Eastenders Pride

We use Eastenders hot topics to chat about our real worlds and have a good gossip!

Each week Abi and Ava use Eastenders storylines to talk about whats going on in their own and the wider world. 

This week they’re talking: Eastenders Pride and Queer storylines through the years!

Please like, subscribe, comment if you enjoyed this episode. It really helps us grow and bring you more episodes. Find us on all socials under @Endersafters x



*doof doof*

#eastenders 

#podcast 

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#britishsoaps 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Ava. And I'm Abby. And you're listening to Ender's Afters.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Where we use East Enders hot topics to talk about our real worlds.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

And have a good gossip. Welcome to the U.S. Welcome to the Afters. So, Abby, what's your storyline? Happy Pride Mum! Happy Pride Mum. It was Pride on the Square last week, wasn't it? I know. So we're gonna do a Pride episode. Pride special because we've been doing queer storylines for a long time. I know, it's done a few first queer storylines. First ever kiss.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I know. That's iconic. First ever gay kiss on a British soap. Yeah. Yeah. And that was that was in the late 80s, which was in the height of the um hysteria around HIV and in the height of the of so much homophobia in this country. So for them to do that then, not when it died down, not when people started realising and open their minds. In the height of it, that is so powerful. Eastenders! We love you, Eastenders! Always representing.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Do you have a favourite like queer couple that you've come across on the storyline?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Oh, I did love like Christian and Massoud back in the day because that was like the era where I really remember Eastenders, you know, when you were like, I must have been like early teens, late child, and I I you loved it and watched it religiously. Yeah and I just remember that storyline so well and it went on for so long. And I loved Christian, he was such a yeah, he was such an asset. He's an eye colour. Yeah, you know, like because he got me from a sood, it was secret for ages. Yeah, yeah. And the sood was Muslim, wasn't it? So it was also talking about like you know, the Muslim faith and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So it was quite like on the on the nose of a lot of like how people uh go through that, yeah, yeah, and like a lot of things that need to be talked about, and Ben coming out with Phil as your dad. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah, but so many people contended with that, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So many people have to contend with like having a super macho dad and having to be in the closet, and also I think they represent Ben quite well with like how he has He's still a bit of a gangster as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

But like I think a lot of that comes from probably growing up gay and and being not being able to express it properly, and Phil being your dad. And Phil being your dad, and a lot of his personality now will probably come from that suppression as a young person. Who was his first love that died?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

I don't know. Paul. Yeah, when Paul died, that was a whole thing. Then he got with Callum.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Now Callum's with Johnny.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

I know, but Johnny's sorry. I watched this recently because you know I do the recaps. Um when old Johnny was old Johnny then and he came out to Mick Carter. Oh, I love Mick Carter so much. Reason 10 million why I love Mick Carter.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

She loves Mick Carter guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I love Mick Carter, and this is why is because he just Linda was the one that was all judgmental. She couldn't get over it, she could not, she liked and before then it was like mummy's boy, mummy's boy, and then she literally like was funny with him the whole time, and I loved it. Like the way Mick deals with his children in East Enders, I could only wish for a father like that. Yeah, he is such a good character. I know. You love him. I do, I love him so much. The way he was like, boy, I will love you, whether you no matter who you love. I think that honestly, the the script writing for it was so beautiful. It was. I was like, I was in my bed watching it for you in tears. In tears, but again, that's another good representation that they would have had, like Ben with Phil being the one, and then Linda being the one and like you wouldn't expect Linda to be able to do it. Just how how families cope with people having a child who's queer, exactly, and also just be like ignorance, but and and sometimes it's not shown that someone's ignorant until they have to deal with the thing that shows the ignorance, and like before then it wasn't like oh Linda was this like ignorant homophobe, yeah. As soon as it kind of came about, it's like how their microaggressions deal with it. Yeah, like she wouldn't have labelled herself as a homophobe back then, but she bloody well was for a moment.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, I really enjoyed the recent um Eve and Suki because she was with who's that horrible guy? Nish Nish. Yeah, and she didn't know she was a lesbian from well, she sort of knew, but she didn't know because and then her and Eve were sneaking around. That was so good.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, I actually I haven't caught up with that because that's in the gap.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Because she was still dealing with coming to terms herself that she likes women, so that's a whole other thing. She was not like this is who I am. It's like dealing with oh my god, this is who I am, and then falling in love and then being with a man who is a abuser. Yeah, you've got kids as well, you've had a different life before.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah, they really showing them. I think a lot of women, especially of that generation, do kind of discover that in themselves at a later age. My mum has very not common two good friends that are now together, and I'm pretty sure one of them was with men for a long time and now like they were good friends and now together. It sounds beautiful. I don't know them, but my sounds beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Beautiful, maybe shall we kiss? I could only hope you don't sound disgusted.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

I can only hope that that happens for me when I when I'm older. I'm right here. I I wish I wasn't so straight.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

I really do. Fuck men, yeah. Love them, can't live without them. Yeah, as well as it's um yeah. So we've we had a transgender person on on a storyline and they did that. I missed that as well. I missed that as well. But that was in 2019 or 15, I think. Yeah, 2015. That was a while ago.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

It was Stacy's brother, wasn't it? Yeah, Stacy's brother. Yeah, it was Stacy's uh half brother. Alright. I haven't seen it though, but as I go back through, I'll I'll see this. Yeah. Because I'll be interested. Because we were saying as well, like 2015 is like before it's time a lot with the whole with being transgender. I missed that one as well. I wouldn't be surprised if they bring another transgender character in it to it soon because you know there's so much it's so topical at the moment, unfortunately, and the transgender community are getting so much hate, and usually that's when ESTENDAS come through. They come through with the storylines with the education. But this week on the square it was a bit of a hoot because we had Laveau. Laveau. I know, which is so they have like a if I don't know if everyone watching would know that she is an actual famous drag queen because she won RuPaul's drag race, didn't she? Yeah. So like I love that she's a cameo as well. They didn't make her another drag queen, they made her her. Yeah. Um how buzzing would you be to get like to be that be your job, and then you get booked free.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I know. And but we have Oscar on the square. Bisexual man. Who loves the twins?

unknown 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

As a thing's a thing for families. Call him in strong.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

As a brings for families.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Johnny and Callum. Johnny and Callum. Josh. Josh. Well, Honey had a moment. Does anyone remember when her and Suki had a little moment and Honey was like trying to put it on Suki and Suki was like, no. And then a couple years later, Suki came out. Yeah. So they planted that seed from a while ago.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah, for sure. I think as well, a lot of people. I actually was having this conversation with two of my friends last week who are both queer. And I think for a lot of people, and I think women are more likely to explore this side of them, they actually don't have like a preference on whether it's man or woman, it's more about connection. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And like I think for women, sometimes connection is such an important thing for attraction, where maybe it's not as much for men because it's obviously a lot more sexual sometimes, blah blah blah. But for women, we need like this deep connection, and that can be the thing that makes us attracted to people. And I think that's why, like, for honey, for example, had a moment like that, though. She probably I imagine would say that's not now, she's loving Billy. Is because, like I say, for women, connection creates attraction, doesn't it? Yeah, you can happen to anyone. Yeah, it can. My friend, my friend actually had this girl that was just like mad into her, and she literally got a girlfriend for a while. She now says she's like it proved to me that I am not a lesbian. But I think at in the time that in her life that she met this girl, she just needed a connection, yeah, and this girl liked her, so she like pursued it, she was open to it, and they went out probably for like a month or two. And holy reason, what am I doing? But like, I think at that time the reason she was able to create that connection is just because she needed to have that, yeah. Do you know what I mean? Which I imagine happens quite a lot, yeah, and um like you know, it's such a spectrum. Yeah, we say, like, you know, I definitely identify as straight, but like I wouldn't be the furthest down. Yeah, you never know. Exactly, you never know. You never know. You can only hope you can only hope and pray.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, literally. That no man enters my life again.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, literally. Um, yeah. It's such a spectrum. I don't think that's what people don't realise.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Yeah, but you know, it's like the system we live, we've been built in, isn't it? Marriage, X, Y, Z.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Your mind's your mind's your mind's we're made to be boxed in and like for sure because sold things and you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

100%. Because I even have friends that do identify as like queer or bisexual, like girlfriends, but they kind of only pursue men, and uh, it's definitely down to that um like societal thing of like you should get married and have the baby in that traditional or typical way to have a baby or like blah blah blah, rather than breaking outside of their norms, and it's not because they're any less attractive to women, it's because of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

End of the day, representation is the key because if you're not seeing it, how do you know? Because you are your surroundings, and if you have an urge to be some sort of sexuality and you don't know or you don't see it, sometimes we're lucky that you've grown up in London that you've had so much. Yeah, but then if you're like from a small town and it You ain't seeing that, it's that like that's a representation, like East Enders is key.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

I know literally, so these small town people can get and see that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Well, just in general, if you're like a child, slap a bit of Eastenders on 100%.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

No, for sure. Representation's key. It's key so in all avenues of life. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

It is key because TV is quite important.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

So important.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Can't believe they got rid of the soap awards.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

I know! They'll be okay. I don't want to see the the Oscars.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I don't want to see the soaps.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Get rid of the Bathers and get in bringing the soap awards.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

It's the same old actors, we want to see Phil up there winning his award. I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Is that this year? That do we won that award?

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Oh yeah. Oh, don't st don't set me off.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Literally.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Don't set me off.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Do you know what I think we need to make a moment for though? Just to bring us back to the Pride episode. Alfie Moon dressed as Cat Slater. Oh my god, in all her clothes. And the eyebrows literally up here because he's like blacked out his eyebrows. Oh, he committed. He committed and he pulled it off. He pulled it off. And it was kind of sexy. Yeah, it was a great episode. It was, isn't it? Kind of sexy. Alfie Moon is Cat Slater is kind of kinky, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Kinky winky. What cracks me up as well is like um them thinking that Zoe and uh Big Mo was a couple. I know. To be fair, they do look like they could be a couple if they weren't man and granddaughter.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Granddaughter. They sold the drag queen from the Albert, and the Albert's been a queer place for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I know, which is good that they brought that in because what was it before? It was like a just a normal bar, wasn't it? Yeah, I think so. Sharon owned a bar in that spot at some point. Yeah, and um Ian's mum, what's her name? Oh, Catherine owned it. Yeah, but she turned it into the Albert. I showed it into the Albert. I think it was her anyway. I love that, like, it's a bit naughty though that the Queen Vic stole the gay c club. But to be honest, Cindy's not queer anyway. No, Cindy just accused them. As if Cindy accused them pink rushing. This is like typical Cindy, she accuses you of what she does.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

I know. It's all gonna kick off though. I can feel like it's all gonna kick off soon. It's all unraveling for the Christmas special. It is, it is. And gay bride is just the party. Yeah, party on the square. It's just the party, baby.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

They all committed with the hats and the colours, and the colours, the multi-colours, but also, do you know what's funny is what we were saying about is when you film on these sets, um, you can't actually have music on. So they're all the thought of them all in the pub. Like, we can hear the music in when we watch it back, but the thought of them all in the Queen Vic dancing to absolute silence, and the way they were all dancing is just hilarious. Tracy got right involved for the prime episode, didn't she? Yeah, she had the old gems on her face and everything. She even had a full costume, she did, Tracy. She was loving it, giggling behind the bar. I know. Big up, Tracy.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Always big up, Tracy. But yeah, what a great episode. What a great episode! So, what's your final diffs? Diffy diff-duffs.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

My final diff-duff is representation is key! Is key exactly and he senders know how to do it! They do, they do, they always have, they always will. For real. Like, subscribe, comment, happy pride down below so we know that you've got to this point.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yes, and enjoy. Enjoy Pride Mum. And celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Support.