#queer media tropes

[hoperays-song]

Can we talk about the found family trope and queer-coded/canonically queer characters? Because there is a ton of overlap between these two. 

In their stories, the queer/queer-coded characters no longer have a supportive family for a number of reasons (Hiccup refuses to kill dragons, Johnny wants to be a singer, Nimona is a shapeshifter, etc). A lot of times these reasons are things that ‘other’ them from people around them, thereby furthering the queer allegory. 

And this lack of support is what drives these characters to form/find a found family made of more people who are like them. People who will treat them with the love and support that their family should have. It pushes them into the found family trope.

The prevalence of found family in queer and queer-coded story lines serves to make them more relatable and realistic but it’s also heart breaking that familial rejection is so common that this trope does make it more realistic.

[kikikoijo]

Queer media really just always be like ✨HANDS✨

She Makes My Heart Flutter (2022) | The Eighth Sense (2023) | The Eighth Sense (2023) | My School President (2022) | Fragrance of the First Flower (2021) | GAP The Series (2022) | A Time Called You (2023) | Moonlight Chicken (2023) | My School President (2022) | Dangerous Romance (2023)

Gif creds: @damnthosewords @tomystars @forcebook @firstkhao @gabrielokun @weiwuxian @liveasbutterflies @mantrisanu @bevioletskies @liyazaki

Part 2/? (Part 1)

[voidoftetris]

gay people be like: commit an act of violence to separate yourself from your previous life and run away with me <3

[gaypirateslife4me]

I survived Buffy and Faith. (BtVS)

I survived Dean and Cas. (SPN)

I survived Olivia and Alex. (SVU)

I survived Sherlock and Watson. (Sherlock)

I survived Bucky and Steve, AND Sam and Steve, AND Bucky and Sam. (MCU)

I survived Clark and Lexa (t100).

I am currently surviving Will and Mike, Steve and Eddie, AND Nancy and Robin. (Stranger Things)

I have suffered through: queerbaiting; "everyone experiments in college"; queer coded? - they must be the villain!; "the inherent tragedy of gayness" (repression, AIDs, violence, hatred); girl-on-girl male fanservice; "pray the gay away"; and, most personally painful, "bisexuals aren't real, they just need to pick a side". (I mean, I am though?)

I have been fully and irrevocably traumatized by having to watch my beloved queers be buried over & over & over.

I have literally spent three-and-a-half decades in a toxic, abusive relationship with (not so) queer media.

Upon recommendation of multiple queer friends, I (skeptically, cynically, borderline angrily) watched their so-called "GAY PIRATE (affectionate)" comedy, and was gobsmacked.

Our Flag Means Death gave us: well-rounded characters that are 'no-room-for-guessing, even-your-deeply-repressed-insufferable-republican-uncle-can-see-it queer! Multiple queers with disabilities! Neurodivergent queers! A genderqueer pirate so slay I lose my breath every time they are on screen! Sex between mlm not reduced to 1) tittilation or 2) the raunchy punchline of a mean joke! An unapologetic celebration of Found Family! Drag treated with respect, and as a catalyst for openly queer joy! A fabulous gay wedding! And that's not to mention the loving, romantic, complicated, vulnerable, beautiful relationship between the two male protagonists!

I saw it. with my own two eyeballs. for the first time ever. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I assumed everyone must be as thrilled, honored, and overjoyed as I am for all the rep, positivity, and LOVE.

I was wrong.

It breaks my queer little heart that so many people on this glorious hellsite are furious, indignant, and quick to cancel the characters, the actors, the writers, and the showrunners for not being spoon-fed perfect queer characters in perfect queer relationships for perfect queer rep in ACTUAL queer media that exists! In canon!

It hurts to be vilified for being a fan who refuses to condemn the show and for loving concerningly imperfect and deeply-flawed queer characters.

I am sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, LOVE WON. We won. Please stop coming into my house (blog) and pissing all over my rainbow parade.

[quintin]

what is it with the gays holding pinkies at the movies? first we had Jude and Connor on The Fosters, then it's Nick and Charlie in Heartstopper

[giggleshitter0]

nobody understands 😕

[ohfugecannada]

Peak media trope is where the heroes have the same type of queer coding the villains do.

[chirpsythismorning]

I just remembered they devoted a whole scene to Mike and Will burying a dead body for no reason other than to poke fun at—

[but-a-humble-goon]

Remember in the Raimi Spider-Man movies when Peter discovers his spider powers because of his attraction to Mary Jane? And Uncle Ben dies because Peter wanted money for a car to impress Mary Jane? And all three movies end with the villain kidnapping Mary Jane to force Spider-Man to come fight them? You know how this trope of a male hero whose sole motivation is the female prize which must be won through heroism is so ubiquitous and commonplace in pop culture as to be called the ultimate cliche? Keep that in mind for the next time someone tries to tell you three seconds of footage of a queer couple holding hands is "forcing it down our throats."

[horror-aesthete]

Dracula, 2020, dir. Jonny Campbell

SE01E01 The Rules of the Beast

[stressfulsloth]

A STORY CAN BE A QUEER STORY WITHOUT ROMANCE. A STORY CAN BE A QUEER STORY EVEN IF IT CONTAINS TRAGEDY. A STORY DOES NOT HAVE TO FOCUS EXPLICITLY ON A NEATLY RESOLVED ROMANTIC PLOT IN ORDER FOR IT TO BE TELLING A QUEER STORY. JUST BECAUSE A STORY IS NOT A COOKIE CUTTER ROMANCE WITH A DYKE COPY-PASTED INTO THE ROLE OF THE MALE LOVE INTEREST DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS NOT A QUEER STORY.

[archie-the-menace]

Since it’s Pride Month, thought I’d say I am very proud to write queer fiction with practically no coming out subplots. Never thought coming out was that important for my characters especially since they live in a more accepting world than ours. Theres nothing wrong with coming out stories, but I find them very overdone to the point they almost come off cringy or lazy. Writing a queer character doesn’t have to focus on their oppression or their struggles with identity. Queer people can simply exist as they are. I think that does a lot more for our representation than focusing on our coming outs.

[yuripira4e]

SHUT THE FUCK UPPP WE ARE COMMUNICATING NOW I LOVE YOU AND WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS YOU ASSHOLE is such a trope tbh

[pinkcadillaccas]

Like it's no wonder media literacy is dog shit in so many young people we are being written TV that spoonfeeds all of the information to us and leaves no room for subtlety or creative world building and we keep saying that this is good and it's not! And if we all keep watching bad TV and saying that it's good then all TV is going to become badly written contrived crap that thinks it's being deep and annoying libs on Tumblr are going to keep saying that omg this episode was so brave it literally said eat the rich!!

[duckduckngoose]

My favorite kind of relationship dynamic recently has been 'Would be in a Queer-Platonic relationship in modern times, but in their time the words for it don't exist yet'

[danmeichael]

both ad lib lovers and the summer hikaru died to something really interesting wherein they take typical genre conventions and set-ups of BL and place them into a genre other than romance, while still portraying the romantic undertones. where the summer hikaru died does this with horror, ad lib lovers does this with comedy.

as opposed to hikaru's focus on horror, in ad lib lovers, jealousy, desire, and a fear of inadequacy and loving someone more than they love you is portrayed through the lens of improv. this accurately depicts that having a crush on someone as an adult is humiliating.