The Straightwashing of “Edge of Seventeen”

The indifference of Hollywood continues

The 2016 film Edge of Seventeen debuted on Netflix on February 1st, 2019. It stars a 17-year-old girl named Nadine Franklin (played by Hailee Steinfeld of Pitch Perfect 2 fame) as she navigates fighting with her best friend Krista (played by Haley Lu Richardson), a tumultuous love life, and a strained relationship with her mother following her father’s untimely death. It’s a good film that has well-written, 3-dimensional characters— a refreshing change for a genre often starring rude and popular Mean Girls.

This coming-of-age story received critical acclaim at the New York and Detroit Film Circles and will be adapted into a YouTube original series sometime in 2020. We will be seeing this story for years to come, which is sad, given how it erases a queer cult classic that aired in the 90s at a time when there wasn’t much queer representation to start with.

The 1998 Edge of Seventeen is also a coming-of-age story. Written by Todd Stephens, this tale is set in the 1980s, and stars Eric Hunter (played by Chris Stafford) as he navigates his queer identity in Sandusky, Ohio. Eric has a series of sexual relationships that leave him to doubt his self-worth. The movie ends with Eric embracing his queer friends at a gay bar. There are also implied plans to go to college in NYC to study…