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Y2K Movies That Made Us Gay

From the ice bath scene in Stick It to the Disney Channel original Motocrossed, here are the queercoded Y2K movies that live in the lesbian hall of fame.

Culture
Y2K Movies That Made Us Gay

In the infamous words of disciplinarian Mary Brown in the cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader, each queer person has a “root.” A sudden revelation. An unexpected crush. That moment you realize, “Uh oh, what if I’m not straight?” While Gen Zers may have avoided the pressure that “straight” is the default setting, millennials and up were mostly met with a “rude awakening” sometime in their adolescence. Without many openly queer characters in the media, these so-called “roots” were often just as sublimated as the feelings they inspired. Enter: queercoding.

Before gay characters went mainstream with primetime shows like Will & Grace, depictions of queerness were under the thumb of bureaucratic “morality” laws. Throughout the twentieth century, filmmakers evaded restrictions on depicting homosexuality by queercoding certain characters, which manifest in archetypes we still recognize to this day: the dandy bachelor, the sissy villain, the sycophantic handmaiden (and many more). These characters could evoke LGBT stereotypes that were legible to the audience (especially queer viewers), but evaded the strict censorship rules. Although formal regulations were largely abandoned by the end of the 60s, and we’ve seen countless openly gay characters on screen in the last 30 years, the LBGTQ+ community still possesses razor-sharp media literacy when it comes to coded queerness. Why would the queer community embrace characters based on (oftentimes unflattering) stereotypes? Because, for a long time, that’s all we had. They might not be perfect, but they’re ours.

Let’s take a look at the “queercoded” characters that quickly became the “iykyk” fan favorites for a generation of queer women/femmes. Ranging from Shego in Kim Possible to gender-bending “Andy” in Disney Channel Original Motocrossed, here is a list of the top 9 characters that live in the pantheon of sapphic icons.

Stick It (2006)

If you mention Stick It to any queer woman/ femme, they will reflexively say “the ice bath scene,” followed by a thousand-yard stare. Played by Missy Peregrym, Stick It’s protagonist Haley is sentenced to rejoin an elite gymnastics academy after getting arrested for some punk-rock skateboarding stunts. With her tomboy style, whip-smart sarcasm, and anti-trad attitude, she is the Y2K incarnation of a “queercoded” character. Extra points to director Jessica Bendinger for not forcing a slapdash romance with one of Haley’s skater-dude friends.

Matilda (1996)

With a special alchemy of cottage-core aesthetics and the queer impulse to befriend your art teacher, Miss Honey embodies core tenants of sapphic culture. Played by Embeth Davidtz in the Danny DeVito-directed film based on the titular Roald Dahl book, Miss Honey is an oasis of compassion for young Matilda whose family overlooks her talent and intelligence. What is easily translated to an allegory of queer youth being rejected by their families of origin, Miss Honey was an “It Gets Better” campaign all on her own.

Kim Possible (2002-2007)

In the cinema canon, it is often the villains that are queercoded, and Shego is no exception. As the sarcastic, brunette counterpart to the eponymous altruistic cheerleader, Shego and Kim had undeniable “opposites attract” chemistry that often culminated in acrobatic brawls. Shego’s lore states that after she and her three brothers were hit by a rainbow (hello!) comet, they developed special powers that they used to fight evil. After some time, Shego found herself seduced by the “dark side”—an allegory for sexuality, one could posit—and becomes the sidekick to the evil Dr. Drakken. If you don’t believe me, google “Shego lesbian fanfiction” and you’ll see I’m not alone here.

Motocrossed (2001)

As a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, our motocross-obsessed protagonist Andrea goes undercover in drag to replace her injured twin brother in a race. After a very Y2K haircut and a hypebeast-y amount of Fox racing gear, Andy proves‚—in a very Disney-Channel-original way—that girls can do anything boys can do, and often do them better. Whenever you’re dealing with a girl in drag, all love interest plotlines are inherently queer. If Motocrossed was your favorite Disney original, you are definitely on the higher end of the Kinsey scale.

Blue Crush (2002)

The film follows a group of three friends who share a singular passion: surfing Hawaii’s North Shore. String bikinis, puka shell necklaces, and an unruly amount of Billabong—this movie defined the early-aught tomboy aesthetic. As the protagonist Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) falls for quarterback Matt, her friends fear she is being derailed from her goals of competing in the Pipeline Masters. Her protective friend Eden (played by queer icon Michelle Rodriguez, wearing board shorts—ahem) confronts her about wasting time with a boy and losing sight of her professional surfing goals. Doesn’t take an academic to unravel that queercoding.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

By this point in the list-making, I’m realizing most of these films are going to be about plucky girls who love traditionally masculine sports. The story centers around Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), the daughter of British Indian Punjabi Sikhs who object to her unladylike preoccupation with soccer. She joins a soccer team without telling her parents and befriends the short hair, sports-bra-wearing Jules (Kiera Knightley). They have an intimate friendship muddied by a shared crush on their beard coach. Fights for the acceptance of family, bouts of jealousy, and countless Adidas tracksuits—the sapphic chemistry between Jess and Jules is so overt the queerness can hardly be considered coded. Even Kiera Knightly said in an interview that Jess and Jules should’ve ended up together in the end.

Cruel Intentions (1999)

Some actors live in the queer canon, and Sarah Michelle Gellar earned her stripes with Buffy. At the peak of her Buffy fame, Gellar starred alongside Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, and Selma Blair in the raunchy teenaged reimagining of the 1782 French novel Dangerous Liaisons. With a plot that centers around two devious Manhattan step-siblings with a vicious bet to deflower the headmistress's daughter before the start of term, this psycho-sexual film is a cross between Gossip Girl and a high-camp Shakespearean farce. In their tangled web of manipulation, Gellar’s Kathryn is instructing a soon-to-be-freshman Cecile (Selma Blair) to be as promiscuous as possible to sabotage her chances with an old flame. In one scene Kathryn teaches a naive Cecile how to go to first base–for young queers in the audience, their reaction echoed Cecile’s final words in the scene: “That was cool.”

Agent Dana Scully—X Files (1993-2002)

Second maybe only to Cate Blanchett, Gillian Anderson is one of those actors that lesbians have adopted as one of their gods. In particular, her personification of Agent Dana Scully in the X Files spurned a gay awakening so ubiquitous among queer women that there have been academic papers written about it. Although Dana Scully is heterosexual and there are no LGBTQ characters in the series, the no-nonsense red-head FBI agent is undoubtedly a lesbian icon. Maybe it's Anderson's off-screen charisma, the fringe appeal to sci-fi fandoms, or maybe it’s just the suits. Regardless, Scully is forever in the lesbian pantheon.

Coyote Ugly (1998)

If you talk to any millennial lesbian, this movie was a game changer. Piper Perabo stars as small-town, aspiring songwriter Violet who moves to the big apple and works at a bar named Coyote Ugly. The plot is predictable and the romance between Perabo and her love interest is tepid and forgettable, but this movie delivers in spades in one department: the dance sequences. With a cast of Tyra Banks, Maria Bello, Izabella Miko, and Bridget Moynahan, the dancers–called “Coyotes”–train the bashful Violet to razz male patrons, dance in leather pants on the bar top, and in so many words–serve c*nt. Does Violet learn to toss a bottle and find the courage to sing? Sure, but that’s beside the point. When you see a girl in leather pants dumping a bucket of ice on the head of a man who grabs her leg—now that’s cinema!

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