Gays and lesbians often project their own experiences onto the experiences of characters in non-queer-themed televisions shows or films. Reading queer subtext into television shows or films that probably weren't intended to contain queer subtext is especially easy when such shows or films involve characters who, by no fault of their own, were born with or somehow acquired superhuman abilities.

Mainstream society feels threatened by these individuals, treats them as "the other" and persecutes them, often by passing laws that discriminate against them. For example, for most of Heroes, Nathan Petrelli chose to hide his ability to fly so he could blend in with the rest of society, even initially denying that he had the ability to fly.

When Petrelli finally scheduled a press conference to make his ability known to the public, hetero viewers probably thought, "Wow, do you think he will levitate in the middle of the press conference? That would be cool!"

Queer viewers probably thought, "Nathan Petrelli is about to come out of the closet to the public! His mom is going to flip out!" (And how many of those queers gasped when he was shot before he could make the statement, believing that he must have been shot by an anti-superhuman extremist or a self-hating queer — excuse me — a self-hating superhuman, who was afraid of the repercussions of revealing the existence of superhumans to the public?)

Another example is The Incredibles, where the government regulates the behavior of superheroes. Any objective interpretation of The Incredibles would reveal absolutely no queer subtext whatsoever, but that doesn't prevent queers from rattling off parallels to institutional oppression of gays and lesbians. … continue reading

It's the end. That volcano towering over your hometown is about to blow, and you only have an hour to get out of town and save assorted important people and innocent children along the way No, wait. A gang of murderous strangers — or army of the undead, take your pick — is on your tail without adequate exposition, and your assorted armory is out of bullets. Or maybe it's that the asteroid approaches on a collision course, threatening the earth with a dinosaur-like extinction.

In any case, one question remains: Who do you call in an apocalypse? Which hero do you want to help you save the world, then take home afterward to celebrate your survival? Those were questions actually asked by a recent study. (OK, not the one about taking her home. That was me. But really, what's the good of saving the world if you can't snuggle with your honey when it's over?) Here's the only woman to make the top ten:

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The wacky puns are too easy for this one; Dutch model-turned-actor Famke Janssen has joined a very motley crew — including Method Man, Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen — on the New York City set of indie The Wackness.

The film is about a teenage dealer (Peck) who falls for the daughter of his drug-using psychiatrist (Kingsley), and takes place during 1994, "the greatest year in hip-hop." According to a Q&A posted on Famke-Janssen.org, the AfterEllen.com Hottie No. 51 is set to play Kingsley's wife.

I certainly liked Janssen as part of a less motley, more superhuman crew (as did Malinda, who ranked Phoenix as her No. 3 female villain) —

— and I can't complain about her role as one of the Eulogy crowd (not only because of the lesbian factor, I swear), but this news got me wondering when the talented and supergorgeous Janssen will get to be on her own again. Her current picture is ensemble comedy The Ten, and the last movie in which she was one of only two headliners, The Treatment, had only a limited release. … continue reading