Say Clitoris: Queers in Space

Abstract

Castricum blends personal memoir—an awakening patterned against experiences perceived and observed in the film Dogs in Space—with analysis of the concept of ‘scene’, ‘style’ and understandings of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ in the decades since the film was released. She explores the notion of Dogs in Space as a ‘how-to’ guide (for, for instance, the perfect party) and presents queer and/or her own readings of the ways in which key moments or lines in the film can be read or understood. Contrasting the film with two others: Haydn Keenan’s Going Down and Tony Zenner’s Big Risk, she explores the characters and scenarios presented as endemic to the post-punk era and finds connections and similarities in her own social-cultural experiences in the present day.