Your Local Lesbian

Oh Nothing much just a playlist with songs that has (mostly) the feeling of Emily Prentiss looking at Jennifer after her saying “it gives me…. You!”

Even in the office JJ will take a secret glance at Emily.

I mean I love the show but it’s more than just about crime and profiling. This show is nothing without the characters.

“That lacy black pair with the little bows

The ones I picked out for you in a store near Quantico” - Emily Prentiss ;)

For many queer people dressing have been a way of communicating with each other and been vital for finding your people.

So let’s look at the queer coding within Prentiss’ fashion.

Youth:

We find out through Garcia, that Emily dressed in the goth aesthetic in high school.

For a long time the goth image have been linked with the queer community since it doesn’t comply with the majority in terms of gender expression.

Emily being goth explains to the viewer that Emily probably shared views with the goth/emo/punk community since they are all linked.

In “uniform”:

When working for the FBI one have to dress a certain way, however rebellious people always seem to find a way to display their personality through small things they add to their uniform.

THE DARK MAKE UP

Once we meet Prentiss it doesn’t take long for her to express herself through among other things her makeup. Compared to the other women Emily’s makeup in the earlier season seem way darker. This can be a bit of crumbs from her goth youth.

OFF CENTER BELT

Through out most seasons Emily is spotted wearing her belt pushed to her right side. This can be interpreted as a way of breaking the heteronormativity of the man dominated society that is the FBI.

If you really lean into the queerness of Prentiss you can add the flagging of carabiners to this. Since she is often in the field and therefore cannot risk hanging on to stuff a carabiner wouldn’t be suitable for her work, yet a belt buckle pushed to the side could be Emily’s way of flagging.

CARGO PANTS

Emily is seen wearing cargo pants multiple times when in the field. And cargo pants have for a long time been used by people working in blue collar jobs, and of obvious reasons it has through time mostly been a pant used buy men and can therefore be seen as a more masculine piece along side the loose fit that can hide feminine curves.

MILITARY BOOTS

With her cargo pants Emily always wears her black leather military boots. The shoe brand Doc Matins have for a long time been a must have in a queer wardrobe. The thick boot that Emily wears can therefore very easily be associated with the queer flagging of doc martins.

CUFFED PANTS

In the newest season in episode 6 (message in a bottle) we get to see Emily in her casual wear. A used fbi sweater and loose fitting jeans, taking a closer look upon the jeans we can easily see that her jeans are cuffed.

This is among queer people a stereotypical fashion statement of (mostly) bisexual people.

Emily Prentiss was written to be a lesbian but the idea was sacked by CBS, this is a known fact but let’s look at some obvious queer coding of Emily Prentiss in the actual text.

Season 2:

Honor among thieves

“Why do we always have to end up in an interrogation?”

Season 2:

No way out part 2: the evolution of Frank

“You don’t choose who you fall in love with”

Season 3:

Doubt

JJ “all I remember is trying to figure out who I was”

Em “move around enough you get used to being who ever people want you to be”

Season 4:

Demonology

“We moved around a lot when I was a kid, because of my mom’s postings. It was hard to get excepted. When you’re 15 that’s all you want, you’ll do almost anything!”

Honorable mentions

Season 4

Mayhem

“I’m not most people”

Season 4

52 pick up

*on the phone with Hotch*

Garcia “he ACTUALLY said that? …. To Prentiss”

Season 5

A thousand words

“Derek, I have tremendous amount of respect for you, but there are some questions, that if you have to ask them it means you probably couldn’t handle the answer.”

Derek: “there is a whole ‘nother side to that woman!”

Now all of these lines are from non explicit queer scenes and can therefore be interpreted differently, however the subtext of all of these lines is that she got used to being who people wanted her to be, so hiding her true self. And every time someone try to get to know her private side she avoids it, including her own mother. Seeing Cm through a queer perspective this paints a picture of a closeted Emily Prentiss who tries her hardest to let people she care about in, but still being afraid to be truly herself.