Queer Pressure

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

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.

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?

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.