Margaret Cho (Photo: Gor Megaera)Graphic: Natalie Peeples
Margaret Cho is known for her whip-smart comedic observations on—well, on a lot of things. Since breaking out in the mid-’90s as the star of All-American Girl, the first American primetime sitcom to feature an Asian-American family, Cho has carved out a career as an actor, author, and activist, all while remaining true to her first love: stand-up comedy.
Over the years, Cho has also been an outspoken advocate for (and member of) what she calls “alternative sexual communities,” speaking frankly about her experiences with polyamory, pansexuality, and kink. She’ll bring some of the kinky wisdom she’s obtained over the years to audiences this Valentine’s Day with After Hours With Margaret, a virtual event she describes as “advice, anecdotes, and absolutely amazing anatomical descriptions of anything and everything.”
As we kick off our Love Week here at The A.V. Club, we connected with Cho over Zoom to ask for her takes on a dozen different pop-cultural phenomena related to sex, love, kink, polyamory, and LGBTQ+ representation in the media. Among the topics we covered in this wide-ranging conversation: Jojo Siwa, Schitt’s Creek, Armie Hammer, vacationing while poly, sex toy maintenance, pansexual superheroes, the absurd censorship laws around penises, aching historical lesbians, and more.
Lesbian period pieces
Margaret Cho: I love . I love Gentleman Jack. There’s something about lesbians that’s really Victorian in my mind. With lesbians in history, it’s about longing, secondary citizen status, betrayal, emotional heartache—there’s a lot of cats, and a lot of nature play. I just think it’s really poetic and really beautiful, and to me it’s very heartwarming. It just makes me so happy. Even up to the 1960s, the lesbian bars were sort of hidden away. That era of lesbian culture is something we see very sparse images of. So when you get a whole big movie like that, I think it’s really remarkable. The A.V. Club: What do you think when people complain that there are too many of these? The “let the lesbians have smartphones!” type of comments? MC: I think let them do whatever. It’s like complaining that there are too many straight-people movies. There is a place for it. There’s a lot of drama inherent to the story. I think that when you go back in history, and you’re able to tell stories about LGBTQ+ people, then you have so many layers to deal with, you know? You have oppression, and invisibility, and fear… like . Carol is one of my favorites. It’s just filled with this ache, which is at the heart of lesbianism for me. I think that because there’s something about women that’s very unknowable. It’s at the heart of loving women, this mystery. And I think anybody who loves a woman will identify with that fear and unknowability and mystery women really hold. And so these movies and television shows, they have a great power emotionally.
Another interesting Bi comic character is Mystique’s relationship with Destiny. In fact, Claremont intended for Mystique to be Nightcrawler’s biological father rather than his mother.Really hoping they show up in Captain Marvel 2.
Not to mention all of the not-so-thinly veiled BDSM in Claremont’s work.(In the early 80s, Claremont was going to have Professor X wear women’s clothes after Callisto rescued him from a hate crime. Xavier would realize he enjoyed dressing as a woman and that would be a thing he did from there on. Editorial shut it down.)
Isn’t the story that Ratner outed him on the set of X-Men Last Stand. Something about Ratner yelling to another woman on set “You should fuck her to make her realize she’s gay” (Note I am paraphrasing Ratner here and this was before Elliot transitions publicly, not using the wrong pronoun because I am a dick)
I think there is a place for more imaginative interactions that display the mores of the time, so that future generations can see what people were thinking about and looking at when they were here.
don’t know if that needs to be for posterity’s sake. There’s a place for fun interactions because we’re capable of doing that here and now. Otherwise you’re describing stuff sociologically and that’d be dull. Later generations can read books for that. They’ll learn to get good at this stuff in the same way we scientised digging up broken cookware.
the nature of social mores is that we’re mostly unaware of them, they are what we do and say and make.
I went to one of Margaret’s shows in Texas mid-Bush era. At that time it seemed like everyone had this ignorant bumper sticker. In that general atmosphere, it was incredible to see the crowd that came out for Margaret taking opportunity to be about in public being gloriously themselves. I took my roommate who was struggling with her sexuality at the time and it was really meaningful to her as well.
If you look back, she’s basically from the island of Lesbos—someplace where they had the female Olympics, where they would just wear teddies and do shot put.Ah, those 12 treatises of Clio “…men are essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, unnecessary”
She actually liked Guess Who’s Lesbian To Dinner? That movie is forty years and one gay daughter of a Republican Vice President too late for its sole point.Also lol at “the finite nature of monogamy”. People always think their own attitudes about love have no affect on their relationships, but you go around saying this and see how real anything will be.
Great interview, despite the weird format. I love Margaret Cho. But can we please retire “whipsmart”? It only ever seems to be used about women, so it has a slightly queasy cutesy connotation. I propose as an alternative the word “smart.”
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Another interesting Bi comic character is Mystique’s relationship with Destiny. In fact, Claremont intended for Mystique to be Nightcrawler’s biological father rather than his mother.Really hoping they show up in Captain Marvel 2.
That close up tho! It’s all good; anything that doesn’t involve penis puppets:/
Not to mention all of the not-so-thinly veiled BDSM in Claremont’s work.(In the early 80s, Claremont was going to have Professor X wear women’s clothes after Callisto rescued him from a hate crime. Xavier would realize he enjoyed dressing as a woman and that would be a thing he did from there on. Editorial shut it down.)
All that and heavily implied queer Kitty Pride
A lot of people read Storm as queer too, particularly with Yukio. I don’t quite see it, but Kitty and Rachel? Oh yeah.
Oh, 80s Storm especially. That mohawk? Forget about it.
A remarkable coincidence that Kitty was played by Elliot Page all those many moons ago
Isn’t the story that Ratner outed him on the set of X-Men Last Stand. Something about Ratner yelling to another woman on set “You should fuck her to make her realize she’s gay” (Note I am paraphrasing Ratner here and this was before Elliot transitions publicly, not using the wrong pronoun because I am a dick)
I don’t remember the details, but yeah, there was something about him behaving in an abusive/homophobic way towards Page on the set.
Brett Ratner….. What a prince.Behold the Hollywood Glamor:
Had no idea but I would not put it past the Rat at all, holy shit
Yeah, instead they dressed him in leather bondage gear.
Wait – Destiny is Irene Adler?
How did I miss this bit of trivia?
Yeah, her name is a reference to the Doyle character.
Oh now THAT is trippy! I wish they’d gone ahead with that.
I think there is a place for more imaginative interactions that display the mores of the time, so that future generations can see what people were thinking about and looking at when they were here.
don’t know if that needs to be for posterity’s sake. There’s a place for fun interactions because we’re capable of doing that here and now. Otherwise you’re describing stuff sociologically and that’d be dull. Later generations can read books for that. They’ll learn to get good at this stuff in the same way we scientised digging up broken cookware.
the nature of social mores is that we’re mostly unaware of them, they are what we do and say and make.
Why the fuck is this a slideshow?
because Herbs
Parsley, sage, rosemary and fuck you, Spanfeller.
Beautiful.
I’m not a slideshow hater, but… it does seem like a strange choice for presenting an *interview*.
clicks
I came on here to say the same. The only reason I can see this as a slide show is that it won’t move past the second scene on my laptop. Great.
I went to one of Margaret’s shows in Texas mid-Bush era. At that time it seemed like everyone had this ignorant bumper sticker. In that general atmosphere, it was incredible to see the crowd that came out for Margaret taking opportunity to be about in public being gloriously themselves. I took my roommate who was struggling with her sexuality at the time and it was really meaningful to her as well.
always thought she would be into polyamory.
If you look back, she’s basically from the island of Lesbos—someplace where they had the female Olympics, where they would just wear teddies and do shot put.Ah, those 12 treatises of Clio “…men are essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, unnecessary”
She actually liked Guess Who’s Lesbian To Dinner? That movie is forty years and one gay daughter of a Republican Vice President too late for its sole point.Also lol at “the finite nature of monogamy”. People always think their own attitudes about love have no affect on their relationships, but you go around saying this and see how real anything will be.
Thanks for making this a slideshow so I didn’t have to read the interview.
Great interview, despite the weird format. I love Margaret Cho. But can we please retire “whipsmart”? It only ever seems to be used about women, so it has a slightly queasy cutesy connotation. I propose as an alternative the word “smart.”