Starter Boyfriend | Squirt Productions
Starter Boyfriend investigates how we relate to each other in an increasingly digital and glaringly heteronormative world.
Ryan (she/they/he), played by Rebekkah Law, is a queer young person looking to lose their virginity. They post an ad on the internet looking for ‘a starter boyfriend’, someone to practice and explore sex and intimacy with. Ryan meets Charlie (she/they), played by Eli Free, who is a kind of sex-positive fairy godmother that gently guides Ryan through the ‘ins and outs and ins’.
We ventured into the mythical but very real ‘Virginity Store’ where the performers broke into song and synchronised dancing, listing some of the many ways to define sex. They drew focus away from traditional hetero-centric ideas of penis-in-vagina virginity and celebrated all the different ways to have sex, and thus virginities to be lost. It honestly got me excited for more first times in my life. There is such a big deal made over that one first time that often we forget to celebrate the others.
Ryan and Charlie seemed to exist in a bubble; a pro-queer sex-positive non-judgmental space which felt a little untrue to life, but fit with the dream-like quality of the show. How refreshing to see a queer story of triumph and safe exploration, when so often we are fed queer tragedy by the mainstream media. I would like to see more of the world in which the two characters live, as neither of them seemed to have other people in their life. Because of this, the show didn’t feel like a full narrative, but more of an episode.
Starter Boyfriend had honest discussions of gender and sexuality. Together, the characters shared their experience with identity and gender using an extensive glossary of inclusive language. They talked about pronouns and dreamt up embodiments of their true selves that transcended typical expectations of gender.
This show felt incredibly important for queer youth. With refinement, I think it could be brought to schools and universities. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
