Bottoms Is Here To Save Us From Sanitized Queer Representation
The upcoming comedy film "Bottoms" has a lot going for it. For one, it comes from writer/director Emma Seligman, whose feature "Shiva Baby" was arguably the strongest debut of 2020. And then there's the lead cast of Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, two of Hollywood's most in-demand young comedy stars. But if there's really something to get butts in seats, it's the fact "Bottoms" is a coming-of-age sex comedy about two queer besties who start a women's fight club as a means to impress and get closer to hot cheerleaders. It's raunchy, it's violent, it's unapologetically gay as hell, and it isn't concerned with sanitizing its characters in order to appease the barometer of "good representation."
During a recent press panel hosted by GLAAD and GALECA (The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics), of which I am a member, Seligman, Sennott, and Edebiri spoke about the unfair pressures often put upon queer characters to be representative of the community as a whole.
"I think that Rachel and Ayo are such brilliant comedians, and we wrote the characters based off the references and the movies that we wanted to watch," said Seligman. "And I think that when you're setting up a ploy to have sex with people and you're lying, that will inherently make these characters flawed and s***ty, and I don't think we thought too hard about it." This approach to queerness is refreshing because demanding characters be representative of more than just their individual character is an undue burden that often gets applied to people in real life — perpetuating the myth of the model minority.
Embracing authenticity instead of lip service
LGBTQIA+ people are scrutinized constantly, and considering the Supreme Court recently ruled a public business has a constitutional right to refuse to serve LGBTQIA+ people, a protected class, that microscopic interrogation is only going to get worse. There will be those who try and push assimilation as a survival tactic, but all assimilation does is make it even harder for people to just live. A lack of space for making mistakes is no way to exist.
"We just wanted them to be real and messy and horny and therefore ... especially when you're a teenager and you're hormonal and you know what I mean? You just are selfish, that's what kind of happens," Emma Seligman said. That honesty is so important because when queer teens only see queer characters as beacons of morality or tragic figures in film and television, it makes it harder for them to recognize that their growing pains are a natural part of coming of age.
"I think also, to that point just about representation, I feel like so much when it's a concept, it's like, well, this woman is queer [gestures to Rachel Sennott] and this woman is queer and Black [gestures to self], so, in order to do that, they must already be able to do X, Y, and Z," said Ayo Edebiri. Sennott emphasized the point by joking, "And they're doctors."
Edebiri gave her the ol' "yes, and," continuing by saying, "And they're doctors and they're saving lives, but it's just not true." Queer characters should reflect queer people, including those who aren't squeaky-clean saints.
'I don't know the math on Michael Corleone'
"You think about all the characters in cinema that I'm sure we all love who are flawed, and nobody is doing the, I don't know, the math on Michael Corleone in terms of 'Italianx' representation," laughed Ayo Edebiri. "He's just a character and you empathize! Like, Emma and Rachel were just so good at trusting the audience's intelligence and emotional intelligence as well in that regard." In case you are unaware, "Italianx" is a hilarious meme that I do not have the ability to fully explain without sounding like the whitest a-hole possible. If you don't get it, you'll just have to trust me. It's a good joke.
"I think also when you make the whole box queer, you can have so much more fun and there isn't as much pressure on one person," Emma Seligman said. "You're just like, 'This one's nice, this one's selfish, this one's really weird.' You just get to play around and it makes everything feel a little looser too."
There's a fear from some people that portraying a queer person as anything less than ideal will give bigots an excuse to deny us rights or treat us terribly. Let's make one thing abundantly clear: Homophobic and transphobic people are going to hate us no matter how "good" we are. We don't judge cis, straight people as a whole based on the behaviors of one person, and it's ridiculous to do the same for marginalized communities — even in fiction