characters like me

[rm]

Dear New Fandom:

Hey, we all like an awesome new show! Awesome! It's nice to meet you.

Among a whole bunch of other things, I'm a queer person, and this means a few things. Let's talk about them for a little bit, okay?

1. It is not unreasonable for me to want to see a character whose experiences are similar to mine on shows that I like.

2. It is reasonable for me to judge how watchable I find a show based on whether I can relate to and/or believe in the characters and their world. While queerness isn't the only item that matters in this regard, it is a critical one.

3. When I say I want a queer character on a TV show, in a book, or in a film, that has nothing to do with wanting to write slash -- even if I am, in fact, a queer person who is also a slash reader and writer.

4. Being able to slash characters is not an acceptable or adequate replacement for actual, canonically queer characters.

5. Neither is "maybe the characters whose personal lives we don't know anything about are gay." Yes, they provide and opportunity for the show writers, but they aren't good enough in terms of representation as they stand now.

6. When I talk about wanting to see queer characters, please do not assume that automatically means men. Also do not assume I mean gay or lesbian over bisexual, or that I would not welcome a trans character. When I say queer, I mean queer in all its QUILTBAG-y diversity.

7. Wanting to see queer characters on TV isn't about titillation or political correctness for me.

8. So when I talk about this, don't, by the way, put words in my mouth. I've been queer a long time. I've also been a fan a long time. And I've also been ranting about media and entertainment for a long time, because that's what I do both for fun and while wearing some of my professional hats. Let the queer people speak for themselves.

So when you say things that make me feel the need to say these things? To me, it seems like you're having a hard time imagining all the possibilities for love, romance, and fucking out there, or what it's like to live in a world where your stories aren't on TV or the big screen most of the time beyond a wink, a nod, and, if you're lucky, some too-often oddly heteronormative fanfiction.

I know you love our awesome show. I love our awesome show too! I just wish it would have more of a place for me. So when you tell me I'm unreasonable for wanting our awesome show to be even more awesome? Well, I get sad and angry. And I wonder why you think that.

Why do you?

Best,

RM

Comments

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

I would like to add you as a friend. I hope that's okay.

One thing that amazes me is that queer people are supposed to run the entertainment industry (According to popular theory, when it doesn't run afoul of the theory that it is run by Jewish individuals.), and yet queer characters and stories are so completely beyond anything the audience can imagine that, if they are put into a show or film, they are unrecognizable and offensive. If everyone assumes that queers are in control, then we should be choosing the message and we shouldn't have a hard time portraying ourselves accurately. Or maybe the theory isn't that we are in control, but that we are just all the actors. Stereotypes confuse me.

TV Tropes has a few articles titled, "The All Gay Cast" or "The All Bisexual Cast." But that isn't a trope. It happens rarely and when it does, it isn't a plot device.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hi, welcome.

The only show I can think of what wasn't Queer as Folk (which I like) or The L Word (which I don't) that fits that trope is Torchwood, hilariously.

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Yes, the only thing they had listed for the all gay cast was QaF and the L Word. I don't think Torchwood was listed.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Every one of the main characters has a same-sex sexual interaction by some point before the end of the 2nd season (possibly even the 1st, come to think of it)

[deusabscondidum.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard that. That is astounding. So now we've got three shows. Yay.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Some of those things are brief or problematic, but yeah. At least three of the main characters are shown to have significant ongoing relationships at various points with box sexes.