Queer Pressure

This week, Catherine and Maddie discuss the life and career of Demi Lovato, the fluid queen of the music industry who recently accepted the label “pansexual” on Joe Rogan’s (icky) podcast. Demi is one of the first celebrities to open up and be vulnerable about her experiences and struggles as a child star, an addict, and a survivor; her honesty is refreshing, but this may be a triggering episode for some. If you’re up for it, please join us for a discussion about trauma, addiction, growth, and froyo. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Join us this week for the second half of our Fortnight of Vampires in which Catherine and Madison dive into the historic depiction of lesbian romance in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hold on tight while we dissect the inherently queer nature of vampires, the Bury Your Gays trope, and break down the scandals surrounding Joss Whedon. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

“But Catherine,” Madison said. “How in the world are we going to make Twilight ~*queer*~?” They were forced to swallow their words when Catherine cried, “Hold my beer, spider monkey!” Join us this week for a prosecutorial investigation of the vampire sensation, Twilight, as a piece of queer media where we break down Stephanie Meyer’s intent for this sparkly romance and view it through the lens of queer theory. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Uh oh. This one devolved into a bit of a rant. Please join Catherine and Madison as they discuss the complicated politics of the 2001 cult classic musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

What a spicy tale! This week, Catherine and Maddie undertake The Handmaiden — not the Handmaid’s Tale — a Korean psychological thriller in three parts that, refreshingly, centres a sapphic love story. Join us for a conversation about the power women (and other marginalized folks) can harness when they work together, how to use erotica effectively in storytelling, and how a piece of queer media can transcend the genre and stand out as truly breathtaking. You’re going to need a cold shower after this one, but you don’t want to miss it! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

It’s not about cookware! This week, Catherine and Maddie take on Canadian sitcom, Schitt’s Creek, starring Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Annie Murphy. This groundbreaking comedy centers not only a queer romance, but an openly pansexual character in what may be the first in-depth exploration of pansexuality on TV. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Elliot Page is trans! And this week, Catherine and Maddie do a deep-dive into his career and the impact his coming out has had and will continue to have on the LGBTQIA community. Contrary to the messaging from some TERFy lesbians out there, we aren’t losing a lesbian, we’re gaining a trans brother. We love you, Elliot! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

The final episode of Queer Love, Actually. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Episode 3 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

The continuation of our original audio drama, Queer Love, Actually. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Christmas Rom-Coms are a staple of the holiday season, but before Kristen Stewart made it okay to be a Christmas Lesbian, we Queers were always left out of the festivities. This year, Queer Pressure Podcast presents their special Christmas radio play: Queer Love, Actually. An original work by Catherine and Maddie, Queer Love, Actually follows six queer couples on their own romantic arcs throughout the holiday season. Join us for some Yuletide cheer, Vampire Grinches, and some dirty fan fiction. Featuring: We Wish You a Merry Christmas by TwinMusicom Canon and Variation by TwinMusicom Carol of the Bells by Jason Shaw Sound Effects by BerlinAtmospheres --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

In their season finale, Catherine and Maddie take on tiny giant, Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus, an adult romance novel by Chuck Tingle that centers two trans characters in a cheesy romantic plot with a twist. Crack some bubbly and join us for a talk on JK Rowling (the Queen of the TERFs), queer erotica, and the power of satire. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

It’s canon, y’all! This week, Catherine and Maddie take a crack at the most popular slash ship in all the land: Destiel, of the CW’s prevailing paranormal television series, Supernatural. Dean and Castiel have been playing the will-they, won’t-they game for almost ten years, but how did the fans react to Cass’ emotional confession of love? Tune in for the tea about Supernatural’s persistent queer-baiting, the history of Wincest (yes, that was really a thing), and the power of Fandom. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

With the right tools in your arsenal, you can revolutionize the world. This week, Catherine and Maddie break down heavy-hitter, Revolutionary Girl Utena, a magical girl shojo anime with several dark turns. Tune in for a discussion about oppressive societal structures (ahem, the patriarchy), Japanese color theory, and thinly veiled allusions to genitals. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Not all queerness in media is explicit. Sometimes, queer subtext is king. This week, Catherine and Maddie take on Naruto, the legendary manga/anime about a young ninja seeking recognition from his peers. Dive deep into queer coding, queer baiting, and why sissifying your villains can teach people to internalize fear and hate. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

It’s Anime Month, you weebs! This week, Catherine and Maddie take on Bloom Into You, a girl-love anime about a pair of young women learning to love each other and love themselves. Our main character, Yuu, is a grey aromantic who just wants to feel love and her senpai, Touko, has spent her entire life trying to be someone else. When they come together, the pair must learn how to support each other and discover the deepest parts of themselves. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

To kick off Anime Month (that’s right, weebs, it’s Anime Month), Catherine and Maddie take on the gay figure skating anime that took the world by storm in 2016: Yuri! on Ice. This anime tracks the romantic relationship between figure-skater Yuri Katsuki and his coach, Victor Nikivorov, while Yuri trains for the Grand Prix Finals. It may seem fluffy, but it deals heavy emotional blows by allowing each character to process their inner turmoil on the ice. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Brokeback Mountain: This week, Catherine and Maddie take on a big-hitter, the 2005 gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain starring Jake Gyllenhal and Heath Ledger. One of the first queer movies of its kind, Brokeback Mountain portrayed a love story between two cowboys over the course of 20 years and dealt with things we’re still talking about today, including the fluidity of sexuality, violent homophobia, and toxic masculinity. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, Catherine and Maddie dive head first into the 2018 Kenyan drama film, Rafiki (meaning ‘friend’ in Swahili), directed by upcoming superstar, Wanuri Kahiu. This classic coming-of-age story about star-crossed lesbians falling in love was the subject of a lot of backlash for portraying homosexuality without remorse and was banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board, but we think it marks the beginning of a new age in Kenyan cinema. Join us for a conversation about mixed reviews, western supremacy, and African art. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

We all know Ellen Degeneres as the dancing lesbian from day-time talk show TV and the friendly, but forgetful, blue tang from Finding Nemo, but what is Ellen really like? The groundbreaking comedienne is under fire, lately, for claims of mistreatment by former and current staff members. Is Ellen cancelled? Or is it time to have a conversation about the corrupting influence power and money can have on even the most well-intentioned? Find out what we think in this week’s episode on the rise and fall of Ellen Degeneres. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, we take on the first all-black movie and first movie with an LGBT protagonist to win an Oscar, Moonlight. Moonlight is a three-act story about Chiron, a young, black, gay man, as he navigates his identity, his sexuality, and his masculinity in a world that demands he be hard. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Come closer. Closer. Closer... Will you come penguin sledding with us?! This week, Catherine and Maddie live their lifelong dreams of writing an audio essay about the queer representation in Avatar: the Last Airbender and its sequel, the Legend of Korra. Join us for some hot takes, a lesson on the importance of LGBT+ representation in children’s media, and the answer to the question you never knew still lingered in your mind: did Zuko and Jet ever hook up? You’ll lose your cabbages. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, we pay tribute to the late Naya Rivera and her contribution to Glee’s LGBT storylines through her portrayal of Santana Lopez. Santana and Brittany’s relationship serves as the most authentic romance in the show, even though (and perhaps because) it was an afterthought cooked up by the Gleek fan-base. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, in solidarity with BLM, Catherine and Maddie take on Paris is Burning, the groundbreaking 1990 documentary about the drag ball scene, and its unofficial sequel, Kiki, about the contemporary drag scene and the activism inherent in it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, in solidarity with BLM, Cady and Madison take on Naz & Maalik, a 2015 drama about two black, Muslim teenagers in NYC that find themselves in the crosshairs of an FBI investigation. Although this movie shows up on all of the ‘Best Black, Queer Movies’ lists, it fell flat for us — find out why, on this week’s episode! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, in solidarity with BLM, Catherine and Maddie tackle the The Color Purple, the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction by Alice Walker and the movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg. This story takes on the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality as Celie writes letters to God throughout her adulthood in the early 20th century. We talk about generational trauma, why you probably shouldn’t go on mission trips to Africa, and the journey to self-worth shared by so many queer people. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, in solidarity with BLM, Catherine and Maddie take on The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye’s narrative documentary about writing your own history. Dunye lays out the life of a fictional, black, lesbian actress from the 1930s known to the world as, “The Watermelon Woman,” seeking your honor her memory through filmmaking. We talk about Quaker Oats’ decision to erase Aunt Jemima, the history of minstrel shows, and how powerful it can be to re-appropriate popular story telling techniques as someone othered by a normalised population. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

In solidarity with BLM, Maddie and Catherine tackle Pariah, Dee Rees’ award-winning submission to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It’s a story about Alike (Adepero Aduye) navigating the world as a young, black lesbian who hides in the closet from her traditional-values family by code-switching her identity between butch and femme. In the process of being forcibly outed, Alike discovers her true identity, learns about heartbreak, and unlocks her creativity to jump-start her into a new, more authentic life. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Ep 10: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Local Lesbians’ Cafe: This week, Catherine and Maddie take an in-depth look at the 1991 film, Fried Green Tomatoes and 1987 book by Fannie Flagg that inspired it, touching on the themes of queer-coding, white feminism, and what it means to be a “secret” queer. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

In this episode, Catherine and Maddie tackle Call Me By Your Name, both the book and the movie starring Timothee Chalemet and Armie Hammer, and the gray areas of morality surrounding consent when one partner is still a minor. Is there room for a love story when the ethical lines are so blurry? Maybe it’s more complicated than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

KStew, child-actor and star of the Twilight series, was at the center of a scandalous affair when she was 22, and the entire world tried to slut-shame her into oblivion, but this creative powerhouse made a comeback as the Queer Media darling of our generation. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week, we tackle BBC’s Sherlock, and this one is personal. Sherlock is a textbook case of queer-baiting, but what happens when nefarious queer-baiting goes unchecked, unmonitored, and unsupervised? Leave it to the Sherlock fandom to turn it into a conspiracy. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

This week on Queer Pressure, Catherine and Madison tackle New Queer Cinema icon, My Own Private Idaho. Written and directed by Gus Van Sant and inspired by William Shakespeare, MOPI tells the tale of two male street hustlers, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, on an avant-garde quest for truth, for connection, and for a sense of home. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Does gender even exist? Maddie, Catherine, and guest-host Hannelore contemplate the concept of gender and the strength of friendship in an episode about Tangerine, an indie movie about transgender sex-workers in Los Angeles, CA filmed on modified iPhone 5s. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Netflix Original series, Sex Education, is as queer as it is important. And it’s important. Almost as important as sex education, itself. Catherine and Maddie bemoan their own experience with the topic, from believing the myth that tampons steal your virginity to reading dirty fan-fiction to learn about how the gays ‘do it.’ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Who doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned, lesbian romance? Portrait of a Lady on Fire teaches Catherine and Maddie about the concept of the “female gaze,” and inspires them to join a Girl Gang. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Although she wrote a story about radical love and acceptance, author JK Rowling finds herself on the wrong end of a fight with the LGBT community. But who will win? The TERF or the merry band of wizards she created? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support

Hollywood blockbuster -- Love, Simon -- tells the story about being young, gay, in love, and being forced out of the closet before you’re ready. Catherine and Maddie re-live their comings out over claw-mosas and discuss the impact of coming out early in life. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queerpressurepc/support