Author Archives: Kat

Kat

About Kat

I am a writer, blogger, copywriter, and aspiring fiction-ist who grew up in London and still lives in London. I love the city.

Spotlight | Gina Gershon – sex and violence and rock & roll

In the past 30 years Gina Gershon has earned her place as one of the best-loved camp movie stars, although you might know her better from mainstream productions such as P.S. I Love You. She is known as a huge gay icon, having played several feisty queer characters.

We at KitschMix decided to take a look at the movies that made Gershon such an undisputed part of American gay imagery.

Showgirls camp fame

KitschMix crew can always appreciate a true kitsch classic! Showgirls (1995) is Paul Verhoeven’s steamy cult film that dives inside the world of Las Vegas showdancers and prostitutes. Here, Gershon plays a predatory bisexual diva Cristal Connors. This might not be her most affable role, but it is the one that first defined her as a revered camp actress.

Bound

In the year 1996 we got to witness Gershon collaborating with another enticing actress Jennifer Tilly in The Wachowskis’ debut feature film Bound. The two queer icons joined their strength to play a pair of criminally minded women, who become lovers and devise a plot to steal $2 million of mafia money.

Bound could be fairly called Thelma & Louise on speed: The movie was harshly criticized for its gratuitous violence. But later it has been also lauded as the first mainstream feature film to present lesbian relationship without homosexuality actually being the focus of the plot.

Prey for Rock & Roll

Prey for Rock & Roll (2003) was a drama film about the fictional female punk band Clam Dandy who decide to take one last shot at the big time. The band’s charismatic leader is of course played by Gina Gershon. Again, she chose to play a sexually deviant outcast – a role she seems to enjoy.

Well then, is Gina Gershon gay?

No, she is not.

Everyone was wondering if Gershon might be into girls after portraying such an array of lesbian and bisexual characters. However, she came out as straight lately in Austin America-Statesman.

For KitschMix crew Gershon is still a full-on idol. Not only for all the entertaining movies she has made. Not even for the whimsical fact that she likes to play jew’s harp. But because she has been an important part in making gay movie characters an accepted part of the mainstream.

By the way, did you know that lately Gershon played Donatella Versace in the TV biopic House of Versace? She gave a fine performance that definitely didn’t diminish her gay appeal.

 

Read more:
Gina Gershon @ Wikipedia
Gina Gershon @ IMDb

Spotlight | Natasha Lyonne’s New Shot at the Spotlight

In the early 2000s Natasha Lyonne was a former movie celebrity and actress prodigy, deeply addicted to alcohol and heroin. She didn’t seem to have any future. But she did.

Read her story – it’s one with a happy ending.

Lyonne’s initial success

Lyonne’s first big role was in Woody Allen’s musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You (1996). Still, from the ’90s we best remember her comedy film performances such as American Pie (1999) and But I’m A Cheerleader (1999). She starred in the latter, playing a high school cheerleader, who is suspected of homosexuality and forced to a conversion therapy camp. You have to love the absurd scene where she bursts in tears and wails ”I’m a homosexual, I’m a homosexual!”

Then everything went awry

Unfortunately, Lyonne’s promising career came quickly crashing down. In the 2000s she was reportedly wandering the streets of New York unwashed, milking her fans to get money for the next dose. She got caught for drunk driving and was kicked out of her rental apartment after trashing it.

For years Lyonne’s physical and mental health deteriorated, until by 2008 she had suffered a heart infection, collapsed lung and long periods of homelessness on the streets of New York. She went into treatment to get rid of her addictions and indeed got back on her two feet.

In 2012 Lyonne even gave up cigarettes after going through a successful open-heart surgery.

Her health, sanity and career now revived, Lyonne is working again in both films and television, and continuing her work for greater acceptance of sexual minorities.

New career: Orange is the New Black and G.B.F.

In the 2013 movie G.B.F. (= Gay Best Friends) Lyonne was cast as a teacher who tries to make her students understand that it’s OK to be gay.

Still, you might know Natasha Lyonne better as the witty lesbian inmate Nicky Nichols of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. It is not a coincidence that the character is a former junkie who has gone through an open-heart surgery…

With all these lesbian and deviant characters under her belt, it is almost a surprise that Lyonne is not into girls. She does humorously invite her gay friends to hit on her, though. Keep that in mind if you ever get to befriend her.

 

Photo by Annabel Mehran

A Lesbian Version of Romeo & Juliet Worth Watching

West Philadelphia’s Curio Theater began its 2013-14 season with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Since the season was oriented on issues of gender, many of the roles in the play were switched from men to women. Juliet’s only parent was her mother, Lady Montague. Tybalt was a very different kind of character and the play was re-written to be about a lesbian romance between Juliet and a woman named Romeo.

When the play opened it caused controversy.  Many people objected to the production’s gay content. They objected to the play being staged in a Methodist church. Some of them objected to doing Shakespeare in modern dress. And there were threats of violence made against Curio Theatre.

A lot of people did not want you to see this play, but a lot more people supported the production. They felt the play was very important, and that the approach spoke to them. People who couldn’t come to Philadelphia to see the play wrote to Philadelphia’s Curio Theater about tours, so video director Brian Siano decided that the play needed to be preserved and shared with a wider audience.

There us now a Kickstarter page in place to fund a DVD version of Curio Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet. Their first goal is to pay for the post-production work, like editing, sound mixing, and manufacturing the DVDs. They then want to get the DVDs out to supporters by mid-May of 2014.

Support creating a DVD of Curio Theatre’s controversial lesbian-themed production of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet.

 

6 Scientific Reasons Why Cuddling Is Good For Your Health

We all crave human touch. From the early and controversial primate studies of Harry Harlow to 21st century cuddle therapy clinics, science has proven that a warm embrace is not only comforting; it can be essential for your mental and physical wellbeing.  A simple hug triggers a boost of your brain’s feel-good chemicals like endorphins and oxytocin, which can do wonders for a range of common health concerns. In case you needed another reason to snuggle up, here are six real health issues that can be combatted with a cuddle:

  1. High blood pressure – A hug or an affectionate handholding session has been shown to regulate blood pressure, even under anxiety-inducing circumstances. In one study at the University of North Carolina, couples were asked to speak publically about an upsetting event. Beforehand, half of the couples were told to hold hands with their partners for several minutes and then embrace for 20 seconds. The other couples were separated from their partners. While they spoke, the heart rate and blood pressure of the no-contact couples was double that of the hand-holders.
  2. Heart disease – The cuddle-induced oxytocin release linked to calming anxious feelings and lowering blood pressure, means your heart is under less stress, keeping it healthier, longer.
  3. Depression – A comforting cuddle is sometimes the best cure for a bad day. That’s why scientists are looking into oxytocin as a treatment for clinical depression. “A hug or a touch that causes a release of this hormone might somehow change brain signals,” say Dr. Kai MacDonald, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “We want to see if we can harness this response to help patients who suffer from depression.”
  4. Stress – A big hug not only makes you feel warm and fuzzy, it also has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol, commonly known as the “stress hormone”. Dr. Tiffany Field, director of the University of Miami’s Touch Research Institute explains: “The gentle pressure of a hug can stimulate nerve endings under the skin that send calming messages to the brain and slow the release of cortisol.”
  5. Low immune system – A high level of stress-induced cortisol can weaken your immune system, making you more vulnerable to illness and viruses. While a relaxing cuddle session might not cure the common cold, it could keep you from catching one in the first place.
  6. Minor aches and pains – A cosy cuddle noticeably relaxes your muscles, relieving tension that causes chronic pain. Hugging has also been shown to release endorphins, creating a feel-good rush similar to the one enjoyed by long-distance runners.

So perhaps in a way Bryan Ferry got it right: Love is a Drug. Here’s to hugging your way to good health.

The Swan Queen in ABC’s ‘Once Upon A Time’

In any storytelling medium, there will be the official representation of the story—and then there will be all of its fans. Fans meet up with other fans to discuss what they love, and why they love it, and this creates a culture around the official story that is usually separate from the professional creators. Keeping this boundary up is understandable. Each fan will have a different interpretation of the story, and even be moved by inspiration and enjoyment to write stories and draw illustrations based on the stories they love. This is done without profit, and all the other fans would know that it’s an unofficial extension of the story—but, legal quibbles aside, many official creators naturally find permutations of their artistic vision… just plain awkward.

The world of fan-created works, even of fan discussions, is a wild place. Fans can infer potential romantic connections between characters that the original creators might not ever consider artistically, never mind how much financial, cultural, and legal opposition they would meet if they had such a vision and tried to bring it to life.

I’m referring, of course, to what some fans call HoYay: “homoeroticism, yay”.

Enter Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, creators of the television show Once Upon A Time. As the title suggests, this show is their own interpretation of fairy tales. Far more mature themes are added, and I mean mature as in emotionally mature: how parental neglect, abandonment, and emotional abuse of their children can cast shadows long into adult life, for instance. Many genre subversions are celebrated, particularly subversions of binary gender roles in fairy tales. This has effectively created a story setting wherein women are front and center, as heroes or villains, with a few men to serve as love interests or get rescued by the female heroes.

Fans of all genders and orientations saw some HoYay between the female main characters, notably the long-lost princess Emma Swan and the evil Queen Regina. Fans dubbed the pairing “Swan Queen”. For those active enough in fan subculture not to clutch the pearls, this is par for the course, at most spurring a Swan Queen fan to pose an awkward question to the creators at fan conventions.

Do I keep saying awkward? Excuse me, I meant awesome. It’s rare that professional creators and cast members allow themselves to attune quite as much with those in the subculture formed around their work, as the creators and cast of Once Upon A Time. Jennifer Morrison, the actress who plays Emma Swan, has taken to fan subculture language like a cygnet to water. She tweets, “I love all the ships” —fan slang for pairings of fictional characters, or relationships— “surrounding Emma: swanfire, captainswan, and swanqueen”. Lana Parilla, the actress who plays Queen Regina, has expressed similarly unprejudiced appreciation for the fans of her character. Even answering in the negative as to whether a Swan Queen romance is an element in the show and not just fan interpretation, the creators answered with more insight into their characters’ personality dynamics and history—rather than displaying any hostility towards HoYay as a concept.

In America, where most of the professionals involved with the show reside, gay rights and even gay representation in entertainment media is a highly charged social issue. Would the writers of Once Upon A Time ever go there? How about: They already have. Their interpretation of Disney princess warrior Mulan had a scene depicting her romantic devotion to Princess Aurora. On a personal note, these weren’t characters that I was particularly interested in before or after this development, and I have a long and unfavorable analysis of its clumsy execution that’s best left for another article. I will voice my suspicions, however, that this came to pass as a nod to the vocal fans of Sleeping Warrior (that’s the affectionate fan term for Sleeping Beauty, or Aurora, romantically paired with Mulan the Warrior.)

The show is now in the middle of its third series, and the relationship between Emma and Regina has drastically changed from the antagonism that started it all. Emma and Regina have now fought shoulder-to-shoulder, have seemingly given up going for each other’s throats, and their scenes together lately have been warm with understanding. These characters’ respective potential male love interests remain, both generally likable characters in their own rights, but still in potential with no commitments made onscreen yet. Shall Swan Queen grace the screen in a future series, rather than remain in-between the show and the viewer, or only in the viewer’s minds? We shall see. If it doesn’t happen, that anyone working on this was ever personally averse to the concept would be the last reason I would consider.

Fans of same-sex pairings had a dubious luxury of not being targeted as overtly as “official” media, for any deviation from the heteronormative—because we’re just the audience. Casual viewers can enjoy the story without involving themselves with other fans, or even particular kinds of other fans, and the creators don’t ever have to notice anything from the audience but money. Nevertheless, I consider this all a shining example of how influence in media has the potential to no longer be a one-way flow all the time. Many actors, writers, and various other storytellers are able to converse with the audience through social networks and commenting platforms. What more, creators can be willing to listen, and recognize as valid how anything from their creation is interpreted or simply enjoyed.

As I have said before I love all of the ships surrounding Emma: swanfire, captainswan, and swanqueen.

Morrison, J. Tweeted – https://twitter.com/jenmorrisonlive/statuses/414153162103074816