Arts
4 — Wednesday, April 13, 2022

“QUEER” IS A powerful word, and to 

be Queer is a powerful thing. For so many, 
art and Queerness are inextricably linked. 
The art we were exposed to growing up 
informed the way we came into our Queer-
ness, and now our Queerness informs the 
way we consume and make art. In almost 
everything I watch, read and listen to, I 
look for refractions of this part of myself 
in order to understand myself better and 
feel understood. Queerness means com-
munity; it means self-knowledge; it means 
anything that those who claim it want it 
to mean. I am unbelievably proud of and 
grateful for these writers and their will-
ingness to tell their stories for this B-Side, 
for their shaping of it into a fitting reflec-
tion on the infinitely diverse array of expe-
riences Queer people possess, for defining 
their Queerness on their own terms.

NEEDY LESNECKI (AMANDA SEY-

FRIED, “A MOUTHFUL OF AIR”) put 
it best: “Hell is a teenage girl.” Her own 
teenagehood is defined by fawning and 
fumbling over her lifelong best friend, 
Jennifer Check (Megan Fox, “Dakota”). 
Jennifer is cruel, controlling and, by 
the end of the film, a literal man-eater. 
Even more importantly, she represents 
the bisexual monster in the closet. Her 
dynamic with Needy is messy, and it pro-
vides a shockingly dimensional look at the 
raw and repressed sides of Queer teenage-
hood. 

To introduce Jennifer, narrator Needy 

word vomits a stream of compliment upon 
compliment, only to have her daydream 
interrupted by a classmate saying she’s 
“Totally lesbi-gay” for her attractive, mean 
and cooler friend. This is in the very first 
scene and sets the almost ironically Queer 
tone for the rest of the film. It almost feels 
embarrassing to admit this scene in “Jen-

nifer’s Body” is what introduced me to the 
possibility of a woman being Queer. My 
own digital presence aside, it indirectly 
introduced the word “lesbian” into my 
prepubescent dictionary. Queerness was a 
completely abstract concept at this point. 
As a sixth grader, I didn’t yet know any gay 
family, celebrities or friends. There wasn’t 
any blatant homophobia in my upbringing, 
especially from my immediate family and 
close friends, but rather a glaring absence 
of anything deviating from heterosexual-
ity. Young and unknowingly Queer, this 
was a complete absence of self. 

The plot of “Jennifer’s Body” is exqui-

sitely absurd — an unsuccessful indie 
band, Low Shoulder, attempts to sacrifice 
a virgin to Satan in exchange for unparal-
leled success. Unbeknownst to the band, 
their target virgin, Jennifer, is not quite 
a virgin, and she refuses to die in peace. 
Instead, she is turned into a succubus 
with an appetite for (mostly) boys. From 
this point on, she eats a variety of men to 
sustain herself, often choosing her prey 
based on their proximity to Needy.

After the Satanic ritual, she seeks out 

Needy. Blood-drenched and delirious, 
Jennifer saunters around Needy’s kitchen 
looking for a meal of meat. A terrified and 
naive Needy repeatedly asks what’s wrong 
and tries to dissuade Jennifer from eat-
ing her mom’s thawing chicken. Jennifer 
ignores her and vomits a black, tar-like 
liquid all over the kitchen. Before leav-
ing, Jennifer pulls Needy close to her and 
breathes down her neck, slowly moving 
to a gentle kiss and biting Needy’s throat. 
There is a brief flicker of temptation — to 
eat her friend and occasional sweetheart 
— before she asks if Needy is scared and 
throws her into the wall.

Horror aside, my own experiences with 

Queerness feel more similar to the intense 
friendship between Needy and Jennifer 
than other pieces of media representing 
relatively-realistic teenage love. Lucy and 
Amy sleep with the enemy, Megan and 
Graham run away together and Esti and 
Ronnit find each other again in adulthood. 
But those weren’t my experiences, and I 
will never get to have that type of story.

The Queer B-Side

A Queer girl’s guide to ‘Jennifer’s Body’

My gay girl playlist starter 
pack, from the new to the 

nostalgic

SOMETIMES I WISH I had 

gotten the gay college experience 
I thought I would have – “experi-
menting” with girls until I fig-
ured out that, hey, they weren’t 
experiments at all. Instead, I 
figured out I was bisexual while 
sitting in my childhood bedroom 
during the deep quarantine of 
the early pandemic. It would be 
great if I could paint my quaran-
tine as a beautiful, introspective 
time of self-reflection and chal-
lenging my internalized compul-
sory heterosexuality. And it was, 
to some extent — but mostly, I 
have to admit, I really just had a 
lot of time on my hands. Time to 
think and ponder and take “Am 
I Gay?” tests. (At some point I 
realized that if you take enough 
“Am I Gay” tests on the internet, 
it probably means you are gay.)

Most people can’t pinpoint the 

exact date they realized their 
own Queerness. As my own real-
ization came during the internet-
steeped pandemic summer of 
2020, I guess it makes sense that 
I can. Specifically, my Spotify 
history indicates a slew of sap-
phic love songs, all liked on July 
6, 2020. This includes gay girl 
classics like girl in red, Kehlani, 
Clairo, dodie and King Princess. 
Looking back, I can’t remem-
ber having one big revelatory 
moment where I decided that yes, 
I was Queer — but clearly, there 
was a day when I proclaimed (to 
my Spotify, at least) that I was. 

So why were these songs so 

important to my Queer awaken-
ing? Music is obviously crucial 
to a lot of personal moments and 
revelations, so it’s not like this 
was special. However, given the 
quarantine, they were the only 
way I could connect to a larger 
community. I couldn’t go to 
Necto or hang out at the Resi-
dential College. I couldn’t go 
to the Kerrytown Markets and 
buy nothing but still soak in the 
Queer energy of other 20-some-
things with tote bags. I was in 
my bedroom, the same bedroom 
in which I had considered myself 
“straight” for so many years. I 
felt like an outsider in my own 
life, unsure how to reconcile my 
Queerness with the purple walls 
of my childhood sanctuary. 

This was where I listened to 

Taylor Swift and One Direction 
— staples of my tweens, teenage-
dom and current playlists — but 
in that music, there was no space 
for Queerness. The heterosexu-
ality was overwhelming. When 
I played back “Love Story,” I 
remembered believing that — 
although I never dreamed of a 
big white wedding — the person 
I ended up with would unequivo-
cally be a man. I never thought 
to think otherwise. Other peo-
ple were allowed to be gay, and 
I wanted so badly to be one of 
them; but I thought because I 
liked men, there was no other 
option. There was no room for 
bisexuality until I got to college. 
In high school, even in my pro-

gressive college town, even if you 
were bi — you were gay: There 
was no space for any flexibility 
in identity. And flexibility was 
what I needed when labels felt so 
suffocating. 

But even though that long list 

of sequentially-liked Gay Girl™ 
songs felt affirming, it wasn’t 
what I had always listened to. It 
was a freeing and exhilarating 
experience to sing “girls” by girl 
in red with the windows down 
in my mom’s car, driving along-

side New Jersey farmlands. I felt 
seen by the longing Queer angst 
of “Ain’t Together” by King Prin-
cess. These all felt like me. But 
One Direction’s (albeit, strangely 
Queer coded) “They Don’t Know 
About Us” felt like me too. So 
did “Hey Stephen (Taylor’s Ver-
sion).” I wanted to feel unified, 
not like there were disparate 
parts of me separated into dispa-
rate Spotify playlists. 

But then there were two 

things: 
former 
1Der 
Harry 

Styles’s Fine Line and Taylor 
Swift’s re-records. First, Styles 
was morphing seamlessly from 
boybander to rainbow-adorned 
popstar. After One Direction 
disbanded in 2015 and with 
the release of his debut self-
titled solo album in 2017, Styles 
began coming into his own as 
a star. With 2019’s Fine Line, 
he embraced a campy, colorful 
musical and visual aesthetic. 
His songs used overwhelmingly 
gender-neutral 
pronouns. 
He 

released “Lights Up” on National 
Coming Out Day, complete with a 
music video featuring a shirtless 
Styles being touched by people of 
all genders. “Treat People With 
Kindness” is an explosion of joy 
and love that feels unequivocally 
Queer. Styles himself refuses to 
label his own sexuality, in a free-
ing expression of flexible sexual-
ity that felt freeing for me — he 
could feel comfortable in his own 
skin without putting a label on 
that feeling for anyone else.

Taylor Swift, too, was reclaim-

ing her old self and transforming 
it into something both entirely 
new and sweetly nostalgic. She 

released sister albums folklore 
and evermore several months 
apart in 2020, leaning strongly 
into the indie/folk genre and 
steering away from her previous 
pure-pop persona. On folklore, 
Swift sings “betty” near the end 
of the album, a song about a girl 
that uses feminine pronouns — 
one that still makes me shed a 
little gay tear if I’m in the right 
mood. After her indie-girl pivot, 
she began re-recording her old 
albums in order to take back con-
trol of her masters from Scooter 
Braun. The re-records include 
tracks “From the Vault,” which 
are songs that didn’t make their 
original 
albums, 
and 
recre-

ate album covers in a way that 
is tactfully reminiscent of the 
original covers without being 
direct copies. Each song includes 
a (somewhat cheeky, very cute) 
“(Taylor’s Version)” addendum 
after every track title on her re-
recorded albums. Swift stays 
faithful to the soundtrack of my 
youth while still feeling true to 
who she is now, years later. 

Both Styles and Swift claim 

their past proudly; Styles con-
sistently sings “What Makes 
You Beautiful” on tour and Swift 
faithfully re-records every song 
she put out when she was 18. 
There was room in both of these 
childhood playlist staples to 
grow into someone with a more 
flexible and informed identity, 
and I could grow with them. If 
Harry Styles still sings his big 
One Direction hit on stage with a 
pride flag around his shoulders, 
why shouldn’t I enjoy a little 
“Midnight Memories”? If Taylor 
Swift didn’t think it was embar-
rassing 
to 
re-record 
“White 

Horse,” why shouldn’t I listen 
to it to get a little weepy? There 
was room for me, all of me, on my 
playlist of music, both past and 
present.

Design by Jennie Vang

 KATRINA STEBBINS

Senior Arts Editor

 EMILIA FERRANTE

Senior Arts Editor

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Joe Deeney
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/13/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

04/13/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2022

ACROSS


McVay, youngest 
head coach to win 
the Super Bowl

5 Fly high
9 Old NCAA 

football ranking 
sys.

12 Regarding
14 Coagulate
15 Test format with 

options

18 Grassland
19 Using pointe 

shoes


around

21 Dojo move
24 Card game 

requirement, 
maybe

27 Farm female
28 Roman who 

defeated 
Hannibal

31 Triage areas: 

Abbr.

33 Bat specialty, and 

what you need to 
find in four long 
answers

38 Name in “Kill Bill” 

credits

39 Military jeep 

successor

41 Aid for the lost

around here, 
briefly

46 Lowly worker
47 Nocturnal bird 

that woke up 
Vinny in “My 
Cousin Vinny”

52 As is fitting
55 Cocoa butter 

confection

59 Sell on the street
60 Series finale: 

Abbr.

 

ramparts ... ”

62 Dire March time
63 Slithery 

swimmers

DOWN

1 Longtime Agassi 

rival

2 Online GEICO 

alternative

5 Photo tint
6 Persian Gulf ships
7 Word shortened 

to its middle 
letter, in texts


10 Protective 

covering

11 So inclined?
14 Large sea snail
16 Bug

implement

22 Jack Ryan 

portrayer before 
Harrison

23 Holy scroll
25 Book after 

Galatians: Abbr.

29 Chit
30 Ancient 

Mesoamerican

32 Guy found 

running through 
the alphabet?

34 Court recitation
35 Little terror
36 Give credit 

due

37 Like early 

childcare

40 Glossy coats
41 “Scorpion” 


42 More pretentious
43 Pummels with 

snowballs

45 “Us, too”
47 Handled
48 Watch closely

supply

50 Mekong Valley 

language

54 Musical series 

set at McKinley 
High

56 City with two MLB 

teams

57 Possessed

SUDOKU

7
8

2
4

4
9

6
7
5

5
1

7
2

4

7

1
6

2
8

4

6

9

1

7
1

9
2

3
5
6

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

1 of 1
2/12/09 12:08 PM

WHISPER

“The UGLI has 
been especially 
UGLY recent-
ly...”

“Final push of 
the year! Good 
luck!”

WHISPER

By Julian Lim
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/06/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

04/06/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2022

ACROSS

1 Bank security 

device, briefly

5 Aim high

10 Harvest
14 “Fancy meeting 

you here!”

15 Vital vessel
16 Semi bar
18 Shoulder warmer
19 Table parts
20 Region on the 

South China Sea

22 Members with 

unflinching 
loyalty


wife on “Dallas”

27 Maximum
28 HHS agency
29 Exchange need
32 12-Down output
33 “No problem!”
35 ER skill practiced 

on a doll

36 Pet-adoption ads, 

briefly

38 Part of MB
41 Text recipient
44 Tattoo parlor 

supplies


partner, in verse

47 One with many 

limbs

48 Facebook 

barrage, at times

50 Unconscious
53 “Srsly?!”
54 Media-monitoring 

org.

55 “Up First” 

network

56 Flu fighter
58 Emotionally break 

down


hot!”

64 Bicolor cookie
65 Dinnertime 

draws

67 Italian tower city
68 End of the line
69 Burning again
70 Column in math
71 Risk it
72 Walk heavily
73 Pursue

DOWN

1 Micro- ending

break


out”

4 Author Gore
5 Fun time, in slang
6 Fireworks cries
8 Formal 

confession

9 Predictors 

of most 
20th-century 
U.S. presidential 
elections


nickname

11 Workout 

suggested by the 
circled letters and 
their orientation

12 Pub dispenser
13 Pampering spot 

for cats and dogs

21 Above, in poems
23 Dampens
28 Winter mo.
30 Bookkeeping pro
31 Triage MD
34 Craving


put on

40 28-Down number
42 “I wanna look!”
43 Thanksgiving 

dinner choice


own

49 Georgetown 

Univ. locale

51 Wall Street 

regular

52 Ph.D., e.g.
57 Targets for 

towers

59 Mythology
60 Caramel-

centered treat

61 Request at the 

barbershop

63 Render indistinct, 

as an odor

66 Longtime 

NASCAR 
sponsor

 AVA BURZYCKI

Daily Arts Writer 

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

“Music is 
obviously 
crucial to a 

lot of personal 
moments and 
revelations, so 
it’s not like this 
was special.”

“There was no 
space for any 
identity. And 
what I needed 
when labels felt 
so suffocating.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

