Carmilla: A Queerly Fractured Fairy Tale

How will they retrofit this queer web series for primetime?

I’m not rude, you are.

“ A f*g makes a pass at a marine in the men’s bathroom on the 44th floor of the Empire State building. The marine throws the f*ggot out the window. The marine gets down to street and passes the f*ggot in the gutter and the f*ggot gets up on one elbow and says, ‘Yoo-hoo, I’m not mad.’ ” — Personal Best, 1981

Peel back the circa 1981 vitriol, and this analogy is wrapped about a discomforting fact. The good: The queer community might be the gentlest, most inclusive, compassionate, patient culture to ever exist. The bad: All too often, when we are being treated poorly or abused, we resemble the joke. Why is not within the purview of this piece to explore but suffice it to say the gay wild child was raised by straight wolves. Surviving with a belief in our right-to-exist has been, well … tricky.

Burgeoning queer content and new media platforms are changing the landscape of media, but traditional media (and the journalists who support it) do not yet have their bearings and cannot grasp what is happening. This confusion isn’t necessarily due to ill will, but that they, too, are operating off an old traditional model that is heteronormative, sexist, racist, and firmly ensconced in traditional media formats. They also have an investment in their continuation of power.