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morningtide 's review for:
The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture
by Grace Perry
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I saw this book in the pride display at The Strand bookstore when I was visiting my friend and I was like "Ohhh, the 2000s, might as well check that out! (And then borrowed the book from my library.)
It's true, it's a very niche book. I am only slightly younger than the author (and Taylor Swift) by around half a year. I definitely kept finding myself thinking "Were we this young when that media was released?? We were this old???" I was very familiar with maybe about half of the media talked about in detail in this book, most of which I interacted with when it was released, but the other half applied enough in the sense that even if I wasn't familiar with it myself I remember people around me being really into it and hearing about it often enough to know its impact.
My pull to this book was basically that I had been thinking a lot about how different representation for queer people was in the aughts (In my graduating class of over 600 kids in a "blue state" I recall there being one kid actually out of the closet) versus seeing the teens I worked with in 2018-2020 be so comfortable with being who they were and so open about it. Sometimes I forget what things were like then and what they're like now. Sometimes I remember and am glad younger kids experienced a slightly less hateful childhood.
It's true, it's a very niche book. I am only slightly younger than the author (and Taylor Swift) by around half a year. I definitely kept finding myself thinking "Were we this young when that media was released?? We were this old???" I was very familiar with maybe about half of the media talked about in detail in this book, most of which I interacted with when it was released, but the other half applied enough in the sense that even if I wasn't familiar with it myself I remember people around me being really into it and hearing about it often enough to know its impact.
My pull to this book was basically that I had been thinking a lot about how different representation for queer people was in the aughts (In my graduating class of over 600 kids in a "blue state" I recall there being one kid actually out of the closet) versus seeing the teens I worked with in 2018-2020 be so comfortable with being who they were and so open about it. Sometimes I forget what things were like then and what they're like now. Sometimes I remember and am glad younger kids experienced a slightly less hateful childhood.
But homophobia seeped into my bones and stuck there, invisible and gross, for years. I still find gobs of it in my marrow to this day.
In the closing essay, Perry talks about noticing those differences and seeing the changes that have been made and feeling like we won something, but then worrying how quickly it could disappear and questioning, what if those assholes were right? This hurt a little extra hard when I'm finishing up this book the day after Roe V. Wade has been overturned and mentions of Obergefell v. Hodges being reconsidered along with others
it’s not about things getting better in any linear fashion but holding a painful past and an optimistic future together, one in each hand, at the same time.
But yeah, for me, this book was very relatable. I loved the way the it discussed looking at media we enjoyed in the past and understanding it's flaws while knowing it had issues as well. Mean Girls, Glee, Ellen, everything else that felt groundbreaking then is so easy to look back and say "yikes!" but it doesn't mean they didn't have their power too.
But the point still stands—ruining what we loved in adolescence is saddening and needlessly judgmental of our younger selves. It’s a futile exercise meant only to flex our contemporary understanding of what’s good and what’s not.
When we say a movie doesn’t “hold up” today, what we’re really saying is that, assuming we loved it at the time, we’ve changed—the audience has evolved, our shared values and understanding of what’s okay and what’s not has shifted.