant mimicking the norms of heteronormative culture," Bruhm explains to POPSUGAR. Steven Bruhm, professor of English at Western University and managing editor of the journal Horror Studies, believes the monster's current gay icon status online - which is reaching Madonna levels of hysteria in recent days - actually has to do with his being so disruptive. Warning: For those who have not seen the film The Babadook, spoilers ahead.Īdding a queer reading to the film is admittedly pretty hysterical since the film is so dark, and on its surface, well, anything but LGBTQ-related.
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The movie follows the monster terrorizing the family, leaving viewers asking some unsettling questions about mental health, parenting, and grief. Her son (Noah Wiseman) begins to fall prey to suspicions about a lingering monster he first encounters in a pop-up book. The movie is about a single mother named Amelia (Essie Davis) who struggles with the violent death of her husband.
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He has the sort of face that could swallow the entire Westboro Baptist Church.ĭespite internet claims about the creature's queerness and notions of being " babashook," the film itself is anything but typical LGBTQ fare. Just look at that menacing monochrome smile. People are calling the ghoul a fellow "sister" who is equally dramatic, are giving him Drag Race send-offs, dedicating the "B" in "LGBT" to him (which is bisexual erasure, actually), and giving him fictional visibility awards for his being so loudly and sinisterly out. This dark prince is being shuffled around on de facto internet rainbow floats, grimacing in potential gay glee in black and white. runs downstairs SCREAMING if u knock his hat off Openly gay and with an affinity for hats and drama, the Babadook was the first time I saw myself represented in a film A post shared by Mikey Pop on at 3:10pm PDTīreaking News: to honor The Babadook with the Visibility Award /IO0VXYlqEG