FYI: LGBTQI

I love Jared Leto. That is obvious whenever I hear a 30 Seconds To Mars song, see a photo of him somewhere, see that he's posted on any one of his numerous social networking accounts, or if the Academy Awards are mentioned at all. I love him. I love him.
He's a passionate, artistic, understanding and genuinely funny. He also doesn't seem to age. He turned 42 on Boxing Day last year and recently was interviewed by Lynn Hirschberg for W Magazine. (Just a sidenote: I love these "screen tests" Hirschberg produces and I'm addicted to watching them. My favourites are Elle Fanning and Michael Fassbender.) Jared Leto wanted to emphasise that the character he played in Dallas Buyers Club wasn't just a man dressing in drag, but a trans* woman. He then elaborates that in-character as Rayon he was treated at times with confusion and even disgust. I'm hoping that if (and I'm only saying "if" because "when" is too presumptuous, but it's pretty much in the bag) he wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that more people with little knowledge about trans* men and women can gain a better understanding from watching the movie.

I've compiled a list of questions a person may be too afraid to ask about LGBTQI. And if you didn't know some of these things, don't be ashamed or sad. You most likely wouldn't be taught them at school, which is something your government should be ashamed of.

What does LGBTQI stand for? Wasn't it a shorter acronym before?It stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning Intersex. This acronym is seen as more inclusive than "gay community". A "G" may be placed before the "L". Other variants may include Unsure (U), Curious (C), Transexual or Transvestite (an additional T), Two-Spirit Persons (2 or TS), Allies or Straight Allies (A or SA), Asexual (A), Pansexual (P), Polyamorous (P), HIV-affected (H) and Other (O). There are many more variations and there have always been more included over time. Personally, I think the term "gay community" seems a little outdated.

What is a transgendered person? 
Someone whose self/gender identity differs from the social expectations of their physical sex they were born with. A trans* man is a man physically born female but identifies as male. A trans* woman was born male but identifies as female. Transgender is an umbrella term for transvestites, transexuals, gender-queers, and those who identify as neither a man nor a woman. Transgender is not a sexual orientation. Trans* people may have any kind of sexual orientation, and although they may fall under the trans* category, the person may not identify as such.

What is the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality?
Do not lump these two orientations together. Someone who is bisexual is attracted to two genders or two sexes, but not necessarily equally. This definition could be seen as inaccurate, as their are more than two genders and two sexes. A person who is pansexual is fluid in sexual orientation, gender and/or sex identity. When someone tells you they're pansexual, take their word for it. Don't call them bisexual when they didn't tell you they were. It's disrespectful and invalidates their orientation.

What is polyamory?
Multiple open relationships of love and respect. For example: Betty, Susan, Kevin and Bob are all in intimate relationships simultaneously. Not to be confused with polygamy (a man married to more than one woman) or polyandry (a woman married to more than one man).


What's asexual?
Someone who has no sex organs, and may also refer to a person who isn't sexually active or sexually attracted to people.

What's a "twink" and what's a "bear"?
Both are slang terms for gay men. A "twink" is a young man and a "bear" is a large, and often, hairy man. A "cub" is therefore a young "bear". I included this question because I've been asked by straight men what a "twink" was.

What's a "fag hag"?
A slang term for a woman whose friends are mostly gay men. Also another question asked by a straight man.


Why a rainbow flag?
The rainbow flag symbolises the diversity of the LGBTQI community. It originated in 1978 in San Fransisco, USA. It was originally made up of eight colours: hot pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic/art), indigo (serenity/harmony), and violet (spirit). After fabric shortages and other changes, the rainbow flag didn't include hot pink or turquoise.

Does "queer" mean "gay"?
"Queer" is an umbrella term for LGBTQI. It doesn't just mean a homosexual man.

Did the Nazis really give queer people symbols for their orientations? 
Oh, yes. Queer men and women were persecuted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Gay men were forced to wear pink triangles, lesbians (or just women perceived as such because they didn't follow the social expectations of their gender) wore forced to wear black triangles. Gay Jewish men were forced to wear a yellow triangle with a pink triangle on top. It is estimated between 5,000 - 15,000 gay men alone perished in concentration camps. It wasn't until 2002 that the German government apologised to the LGBTQI community.

What do tell if someone is LGBTQI (or other)?
You usually can't "tell". You're not supposed to. This is never your business to know. It's not up to you to define another person's gender or sexual orientation. You can't tell anyone if they're "normal" or not. "Normal" went out the window the moment humans started existing. How you identify yourself is all you need to ever do, and sometimes, that doesn't matter either. In other words, don't be so fucking judgmental.

2014 Oscar Picks

The 86th Academy Awards nominations came through this morning. Ellen DeGeneres will be hosting, and here are my picks for the golden statues that make everyone go like, "MY PRECIOUSSSSS". And by 'picks' I'm only predicting and don't necessarily agree with the likely winners. I'm picky and weird, I don't know. And also Australia's release dates are ridiculous and most of the nominees I haven't even seen yet. Guh!

BEST PICTURE: 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen)
One of several I can't wait to see and it's really annoying that I haven't when I've been told repeatedly it's fantastic and the acting is unbelievably good and the story is harrowing and moving. Damn it, I hate when this happens!!! I like Steve McQueen's work and have faith in these rave reviews. I have seen American Hustle and it doesn't feel as if it's on the same level as 12 Years A Slave.

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
This is just because everyone knows Leo keeps putting himself further into his roles and keeps pushing everything to the limit. We, the Internet, are legit concerned for his well-being sometimes. Then again Matthew McConaughey is equally deserving for his role in Dallas Buyers' Club. This is going to be an emotional awards show for me. I know that sounds dramatic, but these people will do ANYTHING for their art and I hate a snub.

BEST ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
This is also a difficult one to pick because I have the feeling these 'crazy lady' roles will forever be a major piece of Oscar bait but the reality is that Amy Adams may have an equal chance for her role in American Hustle. Amy Adams was dynamite. But then there's always the scale of talent shown whenever a character has a breakdown...this is tough. I don't know. Either those two. I keep thinking I'm right about what I pick but then I rethink it again. I don't knowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers' Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
I don't feel I need to elaborate on this one.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle (David O. Russell)
Now, hold on. A lot of people just rolled their eyes at me. I'm not saying that she necessarily deserves this more than Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years A Slave, but since during the Golden Globes JLaw seemed to breeze in much more easily this time around than her first, I get the feeling that the Academy likes her and will pick her because of the hype that surrounds JLaw. She most likely will win. I liked her in American Hustle but I still don't know how she compares to her fellow nominees.

BEST DIRECTOR:
Most likely Steve McQueen, which would be cool. Other than being a talented guy, he's extremely adorable.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Spike Jonze's for Her.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
John Ridley's for 12 Years A Slave.

The other categories I can hope to have decided my picks for before March. They may take some time since there are so many movies to see before the show. I'm exciteddddddddddddddddd, ;)

 

Da M.T. Herss

I've been a little out of the loop lately, fandom-wise. Yesterday a friend made a status update about her thoughts on the series 3 premiere of Sherlock. I got all confused about it -- how could I have possibly missed that? I assumed it wasn't going to be on for another week or so. Anyway, I watched it this morning.

So fans went without a new series due to Freeman being busy with a little project called The Hobbit, and by now we're hysterical about finally finding out how Sherlock faked his death. I hadn't figured it out. To be honest I didn't want to bother trying because the show would inevitably have a "got your nose" type of moment with me, fooling me because I'm gullible and not Sherlock Holmes. I knew that the second I thought of something they'd be like "durrrr, that's wrong".

The mask bit made me go, "Really? Really? Lame." Mostly because I thought it was too easy and reminded me too much of the worst Bond films. The gadget that solves EVERYTHING because HE'S A SPYYYYY

 

The first of many fan moments, aka fanservice where the moments we apparently were all waiting for are given to us through canon -- fuck, I'm starting to hate myself for sounding like such a sad nerd... I digress. Right, so this kiss was all lovely and whatever but I thought that it potentially painted Molly into a very character-limiting corner. But, it turns out Anderson thought this all up (Why? Does he ship Sherlock/Molly like a lot of us do? Why show it? Oh, right, fanservice.) and I guess that made it slightly better, but still. Okay, one nice thing about this I will say: this is beautifully shot.

I luff him sah mahhhsh ahhh mahh gahhh.

Bow chicka-ow-ow... I love that reveal, even if it's like "durrrrrrr" again. Huh, John's wearing green pants...

What I've understood about thin men over the years is that depending on what he's wearing, he can look very lithe but then underneath there are guns??? Cumberbatch is like: "You like dogs? Take a look at these bitches."




John on a train -- FORESHADOWING. And SHADOWING HIS MOUTH with that moustache I have mixed feelings about. Also SHADOWING under his eyes because apparently John never sleeps.

You see what I mean by mixed feelings though, right? I'm like, "Whoa, now."

Don't understand why John has the need to mention vehemently "totes not gay!!!! haz gurlfren!!!!" except for a little fanservice humour. I don't know. Seems like an old joke.

ILOVEHERILOVEHERILOVEHER

I loved how John's not even looking at him, mostly because it's like "lol Sherlock not everything you do is impressive and also you're being a dickhead". Maybe I enjoy Sherlock's knob-headed-ness resulting in fat lips and bloodied noses.

I liked this approach, because by now everyone knows that Sherlock will reveal some information that us lowly mortals didn't pick up by just looking at a new face, but this time he didn't say anything out loud. Hopefully they won't come back to his deducing her a liar in a later episode because that'd just make me go "ughhhhhhh who cares" because there isn't anyone who doesn't lie. My favourite is "bakes on bread". Mary probably smells amazing.

WE DO THIS REUNION MY WAY -- WITH CUDDLES. YOU BASTARD.

 

I love this. I love the little jib at how gay-obsessed this fandom is. Like, in what world would this actually happen, when Sherlock fakes his death with his enemy sitting beside him like they're buddies? Oh, yeah, the Sherlock fandom world.

I feel like I'd be fine living in that bizarre world of enemy-lover-dummy-rooftop, but the BBC wouldn't let two men kiss without cutting away so that's lame.

"Bugger."
This is a cute scene. I love these kinds of reveals that are as if to say, "No, we're really not that predictable. GOT YOUR NOSE."

I love Mrs. Hudson's cardigan, like, I'd wear the flip out of that. She is so adorable.

Me, too, John.

I guess they wanted to have some closure or something for Molly but this also didn't feel right to me. I don't know why. Something just bugged me about them mentioning Molly being in love with him so often. I DON'T KNOW.

I like the Sherlock/Mary dynamic. It's platonic, and yet there is a level of attraction between them since they both obviously like the other one enough and they both think the other is clever. They better not shit all over this in later episodes because that would be so lame and boring...

I thought with a shrug "I bet they're his parents" not thinking that was accurate at all, but when I was right I made this awful shrieking sound because I was so proud. As I've said, this show has an ability to say "got your nose" every five minutes and I'm so gullible, usually.

"Yeah, I'm fine, mate... Just nearly got burned alive last night. How are you?"
JOHN GO TO THE HOSPITAL

I got really shitted off by the obviousness-yet-not reveal that, like, durrrrrr a car was missing. I was back to being like "FUCK YOUUUUUUU". Mostly just out of jealousy.

Note to self: start carrying crowbar in coat pocket in case of bomb threat. B&E illegal but understandable.




Don't understand how John managed to miss that. I mean, he has a torch. Whatever. Sherlock always has to be the clever one...




Maybe John should just do more of the "I don't believe you" routine because he was right this time even though his BFF was crying some pretty convincing manly tears.




So basically what I can deduce from this is that Anderson has... gone off.





FUCK YOU SHERLOCK





There are a dozen ideas we can guess from this exchange (or lack thereof), but in my head I'd like to think Sherlock is just like, "Ding-dong! Well done, Molly."

And then the end was all menacing and foreboding like "ohhhh SEE YOU NEXT TIME WHEN WE FUCK WITH YOUR HEAD AGAIN."

screencaps source