Conservatives Are in a Tizzy Over Kristen Stewart’s Rolling Stone Cover
Is this the kind of pose queer people do in their dating profile photos? (Photo by ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Maybe it’s me but I swear I’ve heard Kristen Stewart talk more during this press run for Love Lies Bleeding than I have for all her other movies combined. This is not a complaint.
Everyone is all abuzz about Love Lies Bleeding, which comes out next month, and it’s what director Rose Glass calls an “anti-romance.” Specifically she says, “I think we liked the idea of doing a romance that was an anti-romance, pushing against the idea that romantic love is this aspirational thing that brings out the best in people.” Which I think is fair because I’ve watched people become the worst versions of themselves with specific partners despite claiming to be in love. (I guess it should be noted here that I’m generally on team “Love is A Lie” though I’m not opposed to a well-told love story here and there. I’m just… harder to convince, and not putting a rose-colored filter over it is a good way to start in my book.)
In a Deadline article about this press tour, Kristen Stewart was asked “whether the film had helped set a new standard in her mind for how queer stories are told, and how [gay films] don’t always need to be framed as coming-out stories.” Say it louder for the straight filmmakers in the back!
And after Kristen Stewart’s Rolling Stone cover story, which surely you’ve seen by now, dropped, part of the Love Lies Bleeding press tour has also involved Kristen Stewart defending her choices, praising the cover, and thinking it’s ironic that the article was called “uncensored” but that’s exactly what’s happening to her. Right wing conservative men are all in a tizzy because they can’t handle the fact that Kirsten Stewart is obviously not aiming to please them. She doesn’t exist for their enjoyment, and she doesn’t care if the sight of her in a jockstrap makes smoke blow out their ears.
Some of these conservatives are blaming Hollywood, pointing at the arc of Elliot Page’s life and career (they don’t mean it is a compliment) and assuming Kristen Stewart is also going to come out as trans at some point. Which, maybe she will, and if she does we’ll obviously support her! But also maybe she won’t. Just because she doesn’t fit someone’s outdated and narrow view of what a particular gender should look like doesn’t make her trans. Gender non-conformity exists both inside and outside of transness, and to say otherwise would be a disservice to both gender non-conforming cis people and trans people alike. Also just… leave people alone? It’s actually none of our business where she is in her gender journey and it’s actually very gracious of her to be sharing any of it. This extremely queer cover of a world-famous magazine doesn’t affect a straight person’s life in the slightest. All they have to do is not buy it, throw it out, scroll away, stop clicking on it.
But it very well COULD change a queer person’s life. It could show them that it’s okay that they don’t feel like they fit the stereotypes being thrust on them every day. It could give them hope.
If you want to hear her say it herself, here’s Kristen Stewart defending her Rolling Stone cover, because fuck the male gaze.
@apnewsentertainment Kristen Stewart defends her Rolling Stone shoot, which was critiqued by some conservative media outlets, while promoting “Love Lies Bleeding” in Berlin. #kristenstewart #berlinfilmfestival #rollingstone
More News That Is Like, So Gay, Dude
+ Laverne Cox looked amazing while hosting the People’s Choice Awards
+ True Detective: Jodie Foster had an epic season finale
+ Midori Frances, Rivkah Reyes and Heather Matarazzo are in an upcoming gay film called Complicated Order
+ I saw Madame Web and it wasn’t nearly as atrocious as people made it out to be. (It wasn’t gay but nonbinary actor Celeste O’Connor was great, and Syndey Sweeney is in it who has played queer before, and Isabela Merced who will be queer character Dina in the upcoming The Last of Us Season Two was also great.) Dakota Johnson is hilarious (and so is her press tour.)
+ The intense-female-friendship to lesbian-lovers to partners-in-literal-crime pipeline seems to be going strong in the movie Langue Étrangère
+ This is sort of old news but I only just saw the trailer for the Tarot movie today and a) it has my girl Humberly González in it and b) it has Avantika from Mean Girls looking cozy on the couch with another girl
+ Lots of gay shows on this list of shows that were canceled too soon
+ My friend Nic had sent me a link to an Instagram post about Evelyn Brochu’s upcoming romcom with Zach Braff and Vanessa Hudgens and I was like “oh no”.. but then I saw that Vanesa Hudgens was Evelyn Brochu’s ex in the movie and I was like “oh yay!”… but then I actually watched the trailer and landed at “oh gods why”!! Layne Morgan summed it up perfectly
Wait so Zach and Florence break up, lots of Florence dating women rumors around, and Zach goes and makes…… biphobia the movie? https://t.co/tw87hiZz6A
— Layne Morgan (@laynemorgan) February 17, 2024
Wow, was not expecting to go on such an emotional journey reading about a Zach Braff movie. LOL.
Here’s the trailer for Fall Risk with Victoria Pedretti and Caitlin Stasey.
https://www.instagram.com/leslady79/reel/C3iXCG4MGFt/
What I DO like about French Girl is everywhere I see the trailer, the comments are people rooting for her to get back together with her ex.
The article was right. True Detective had a banger of a season finale. If only we could have gotten a recap of the show instead of scolded for liking detective dramas.
Y’know after seeing the finale I actually understood more why Autostraddle’s review was so harsh.
I felt like the finale really didn’t live up to the buildup in the rest of the episodes, at least to me. Without being too spoiler-y, I found most of the reveals to anti-climactic (the acting from the Tsalal guys/editing of their scenes was across the board cheesy and unbelievable), and there’s no reason that Navarro’s story had to lead where it did. At least not in that super pat way (it took all of 5 minutes, maybe less, to take this super complex, interesting character to a resolution? Seriously?). I liked the other big reveal BUT they did it so fast that all the power was taken out of it. A lot of telling rather than showing, y’know?
It all just felt really cramped, and so I understand coming to the conclusion that it was a “prestige TV” cop out (pun intended?). I think it could have done better with more episodes; I don’t necessarily blame the director. Why do we need 10 eps for all the seasons with men leads, but only 6 for this arguably much more interesting story?
Zach Braff as in star of the very trans/eggy Scrubs? Has some internalized queer phobia issues? Say no more! 🙀