Ugly Betty
Mar. 26th, 2007 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katesnotesUgly Betty was fun last night but not spectacular. I think this is partially because of the absence of my favourite character, Betty's nephew, Justin. He is such a fun and funny wise child. I read an interesting article today about the difficulties of having a queer character who is a child. Apparently the creator makes the point that because he is pre-pubescent Justin queers gender not sexuality as such.
I can buy this to great extent with a caveat about the Halloween episode in which he was dressed a Gene Kelly in 42nd St. Kelly in this role is textually presented as both male and heterosexual. However, the role has attracted a lot of queer attention and as a result of subtextual readings the role itself has been queered. So, in this instance, Justin is clearly not playing at gender but at a very specific and iconic queer (gay) identity and he himself must be aware that he is playing with queer identity.
Anyway here is a link to the article in http://flowtv.org/?p=137