On Monday, Paige said “I’m gay” and the whole world changed. On Tuesday, Santana told Brittany she wanted to be with her and said she had all of these feelings she was afraid of.
And last night in the United Kingdom, on the teevee program Skins, Season Five, Episode Seven; Liv, Mini and Grace do a bunch of coke and decide it’s time to ask Franky, our favorite genderqueer fawn, about her sexuality.
Mini: What’s Franky’s story then?
Liv: Franky is Viola, the girl dressed as a boy who can’t get what she wants, whatever that is.
Franky: I know what I want.
Liv: And what’s that?
Franky: What’s what?
Mini: Well uh, Franky, you haven’t really told us whether you’re a — you know — or a —
Franky: A what or a what?
Liv: A LESBIAN.
Grace: Liv that’s so —
Franky: — no, it’s ok, I don’t mind. And the answer is…. no. I’m not anything.
Mini: So you’re bisexual?
Franky: No, I’m — into people.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Liv: Who are you into at the moment?
Part of me wants to smack Liv in the face and the other part of me notices that they’re still just doing drugs and dancing, and that Liv is notably more concerned about Franky edging in on her boyfriend than she was about Franky being a lezzer, despite the locker room taunts that re-scarred all of us for life in the Season opener.
The music playing in the next scene — at a club where the boy Franky might like (Matty) leaves Liv (his girlfriend) to rescue Franky from a weird dude that’s hitting on her — is Jessie J’s “Do it Like a Dude.” It’s like everything is meta and a recap of some other recap.
Then! THEN! At play practice the next day, Grace, for no other reason than — I can only deduct — to specifically please me, directs Mini to kiss Franky even though Shakespeare didn’t necessarily put that part in the play. This is, keep in mind, after it’s been revealed that Franky likes people, and “people” includes “girls.” Yet there is minimal hesitation.
Franky and Mini kiss. And there’s a linger.
Alo’s eyes get real big and then — then it’s over.
Grace hops along onto being upset about Matty and Liv not wanting to be in the play and Mini wants to know if she’s doing better at her part and then Grace and Rich have a fight. And SCENE.
+
At practice the next day, it’s Matty’s turn to kiss Franky. It’s like The Shooting Tila Tequila Show up in here.
+
And when the time comes, the camera flashes to Mini:
… and back to the kiss. When Matty and his Chord Overstreet lips swing into her neighborhood, Franky turns quickly. Why. Does she have feelings. I learned about feelings earlier this week on Glee.
Unfortunately for us, Matty’s a self-obsessed asshole STUPID BOY who doesn’t deserve Franky, so this is really no contest, sexuality aside.
Then, during the play, Liv decides it’s time to kiss Franky because EVERYONE KISS THE GENDERFLUID SEXUALITY FLUID GIRL IT’S FLUID WEEK YOU’RE GAY YOU’RE STRAIGHT GO WITH THE FLOW IT’S SHAKESPEARE MOTHERFUCKERS KISS EVERYONE PANROMANTIC CANNONFUCK HEADTHING
Franky feels so tender but also fierce. I hope that she doesn’t feel like a canvas on which everyone can act out their desires. Being wanted by everyone but also no-one. I hope she doesn’t feel that way. I don’t think it’s true, anyhow. But Mini was the Original Franky Bully. We know what that means.
Then Liv yells at Matty because she saw him in the wings watching her kiss Franky like a “sick fuck” and he says “it’s two girls kissing, of course it turned me on!” and then Liv asks Matty if he loves Franky and he says he loves Liv but won’t say he doesn’t love Franky, which makes no sense at all, because Franky and Matty have had like what, one conversation ever, in the field, and I think Franky held a gun to his head and was crying and he had on a trenchcoat and it was like Black Swan meets The Lost Boys meets Salute Your Shorts meets The Wire meets The Catcher in the Rye but who knows maybe they can communicate via cross-room body language like Ursula told Ariel she could do in The Little Mermaid.
Oh so and, here’s what happens next week:
The amazing thing is that Franky is like a secret flirtmaster. That girl can suggestively stare a sexual response out of a tree. For crying out loud those eyes. I guess her and Matty could have staring contests forever and ever, maybe that could be romantic.
Part of what makes Skins feel so authentic (when it succeeds) is, obviously, the one-character episode format. We see them not only in their private lives but we see them literally alone. No other show spends that much time alone with kids in their rooms — the part we don’t even see of our friends’ lives — of anyone’s lives. We see, sometimes excessively, how they feel about sex — Mini trying the positions she sees in magazines to be ready for her first time with Nick, Sid jerking off to shitty magazines or a picture of Michelle or Alo with his multi-screen porn-viewing set-up. We see their crazy families and the things they don’t tell their friends — like there’s so much on both ends when you’re a teenager, so much family to hide from your friends and so much friends to hide from your family and so much heart and sex to hide from everyone.
And then we see them in the context of everyone else’s world, and it’s really hard to dislike a person once you know where they’re coming from. Which is a lot like real life, too, I think. I’m glad they started with Franky. It’s like she’s our little Cub Scout leader for Season Five.
via ncampbell.tumblr.com
I don’t even know. What’s next. Sex riot, right? Equality?
It wouldn’t surprise me if they had Mini come out of the closet or reveal in some way that she’s a lesbian next week there’s so Much Unresolved Sexual Tension between them
what a fucking week
ikr
God tv has been so good to us this week, I feel like it’s kind of not real. Except for Skins, because I can always believe Skins can be this real and true.
I feel like I’m carrying Franky around in my heart today. Just, the way Mini was so flustered and the look on her face.
And Matty/Franky. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it, two people so obviously in love and so obviously bad. I can’t describe it. Like you know everything, everything is going to fall apart the moment they do and of course they will because they can’t not. But it’s awful and heartbreaking and it’s all on Franky’s face.
I don’t know. TV has a way of making love between two characters good, even when it’s bad, even when it hurts other characters you want them to make out. Skins made it so dark and so true. As per.
If I had met Franky when I was sixteen, I probs would have been ridiculously in love with her.
Aw man, you are so right. This is exactly what I think of when I see Franky. When I was 16, I would have been unable to function around a girl like her.
I’m still not able to function around girls like her….
I heard somewhere once that a person’s functionality may be directly linked to their degree of Gay and that, interestingly enough, some people are indeed too gay to function.
Also, I’ve experienced it first hand. So, you know, you/we are not alone. Keep on keepin’ on!
watch Ellen much??
Not really, but I used to.
Short story long: I assume you’re referring to the Inspirational “keep on keepin’ on!” portion of my comment. That phrase was in my mind because I saw it written on a t-shirt the other day (no, not that day, the other one). When I saw it I thought it was an amusing phrase and simultaneously thought I had seen/heard it before, but didn’t know where exactly. Then you came along with you’re doubly question-marked question and cleared that up for me. I guess I heard it on Ellen some years ago, which seems very fitting, like different segments of my life collided in one single comment.
Anyway, thanks for the reminder, Mel, and kaw! kaw! to you.
Saaaaaaaaaaaame.
I don’t know if I’ve ever loved a same sex couple like I do Franky and Mini, well except for on the L Word. I think I’m more excited about the possibility of them than I am of even Rich and Grace, whom I love as well.
Wow wow WOW. I watched Grace’s episode online this morning and it was crazy, the Franky-Mini-ness. After last week, I thought that Mini and Alo would get together, especially after their exchange was replayed in the recap before the last episode.
But it makes a lot of sense. Repressing her sexuality could be why Mini was such a bitch before (sound familiar, Gleeks?). Her obsession with controlling her weight/what she eats could also be connected to that, her need to control feelings she doesn’t understand.
Fuck I love this show.
FUCK I LOVED THIS EPISODE SO FUCKING MUCH.
I was legit squealing the whole way through. Shakespeare! Pansexual! Kiss! Another kiss which I was not so much into. :/ Third kiss!
But omfg, the tension with Mini is intense. Lingering looks! They got good screen time together, and every single bit was kind of flirty. I love it.
And in the second teaser for next week Mini warns Matty off. <3 He would be no good for Franky, no good at all. It's one of those relationships that only works when you aren't together.
And in conclusion…FRANKY/MINI OTP.
I called Mini/Frankie from day one, but I’m not so sure Frankie would have it. Maybe that’ll change soon, though.
On the other hand, did anyone else catch that Liv was reading Blankets? It’s all about discovering your own sexuality through art and faith, and although this show isn’t spiritual, I thought that tied in really well with the episode and the season in general.
I feel like this week spoiled the hell out of me. It’s like the queers are normal people for once, and next week I’m gonna be all “Where did my peeps go?!”
oh god, riese! “That girl can suggestively stare a sexual response out of a tree” unnnf! nearly died from the wit, thank you very much^-^
OMG. I did NOT see Minky coming.
Okay, som Mini wants to be perfect, and is dead set on being the girly girl, having the good looking boyfriend, keeping a boundary between her and things that are not “normal”
By bullying people that don’t want to be Barbie and Ken, or who want to listen to heavy metal. She doesn’t want to have sex with her boyfriend, and it seems to me that she might be with Nick just because she’s “supposed to”. Losing Nick is not what’s causing her distress, but rather losing the idea of them as Barbie and Ken (in a hetero-world where people are eighter men or women.)Everything about her says straight-acting.
So she is confused by Frankys nonconformity and also attracted to her (who wouldn’t be) and those two factors make her infuriated. She tries to bully, but she ends up finding a real friend in Franky, because Franky is tougher than she thought, and stands up to Minis bullshit, and offers her compassion.
The way she read her lines quieter than before and kind of trembling, when asked to kiss Franky suggest that she was nervous about kissing her. Also she looked like she enjoyed it.
She might be the lesbian Franky isn’t!
Also, Franky saying she isn’t a lesbian or bisexual but likes people is so cool. She’s queer! She takes the effort of not dividing people in binary gender systems. Everything about her story makes sense. She likes a boy, but has to deal with bullying about her sexuality, which gets to her because she is, in fact, not straight.
>>Okay, som Mini wants to be perfect, and is dead set on being the girly girl, having the good looking boyfriend, keeping a boundary between her and things that are not “normal”
By bullying people that don’t want to be Barbie and Ken, or who want to listen to heavy metal. She doesn’t want to have sex with her boyfriend, and it seems to me that she might be with Nick just because she’s “supposed to”. Losing Nick is not what’s causing her distress, but rather losing the idea of them as Barbie and Ken (in a hetero-world where people are eighter men or women.)Everything about her says straight-acting.>>
This is EXACTLY what I got out of Mini’s episode.
From pretty near the start I thought Mini was gay but I just thought it was my over active imagination. I don’t think Franky’s really thinking much about Mini at the moment it’s all about Matty. It’ll be exciting to see what they do with Mini’s character next season.
I have enjoyed this Generation as a whole much more than Gen 2 (blasphemy I know) and I am glad the writers didn’t big up the gay storyline in interviews because it made me just watch the series for what it is not for the gay storyline.
OMG, not blasphemy,Effy sort of ruined gen 2 for me.
This episode was amazing, I was also squealing all the way through and in the preview for next week!
Also that scene came just in time for me to make into a clip for my powerpoint presentation on human sexuality.
LINGER!
It definitely happened. I literally screamed it after the Minky kiss. And then proceeded to have that Cranberries song stuck in my head for the rest of the night.
Mini soooo has the hots for Franky. There is a definite vibe. If Franky would stop crushing on Matty then Minky could be going strong by next series.
This tv week was amazing. Seriously – the best ever. Three shows that I watch regularly had some really touching and respectful scenes about sexuality.
Franky is some lovely sort of queer!!! Mini is gay as a window!!! (Grace totally ships them. She’s the new Effy.)
I don’t actually care if Franky and Mini get together, as long as Mini gets more comfortable with herself. Ok, I’d like to see it, but I want to watch it build over the course of next season.
They’re teasing a Matty/Franky/Liv threesome next week, and I’m crossing my fingers that this will be the first threesome I see on tv that actually works for me. I think Franky could very easily like Liv too, and sometimes I feel like there are hints that Liv could like her back, so maybe it won’t be just about fulfilling the straight boy’s fantasy. I love the fact that Franky, the gorgeous fucking headfuck thing, is being written as gorgeous and desirable, with multiple people being interested in her (including obnoxious extras both last ep and this one).
Did anyone else think for a moment that they were going to have Franky be biromantic but asexual, or something? That would have been cool too.
I had that thought for a moment, too.
I think after this week of television it’s safe to say that the tiger has both ears and, at least, half a nose.
four for you, wepa
I’m getting this feeling that Matty/Franky/Liv are going to have some sort of poly relationship… and then Mini will feel jealous for being excluded.
“i’m into people” I totally said this when asked if i was gay or not. of course, it wasn’t as sexy as it was with franky. UGH FRANKY I’M PEOPLE. BE INTO ME.
I loved this episode! But mostly just because of all the Franky/Mini scenes <3
And I love that they made Franky pansexual, because tbh, if she was straight my heart would be broken right now.
In that 'visible boxers' clip from the finale, it's pretty clear that Mini's crushing on Franky and Franky is completely oblivious :( I so thought Mini was gonna kiss her for a sec. And in another clip she's basically telling Matty to get the f**k away from Franky, that's jealousy/crushing right there.
And, a bit of a spoiler, one of the lines from the finale is someone saying ''Your girl-crush is so blatant.'' Someone saying that to Mini maybe?
This week has been so good, damn!
I was live streaming the episode yesterday and when Grace said kiss her all I thought was “Wait. What? You want her to what?”, then when Franky and Mini kissed all I my brain said was FANFICTION!. Not that I would write one, but that this would lead to loads more. I’ve watched this episode twice and the kiss scene, well I can’t even remeber how many times. But I didn’t really think anything of Mini watching Matty and Franky until the second time around. When I saw next weeks clip I almost lost my mind. I’ve been shipping Minky since before the season started and when Mini was a complete ass I almost gave up hope. But then she started trying, really trying to be a better friend to Franky and even to the others; which is noticeable in ep. 7 Alo. I love the looks Mini gives Franky in the VBL scene. In the scene for ep. 8 where with tears in her eyes Mini yells at Franky, “He just wants fuck you and then fuck you up!”. I can’t believe how much she cares for her, well actually I can. Franky is the one whos been there as a friend even after all the shit she did to her and all Nick/Liv stuff. Franky has just wanted to be her friend through it all. Mini has had some major growth since meeting Franky, maybe she likes that Franky can make her a better person.
Plus this week has seriously been one to remember. Today is that big Sophie and Sian fight which leads to her falling off the church roof storyline. My little gay heart is full of so much tv right now that I can’t even think. I wonder how epic next week will be.
When Grace said “Kiss Her”, my reaction was exactly the same as Alo’s. It was ridiculous awesome. :D
Skins is fabulous. Forever. A pan character? So fucking awesome. (Also if Franky was straight I would have wept a little, I want to make out with her so bad.) Twelfth Night is my favorite Shakespearean comedy, I sooo have a thing for Viola.
Riese you are so right re: Franky’s soul-baring-vulnerable-fuck-me-now looks. Jesus. Also you totally hit one of the things that makes Skins so amazing/loveable- the character episode format. At the beginning of every new cast I think “I can’t love all of these characters, some of them look like real dicks” but by the end of each episode you sympathize with the title character. It’s impossible to hate them! I mean I was meh on Nick but then I loved his episode. They’re all so fucked up but you just want to fix everything and give them a hug and a cookie and a nice nap.
To finish: I am so on board with Minky. Officially. Yes please.
this week in TV gayness must be like what its like every other week for straight girls watching tv shows, no?
cause it was a good week lemmetellyou.
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD…
:D
Look at all those D’s!
But yeah, good week and stuff.
I think I need some fresh air…
thats what she said.
HEY AUTOSTRADDLE. DO ME A FAVOR AND WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT TV EPISODES DONT POST SPOILERS IN THE PICTURE/TITLE. KTHXBAI.
Lol, true enough. You can’t even go on tumblr for 2 seconds without seeing something you’re not supposed to see because you haven’t even watched the damn episode yet!!!
BUT WHAT ABOUT SEO
Season 5 Skins has hit it out of the park for me! Simply amazing.
It’s like this episode was just for meeeeeeeeeee.
Some comments!
A. I have called that Mini wants/would eventually want Franky since her individual episode. I was all “You see, because patriarchal norms reinforced by her mother have told Mini that the only value she has comes from her sexual attractiveness to men, her entire worldview will be upset when she has to realize that she genuinely desires someone outside of society’s prescribed rules for her. This will lead to a feminist reclamation of agency for the character and also it will be SUPER HOT.”
B. FUCK YES EFFECTIVE PANSEXUAL REPRESENTATION.
C. Thank you for agreeing that Matty is dumb. Straight up, I get busy forgetting Angel Juan every time he’s not onscreen.
“I hope that she doesn’t feel like a canvas on which everyone can act out their desires. Being wanted by everyone but also no-one. I hope she doesn’t feel that way. I don’t think it’s true, anyhow.”
I’m glad you don’t think it’s true, because that’s what it sounds like. BUT I haven’t seen Alo’s episode or this one yet, so I’m reserving judgment. I will say that I saw the Mini thing coming a mile away, not because she teased Franky but just because of some of the looks she’s given her. I don’t know, something made an alarm go off in my brain. And I WAS RIGHT, it wasn’t just wishful thinking!
i think when three people who, as far as you know, love other people, kiss you in the same week, it can be a lot to handle. you start to feel both highly present and totally invisible at the same time. and then you get to thinking and think crazy things, and i hope that’s not what her character is thinking because i think it’s not true, she isn’t that, and so i hope she doesn’t feel that way
Ahh, I see what you mean – I thought you were saying you didn’t think her friends were treating her that way, when it REALLY seemed like they were. But you mean she’s more than that and shouldn’t feel like an object – I agree. :)
“I hope that she doesn’t feel like a canvas on which everyone can act out their desires.”
I did not watch this show, but it is nutty when people who try to act out their gender fetish on you.
“i’m into people.”
YES. YES YES YES.
this makes me want to hug my television even though i live in america and can’t even watch this show on it.
The new Skins novel takes place during the summer before this season started and it seems that Franky isn’t the first girl Mini has ever kissed. You can read extracts from Mini and Grace over at the E4 website. Read the Grace one and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
So, this might leave me open to allegations of substance abuse, but before the show started, when I was reading the character profiles, it was Matty that I thought would end up being gay – or, more accurately, bi. Thus there is a loopy voice in the back of my brain saying: “But if the queerish girl and the queerish boy hook up it’s still a win for queer-ish types, right? Right!”
This was my fangirlish tunnel-vision logic: he had Burroughs, My Own Private Idaho and Shortbus in his favourites. (That’s conclusive proof, dontchaknow) And I have to say, I’m still not totally convinced that there’s no potential for that. TV/film seems to like its male bisexual characters hedonistic and slightly unhinged.
If, and only if, this were to eventuate, I wouldn’t totally hate the idea of Franky and Matty. It would be great to see Franky maintain a strong, confident pansexual identity and not have it be a straight-girl-phase or a stepping-stone-to-lesbianism.
Definitely one to watch with interest.
Holy Shit! This is one big fat Polysexual square. A lone wolf (Matty), An reckless rogue (Liv), and a fallen Queen Bee(Mini)who was her bully. These are the minds and hearts that Franky’s attracted and the hormones she’s got raising with minimalist effort.
With skins everything is left to perception. All 4 are conflicted individuals. And now we got Mini in the mix at the worst time, but for her I say tough luck. Matty and Liv cottoned on to Franky’s goldheart, silent magnetism and self-caged polysexuality before she did that has left all three fascinated, bewitched & beguiled. My guess is Mini’s the first to be left out in the cold. Matty’s animal magnetism and bad boy machismo did it with Franky and Liv by coming into their lives at their weakest points and has left them enchanted by him ever since.
If the threesome does happen, depending on Franky’s outlook, she may just be sexually liberated or emotionally destroyed and this may tip her over the edge.
for Liv, the wreckless man magnet who is capable of anything, like using sex as a weapon (Nick & Mini being the victims) and predatory lust. It would be about holding on to someone she’s falling in love with and conquering her own lust for the frail androgyn beauty whom she’s jealous of and sexually drawn to at the same time which makes it all the more poetic.
Franky in all her soul baring vulnerablity has never surrendered to anyone sexually. Its just a question of who will suceed in in their seduction of her. Mini or Matty and Liv?
The games of love/lust/conquest have begun. Now we got up to next week to see how the games end.
So, um (cough) anyone know where I can download this season? I got the first three episodes, but I can’t find a working video of episode four, or one where I don’t have to do a ‘survey’ to watch.
Seriously. Please? I’d luuuvvv u 4eva… Am I being very convincing?
Comments with links to illegal downloads will be edited. I remember it wasn’t allowed back when people were posting links to Lip Service episodes either.
Search “stinkyyenny” on youtube.
I always thought this was the most polysexually charged Generation of the 3 as there’s no obviously gay characters and we’re left guessing who would flip their attentions to the same sex. Because of Franky’s Androgyny she’s the easiest target of this assumption.
I throw around the word polysexuality alot as this isn’t about the gay/straight sexual allegiance/identity. Its simply a huge cocktail of, love, lust, jealousy, gender fetish and conquest and thats what makes this exciting.
Liv strikes me as the Anti-heroine to franky’s towering romantic heroine with Matty as the towering anti-romantic hero.
If Liv loses, she’d be in the same humiliating position that Mini was in with Nick. Cockled for another girl. Attraction doesn’t just have to be purely about emotional attachment. It could be an itch one has to scratch or a force one may feel hatred and envy for but compelled to conquer and sex is just one of the ways of doing this.With that preview clip of Liv saying “Game on” then unzipping Franky’s undergarments, she’s capable of anything. And the loveless seduction of a genderqueer in the gaze of a threesome would be one of them.
If Franky loses, depending on how that possible threesome plays out, may signal her corruption in character and descent into darkness as as by Matty & Liv she would’ve been seduced and destroyed.
Have to be honest, I still haven’t really warmed to Mini as a character, so although I totally see her intrigued by Franky (possibly even in love with her, esp. with that teaser clip), I ship Franky with Mattie more. They just have so much chemistry together!
But basically: YES THIS YES THIS YES.
franky fitzgerald i love that gril shes so cute and minky is cool everythinks miniky and nothing hruts i love franky fitzgerald damn franky fitzgerald how can she be butefful and be handsome at the same time why franky fitzgerald,s handsome and cute mini all the way minky fucking rocks miniky for ever and franky,s so damn lush and cute
minky all the way and franys so handsome and cute
Sure, I get the whole DAMNNN FRANKY thing…. But, there’s something about Mini. Excuse the pun. I think it’s her episode that did it. She’s just; fierce.
franky fitzgerlad has a drak past and she,s a dj wow i love the fact that franky can be a dj but why the hole drak past rhing it dodent macke snce i loved franky in ep 1 and as well in ep8 but frank for me is just so damn fucking vute and this hole dj thing i hope that skins s6 show,s franky djing and not just some thing that the viwers dont get to see and i for one love franky fitzgerlad i love the fact that she has a drak past i hope that thay show some more of it in the nex seson witch will be s6 and i really hope minky will hapen like i sead be for miniky all the wawy but let franky have a dj sene in s6
this
I FINALLY watched the finale and I finally like Mini. I really wanted to, and now I do. And now I can read Franky/Mini fanfictions. Now it’s a thing. Yay.