Tenderness

• On the surface, All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh, is a dark and twisty love story.
• Underneath, there is the often-present storyline seen in queer cinema: that of trauma and tragedy.
• All of Us Strangers follows lonely middle-aged gay man Adam (Andrew Scott), struggling to come to terms with his tragic past and sexuality.

Queer representation

• Queer representation in mainstream media has historically been marred by negative stereotypes, tokenistic representation and death.
• In my recent interactive documentary, Queer Representation Matters, queer media scholars and queer screen storytellers share how queer characters are often relegated to roles characterised by tragedy or trauma, perpetuating harmful tropes like “bury your gays”.

• Online queer news site, Autostraddle, have compiled a list of the 230+ dead queer female TV characters, which continues to be updated with each death.
• Essentially, for queer people, it starts to feel like you can’t have queer representation without someone dying tragically at the end.
• Read more:
  We studied two decades of queer representation on Australian TV, and found some interesting trends

We need diverse stories

• Tropes will always exist in storytelling, but by having more diverse queer filmmakers telling more diverse queer stories, audiences will have a more balanced narrative about queer life (and life expectancy).
• We need to see stories that challenge the narrative that being queer ultimately leads to pain, trauma and tragedy.
• We need to see we can also live long and happy lives, so we can believe we can have the happy ever after.
• Read more:
  All of Us Strangers: heartbreaking film speaks to real experiences of gay men in UK and Ireland

Natalie Krikowa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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• With the arrival of high-speed home delivery companies, alcohol became more readily and rapidly available than ever before.
• If you’ve been participating in Dry January, you may be feeling relieved, proud or anxious now that the month has come to an end.
• Fiction offers precious – sobering – insights into the impact of alcohol in the lives of women and children.

How fiction can help

• What exactly do these works of fiction offer that you might not find elsewhere?
• Set against intimate domestic backdrops, they provide unflinching accounts of drinking as a woman and mother and where extreme addiction can take you.
• One example comes from Lucia Berlin’s short story, Unmanageable, from the collection A Manual for Cleaning Women (2015).

An offer of hope

• Stuart has acknowledged that aspects and characters in the book reflect his own childhood.
• His ability to write Shuggie’s experiences at all – as well as his successful career working in fashion in the US – suggests there is a way through.
• “All over the world mothers are having breakfast with their sons, seeing them off at the door,” she writes.
• These aren’t works which point the finger, but which offer insights and understanding, tenderness and compassion.

No perfect fix

• Shuggie’s attempts to entertain Agnes by reading to her from Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World don’t keep her sober.
• But for the Lucia Berlin character in Unmanageable, literature literally saves her life:
  “She was shaking too hard to stand.
• Don’t think, God don’t think about the state you’re in or you will die, of shame, a stroke.
• Don’t think, God don’t think about the state you’re in or you will die, of shame, a stroke.

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Kiera Vaclavik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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