#what homophobe is responsible for these men not getting an onscreen kiss

[chiarrara]

I have been betrayed by the CherryMaho drama

[orionsangel86]

Just saw the gifset of John Boyega and Oscar Isaac and the tag about Jenmish being like that some day and it got me thinking. Everyone on spn who has been asked about their character's sexuality has never had a problem, speight, Mark S., even Jim when asked about kissing Mark S. he seemed really comfortable talking about it. But Jenen can't even address it considering how Dean flirts with men he could just say Dean could be bi. I find it rather peculiar that it makes him uncomfortable.

So the thing about Jensen is this. There is still A LOT of misinformation floating around fandom, encouraged by Destiel and Bi!Dean haters (usually bronlies) about how Destiel and Bi!Dean makes Jensen “uncomfortable”. I have seen a post just today in the Destiel tag doing the rounds talking about how “its such a shame Destiel makes Jensen uncomfortable” because of this misinformation and it drives me crazy every time I read yet ANOTHER post about it.

Where? Where has he said specifically that it makes him uncomfortable? You know what makes Jensen uncomfortable? Antagonistic “fans” at conventions asking him leading questions that he knows will either get him in trouble with the network (for giving away spoilers) or with fans as there are a bazzilion different factions in fandom and Jensen wants to please them all. (I’m willing to bet money that Jensen is fully aware of the “Sunday crowd” at US cons and adjusts his tone and responses accordingly).

When I said in my tags on that FinnPoe post that “i hope JenMish are like this one day”. I meant, I hope that they are able to speak openly about this relationship between their characters without worrying about backlash from either network due to spoilers or rabid fans. I did not mean “I hope that Jensen gets over his homophobia and discomfort talking about the gay” because I don’t think that Jensen has any discomfort or homophobia towards Destiel or Bi!Dean.

You have to consider that Jensen’s first introduction to shipping was via Wincest. Now, Sorry to Wincest fans that may find this next thing that I say offensive, but well, its the damn truth. Incest is gross. Imagine being a young actor and finding out that all these women (usually heterosexual older women) read and write pornography of you fucking your onscreen brother? Imagine finding out that they invented a genre about you and your costar IRL where you fuck like wolves and you get “breeded” by a giant wolf penis?!?! (imagine finding out recently that you are getting namedropped in a court case on this very topic!!!)

Now put Jensen’s years worth of dismissal of shipping (in general) into perspective. He thought Destiel was the same as Wincest. Even Misha jokes about Destiel being about the porn, he generalised and didn’t like the idea of being fetishized by fans, because thats how Wincest made him feel.

HOWEVER, when it comes to discussing the DeanCas canon relationship Jensen has no problem talking about this thoughtfully and with care and consideration. Especially recently.

I have been to cons, I have seen first hand the care Jensen gives towards Destiel shippers. I spent time comforting my young lesbian friend who had such a heartfelt conversation with Jensen about coming out and how Dean helped her that she was overwelmed and in tears by how lovely he was. Another friend, wearing a top that clearly said “Destiel exists” received big smiles and even bigger hugs from Jensen who not once dismissed her (she came away from that experience feeling that Jensen had subtly encouraged her to keep shipping it).

I am of the very firm belief that both Jensen and Misha have been told not to talk about romance between Dean and Cas. I still think they consider it spoilers (since I’m still a “its going canon” rare unicorn of a fan these days). Jensen in recent years has been very obviously using the Misha Collins approach of addressing Destiel - by making jokes.

Sometimes his jokes fall a bit flat. Last years jibcon he tried to rile up the crowd and joke with us about it. It was a fantastic atmosphere when he shouted “destiel is real” and then made fun of us by asking “where is it real?” but guys, ignore the antis on this point. The whole thing was a joke and he was laughing and playing with us. It wasn’t meant as a dismissal at all. Honestly I think he was most likely poking fun at his former self on stage grumpily shouting “destiel doesn’t exist” because he was having a very bad day that day and I truly think he regrets saying that. Especially with how encouraging he has been towards the ship recently. (even going so far as to basically confirm Dean is attracted to Cas)

Jensen (and Misha) are both very much aware of how important their onscreen relationship is to us fans. They are aware of how popular it is, and they do imo, exactly what Oscar and John did in Star Wars, in that they perform their characters as if they are in love. I truly believe that once SPN is finally over, we will get the same level of confirmation from Jensen and Misha about Dean and Cas’s relationship as we did from John and Oscar about Finn and Poe, and I also happen to think that canon will very much confirm the romance as well.

TL;DR: Destiel does not make Jensen uncomfortable. He supports it, he supports us. He respects his LGBTQ fans, he is not homophobic, and he genuinely understands and appreciates the deep and “profound” relationship between Dean and Cas in canon. Please do not encourage rumours that paint him in a different light to this, you are only encouraging a rhetoric circulated by haters to put fans off of shipping Destiel.

[z-exo-l]

Long-Ass Opinionated Word Vomit w some Gulf Kanawut Appreciation thrown in

(I’ve been putting off posting stuff about the special episode until this monstrosity was finished, and I think it’s as close as it’s gonna get, so hopefully tomorrow night I can actually rb all the beautiful TT posts in my drafts!!!)

WARNING for positive discussion involving the TharnType shower scene, and some vague shade thrown at SOME, NOT ALL, bl actors. Remember kids, this is entertainment, and we all take in entertainment differently. This is also extremely verbose (seriously I talk too fucking much, good god!) for a sentiment I could probably express in just a paragraph, so I’m sorry in advance, but I’ll try to get on with it.

Topic: I’m immensely thankful that Type was played by Gulf.

This is for many reasons, of course; I’ve said repeatedly in my tags about how much I love Type and how fully fleshed out he is, all thanks to the care and research Gulf gave the part. But one of the biggest reasons I’m grateful for him is the kiss scenes. And just so it’s clear that I’m not speaking (entirely) superficially, let me offer a bit of context:

Anyone familiar with live action BL knows what awkward kissing looks like. It’s gotten much better recently, but there are innumerable examples of a bl couple nailing the adoring stare, or doing perfect witty banter, only to fall utterly flat during kiss scenes. I shit you not, I’ve actually given names to some of the kinds of bad kissing I’ve seen over the years. (The Balloon Knot, the Pac Man, the Clench...etc)

It sounds quite comical, and sometimes it is but, and again, this is just my opinion, it’s very hard to believe an onscreen couple is into each other if they can’t kiss decently. And sadly the biggest cause I’ve seen of this is some actors’ reluctance to kiss another male. It’s not the case every time, of course! Censorship is to blame in some circumstances, or an actor being generally inexperienced, poor directing; there’s a plethora of reasons that aren’t related to underlying homophobia. I’m not suggesting some insidious conspiracy here.

I have to admit though, I went into TharnType pretty much expecting that sort of reluctant-awkward kissing. I wasn’t worried about Mew, because I had seen his love scenes in What the Duck, and I was vaguely aware that he was a member of The Community. So I was sold on him. I was just worried about This Other Guy (Gulf) back when I started watching the series, and I think that was a little before episode three aired. I had tried the first two eps, then a couple days later episode three was out. Which, as you know, episode three has the shower scene. Aka, the first mutual kiss scene. Let me do a quick (subjective) breakdown:

At first, Type’s mouth is Clenched (tm) shut, but he purses his lips first, and then he gives the biggest indicator that he’s at least somewhat enjoying what’s happening: he’s kissing Tharn back. He eventually pushes him away, but there’s confusion on his face when he tells Tharn to let him go. After that his expression melts. He doesn’t try to stop Tharn again, and even starts to caress and fondle him back. It’s not fully reciprocal, but it is close.

Throughout the whole episode to that point Type’s dealing with a burgeoning attraction to Tharn, someone that he believes he should still harbor hatred towards. It’s this mental conflict from the character that makes his hesitation in the shower kiss understandable. But even though it was in-character for that scene, I still wasn’t sold yet; I’m so jaded in this subject I *fully* expected the rest of the kissing scenes to play out as the Clench.

Then episode four happened. It’s worth noting that I started watching episodes live at that point, and in the live airing all you saw of that epic love scene was the first shot where Type grabbed Tharn around his neck and kissed him (his arm censoring the mouth-to-mouth contact, of course.) So after that I was still nervous going into the uncensored segment, compounded by Type’s lack of response during the overhead kiss shot. But the second they changed camera angles, and Type initiated that second kiss, holy shit, it was incredible!!! He was fully reciprocating, his expressions were on point, and there was no awkwardness to be seen. It wasn’t just good kissing, it was sensuous kissing, between two equally enthusiastic participants. Cut to me mentally eating my words.

Now with Type’s character background and resulting homophobia, lesser actors (I won’t name names but yes, I do mean lesser) would have taken that as an out for the kissing parts. ‘Wait, this guy’s homophobic, I don’t have be into the kisses! Phew!’ Thus giving us really unnatural love scenes. Instead what Gulf did, especially in those initial kisses, was convey Type’s desire overcoming his resistance through meticulous use of nuance. (Nuance is another thing I constantly praise Gulf for.)

But I don’t think that kind of portrayal would have possible if there had been an actor in the part with reservations *cough*homophobia*cough* about kissing other men. And ftr, Gulf said upfront that he didn’t see a difference between bl acting and doing a m/f character, long before the show aired. He said it was an actor’s job to portray whatever the character is. (And let me take a moment to squee about Mew’s proud thumbs up when Gulf said that.)

I think it’s thanks to that lack of prejudice, plus their indomitable chemistry, that Mew and Gulf were able to do such beautiful kissing scenes. Every single one is immersive and natural, so I didn’t doubt for a second that these characters were falling in love with each other. Additionally I wasn’t sitting there wrinkling my face wishing they’d just be done already. (Quite the opposite, in fact, but I digress.)

All of this babble just to say, that I’m so grateful for the Type that Gulf gave us. And like I said, his talent extends far beyond love scenes. How many of us cried during episode four when Type talked about the molestation?? And the confession in episode six??? How many of us at the end of the series found ourselves in love with a guy who made his roommate’s life hell just for being gay way back in episode one??? I won’t keep rambling but seriously, someone give this guy an award, ANY AWARD, he’s such a great actor and he’s a frigging ROOKIE!!!

Tl;dr. Mwah, Gulf Kanawut. Thank you. ❤️

[bigskydreaming]

notjustawave replied to your post:

If the only evidence of a character not being...

me seeing ppl act like deadpool movies are the pinnacle of representation like i HAVE to laugh

Like....we’ve been hearing this “oh, progress takes baby steps, one little thing at a time” crap for our entire lives, and guess what? With the exception of representation created by actual marginalized creators who manage to get a platform for it against all odds, most other so called representation from major studios and companies and franchises looks barely any different from the scraps they were giving us twenty years ago.

Baby steps my ass. Just say you’re trying to keep marginalized viewers on the hook watching your stuff without pissing off the homophobes and racists enough that they stop watching your stuff. That’s what it comes down to. That is the only reason most representation is still half-assed, blink and you miss it.

Major billion dollar corporations and highly successful and influential actors who makes millions off every movie honestly have people bending over backwards to say they’re trying or progress isn’t easy and it takes time, like these people are actual victims and like....boxed in by the evil homophobic society or whatever....instead of the tastemakers whose prioritization of straight white heroes for generations is the reason we have to fight so hard to get actual representation in the first place! 

They’re not powerless to do more in the face of a still largely homophobic society, they’ve just made the conscious choice that they care more about making sure homophobes still buy tickets to their movies than they do actually making a difference.

And like, if that’s what they want to do, then fine, they can do that, but what kills me is this idea that we’re supposed to be grateful for whatever little hint of not-straightness or not-whiteness that they shine a spotlight on for 2.5 seconds in a movie before its back to business as usual.....as though they’d do more if they could, really they would, but that’s just the best they could manage because The Homophobes and the Racists, y’see.

The movie Deadpool only happened because Ryan Reynolds wanted it to happen so badly, he wouldn’t let the project die in development hell. He kept making the rounds himself, kept the push on to keep new scripts for it getting made, and he has enough star power and a big enough fanbase that he was able to make it happen when lots of other actors couldn’t. There’s that post going around about how there’s a Bea Arthur T-Shirt he wore in the movie that they had trouble getting in because copyright stuff, so he paid $10K out of his own pocket for the licensing stuff to go through. And on and on.

Like, these aren’t small, innocuous things, they’re a display of the fact that people have power and influence in Hollywood and use those things every single day to get what they want or do things they care about. If the Deadpool production team and star really WANTED Deadpool the character to be the kind of meaningful representation they’re obviously all too happy to accept accolades for having provided already? Then they absolutely had the power to to give Wade an actual romantic history with one of the men in his films, or even one of them as an actual love interest or reciprocated flirting with one of them responding to his come-ons with like, interest of their own. Because notice how that suddenly, magically, turns what WAS just Wade obnoxiously using suggestive humor purely aimed at getting an audience laugh rather than an actual reaction....into two men having a moment like happens hundreds of times throughout every other summer blockbuster between a man and a woman and given the same degree of consideration and attention.

And yes, before someone comes at me with ‘bi and pan people don’t need to be in a romantic or sexual relationship with the same gender to be bi or pan’, like yes, thank you, I, a bisexual man, am aware of the fact that I remain equally bisexual when single, dating a man, dating a woman, or mid-orgy. My sexuality is not dependent on anyone or anything other than my own identity.

But we’re not talking about a real life human being’s identity here. We’re talking about REPRESENTATION, which is a thing created deliberately by human beings making conscious choices about what they want to display and what they don’t, and their reasons for both.

So yes, a bi or pan character is still bi or pan whether we see them kissing the same gender or not, but you can not act like a living bi man’s romantic and sexual interests being driven by his own unique choices as an individual....this is NOT the same thing as a bi or pan character who just so happens to be romantically interested in women love interests save for the occasional suggestive joke aimed at the nearest male character.

Because the former is born of that real life bi man’s entire life, experiences, personality, his BEING. The latter is born of human agendas and creative decisions and studio politics and yes, the fact that Fox and the Deadpool production are more than happy to throw LGBTQ+ viewers just enough table scraps that they’ll stay invested in supporting it, but not so much that it might risk them losing tickets in large numbers from the homophobic sector of their audience.

If I ignore the five men in my vicinity and focus on the one woman because I feel more of an attraction or connection to her for whatever reason, I get to do that because I am my own person, and people can assume whatever they want about what my motives or thought process might be but guess what? It doesn’t matter, because my choices are for me and me alone.

If Deadpool ignores the five men in his vicinity to focus on the one woman, its NOT because he feels more of an attraction or connection to her, because HE DOESN”T FEEL ANY OF THOSE THINGS. He is a fictional character. He only feels and acts upon whatever the writers decide he should feel and act upon, and THEIR motives and thought process absolutely get to be called into question, because they are not individuals making personal choices that are for them and them alone, they are creators of content that benefits and profits from the positive responses and continued support of whomever they choose to cater that content to in order to gain their support and positive response.

And bottom line, they still care more about selling tickets to homophobes than they do about creating real, positive, meaningful representation, and like....people should say that?? We do not owe it to million dollar franchises to say thank you, can we please have some more because of whatever they deign to dole out. Not while still blatantly making it clear PS, glad you liked that little moment there in Act Two Scene Five but tbh, we still care more about not pissing off the dude who lives in his parents’ basement in Kansas and has five guns and every Deadpool action figure ever made and cries into his pillow every night because Sara Lee rejected him when he asked her to his high school prom because he’s weird and ugly and nobody understands his pain like Deadpool, who is also weird and ugly and thus he NEEDS him, and just because he makes dumb jokes to guys onscreen sometimes, that’s no big deal, everyone does that sometimes, its not like he’s REALLY into guys, that’d be weird and also he can’t be because then he wouldn’t be like that homophobic shitbag who lives in his parents’ basement and trolls LGBTQ+ fans on twitter with “Lulz, dumbass losers, just accept that Deadpool doesn’t really represent you and never will, he’s OURS.”

They understand what actual representation looks like, because they’ve been representing the infinite shades of Shitty Straight White Human Being for generations now, and every single straight white man in Hollywood has a story about the character they identified with most as a child and made them want to write or act and basically shaped their entire life.

They know what actual representation looks like and what it means, but they have no interest in providing it so long as it might alienate who they see as the real moneymakers still, knowing they can still keep marginalized viewers watching by doling out the bare minimum and saying “there’s more coming, its just progress takes time, we need to take baby steps” like they’ve been doing for actual, literal decades, with very little actual change to show for it.

Sorry not sorry, but you tell me here’s five cents for you and hand me a nickel and then turn to the shitbag human being standing on the other side of you wearing a GOD HATES GAYS T-shirt and say “and here’s a twenty dollar bill for YOU, don’t spend it all in one place, lol” and then you and he share a hearty laugh while I’m standing there holding a fucking nickel?

LMAO, you can keep your five cents, you’re not like....actually doing me any favors there and I’m not going to feed your ego by pretending you did anything other than give me a shitty fucking nickel you probably picked up off the sidewalk.

[dragonkeeper19600]

If AKA meant to have EddEddy as canon what does it do for you in representational matters? What message were they trying to send out?

I think for it to be proper representation, there wouldn’t be any ambiguity about it. There’s a difference between writing a gay couple subtly so not everyone will catch on and writing a relationship that may or may not be romantic. I’d like to think that AKA kept the relationship between the Edd and Eddy ambiguous, left it a possibility that they might be interested in each other without confirming or denying it, because it’s a show about children, and children don’t quite know how to navigate relationships yet. However, a lot of other shows keep the possibility of a relationship between two folks of the same gender ambiguous as kind of an easy way out. By teasing a possible romance but never outright confirming it, a show is theoretically pleasing everyone by promising them nothing, since fans who want them to be together can imagine that they are, and more conservative (read: homophobic fans) can deny the same. 

You may have heard the term “queer baiting” being thrown around on Tumblr. This process of teasing homosexual representation without committing to it is what queer baiting describes. It’s basically manipulation to try to keep those who want gay representation placated without ever actually, you know, giving them any.

I don’t think AKA was queer baiting us. I think they just didn’t want to commit to any particular pairing, gay or straight, because Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy is not a show about romance. But, for the representation to be meaningful, there would have to be no ambiguity. The type of relationship Korra and Asami have in The Legend of Korra is what I’d be satisfied with. Even though they never kiss onscreen, the way they hold hands, step up to the Spirit World gate in a manner reminiscent of stepping up to an altar, and gaze into each other’s eyes left no doubt in anyone’s mind. 

Of course, two characters don’t have to pledge themselves to each other to make it clear they’re gay. If Edd and Eddy’s interactions were presented as more unambiguous flirting, that would be something. I can already hear the protests from miles away: “They are! They totally are!” I don’t think so. I know Eddy can get pretty handy with Edd, but I think that’s because he’s comfortable with Edd and also likes to make fun of him a bit. I can’t imagine Eddy being that upfront with Nazz, the girl we know for sure he likes. Heck, when he tried to put his hand on her shoulder in “An Ed is Born,” it looked like he was going to pop!

I don’t know how many Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy fans watch Transformers: Robots in Disguise, but there’s a pair of characters in that show that I think perfectly exemplify the type of Unresolved Sexual Tension that some fans claim is in Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy. In a nutshell, at the beginning of RID, there are two Autobots who couldn’t stand each other. Their names are Sideswipe and Strongarm, and they were the stereotypical “Uptight/Loose Canon” duo we’ve seen in a million other shows. Strongarm was a rookie cop who always played by the rules, Sideswipe was a young delinquent who chafed at authority. They constantly butted heads and fought over every little thing. Some people were already shipping them at that point, but I didn’t because fighting couple = ew. It wasn’t healthy, and it was honestly tiresome to watch.

But, starting around season 2, the aura between them began to soften. Strongarm loosened up, and Sideswipe blew off Strongarm less often. There was a period of time where they were separated for several episodes, since they were assigned to different teams to handle different missions, and Strongarm began to complain that the team she was assigned with couldn’t perform as well as Sideswipe. Why can’t you pull of that maneuver like Sideswipe? If Sideswipe were here, he’d have known what to do. I used to train like this with Sideswipe all the time, etc., etc. 

When they were finally reunited, they slipped right back into their familiar bickering dynamic. But, you could tell it was different now. Their insults to each other were more playful and less mean, and when a different member of the team gets captured, Sideswipe comments that he’s impressed with Strongarm’s cool, to which Strongarm replies she wouldn’t be able to keep her cool if Sideswipe had been in danger. This makes Sideswipe smile.

A lot of this seems like I could be describing Edd and Eddy. Completely polar opposite personalities butting heads, frequent arguments, gradual softening into mutual trust and respect. But, like Edd and Eddy, none of this really convinced me that Strongarm and Sideswipe were a couple. I was willing to see it as them becoming closer platonic friends, since this series had had close, platonic friendships between men and women before. 

But, then, something changed my mind. In one episode of RID, after everything I described, Sideswipe is being pinned by a Decepticon and Strongarm saves him with an impressive display of skill and power. Sideswipe is lying on the ground, looking up at Strongarm standing heroically above him with a trident in her hand and says, “Yowza.”

Her response is to wink back at him.

That was the moment when I gave up. They were totally into each other. There was no other explanation.

So, basically, for me to consider Edd and Eddy canon, something like that would’ve needed to have happened. Can you imagine Eddy genuinely saying “Yowza!” at Edd? Or Edd winking back? 

Probably. I can, and it’s adorable. But it didn’t happen, so the “representation” doesn’t seem strong enough to me.

However, with that said...

I am a straight woman, and I understand I might not be seeing this show the same way some gay viewers do or have the same memories of growing up watching at as other gay folks my age. I’ve seen testimonies from gay and bi fans who said this show was really important for them because the interactions between Edd and Eddy made them feel less alone and showed them it was okay to want what you wanted or have the type of relationship they dreamed of having. I, a straight person, didn’t see it as representation, but they did. And if this show was able to do that much good for kids growing up and discovering themselves, then that shouldn’t be overlooked. 

[la-leto]

Since people seem really confused over what makes “Bohemian Rhapsody” homophobic and I’m getting tired of blocking Rami fangirls in my notes:

“Yes, Freddie is absolutely presented as bisexual in this picture, but the film essentially argues that he would have been fine had he remained in a monogamous hetero relationship with Lucy Boynton’s Mary Austin. Whether it’s homophobic or old-school slut-shaming, it’s icky.

I don’t pretend to know how much of what we see is factual, and frankly, I don’t care since this isn’t a documentary. But the lengths to which Bohemian Rhapsody seems under pressure to both acknowledge Mercury’s sexual orientation and happy hedonistic lifestyle while also making the film safe for culturally conservative audiences who mostly know Queen from Wayne’s World is bewildering. With all the online handwringing about whether the movie would acknowledge Mercury’s less PC moments, well, this is a case where outright straight-washing might have been almost preferable to what we got. Yes, Freddie is bisexual, but his main same-sex lover (Allen Leech’s Paul Prenter) is presented as the film’s defining villain.

I don’t want to obsess over this one aspect, but it’s frankly jaw-dropping that Hollywood managed to make a homophobic Freddie Mercury biopic. And as much as I mostly enjoyed the movie when it was focused upon the creation of music (less so the surface-level look at late-1970’s/early 1980’s showbiz), it’s hard to recommend a movie that implicitly denounces the very demographics that were most inspired by the life and times of its subject.”

“The movie reduces queer identity to a series of promiscuous sexual encounters, which it consistently frames as sordid, shameful, illicit, and corrupting. It also builds a whole annoying subplot around the “predatory gay villain” trope, which is a tired, obnoxious cliché that in Bohemian Rhapsody is even more problematic than usual because it’s used to imply that Mercury, a real-life gay man, was somehow corrupted into becoming queer by an opportunistic music industry parasite who doesn’t really care about Freddie at all.

The movie is so unwilling to treat Mercury’s queerness with any degree of respect that it doesn’t even bother to get the timeline of his coming-out right, let alone explore that process with sensitivity or interest. At one point, Mercury is shown gazing contemplatively at a seedy bathhouse, but viewers don’t see whether he goes in, with the clear implication that he’s questioning himself and what he wants. Then in the very next scene, he confidently describes himself as a “hysterical queen” to his other bandmates. And then, a few scenes later, he haltingly confesses to his wife that he might be bisexual; she is the one who has to inform him, in response, that he is gay.

Bohemian Rhapsody also refuses to depict gay men having meaningful and deeply emotional relationships. The emotional development of Mercury’s romance with Jim Hutton, his partner of seven years, is relegated to a single conversation. Their entire loving, monogamous relationship is reduced onscreen to a single kiss and a brief hand squeeze.

This minimization makes it an even worse offense that the film does take the time to depict Mercury having a series of promiscuous sexual encounters, which it paints as sordid and shameful. Because Bohemian Rhapsody only equates queerness with sex, and because it frames his queer lifestyle as bad, Mercury’s subsequent AIDS diagnosis is inherently set up and portrayed as a punishment for his queerness.

Not only is all of this negligent, it’s actively harmful. There are numerous real-world examples of how equating queerness to sexually explicit content continues to hurt and marginalize people — such as the many YouTube vloggers and creators who are constantly fighting against algorithms that incorrectly flag their queer content as “explicit” and “not safe for work” solely because it concerns queer people. And the depiction of AIDS as a punishment for gayness, which has found voice in everything from doomsday preachers to Stephen King novels, has historically contributed to the deaths of millions by creating a huge stigma around the disease, making it difficult for researchers to gain public support in the fight for the cure and causing considerable obstacles for many who are diagnosed to receive equitable treatment.

Most of what’s there, however, is devoted to showing us how much Mercury loves his common-law wife, Mary Austin, who’s portrayed as personifying virginal beauty and traditional wholesomeness — everything Mercury could have, the film implies, if only he weren’t tragically queer.

The only overt sexual moments in the film — which, as it’s rated PG-13, are nearly nonexistent — are between the two of them. In one scene, she’s framed in a diaphanous gown against soft pastel backlighting, while he gazes at her lovingly and then tells her how beautiful she is. It’s a completely straightforward iteration of the (straight) male gaze.

The camera never repeats this framing when Mercury is looking at the men around him, so we’re not allowed to see the queer men around Freddie Mercury as he would have seen them — as beautiful, as lovable, as human.”

“From the moment Mercury comes out as "gay," the film portrays him as deeply self-loathing, with all the straight people around him reinforcing it by saying things like, "Your life is going to be very difficult," and, "Be careful!" Meanwhile, the queer people in his life (with one exception I'll get to later) are all pure evil, taking Mercury away from his "straight family" and into a wild life of partying and sex...

Chief among the evil queers (and, really, the only one who has even remote character development) is Paul Prenter, Mercury's manager who lures him away from the band and down a path of leather bars and benders. There's an entire article devoted to the myriad of historical inaccuracies the film conjures up in the name of making Prenter Bohemian Rhapsody's big bad wolf. In turn, this hands millions of people the impression that the deceased real-life person behind him (Prenter passed away from AIDS in 1991, the same year as Mercury) is deserving of this villainous legacy. All the straight people being portrayed, however, come out of the film looking like flawless saints (particularly the rest of the band, some of whom unsurprisingly played a role in the making of the film).

There's one particular sequence involving Paul Prenter's heavily fictionalized role in Mercury's descent that stands out as one of Bohemian Rhapsody's greatest crimes. Prenter and Mercury are at what appears to be a gay leather bar where every single patron has a vacant, satanic look on their face. As Queen classic "Another One Bites The Dust" plays, Prenter takes Mercury into a sex room, and then the film cuts to Mercury looking sickly in bed coughing as the song continues playing. (Get it? He's biting the dust!) With the subtlety of an episode of Riverdale, the film decides to suggest to the world that this is how Mercury contracted HIV, which a) is inaccurate, as it is not known how he did, and b) reinforces the dangerous and tired trope of AIDS being a "punishment" for gay promiscuity.

Shortly after this sequence, Mercury himself finds out his HIV status (which we've already noted is years off), just as he has finally made his way out of the apparent hellscape of associating with other queer people and back to where he belongs: surrounded exclusively by angelic straight people, who are ready to forgive him for fictionally abandoning them to pursue other aspirations and live life as a queer person. And this is when the film decides it's okay for Freddie to find love.

In real life, Freddie Mercury met a hairdresser named Jim Hutton at a London gay nightclub before settling into seven-year relationship with him that ended with Mercury's death. Bohemian Rhapsody decides instead that they met when Hutton was working as a hired hand at one of Mercury's fabulous house parties. At the end of the night, a drunk and lonely Mercury grabs Hutton's ass without consent.

Years later, he decides to take out the phone book and go knock on the door of every Jim Hutton in London, a quest he undertakes on...the same day as the Live Aid concert! When he finally finds the right Jim, he basically immediately takes him to meet his family, coming out to them through suggesting him and Jim are lovers (they've spent maybe a total of two hours together at this point). And then he takes him to the concert, where his "straight family" awaits to wholeheartedly embrace Jim as a new member. Yes, straight people, this is how us gays find love: knock on doors for hours until we find the man we drunkenly sexually harassed at a party five years earlier and basically commit to a lifetime with him on the spot.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't totally off with my pretty harsh feelings (I wasn't) and was also just curious of the audience makeup — which, turns out, was a lot of...families and teenagers. And I couldn't stop thinking about the likelihood that this was the first time a lot of them ever saw a queer character or queer love or HIV/AIDS depicted in a big movie like this.

What would it teach them, besides a whole lot of factual errors about Freddie Mercury's life? That if you're queer, you will hate yourself? That if you're promiscuous, you deserve to get AIDS? That you're nothing without your "straight family"? If you look close enough, those are the lessons of Bohemian Rhapsody. And as the film makes its way to millions and millions more people over the next few weeks, it's important to understand what the lessons represent: lies perpetrated by greedy straight people (and one clearly self-loathing gay man) who wanted this movie to make a lot of money and don't seem to give an actual shit about Freddie Mercury.”

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etc etc etc etc etc

Ok. So many questions.

1) why is the one mom from Joy Luck Club there

2) why does she look just like my grandma even tho I’m not asian

3) why is jared dressed like that to attend his special screening and reception he’s hosting. Gucci wasn’t appropriate for this? Only for Snapchat videos selling concert tickets to shows in Transylvania?

4) why is he promoting this homophobic garbage I’m so embarrassed and disappointed