Ingayder Zim

Hey girls!

So now that the "magical" persuasions of our first Bi-vy Leauge Intern got you up and running to see Mr. Felton melt the silver screen in Half-Blood Prince, its time for a quick jaunt down memory lane with the analytic stylings of our gayzor sharp, Bi-vy League Intern #2, Theophallus.
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You remember 2001, don’t you? The year that Invader Zim made it cool for 13-year-old lesbian mall-rats to watch Nickelodeon again. That is until the network pulled the show in its second season, leaving scores of devastated queers to vent in their LiveJournals, and ushered in the current fashionable phenomenon of twenty-somethings complaining about how there are no good childrens' cartoons on TV these days. If you somehow missed out on Zim in all of it 27 episode glory, the show's premise is simple - angry buglike alien from distant planet makes destroying a darker version of Earth his prerogative. Now dwelling inexplicably in the anime section of Blockbuster, Zim persists as cult classic and chic nostalgia, and its cast of bizarre characters with monosyllabic, Paleolithic names still holds a special place in the hearts of dykes everywhere.

I believe, however, that the show’s gayvorite factor is due not just to its close association with the heavily queer mall goth subculture but to its allegorization of lesbian fantasy and reality. Sound far-fetched? Hear me out. Zim’s lust for destruction and his hatred of the human race, along with Gir’s psychotic ADD, represent the young lesbian’s internal response to social ostracism. And the androgynous human protagonists are quickly recognizable viewer surrogates. Dib, whose obsession with the paranormal alienates him from his classmates, is an especially sympathetic figure to the lesbian, who has her own vivid fantasy-memories of being a misunderstood prepubescent boy—while Gaz, a baby dyke with a video game addiction, is another nod to the gender-bending nerd demographic. The show even tackles "tough topics" like the breakdown of heteronormative family structure, in which Zim’s “Mom” and “Dad” automatons malfunction horribly and wreak mayhem at a parent-teacher meeting.

Can Nickelodeon ever atone for its sins? Of course not, but to me it’s a small wonder that a series so important for the LGBT community was pulled off the air. After all, if gay is subversive, subversion comes to be… pretty gay.

Zim’s creator, underground comic artist, Jhonen Vasquez, now has a marked aversion toward his series and its fan base—a fan base that seems to be on unapproved first-name basis with him, if that explains anything. Both Zim and Vasquez’s other works have been appropriated as lifestyle emblems: fandom as an accessory one dons while hating the man, wearing shirts you grew out of in the third grade, and whining about parents who persecute you for following Wicca. Bizarre dark humor sometimes resonates with a set that cannot necessarily decode social satire, and so ends up mimicking the very behavior being caricatured. But hey, we were all a little confused at that age. Instead of whining about commercial-cultural orgies and Hot Topic hipsters, maybe we should be proud that one of our gayvorite shows continues to strike gold in the underground- mainstream seven years after big, corporate dickheads forced its cancellation. Clearly, the queers are still loving it. Here’s to Zim!

Forewarning Forearms: Nothing says "Don't fuck with." me like a Zim Tat.

Mood: Too lazy for armchair activism.

The Bottom Line: Aliens = lesbians?

Rating: Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with the kids.