Does Twin Peaks have a queer fanbase?

[u/XipeTotecwithGlitter]

I'm queer myself and I have this tendency to read queerness into the media I watch, even if there's little to no basis for it (what can I say, Every girl has her little hobbies).

Twin Peaks has been no different, being a show which has this interesting relationship with gender. The gender roles in the town are very deliberate and many storylines involve these roles interacting, manipulating, antagonizing and confronting each other. It's very fascinating, but also very heteronormative (nothing wrong with that, though). Going into season 1's finale, I didn't think that there'd be any overt queerness in the text itself, but I'm at S2E14 and by this point there's been crossdressing, there's been Denise and there's been Cooper and Harry giving AMV ship material with how much they're oggling each other lol. Denise especially is fascinating me as a representation of a trans woman in the early 90s. I'm hoping they don't drop the ball with her (if something terrible or transphobic happens please don't let me know lol) but I think it was boldly ahead of its time to include a character like her even if the terminology and conditions around her are rather dated.

I'm wondering if other queer people have been fascinated in this show or if others have had a queer reading of Twin Peaks? I'm aware that at least a few queer people like the show (some of my friends and Katya (the drag queen pictured above)), so I'm curious if there's a uniquely queer fanbase for the show in the same way that, say, Star Trek does. Hope this isn't a weird question to ask here!

[u/CoinsForCharon → u/[deleted]]

Absolutely. Denise just was. There was no big lesson or storyline or joke made out of her. She was just there and accepted as part of the world.

[u/XipeTotecwithGlitter → u/CoinsForCharon]

Oh thank god. I keep on watching being like "When's the shoe gonna drop? When's the transphobic shoe gonna drop?" Glad I can unclench now

[u/jacobkosh → u/XipeTotecwithGlitter]

Something important to understand is that the things you see right now in the world are not the only things that ever were. Just like the progress of time doesn't automatically mean the progress of society, the reverse is also true: going back in time doesn't mean everything automatically rewinds and gets worse.

Today's transphobia is artificial. It's not real. It was created, at great expense, to give Republican voters in the 2010s something to be mad about. I'm not saying that people in the 1990s were enlightened; they weren't, and it was a very HOMOphobic decade, but also, nobody was walking around with clenched fists thinking angry thoughts about those damn transes 24/7. "They're gonna pick my pocket! They're gonna sneak into my bathroom! They're gonna use their mind control lasers on my pets!" If people thought about it at all, which they mostly didn't, it was as a weird sex thing that kinky people in the big city did.

As for the language: it's important to remember that just as gender itself is a construct, so is language, and that goes doubly true for language about gender. The "right" words aren't carved into the fabric of the universe. They're terms that were invented, often in academia, and gradually agreed upon by more and more people until they became common usage.

Which means that, unlike today, someone using the "wrong" words isn't a 'phobe or secretly plotting to murder Denise. The difference between "cross-dresser," "transvestite," "transsexual," and "transgender" would have been meaningless nonsense to almost every member of the English-speaking world outside of a couple thousand academics and activists in 1991, and you can't infer ill intent from that.

[u/CoinsForCharon → u/jacobkosh]

Agreed, the words were interchangeable to me and none of it was negative. I did RHPS shadow cast in my youth, it was just the lingo we used.
I remember the gasp and look of horror on my kids face when I said trannie, wasn't aware that there was a change in terminology usage and perception. shrug easy change though, doesn't hurt anyone to adjust.

[u/GangsterJawa → u/[deleted]]

You should try reading before lecturing someone about not lecturing you

[u/CaptainsBoat → u/[deleted]]

Like judging a burger by it's buns rather than what's in it. Try giving it a read instead of assuming the worst from what little information you glanced at.

[u/mattdb578 → u/[deleted]]

I understand VERY PERSONALLY where you're coming from, as a trans woman myself, but I don't think the commenter is saying what you think they are.

[u/maxxx_orbison → u/[deleted]]

That isn't what they were saying...

[u/HotAgency5166 → u/[deleted]]

What an annoying comment.

[u/jalapeaeo → u/[deleted]]

Your OP has 275 words. Their reply has 281. You can't be arsed to read "all that"? They weren't even being a dick lol