Each month we try to explore a theme in a little more depth, with our curators posting their thoughts, and guest writers contributing to the discussion. This august we are looking at bodies, body image, and the often fraught LGBTQ+ communities responses to them.
On the gay scene there is often the push to be buff, a hypermasculinity and rejection of those who do not look like they have just stepped off the cover of a magazine. Queer people are accused of fetishizing youth, and ignoring our relationships with our bodies as we age in a scene that can be very image conscious. Is there such a thing as “looking queer” and how does that balance with passing privilege? How does the pressure on trans people to conform to cis het expectations affect them? Is there fatphobia on the queer scene? Why do androgynous and non binary seem to be equated with thin, white and abled? How does the cost of clothing, styling, exclude of those on low incomes?
These are questions we often look away from, or pretend are only minority concerns. This August we will be stripping bodies bare, and asking the difficult question in our very own swimsuit edition.
The Queerness 