What We’re Watching: Queer Stories at the Forefront

Greetings from The Paley Center for Media’s Education Department!

Welcome to the latest installment of “What We’re Watching,” a Paley guide for Education@Home. For the next month, our newsletter is being taken over by college students that are part of the Peter Roth Internship program @Paley!

This week’s “media share“ is brought to you by Trish Owyang, a rising senior at Columbia College, and Jimena Torres, a rising junior at Rutgers University. Enjoy this unique perspective from the next generation of television and media professionals.

As always, if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at eduny@paleycenter.org.

Happy viewing,
Rebekah Fisk, Director of Education
Carlos Pareja, Manager of Education

‌What We're Watching: Queer Stories at the Forefront

We’re celebrating Pride Month by spotlighting stories with LGBTQ+ main characters, specifically those that celebrate identity as a natural facet of the human experience. As representation progresses, it’s so important to have queer stories that don’t have to be about coming out or queer-based struggles.

This Week's Recommendations for Younger Viewers

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Heart, Part 2 (2020)
Recommended for Grades 3+
Available on Netflix

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an engaging action-adventure journey that focuses on its cast of powered female characters in a nuanced and empowering way. In the finale, our main protagonist Adora grapples with her trauma and struggles with heroism as the fate of the world is at stake. Through her relationship with her childhood best friend Catra, Adora works through her internal conflicts and finds herself. While the series finale is a great example of explicit queerness in children’s media, the whole show highlights queer themes and is a great watch.

Viewing Questions

Notice everything you can about Adora’s character. Why is she struggling with her powers?
Notice everything you can about Catra’s character. How is she showing support for Adora?
How do Catra and Adora feel about Shadow Weaver’s fate? Why is her ending meaningful?
What could Horde Prime symbolize? How does the show use metaphor to tackle real themes?
What does Adora’s wish show? What does Horde Prime’s reaction mean?
How do the other characters talk about love? How do they use love to help their friends and family?
What does Catra’s confession mean to Adora? How does Adora’s reaction reaffirm themes of love and identity?

Extension Activity: Make Your Own Sword of ProtectionResources

Adora channels her powers as She-Ra through the sword! Use this kit to make your own and become a Princess of Power!

Additional Resources

Read

Lumberjanes Vol 1 by Grace Ellis, ND Stevenson, and Shannon Watters
Season of the Witch by Matt Ralphs
Secret Spell by Linda Chapman
Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega
Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse

Watch

The Baby-Sitter’s Club (2020)
The Owl House (2020–23)
Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts (2020)
Andi Mack (2017–19)

This Week's Recommendations for Older Viewers

Bottoms (2023)
Recommended for Mature Viewers, 18+
Available on Amazon Prime

Bottoms, directed by Emma Seligman, features a duo of unpopular queer high school girls who begin a fight club to become closer, emotionally and physically, with their crushes, hoping to lose their virginities before graduation. The friends PJ, played by Rachel Sennott, and Josie, played by Ayo Edebiri, fear that their lack of talent and popularity will leave them forever ostracized and make their chances with Isabel and Brittany nearly impossible. The fight club seems impossible, yet the duo gets caught up in a lie that lends them enough street cred for the club to attract members and their crushes under the guise of learning self-defense and promoting feminism. Tensions rise as star football players fear that the fight club may be stealing their spotlight, and girlfriends. PJ and Josie are nonetheless successful in inching closer to the women, and in the process unknowingly establish a community of brutal, yet caring, women with a slight taste for bloodlust yet wanting a community more than anything. By the end of the film, Josie secures her relationship with Isabel, who reassures Josie that she didn't need to concoct the lie and the fight club, she could have simply approached and talked to her.

The normalization of queer relationships in media is culturally essential for young queer people. They must feel comfortable taking these first steps, especially at such a delicate age as that of a high schooler, without fear of persecution should their crush be straight, otherwise, or unattracted to them. This film is not centered on a coming-out story or a queer tragedy but instead focuses on queer people pursuing each other, demonstrating the universal truth that we will do anything for love.

Additional Resources

Read

"'Bottoms' on Top: A Future Cult Classic" from The Torch

"Bottoms’ Box Office Success Proves the Power of Queer Female-led Stories Amid Slew of Cancellations" from PinkNews

"Bottoms is the Queer-Teen Dirtbag Comedy that I, Specifically Deserve" from Vogue

Happy viewing,
Trish Owyang
Jimena Torres

Photos—She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Universal; Bottoms: MGM