Episode 146: Spear by Nicola Griffith
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise discuss and deeply appreciate multiple award-winning spec fic writer Nicola Griffith’s novel Spear (current Nebula finalist!)—a queer Arthurian story that will bring you right into the era from a perspective you didn’t know you absolutely needed. If, like them, you grew up on Arthurian/Camelot stories, Spear is like coming home to the... Continue Reading →
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Episode 145: The Last of Us: One and Done/Fun
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise jumped into the current zeitgeist and watched the first episode of the first season of The Last of Us on HBO Max, the TV series adapted from the video game of the same name (by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, released in 2013). The storyline involves a post-apocalyptic U.S. in which... Continue Reading →
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Rerun Episode 124: A Conversation with Karin Kallmaker
Lez Geek Out!cast
Lise is laid up this week and can’t get the latest episode edited and uploaded. While she recovers, please enjoy this conversation with Karin Kallmaker.
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Episode 144: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Does it Hold up?
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise watched the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the whale movie!) to determine if it holds up after all these years. Here, the Star Trek crew has to save Earth from destruction by an alien probe. To do that, they need…whales. Trust us on this! It’s a great plot device!... Continue Reading →
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Episode 143: Wednesday, Season 1
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise rave about season 1 of the Netflix series Wednesday, which follows Wednesday Addams (a fabulous Jenna Ortega) of the iconic Addams family as she’s expelled from yet another high school and ends up at Nevermore Academy, a school for paranormal misfits where her parents first met. While there, Wednesday navigates tensions with... Continue Reading →
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Episode 142: A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise loved K.B. Wagers’ A Pale Light in the Black, the first installment of Wagers’ NeoG series. A fast-paced, diverse character-driven space opera meets sports story meets mystery with some of their fave elements: strong diverse characters with issues we can all relate to; space opera adventure; found family; sporting competition; creepy mystery. ... Continue Reading →
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Episode 141: National Treasure: Edge of History: One and Done/Fun
Lez Geek Out!cast
In this episode, Andi Marquette and Lise MacTague discuss the first episode of Disney Plus’ new series National Treasure: Edge of History, based on the movies but starring a different cast with interesting takes on the characters and some of the issues they’re dealing with. Like the movies, this is a quest-themed movie that Andi... Continue Reading →
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Episode 140: What’s up in 2023!
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise chat about the changing of the year, taking stock, calendars, and a few of the things they’re looking forward to in terms of books, TV shows, and games, and also their dreams to win powerball and fund game studios. Lise: Tears of the Kingdom, the next Legend of Zelda game, available in... Continue Reading →
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Episode 139: HoliGAY Movies
Lez Geek Out!cast
For this, the last show of 2022, Andi and Lise watched some LGBTQ Holiday (Christmas) movies based on a list published by Cosmopolitan Magazine (we know. We were all “WHAT?” too). They chat about the movies they saw, and throw out some other recommendations (also on the list). And also, Happy Holidays to all y’all! ... Continue Reading →
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Episode 138: The Tangleroot Palace: Stories by Marjorie Liu
Lez Geek Out!cast
Andi and Lise loved this collection of self-curated short stories (plus one novella) by majorly award-winning spec fic writer Marjorie Liu. These stories represent a collection from roughly 2009 until more recently, and span a range of spec fic genres, including paranormal, post-apocalyptic, fairy tale, superhero, and steampunk. Liu writes multi-layered character-driven stories that will... Continue Reading →
info_outlineThis week, Andi and Lise discuss (and rant about) queerbaiting, which is a marketing technique used in entertainment and fiction in which creators hint at a same-sex romance but don’t actually give you one and have no intention of giving you one. This is done to attract (i.e. “bait”) a queer audience while at the same time avoiding alienating cisgender heterosexual consumers. They also discuss the “Bury Your Gays” trope in which a same-sex relationship is depicted, but as soon as there’s a kiss or consummation of some sort, one of the couple is killed off or is wrenched away, thus perpetuating the idea that queer relationships are always doomed and are inherently “bad.”
Andi just finished up the CW’s Legacies, and that, unfortunately, does fall into the Bury Your Gays trope while Lise notes that cartoons like Steven Universe and She-Ra are really good at queer rep and not falling into tropes.
Extra resources:
Queerbaiting
Bury Your Gays trope: history; fanlore wiki
GLAAD report on representation in TV, 2018-2019
Autostraddle has been keeping a tally on queer women killed off in TV since 1976
Autostraddle 2016 infographic