Rachel scanlon gay fantasy
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What it does is, quite literally, provide us with a gay fantasy where we can focus on only the fun of being queer and not be constantly reminded of the threats against us.
Need a quick rundown of the movie? There’s an instinct, I think, for older and cooler queer and trans folks to position themselves away from my graduating class, so to speak.
It’s not to say Scanlon is incapable of having these conversations or holding these values as a queer person with influence. But comedy is just as effective in celebrating and uplifting joy as it is in making some kind of statement about the world we live in. That’s exactly what Scanlon accomplishes with Gay Fantasy. At the beginning of June, comedian and co-host of the Two Dykes and a Mic podcast Rachel Scanlon dropped her sophomore special, Gay Fantasy.
We have to know what bills are being passed and which places are safe to exist in and who of our friends or loved ones have betrayed us. She somehow found the queer joy in Christianity, which is apparently gender envy and domming.
My favorite moment in the special, and perhaps selfishly so, is when Scanlon makes observations about the coming out boom during the pandemic.
It’s not a source of pain or shame or trauma for her; she feels a great pride and joy about it, and that’s reflected in the comedy.
Even when Scanlon moves on to joke about her religious upbringing, it’s not to discuss how traumatic or challenging it was like most of us queers know it can be. The special is a reflection of what Scanlon has been able to accomplish in her 10 years doing comedy, which is to find humor in both the struggles and triumphs of the queer community.
We pretty much know how the story goes when a queer person is raised in a religious home or area, and while it’s important in dismantling homophobic and abusive systems, it’s not the story that Scanlon has to tell. She has filmed sets for Don’t Tell Comedy, Just For Laughs, Comedy Central, and Netflix Is a Joke, all while co-hosting a wildly successful podcast.
Go harass her on Twitter @theclaremartin.
Rachel Scanlon, known also by the nickname Ray, is a comedian, writer, and the co-host of the internationally touring podcast Two Dykes and a Mic with fellow comedian McKenzie Goodwin.
From the outset, Scanlon radiates excitement, diving headfirst into the duality of her personality as a soft butch.
Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda was created in response to Netflix platforming transphobia, Jerrod Carmichael came out to a live audience in Rothaniel, and Wanda Sykes recorded her latest special I’m An Entertainer after living through a global pandemic and years of political unrest as a Black, queer parent. Instead, it’s to remind us there are alternatives to trauma porn and doom scrolling and existentialism, and it’s okay to indulge in them.
In fact, we should.
The closest we get to anything resembling discourse in this special is Scanlon’s discussion of her fat family back home in Minnesota.
In fact, the whole special really captures a moment, not in comedy, but in queer spaces. And now she’s released her second comedy special Gay Fantasy.
In a way, the special itself is a gay fantasy.
She doesn’t punch down at her family or the families of midwesterners in her audience.
At the same time, Scanlon uses the special to document her own journey from a self-proclaimed “fat slut” who’s been around the block to the type of person who dreams about being caught reading a thicc non-fiction book. She proudly wears a Gucci belt around the waist of purple cargo pants and a carabiner full of keys sits on her hip, which she later jingles as part of her “lesbian mating call.” There’s not a single sleeve in sight, as God intended.