#like I know the whole “the vampires are not bi they are just supernaturally sensuous” thing comes direct from anne herself

[gulfportofficial]

Was saying this to a mate but here you can have it too: there are two fan interpretations of male villains who canonically, in the text, have sex with men on television media that you can always, always count on encountering. The Reddit Intellectual Response of "(character) is not actually attracted to men, just using sex as another manipulation tactic/display of power" and the Fandom Sympathizer Response of "(character) is traumatized and hypersexual." This is even more notably a thing where the character's sexuality is like, a well-written, vital facet of their character formation and relevant to the narrative. Like for example, Frank Underwood's bisexuality is so painfully real because it presents as the exact weird gendered mess you'd expect from a closeted and misogynistic white boomer from South Carolina (women are either goddesses or whores, men are tender wartime companions with bonds shared in secret), and it is also something that lurks in threat of exposure the same way his multiple murders do. Or Cornelius Hickey, whose boyfriend slips the Victorian version of "I'm not actually gay like YOU are" into their breakup and then in the next episode gets a drop of blood on his hand while Cornelius is being flogged. People come up with such elaborate justifications for why a male character would have sex with men other than that he is attracted to those men and wants to have sex with them. I legitimately wonder if people out there actually believe in the existence of gay and bi men, like. Honestly. Things may happen to or from such characters because they are gay or bi, but they are also just... gay or bi.