#I had the same kneejerk reaction negl

[oyedeng]

On that Variety Interview...

People need to leave Mackie alone with this take that he's homophobic because of ONE slightly poorly worded, context kinda misunderstood interview. He's talked at length about his support for the black (!) lgbtqa+ community in media, and he's also talked about how he's grown up with homophobia being fed to him casually in elementary school (hey I thought we like it when people hold themselves accountable?), and how it took having a gay room mate in college to start unlearning that, he's talked about how he's deliberately inserted himself into projects where he can represent the queer black community, because it's important to him not just to grow himself, but also to give that representation to queer black men - and how for a while he thought as a straight man he has no right to speak on these issues and has since learned that it's important to shine that light. He's talked about how he's instilling different values in his kids, because he knows how important it is to raise the next generation better, and he literally called the attitudes that were impressed on him "ignorance" that he thinks we should try to "snip out" with our kids.

His answer isn't really about shipping, that's not what he's calling "twisted". He's calling out the toxic masculinity aspect that two guys being sensitive with each other and loving each other (bc yes, he calls both Sam's friendship with Steve *and* Bucky love explicitly) is immediately labelled gay - he pushes back against the term 'bromance' because *that* is something he feels devalues masculinity *and* homosexuality (something he calls beautiful btw, which I see everyone ignoring to feed the narrative that he's homophobic). He's talking about how the kneejerk assumption that because two men are being sensitive with each other they must be gay is damaging - and he's not wrong about that, because the implication that only gay men can be sensitive is as damaging as the implication that being sensitive and therefore gay is incompatible with masculinity. Anthony has literally spoken about wanting to raise his sons to embrace different shapes of masculinity than the ones he was raised on - and please take into account he's a 40something year old black man from the US American south - I'd bet money he's grown up in environments were "gay" was levelled at other men to demean them, because the implications of softness, femininity and homosexuality have been used to insult and demean men exactly like that.

He's not saying you're not allowed to ship, he's not saying there doesn't need to be more representation - that is in fact something he's advocated for before on all fronts! Literally, poorly worded as it is, he's just making the case that if you see two men being sensitive with each other and loving each other as friends, then calling it a bromance is devaluing actual homosexuality. Stop taking his words out of the context of who he is and what he's advocated for. Could he have worded this shit better? Sure. But please for the love of god watch other actual interviews with him, not just funny clip compilations of group interviews that show him goofing off, and you'll see understand that clearly what rankles him is the thought process of "oh they're sensitive that must mean they're gay" - he's not offended that people are shipping Sam and Bucky, he's just not here for the narrative that a character that he's proud to portray as emotionally sensitive, caring and *loving* is gay *because* of those qualities, because Mackie's been pretty damn vocal about pushing back against toxic masculinity and wanting to find ways to portray other forms of masculinity. THAT is the core issue he was speaking on, NOT judgment on whether or not Sam could or couldn't be gay and whether or not that would or wouldn't be a good thing.

If you think that if Marvel decides that Sam is gay - whether in regards to Bucky or in general - Mackie would push back against it rather than examine the story that could be told and how it could represent the black community, then you haven't been listening to anything else he's been saying outside this one interview.

Good grief, people.