A University College Student Association Magazine
And now, I will be cheesy enough to say that that’s life. Whatever happens and whatever we do, in the end, life continues. I realised after seeing Festen that life is an absurd celebration with lots and lots of dark comedy. Good guys don’t always win, and sometimes just nothing happens. And guess what? It continues regardless. On a historical note, Festen is more than just the best film in the world – it is the very first film of the Dogme 95 movement. Created by two Danish friends Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995, the
“Dogme 95 Manifesto” aimed to return to the traditional values of cinema. The goal was to “take back power for the directors as artists” as Vinterberg said. “Vow of Chastity” included no special effects, no filters, no additional props. Only hand-held cameras were allowed, and shooting had to be done on location. The movement grew quickly with the involvement of other directors. Soon enough the “Dogme Certificate” came around to honour the directors who manage to abide by the rules. Although it was a turning point in low-budget film production, Dogme 95 rules weren’t easy to follow.
CULTURE
11
Even Vinterberg himself happened to be cheating; rumour has it that he covered a window during the shooting of one scene in Festen! The audacity! Are you interested in questioning the importance of appearance and fear of bad reputation? Do you want to enlighten the unit movie night? Festen is the way to go this weekend. I assure you it is more than just 101 minutes of family drama.
Day 5 Into The Queer Apocalypse: Conversations Among the Queerios of Campus by Cate Zanardi already part of a minority, you might – if Issue 1: Gaydar? you have the chance to safely do so, she adds – want to make it easier for yourself to find UQS #1, student, 20 y/o, she/they. people that are also part of it. If you are not part of a norm, you might want to be celeSoundtrack: “Something,” Abbey Road, The brated by those who share a similar experiBeatles, 1969. ence. Possibly the most stereotypical topic to start a queer column with. And yet, I would argue, the thrill you get from a pair of alternatively tied-up Doc Martens is an integral part of the LGBTQ+ experience. My friend Unidentified Queer Subject number 1 and are eating pizza on a Sunday night and chatting, both of us wearing our institutionally mandated Docs. The mere idea that a complex and universal feature of the self - such as sexual orientation – could be ascribed to a brand of shoes or a certain way to tuck your floral shirt into your kilokilo pants is at the very best ridiculous. Sometimes, when I scroll a bit too long on the gay side of TikTok, I get a weird alienation to see how a part of my identity is limited to a set of markers – somewhat reduced to a brand, a “currency” to find others of my kind. Also, just try to put this into perspective thinking about gender identity: the whole idea that one’s gender should be directly reflected in the way they present is cisnormative by definition. Plus, the whole thing of pointing out behaviours and style choices as “gay” is also a staple homophobic thing to do, as I am sure we are all aware. But, in the end, I want to look gay! UQS #1 points out. Their rationale is that if you are
I agree, but having mentioned how the whole idea of gaydar is kind of meh given how the idea of identity=looks is kind of meh, what exactly makes a person look queer? What looks are there that we share as queer people, across styles and gender identities and cultures and eras?
gled version of ourselves: one that shines through our clothes, interests, and favourite music. The idea is that when you have gone through or are going through the process of questioning hetero and/or cisnormativity, you quickly realize that any other societal expectation is also constructed and can therefore be challenged and revolutionized. We know that you can be incredibly stylish and revolutionary regardless of your orientation or gender identity. But at the same time, I also would argue that maybe that flair, that edge that makes you one of a kind also comes from an experience of deconstruction, of ownership of yourself against whatever it was that you were supposed to be. There is a sort of fluency in being able to embody a style, a cultural wave, to mark yourself as part of a community: just like in a language, we are the most aware of its grammar and unwritten constructs when we take it apart. And if you’ve ever reconsidered your sexual orientation or gender identity, you know that there’s quite a lot of taking apart to be done to get to an answer.
UQS#1 says that, in her friend group, the people that “looked the most gay” - although they were actually straight after all - were those who cared the least about what they were supposed to look like, given their gender and social role. A friend used to wear a lot of sports gear in an environment in which girls were expected to wear makeup. We know that this is a known stereotype – the sporty masc lesbian - yet I trust my friend when she says that their perception was mostly about the way this specific girl “Way to justify your deeply conformist shoe made it a point to wear what she wanted re- choices, Zanardi!” you might point out – gardless of what people thought of her. and you would not be wrong. But just keep in mind, all of this is pure and quite biased I had never thought about this on these terms rambling from me and other people of this before, but it’s beautiful to hypothesize that community that have the misfortune to be certain air around queer or queer-looking asked queer-coded questions whilst they try people to be given by a general sense of free- to peacefully enjoy their Sunday pizza. dom; as if in ascribing to certain aesthetic markers that we consider part of our com- Until next time, munity (and creating new ones) we were offering to the world a liberated and untan- Cate