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LRT: I think the reason a lot of queer people are drawn to the “queer safety aesthetic” is not just because it’s the only rep offered us, it’s because of the trauma/safety reaction that we needed it as children, and were denied it.
There are times in our lives when we need to see ourselves - in the world, in news, in stories - in a way that is safe and age appropriate, so that we can see ourselves as not being deviant, not wrong.
And, for a lot of queer people, that need has gone long unanswered.
And, for a lot of queer people, that need has gone long unanswered.
[CN: AIDS, homophobia, transphobia] I grew up around a lot of queer content, probably more than most people my age, but in most of it, gay men died of AIDS or went to prison, and lesbians were betrayed by lovers who went “back” to straight partners.
[CN: transphobia, queerphobic violence] trans people were either always portrayed as “just gay men/ butch lesbians” or who “went back” to their birth assignment, and were frequently the butt jokes.
There was always at least some queer bashing. There were a lot of sex and drugs.
There was always at least some queer bashing. There were a lot of sex and drugs.
In the main, too, these stories were tragic. They weren’t all aimed at cishet audiences - I watched a lot of queer masterpieces far, *far* too young - but they were deeply adult, and often very moving depictions of queer trauma and loss.
It was the 90s/00s, after all.
It was the 90s/00s, after all.
And these thing are high, valuable, important art. But they are not what I needed at, say, 13. (Or, indeed younger.) I needed queer rep in the stories aimed at *my* age group, with appropriate stakes, that did not doom me to violence, early death and drug addiction.
I needed something that looked in to my trauma, my fear, and took me by the hand, and told me that no. It would be okay. People like me existed and could thrive.
And, in a lot of queer people, that need is still unanswered, so that part of us has never grown.
And, in a lot of queer people, that need is still unanswered, so that part of us has never grown.
So, when we encounter soft, fluffy, “wholesome” queer content, it answers the needs of this deep, buried, *young* part of ourselves, that has been hungry and traumatised for SO long. It is a huge, and profound emotional experience. It is a really deep kind of healing.
