#lgbtq representation in media

[cookie-de-baunilha]

Most people agree that John should move on with his life, let go of Jamie and find happiness in a real relationship. But there are some takes on this subject that really piss me off.

I’m sorry but “oh I know John will never love someone like/more than he loves Jamie, but I really wish he could find a great guy and have a nice relationship with him!!” is not the good argument that you think it is.

That’s not getting over Jamie, that’s settling for second best. Well, he can’t have Jamie, poor thing! So he will have to take someone else who he won’t love as much as he loves Jamie but at least he will have someone to cuddle with at night 🥺

Why can’t John actually get over Jamie?? Why should he settle for the second best? Worse, why should his partner accept being the second choice??

I damn well don’t want John loving someone else like he loves Jamie because that shit is completely unhealthy imo, but I know that’s not what people mean.

Jamie being the superior god-like man that everyone is in love with/is attracted to/wants to fuck is kinda ridiculous imho, but I understand the appeal that a character like that has for the audience of a romance book/show. But to put Jamie so high up in a pedestal and to think that John should be forever in love with him and not ever get over him because oh lord nothing is comparable to King-of-Men-Jamie is… a choice.

Listen. I know that’s on Diana. She is the one who wrote John like this. But I wish people would be more critical of Diana’s writing of him instead of swallowing that shit up like it’s chocolate. Everyone knows how problematic the books can be regarding certain topics, this is just another one of these things.

Instead of accepting that John won’t ever get over Jamie/won’t ever love someone as much as he loves Jamie, you should be asking yourself: why is that Diana writes him like this? Why does she insist in the stereotypical cliché of the gay man having unrequited feelings for his straight best friend? Why can’t John truly move on and stop having romantic feelings for Jamie? Why should Jamie be John’s greatest love?

Outlander is essentially a romance (idgaf about what DG says). Love of all types is a running theme: not only romantic love, but the love that exists within family and friendship. And yes, there’s a lot of platonic/friendship kind of love between J/J.

But romantic love specifically has a huge role in this story. We have straight couples left and right in this series: Claire and Jamie, Bree and Roger, Fergus and Marsali, Ian and Rachel, Dottie and Denzell, Hal and Minnie, Jenny and Ian, hell, even Brian and Ellen are getting a spin-off.

So I’m sorry but it’s really freaking weird that, in the middle of all this, people say that John (the character with his own book series and one of the main POV characters in the main series, mind you) won’t ever be able to love someone like he loves Jamie, or more than he loves Jamie. It’s really freaking weird that people say that John has to settle with second best — because that’s essentially what’s being said every time someone says that John won’t ever love someone like he loves Jamie but he should find someone else to be in a relationship with anyway.

All of that for what? Keep the cliché of the gay dude in love with his straight best friend and who never moves on? C’mon now. Don’t piss me off.

[sapphicpoetspost]

LGBTQ+ creator spotlight: Dreamsounds on YouTube

there have been many "first gay (blank)" moments in the history of Disney as a media empire, some more affirming of LGBTQ+ identities than others. LGBTQ+ representation in media is so important.

this YouTube video by Dreamsounds examines this history and how (hopefully) there will be a new era of LGBTQ+ represention in the mainstream on the horizon.

LGBTQ+ artists have been at the forefront of the creation of some of Disney's most influential works long before Disney publicly identified any character as LGBTQ+. On Marlene's channel, Dreamsounds, she centers the legacies of queer artists at Disney and how their identities influenced the stories they created. She covers topics from queercoded Disney characters to how in spite of conservative backlash, LGBTQ+ representation is improving.

personally, I love learning about queer Disney history. if the intersection of media and queerness is of interest to you, I highly recommend checking out Marlene's YouTube Channel Dreamsounds and her Patreon.

[what-if-a-dragon]

[Image ID: Text from Tumblr post reading: real people is not queerbaiting /End ID] 

[Image ID: Text from Google search for "Queerbaiting" reading: Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation. The purpose of this method is to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion or possibility of relationships or characters that appeal to them. Wikipedia /End ID] 

real people being partially closeted or ambiguous about their own sexuality while making Gay Art is not queerbaiting

[nekhcore]

HEY YOU!

Yeah, you! Are you trans? Do you like reading books? Or watching movies?

Do you like media about trans men/transmasculine characters but don't know where to find it?

That's sooo crazy because I have this little spreadsheet I'm working on where I'm trying to document all media with protagonists/major characters who are FTM or transmasculine.

The spreadsheet currently has 400+ entries spread across the following categories:

Books

Manga

Memoirs and non-fiction

Movies

TV Shows

Graphic novels / Comics

Webcomics

Audio dramas

Books and movies are also sorted by:

Which character is trans (MC, love interest, antagonist, etc)

If the trans character is POC

The trans character's sexuality (Because I saw lots of transhet guys sad about only being able to find gay romances)

If the author/actor is also trans (if we know for sure)

It's free to use, and free to add to as well! Editing permissions are on, and I check on the spreadsheet every now and then to make sure everything is in order and to clean up.

If you know something that isn't on the list, please add it! You don't have to fill in every single column, but fill it to the best of your abilities.

If you don't want to use the big ass long link below, you can also use: bit.ly/FTM-protags

I made this because I want it to be a community resource. So even if you're not a trans guy or transmasculine person, please reblog!

[scroofy-was-here]

if byler isn't endgame, why did they let it drag on for so long?

why have they been building it up season after season? why haven't they had mike reject will already?? why didn't they resolve it in the same season where it's a major plot point??? why are they giving us the possibility that it could happen if it's not????

why even give Will a crush on Mike?????

[holyblanchett]

Sesbian lex in a jail cell is crazy work. The writers were so insane for this ngl.

[asidian]

Quirky. Funny. Creepy. Queer.

Dead Boy Detectives on Netflix is the perfect show for the Halloween season.

[thevillainsfangirl]

There are some ships that you just know would be 100% canon if they were an M/F ship, and that's mainly what pisses people off the most in these situations.

It isn't just about the ship; it's also very much about the homophobia (whether the creators know it or not) that is preventing the ship from being canon when they otherwise would be.

(Addition.)

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

“You’re too old to be shipping Byler”—asdfghjllzxbcnwm Byler is for the older queers. Ofc teenagers can like it but the target audience or Byler is gay people who are too old to have gotten their teenage years properly represented in mainstream television. It’s for the people who have already been let down many times before by writers and studios and are familiar with every trope in the book like bury your gays, “and they were roommates,” friends to lovers, slowburn etc. etc. the people who never got to see their favorite queer pairing come to fruition. Obviously Byler means a lot to teenagers too, which is great, but trying to gatekeep a ship from fandom elders is wild. No one is too old for Byler.

[predictablesloth]

❗️The Election & Representation in Film❗️

Aka we're about to loose all our queer rep.

-> Before November 6, after the Agatha All Along finale, I told my friend that no matter my opinion on the last episode, I was taking it as a win, because the Agatha/Rio kiss could be the last sapphic, live action kiss to air on television.

-> Because the far right politicians who will soon control our government approve book bans in their respective states, there's every reason to suspect that they'll try to pass bans on the gay ass content Hollywood puts out.

-> If you can, get cds or dvds (or torrents, ends justify the means) of your favorite queer, feminist, and generally social justice-oriented digital media, such as music, movies, and tv shows. Documentaries and children's programs especially.

-> If you have the means to, purchase them directly from the source to show monetary interest.

-> If you want that renewal, that next season, to see a ship get together finally, or just to not get brainwashed by white supremacists, then join in the fight.

-> Otherwise, it won't just be homophobic executives blocking projects, the law will be too.

[thepopsicle]

GEEKED WEEK IS HERE

And the activist team of my server thought it would be a good idea to put our hat in the ring and help people get as much information about it as possible!

There are plenty of places to stream the geeked week live stream and we know a lot of us DBDA fans will be making noise but we wanted to be sure there would be a place to chat and commiserate + a spot to stay updated!

So, we’ll be streaming the livestreams in the server as well along with a separate channel for people’s thoughts, comments and ideas!

We know that the @savethedeadboys has busted ass organizing a lot of things for geeked week and we have no plans to step on their toes so here is a link to all of their gathered information :

Instagram profile

Important info

Geeked week info

Reminder

Livestream info

Solidarity post

Once again, a huge thank you to @savethedeadboys for gathering all of this information about geeked week!

We just wanted to make sure that the streams were as easy to access as possible and that everyone would have a place to stay up to date so here is the link to our server where we’ll be streaming : Link

[barbthebuilder]

What do y'all want to see more of in genderfluid media?

Like, let's say there will be a new character in your favorite show who just happens to be genderfluid. How do you want them to represent themselves? In what ways you want them to show their genderfluidity?

This is question mainly to genderfluid folks but if you're not genderfluid you can speak up too! Just make sure to state that you're not genderfluid first.

[lansangprincess]

HBH Bi Representation∘—✧₊

there's some discourse going around about the bi representation of Missy and Malakai being "pointless" since their current main partners (who they very well may end up with) are the opposite sex and I just want to voice out my opinion just so that it exists online that I heavily disagree.

Though sexuality is obviously about sexual attraction, queerness is an identity that exists outside of one's relationships and especially with Malakai and how he was exploring his sexuality at the beginning, I saw myself in all the uncertainty, in all the chaos, in all his overdramatic spiraling, to say the least.

They are more than their partners and I personally never felt like I was being misrepresented just because of who they were currently with.

But also, it's so useless for me to track how many hetero-presenting relationships there are on this show when the biggest representation win for me is that this actually feels like a queer community. The HBH characters feel more than a sum of their parts, compared to other shows/film where even if there are a few really good representations of queer people, the main group as a whole doesn't necessarily feel like that queer community my younger self was seeking all their life.

In truth, there are so many ways these characters could be romantically linked which would make for really interesting dynamics. And to me, every single one has a chance of becoming a plausible canon scenario which makes Heartbreak High such a groundbreaking show. I have my ships and my OTPs but I don't see how I could ever lose when the group as a whole truly feels like a super warm and safe and gay af found family regardless of who ends up with who.

[and-fishing-equipment]

the reason why so much lesbian media sucks is because it's not really about women loving women and more about women not loving men. i wish to live in a world where lesbian media can acknowledge that lesbianism exists as its own separate thing without any background ties to heterosexuality or lack thereof. it's not an "alternative" to heterosexuality, some people are just dykes because they think women are neat, not because men can't satisfy them.

[queerism1969]

[i-can-get-a-wahoo]

why would netflix do this?

profit? is that it? money?

well maybe if they’d properly advertised it it would’ve gotten sufficient views.

do they REALLY not realise how much money they’d make if they actually supported the good media they have. ESPECIALLY when it’s QUEER representation.

literally the only way a show can survive is if it’s a limited series. no show is safe.