Issue #04: Squid Game, Sort Of, and The Shakespears Sisters
My take on the hit Netflix show, how I found myself through a tv character, and what the hell is up with Jamie Lynn and Britney?
Squid Game - Red Light or Green Light?
Gay culture made me watch Squid Game. The 1 million memes of that sinister “Red Light, Green Light” robot girl in various Drag Race situations made me watch all nine episodes of this damn show in 72 hours. And guess what? It’s not even gay.
I’m sure that most of you have seen the show by now but for those who haven’t here is a quick summary: Squid Game is a Netflix South Korean thriller/drama in which desperate people are selected to participate in a series of staged playground games voluntarily. Losers of the games are eliminated via execution. The sole survivor of the games wins an enormous cash prize. It’s violent, psychologically thrilling, and it is the #1 show on Netflix in 90 countries.
People have been asking me if they should watch it. Well, here’s the thing, I’m not entirely sure. In the spirit of the show here are my reasons for pressing the green button for “watch the show” and my reasons for pressing the red button for “don’t bother”.
🟢
It’s a captivating allegory of the brutality of modern capitalism. My theory is that it resonates with a global audience right now because we are collectively living through a pandemic. The grip that capitalism has on all of us is more evident than ever before. Many of us have just grappled in a big way with the biggest questions of our lives. Am I just a number? Will my life be eliminated? Will my friends and family compromise my health and wellness to get what they want? Will I do the same? Can I trust anyone? Will the mega-rich really sit idly by while watching the working class and those living in poverty die? If we didn't know the answers to those questions before we certainly know them now. Squid Game inevitably reflects those answers back to us whether we want to revisit them or not.
The acting is impressive. I do not speak South Korean, so I had to rely on subtitles to understand the plot, but the actors’ facial expressions told me the real story. The range of emotions conveyed by all of the actors, particularly Lee Jung-jae (Gi-Hun, #456), Yeong-su Oh (Il-nam, #001) and HoYeon Jung (Sae-Byeok, #067)), would all give Norma Desmond a run for her money. I might be the only person on earth who heard the lyrics to “With One Look” from Sunset Boulevard while watching Squid Game but I am who I am.
It’s a nail-biter. Even though the plot became a bit convoluted over time I kept watching simply to see who won.
There is some queer-coding. I didn’t see it, but the internet did. There are millions of fans who saw the brief interactions between Sae-Byeok and Ji-yeong as sapphic. An equal amount of viewers drew a gay storyline around Sang-Woo and Abdul Ali. Fan art ensued.
🔴
I didn’t need graphic violence, executions, organ retrieval, or brutal beastly murders. Byeeee.
I hated the organized sports vibe. Classmates always picked me last for teams in gym class, and I was always the #1 target in Dodge Ball, so the sportiness, the team spirit, and the games themselves were the absolute darkness of this show for me. These aspects were more triggering to me than the executions. I’ll talk to my therapist later; thank you very much.
I’m generally scared of masks (except the one worn by The Phantom Of The Opera). There were too many masks in this show. I could deal with Front Man’s black mask because I somehow became used to Darth Vader’s mask in my formative years. However, all of the other masks worn by the soldiers and the VIPs were too much. If you share this mask phobia, this show might not be for you. If you don’t share this mask phobia, let’s never speak of my admission again.
My baffling, out-of-character Star Wars knowledge ruined some things for me, and so it might ruin some things for you too. Let’s just say that some of the storyline was a bit familiar.
There is an unnecessary same-sex sexual assault scene. Puhleeze. The old-white-rich-gay-predator trope is just too much for me. Gross. Cancel.
I wanted this show to end wrapped up as tight as one of those black coffins with a large pink bow on top, but it did not. Instead, the remaining characters have multiple unresolved issues, and the plot pushes them forward into an inevitable Season 2.
The above airing of my likes and dislikes leads me to conclude that if I could do it all over again, I would press the red button for “don’t bother.” If I were a character in Squid Game, where there is no tolerance for diatribes, I would surely be dead. Executed. Done.
You still have your choice, though. Press 🟢 or 🔴 to see if the odds are in your favour.
Sort Of Finding My Way
Some people think that I consume media to escape the real world. The truth is that I often turn to media in the hopes of finding characters and situations that I can relate to when I feel very disconnected from the real world.
This connection has never been as profound as it was last week when I tuned in to watch the new CBC series, Sort Of. One of the first scenes shows Sabi, a gender-fluid nanny, walking with the two children in their care on a sidewalk in Toronto. I immediately recognized the sidewalk and surroundings as being in my neighbourhood, where I can often be found walking with my niece and nephew. This ignited my connection to Sabi’s character and the situations they find themselves in.
Sort Of is an eight-episode series written on the premise that we are all in transition in various ways in our different lives. It is the co-creation of Bilal Baig, a queer, South Asian, trans-feminine actor/writer, and Fab Filippo, a straight, cisgender, white male actor and director who collaborated after building a friendship during a theatrical project. The show centres on Sabi, the first non-binary lead character on Canadian tv, their connection to the family they work for, their social and romantic relationships, their familial relationships, their culture and their relationship with themselves.
While Sabi seems unsure of themselves and asks questions about their place in the world, it is abundantly clear that other people see Sabi as a central figure in theirs. Their employers, their employer’s children, their best friend, their ex-boyfriend, and their mother seek Sabi’s companionship, love and attention. Not all of these people have a full understsanding of Sabi’s gender identity or expression but they all have one thing in common - they do love Sabi.
Sabi tries to hide their true gender expression from their mother, who continues to have traditional Pakistani and Muslim expectations around Sabi’s gender presentation, gender roles and career choices. In some ways, I am like Sabi. We do not share racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds, but I was raised in a tight-knit Christian community where everything is very prescribed. So many people in my life are straight and cisgender, and they lead very traditional lives. I am queer and gender non-conforming, and I’m in constant search of ways to express myself, be seen, be validated, and be free. I am surrounded by friends and family who love me so hard, even though they don’t always get me. Sometimes I want to pull away from them so that my own identity isn’t swallowed up by who I think they want me to be.
I watched Sabi give up the opportunity to move to Berlin with their best friend to help care for a heteronormative family, and a part of me screamed, “Don’t sacrifice your life for theirs! Go! Live your life!” This sentiment is echoed throughout the show by Sabi’s best friend, sister, and mother, encouraging them to live their life. But Sabi chooses to stay and, over the course of the eight episodes, we see Sabi maintaining tight social and familial connections while making room for more of themselves through gender and sexual expression.
Through Sabi, I see a working blueprint for navigating my own life - one that consists of connections with others who don’t share or even understand my queerness or my experiences of gender. I do know that I am wanted. I do know that I am loved. So I need to find ways to be with others while simultaneously making more room for myself—sort of like Sabi.
Sort Of is streaming on CBC Gem and is coming to HBO Max soon!
The Shakespears Sisters
The tragedy of the Spears family is Shakespearean, but I don’t think that anyone predicted that some of the saga would be centred around literature.
In the past week, both Britney Spears and her estranged sister, Jamie Lynn, have taken to social media to let fans know that they intend to publish books. In an Instagram post Britney wrote about wanting to write a story “about a girl who was murdered…yet her ghost gets stuck in limbo because of trauma and pain, and she doesn’t know how to cross over to the world she used to know!!!” Jamie Lynn also posted on Instagram letting her followers know that she has just finished writing a book.
While Britney’s publishing career is currently in her imagination, Jamie Lynn’s book deal is very real. She is set to release her memoir, “Things I Should Have Said,” in January 2022. Jamie Lynn started writing this book in 2017 after her daughter survived a life-or-death ATV accident. The book includes Jamie Lynn’s thoughts about her childhood, her own fame, and her family life. Jamie Lynn’s Instagram post included her thoughts about why she needed to write the book:
"I've spent my whole life believing that I had to pretend to be perfect, even when I wasn't, so for the first time I am opening up about my own mental health, because this process challenged me to have to be painfully honest with myself, and face a lot of hard things, that I normally would have just glossed right over, like I was taught to."
Okaaaay. Any other reasons?
"I owe it to myself, my younger self, and to my daughters to be an example that you should never edit yourself or your truth to please anyone else. I know I still have A LOT of learning to do, but I feel like finishing this book gave me closure on this '30-year-long' chapter of my life, and hopefully helps anyone else out there who forgot their worth, lost their voice, or is trying to break an unhealthy cycle in their life."
This would all be fiiiine if we hadn’t read the other volumes in this saga. Until recently many Britney Spears fans thought that Jamie Lynn was one of her closest allies and supporters. There are many documented shared public appearances and private visits (as recent as 2020) between the sisters. But in very recent months, Britney has been making public statements and Instagram posts indicating that family members, including Jamie Lynn, have not supported her. For example, a Jul 17 Instagram post reads as follows:
“I don't like that my sister showed up at an awards show and performed MY SONGS to remixes!!!!! My so-called support system hurt me deeply.”
Shortly after Britney’s post, Jamie Lynn posted a selfie with the caption, “May the peace of the Lord be with you.” Britney then posted a video on Instagram with a caption that read, “May the Lord wrap your mean ass up in joy today.” The pen really is mightier than the sword! Both captions have since been removed but their words live on in social media lore.
Fans have rallied behind Britney and are suspicious that Jamie Lynn has been quietly profiting from Britney’s estate for the past 13 years while her sister has been under a conservatorship. Jamie Lynn’s original book title was “I Must Confess: Family, Fame and Figuring It Out,” a line from the chorus of Britney’s 1998 debut single, “…Baby One More Time”. Britney’s fans caught wind of this and accused Jamie Lynn of using the title as another way to capitalize on Britney’s work. Worthy, Jamie Lynn’s faith-based publisher, attempted to do damage control by stating that the memoir was yet unnamed as it was still “a work in progress.”
The change to Jamie Lynn’s book title did not seem to go unnoticed by Britney. On Oct 12, Britney posted on Instagram with a caption that read, “I’m thinking of releasing a book 📚 next year 😜 but I’m having issues coming up with a title, so maybe my fans could help !!!!” Was this some shade, Britney?!?
I don’t blame Britney at all for throwing some shade when and where she can. I also do not doubt that Jamie Lynn has struggled with her own mental health. The same parents raised her as Britney, and she likely encountered many of the same challenges as a young actor and pop star. It also sounds like she has faced some difficult things as an adult and as a parent. BUT reading Jamie Lynn’s statements about the importance of caring for personal mental health, remembering individual worth and finding a voice while Britney is literally fighting for her personal and financial autonomy is cruel to the point of being almost deadly. Jamie Lynn might as well have handed Britney a chalice filled with poison. Thankfully Britney is using humour as a coping mechanism and has seemingly thrown the contents of that poisoned chalice right back in Jamie Lynn’s face.
Things I Should Have Said? Methinks it’s a bit too late for that shit, Jamie Lynn. Read the room. 👀 I won’t be reading your book. 📖❌
p.s. The surest way to find out how bad the blood is between two rivals is to see if they follow each other on Instagram. Britney and Jamie Lynn do.
I ran the gamut this week, friends! Phew! The next issue of Obsessed! comes out on Thurs, Oct 21.
Until then…happy obsessing!!!
xoxo Bex