Olen niin suomalainen, että sattuu

The Thing About Harry (2020)

Harry telling Sam he’s pan

so glad i have an excuse to rant about this on here now lmao. the movie charmed the fuck out of me and harry is a chaotic pansexual disaster who we stan!!!

for those whose haven’t seen it, harry says:

“i’m pan. it means i don’t have preference in terms of gender. i used to call myself bi, but someone schooled me that pan is way more inclusive and also honestly just more….me.”

he then goes on to worry about being a pan stereotype:

“i felt like i was playing into the whole pan stereotype. that we, you know….get around. i’m just looking for mr., mrs., person right.”

the way he says “and also honestly just more…me” is really great because labels are personal and it’s not all about technical definitions and which one is “better”, it’s more often than not just feeling connected to the label. plus, the way he says it makes me think he cared more about clicking with pan in a way he didn’t with bi, than its supposed inclusivity.

and pan characters talking about pan stereotypes? sign me up! his whole “mr, mrs, person” thing was super cute and actually covered the “all” aspect of pan and the fact that not everyone is a mr or mrs.

is the more inclusive line inaccurate, tired, and biphobic? yeah. but harry is a pansexual male character in a new-adult m/m romcom (written/directed by and starring queer folks) who uses the word onscreen within the first like ten minutes and discusses pan stereotypes, and was written as pan to reflect this generation’s way of thinking about sexuality, which the writer/director found different from his own generation. that’s all super important.

and that importance isn’t negated by one line. should it have not made the cut? of course. but it did and it’s been called out and that’s literally all there is to do about it. there are people acting like the movie or rep or pansexuality is complete trash because of that line, and honestly? that’s super shitty and panphobic.

people praise the fuck out of other movies/shows that have imperfect queer rep, but yet again, we’re showed that if pan rep missteps even in the slightest way, it’s written off completely. everyone immediately jumped on this line for being biphobic, but everyone has been praising sex education despite the shitty cookware line when a character comes out as pan.

people continue to show that biphobia is horrible and deserves to be called out and can ruin queer rep entirely, but panphobia doesn’t even make it on their radar. even with big mouth, very few people mentioned how that scene was panphobic, too. not just biphobic and transphobic.

people need to stop holding pan rep to a higher standard than other queer rep. if pan rep can be written off as trash or have the shitty elements of it outweigh the good/importance of it, then the same has to be true for all queer rep, otherwise your panphobia is showing.

like, let pan folks enjoy and appreciate and be happy about pan rep, even if it isn’t flawless. we don’t have a lot of rep like this, and expecting us to hate it because it isn’t perfect, or care more about the fact that it isn’t perfect than the importance it has to us, isn’t fair or realistic. we can address the issues of queer rep while still appreciating it.

someone agrees!!!! bless!!!! it’s like……you’d be hard pressed to find queer rep that is without flaws, or queer rep from a show/movie/etc. that is without flaws. but the internet tosses pan rep in the trash every single time it isn’t perfect. i’m tired.

idk, just Finnish language songs with different vibes about gender for all your pride needs, to finish this month off.

Dilemma and Turvallinen mies (A safe man) is a must on this playlist. In the song, the singer discusses the narrow idea of masculinity they grew up with and the need to grow and rebel against it. Works very well with both his style as a rapper and the more guitar heavy sound of the song. I also love his look in the music video.

Then we have Bämä and Jumala on muija (God is a chick). The song over all discusses gendered expectations and how women are easily the target of harrassment over things men never get called out for. Simultaneously it uses Christian ideas and language to highlight the hypocrisy. Aren’t women too made in the image of God? The highlight of the song is spoken word bridge, performed by Marja-Sisko Aalto, Finland’s first openly transgender priest when she came out in 2008 while in position as the Vicar of Imatra. Such a good feature for the song, and the lyrics are amazing.

Ibe also gets to be in this list with Lohikäärme (Dragon). It is, admittedly, a really queer song. That was my first impression of it. It discusses the pretenses of fitting in, feeling like an outsider, trying to discover yourself and more importantly, trying to accept yourself in a world that doesn’t accept you. Simultaneously it holds quite many mundane descriptions of masculinity.

Ooppera (Chef's kiss) by Senya goes here as well. Over all the Crash out album is a crash out, showing the highest highs and lowest lows and the rapid swing between them. Particularly enjoy this take on a glow up and finding your way, with the singer describing an idealized version of themself and finding their way to it, going from "a completely different guy" to the trap queen she calls Cece. Over all, Senya had a very different way of describing her femininity, that is more in line with the expectation of a tough guy rapper, without ever compromising on being a woman and a very girly one at that at times.

Next, I’d say Veronica by Emma & Matilda. There is something deeply difficult about wishing you were that woman. Wishing you were effortlessly feminine, that no one ever doubted you, that your life could be the dream you see others living.

One that always makes me feel a bit queer about my gender and life is Tavikset (normies) by Happoradio. The song is about what normal people are supposed to want and expected to get in their lives, while the singer considerd their own mixed feelings on achieving these things. The song manages to hit the nail on the head of wanting normal, yet feeling out if place within it.

Porridge blueberries   -  Teija Lehto, 2012.

Finnish, b. 1965 -

e.g. Ilmarinen is said to have forged the heaven and wrought the air's foundations, Väinämöinen was born from a continuous act of creation with the sun, moon, and stars, but later on, they're both very human. They're said to be brothers at one point, but later on aren't

Like, one way to play with this idea is to have explicit, like, forces of creation acting on the primordial world, but to inhabit it you have to shrink yourself, give up the things that made you able to shape it. When the work is done, you die as mortals

As primordial spirits, you were all kin to each other. As mortals, you aren't, you have new kin now, among the mortals

Midnight sunset season in Finland & my photobomber, Togepi