Reading-as-Lesbian and Desiring-as-Lesbian: The commodification of kilig and coming-of-age in Samantha Lee’s Billie and Emma (2018)

Authors

Reya Mari S. Veloso, University of the Philippines Los BanosFollow

Keywords

lesbian reading, lesbian criticism, queer media, kilig, coming-of-age

Abstract

In 2018, Samantha Lee’s second movie Billie and Emma was screened in the QC International Film Festival. I watched it during the pandemic and had since been arrested by its portrayal and narrative of lesbian and queer teens. In this paper, I argue that Samantha Lee’s Billie and Emma (2018) offers a subversive narrative of lesbians by using kilig as affect enveloped in a coming-of-age narrative. By deploying Wilton (the lesbian as subject position) and Berlant (fantasy/desire), I will discuss how Billie and Emma (2018) subverts the lens of heterosexuality/heteronormativity seen in most lesbian films both in the western and local production vis-a-vis the danger of commodifying kilig and coming-of-age as affect and narrative structure. In underscoring the importance of the lesbian as a subject-position, this paper aims to contribute to the expanding field of lesbian criticism and lesbian studies.

First Page

41

Last Page

48

Recommended Citation

Veloso, Reya Mari S. "Reading-as-Lesbian and Desiring-as-Lesbian: The commodification of kilig and coming-of-age in Samantha Lee’s Billie and Emma (2018)," Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance: Vol. 5, No. 2, 2025, pp. 41–-48.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59588/2782-8875.1114
Available at: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol5/iss2/5

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