Queer Gaze TLP rescued:
Oh, Pit Creeeeeew....
"One of my favorite things about Pose — and something that is indicative of the queer and trans presence in the writers room — is that it often doesn't assume a hetero spectator. Sometimes queer television bends over backwards to make sure it's catering to straight viewers, explaining the slang in clunky parentheticals and having queer characters act and talk to each other in a way that just doesn't feel true-to-life. Pose isn't as concerned with that, and all of the nuanced and beautiful conversations about femme/butch aesthetics and realities in the episode are indicative of that. These are distinctly queer conversations using queer language."
—Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, "Pose's second season finale serves romance, drama, and spectacle
", AV Club
", AV ClubQueer Gaze is a Gaze trope in which works and media are made with the assumption of a same-sex attracted person and/or transgender viewpoint. There are a lot of interpretations of Queer Gaze but the general agreed-upon criteria that Queer Gaze has is the freedom of exploring sexuality and gender identity without the restrictions placed by society. Whether this is how the camera focuses on bodies to the themes that are presented. Depending on which audience is being served, this can take shape in different forms:
- With male-attracted audiences, men are seen from the same lens as women are in the Male Gaze, and are framed as sex objects. Much of the gaze is about also about fantasy and idealization and is unique as the audience can project the gaze while also being subject to it. This typically doesn't extend to how heterosexual Male Gaze displays male bodies, as the men are portrayed as a power fantasy and any titillation is (arguably) unintentional. The Manly Gay is usually the man being objectified.
- With female-attracted audiences, this actually has more in common with the traditional definition of Female Gaze as opposed to Male Gaze. The female subjects aren't objectified through the lens, and there's more emphasis on building the connection between the audience and subject returning the gaze back. The women range from very feminine to more masculine, with masculine women may be framed to be more desirable and strong.
This is most common in Queer Media. While similar to the Male Gaze and Female Gaze, those tropes and theories assume heterosexual viewpoints in terms of what the audience wants and expects.
Compare Transgender Fetishization. Also related to Rainbow Lens, as that can sometimes be part of this trope in terms of using queer coding (deliberate or imagined) to present themes relevant to queer people.
Examples:
Anime & Manga- Episode 8 of Sound! Euphonium has a mild lesbian gaze, which has been commented upon in an interview. The hike between Kumiko and Reina was directed with a "teenage boy falling in love during summer" feel, however it was directed by a woman and an interview noted that the scene would likely feel different if a man directed it.
Art
- The photography of Robert Mapplethorpe; in particular his series on New York's underground BDSM scene, and the Black Book which focuses on black men only. He takes photos of men in various states of undress and all the men are Manly Gay, which was in defiance of the prevalent Camp Gay stereotype in the 1960s and 70s.
- The illustrations of Tom of Finland, the Trope Codifier of the Manly Gay look. The men are drawn with the typical Heroic Build and Lantern Jaw of Justice but also have a "soft" touch and tone to them, as well as employing much of the Fetish Fuel that gay men enjoy today such as the Leather Man trope. He's also one of the few artists that depicted black men in such a manner as well.
- Star-Lord: Chip Zdarsky's run would see queer artist Kris Anka doing the penciling and he has a penchant for drawing Peter shirtless. A lot. Including an issue with him shirtless and in the tiniest pair of gym shorts. The article linked goes into detail —"I mean for gods sake, look at that Star-Lord #3 page. That man's goddamn abs are sparkling. It's refreshingly sexy. It's erotic. It's very deliberately made from the perspective of a people-who-are-attracted-to-men gaze. And if you think I'm drawing too deep an interpretation from a couple pages of shirtless Star-Lord, well, it's an interpretation that both Zdarsky and Anka believe in enough themselves to sell Star-Lord to their audience. A cursory scroll through the twitter accounts of both the writer and the artist easily provide evidence that the comic's erotic portrayal of Star-Lord is a deliberate highlight of the comic, and so far a repeated selling point in their eyes."
- The White Trees: A Blacksand Tale, by Chip Zdarsky and Kris Anka, is what they would describe as "hot" fantasy. Two of the leads are built and attractive men, along with a Cat Folk furry who is stout and muscular. There's an extended dream/fantasy sequence with all two of the leads and several apparitions of naked men and women (the men baring Male Frontal Nudity) and having sex with each other.
- Rowan Ellis explores this in this video, comparing how The Birdcage and La Cage aux folles appeal to their spectators. The Birdcage was Fair for Its Day, but revels in But Not Too Gay and Queer People Are Funny as it is aimed towards a heterosexual audience. Compared to the musical, in which there are a lot more love songs between Georges and Albin, the strong I Am What I Am theme and the anger of having to assimilate in order to be accepted.
- In But I'm a Cheerleader, the boys at the Cure Your Gays conversion camp are tempted by the camp owner's groundskeeper son who's wearing a tight tank top and short shorts. The camera spends an exorbitant amount of time on his chest and down to his legs and focuses on his butt as he walks out of the frame. All the while, he's stroking his broom suggestively.
- Charlie's Angels (2019) in employs Female Gaze by being a standard women empowerment film, but the film is also subtly queer-coded, particular with Kristen Stewart's character and being very aware of her status as a sex symbol for queer women. There was a rather infamous closeup shot of her butt in tight riding pants that wasn't even used in the final film.
- The Living End, which was directed by a queer man, features a number of sexualized shots of its gay male protagonists, particularly Mr. Fanservice Luke. Of particular note is Luke's sexual encounter with the long-haired driver. Here, the camera lingers extensively on his chest before zooming in to his crotch.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge is (in)famous for it's Homoerotic Subtext and queer gaze; the entire film can be interpreted as an allegory for the difficulties of being closeted and struggling with sexuality. Main character Jesse gets a few fanservice shots of him shirtless and wet, he gets pantsed showing his naked rear, and he gets a Shower Scene. And there's the scene of him dancing to music in his room, with close-ups on his butt closing a drawer and his crotch with him holding a stick in front of it while he gyrates. We also see his attractive friend Grady through his eyes (opening scene, he appears Distracted by the Sexy during a baseball game), sometimes shirtless.
Literature
- The novels by Young Adult author Brent Hartinger are filled with this.
- Geography Club - main character Russel, during a locker room scenes makes a note not to stare at the other guys too much while undressing - until he starts describing the object of his affection, Kevin Land in detail. Especially noticeable when the prose contrasts Russel's first intimate experience with a girl (uncomfortable, cold and awkward) to when he kisses Kevin for the first time (exciting and electric and feeling secure and safe).
- The sequel The Order of the Poison Oak takes it up to eleven with Russel's narration practically salivating over camp counselor Web Bastian, describing his blue eyes, dark hair, and tan skin. It takes a turn into the lecherous when Russel sees him naked while skinny-dipping with detailed prose on how beautiful Web's body is with special attention on his body hair, butt, and even his nipples. Then it veers towards envy as Russel compares how Web looks to how he looks and how he'll never been seen by other guys with Web will be.
- The third novel, the Soul Sucking Brain Zombies Duology sees this with Min, Russel's bisexual female friend and her love interest Leah. Min first notices her as a standout as Leah is wearing a old-style military jacket, complete with epaulets. She briefly describes her physical looks (blonde and beautiful) but mainly Min is drawn to how she differentiated herself from the other girls, leading to Min to think that Leah may possibly be into girls. As the girls get into costume as part of their roles as movie extras, Min goes over her body in detail, describing it as great and feminine and that Leah even wears a pink thong. There's also some jealously as Min bemoans that she'll never have that type of body.
- The fourth book in the series, The Elephant Of Surprise sees Russel admiring Love Interest Wade's body with detailed prose, with a hint of self-consciousness and self-depreciation because Wade is black and Russel's worried about any racial implications. Russel ends up in a chase situation with Wade, pressed up against him in a tight place and he describes his muscles, chest and shoulders as being bigger and wider, and having a rounder butt, something he especially liked.
- Big Brother (the first British series): Within an hour of the inmates entering the House, the producers made it clear their priority was to provide eye-candy for women and gay men, as they lingered for an unbelievably long time on a muscular young black man stripping and taking a shower: the emphasis turned out to be on the better-looking male contestants, for some inscrutable reason.
- Dare Me was very clearly made with a WLW audience in mind, and has many, many close-ups of its attractive young female characters going through their cheer routines, with special emphasis on lips, hands, and thighs.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation infamously had young Marco Eating the Eye Candy watching his friends play a shirts vs skins basketball game. He later has a relationship with Dylan - a tall, muscular blonde jock with a penchant for wearing tight t-shirts.
- Pose:
- The series can get downright dour at times; the setting is in The '80s, and two of the main characters are HIV+ during the times of the AIDS crisis. All of the main characters are black and/or Latino and have all faced discrimination sometimes within in LGBT community itself, but all of them have a hopeful outlook on life and would rather be themselves instead of conforming too strongly to societal expectations - landing on the side of liberation versus assimilation.
- On the cameraman's view side of the gaze, one episode has Blanca saved by a hunky lifeguard in skimpy neon swim briefs — a fact that the camera doesn't let you forget as his chest, abs and rear are shown and focused on. He's later shown to be very open-minded in regards to dating trans women.
- RuPaul's Drag Race has the Pit Crew, a rotating lineup of male Lovely Assistants who wear skimpy underwear that help out with the challenges the queens do. Almost all of the challenges include displaying their bodies in suggestive ways.
- Nick Jonas got a lot of flak for queerbaiting that came with his Career Resurrection in the mid new 10s. Along with his new album, there was a photoshoot where he posed like Mark Wahlberg in his "Marky Mark" days (pants down, in his skivves, holding his crotch). And this coincided with his gay sex scene in Kingdom.
- The documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes examines the juxtaposition between the rampant homophobia in mainstream Hip-Hop and the blatant homoeroticism. The imagery of black men shirtless and rugged-looking is technically meant for Female Gaze and for power fantasy, though the overwhelming majority of mainstream hip-hop is aimed towards men. There's also discussion of the theme of Heterosexual Life-Partners in how men are supposed to prioritize male partnerships over women, even during sex ("Ain't no fun 'less the homies get some"). There is a theory that prison culture has informed a lot of this, so the Queer Male Gaze may not be as unintentional as previously thought.
- This is a seldom-discussed but widely-acknowledged aspect of professional wrestling within the industry. Lance Storm actually tweeted about male wrestlers with good bodies should wear thongs as oppose to normal underwear to display their "assets" more prominently. He states that women and gay dudes may enjoy the view and in the wrestling business, you get over any way you can.
- There was great care to relate to LGBT persons with the animated short In a Heartbeat. The creators of the short even explained how they subverted the usual expectations of the Light/Darkness Juxtaposition - In the short, light is linked to exposure/being outed and dark is used convey being safe and secure. Good examples of both are when Sherwin and Jonathan are in the light brought in from the doorway and are being whispered about by their classmates, and the ending scene where both boys are in the shade of a tree and bonding.
- Folding Ideas: The remake of the video essay on Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li discusses the difference between lesbian gaze and Male Gaze.
- Where the Bears Are is a subversion on the expectations as the series is about heavyset, hairy men. Todd is a straighter (...) example as in he has a stereotypical hot guy body, albeit hairy. When he walks into the kitchen, he gets a slow-mo shot of him walking in, hand in his underwear.
- The Steven Universe episode Steven Universe S4E6 "Last One Out of Beach City", has a clear case of queer female gaze projected on the pink-haired woman (showing off both feminine and masculine characteristics) Pearl is instantly smitten with. She walks into frame, does a Hair Flip and then we get close up shots of her face, surrounded by Bishie Sparkles. All accompanied by a romantic, breezy sting.
