The Reparative Practice of Escapism,Or "I think I like TV shows"

A talk with Caetlin Benson-Allott

(Georgetown University)

September 25th, 4:00pm

GEM Lab, 1250 Guy, FB 630.15

When asked about their sexuality, the protagonist of Jane Schoenbrun’s 2024 film I Saw the TV Glow avers, “I think I like TV shows.” What kind of spectatorial relation are they claiming, and how might it change the way we think about escapism, identity, and textual pleasure?

Sometimes, escaping into media and literature is all we have to convince ourselves that life won’t always be so hard. Countering centuries of anti-escapist philosophy, this talk reclaims escapism as an ordinary mode of spectatorship and a life-affirming survival strategy, particularly for trans youth and other historically persecuted groups. Escapism is also a reparative reading practice, as I Saw the TV Glow dramatizes. Identifying with fictional characters and worlds offers the film’s protagonists respite and hope, which they likewise provide for queer and trans viewers. Reading the film’s representation of escapism alongside its reception on TransTok reveals that escapism is not a retreat from life but a proactive, often creative, and deeply queer coping strategy.

Caetlin Benson-Allott is Professor of English and Film & Media Studies at Georgetown University and author of The Stuff of Spectatorship: Material Cultures of Film & Television, Remote Control, and Killer Tapes & Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to File Sharing. She writes about film and television theory, material culture, and popular media and is currently researching a book “On Escapism.”