“Perhaps, thinking of pop culture as escapism isn’t the right framing at all. Maybe it’s actually vacationism, or retreatism, or getting – the – fuck – away – for – a – whileism. And like most getaways , we usually bring some kind of souvenir back with us.”
I felt equal parts called out and validated by this book and really, that’s all you need to know to pick it up. If you grew up smack dab in the middle of the height of popular culture—the early 2000s—chances are, you can at least relate to half of the essays in this book. If you’re also part of the LGBTQIAP+ community and only realised in hindsight that the way you thought about Serena van der Woodsen wasn’t because you wanted to be her but because you wanted to be with her, then I can guarantee that this collection will become your gay bible. Grace Perry discusses pop culture that shaped us every step of our tweenhood, from Mean Girls and Harry Potter to Disney Channel Original movies and anthems like I Kissed a Girl and doesn’t hold back when it comes to eliciting just how frighteningly damaging some representations have been in her journey to coming out as gay.
Perry is blunt and funny in her examination of the early 2000s gay heroes—it’s equally nostalgic and uplifting to reminisce about the gay heroes we created back in the day before casual queerness and actual on-screen representation became more regular (still not enough, but we’re getting there!). From dissecting Lindsay Lohan’s “fall from grace” and the media’s lesbophobia (as well as Lohan’s later dismissal of her wlw relationship) to the very difficult topic of Harry Potter, its transphobic creator and the queerbaiting of releasing the news about Albus Dumbledore being queer without any hints in the actual novels, this book sure knows how to pack a punch, expose stereotypes and highlight how much we are influenced by depictions of queer characters, especially by those that aren’t all too positive.
Though I have my favourites from these essays, the ones that really stuck with me were those that highlighted how much internalised homophobia is a systemic issue. Detailing the queerbaiting that went on with the release of Katy Perry’s earth-shaking I Kissed a Girl made me remember my own youth and how I used to scream those lyrics way before realising I was part of the LGBTQIAP+ community. Similarly, it was incredibly enlightening to read Perry’s analysis of Mean Girls, a movie that has become a classic and remains iconic with its witty humour, and realise that a lot of movies that shaped who we are actually had some of the worst representation of gay characters. Perry also addresses the way in which teens infused these narratives with queer subtext to feel seen and boy, if that didn’t hit home.
Beyond the analysis of texts Perry offers, I also really loved the tidbits we got about her own journey because they read so similar to my own—and probably a bunch of other millennials’—experience. Perry’s move from someone who dresses as a tomboy to someone who kisses her girl friends but is totally not gay, to someone who supports the LGBTQIAP+ community but totes isn’t part of it herself, to discovering her own identity…it was a rollercoaster that I’m sure many can relate to.
All in all, I strongly urge every millennial (or human being who still uses pop culture references from the 2000s—you are the backbone of society, my friends) that wants to reminisce about their 2000s experience to pick up this book—Grace Perry’s collection of essays is equal parts reflective and a call to do better in the representation of the LGBTQIAP+ community. A timely piece of literature that you won’t want to miss out on!
The 2000s Made Me Gay is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of June 1st 2021.
Will you be picking up The 2000s Made Me Gay? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
See also
From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman
“If you came of age at the intersection of Mean Girls and The L Word: Read this book.” ―Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of Reductress
Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the teen cultural phenomena that the early aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her identity, and she came out on the other side, as she puts it, gay as hell.
Join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the early 2000’s, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance―a time not so long ago, that people seem to forget.
