Queer Representation - Blog Posts
Power Rangers 2017 failed in box office because it had subtext representation AND OUTRIGHT, directly stated representation of multiple minority groups.. that wasn’t hateful.
(THIS IS MY OPINION.)
SPOILERS AHEAD.
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Trini is heavily implied to be a lesbian or bi woman. When Zack asks her about boyfriend troubles and she says no, he pauses and asks “..girlfriend troubles?” She responds to this by looking away and remaining quiet.
(For context, Zack has been shown before this to be attracted to her. After this scene, and even DURING this scene, Zack respects her even without outright confirmation and immediately stops his advances, which is ALSO insane in a good way)
Billy is a black boy who is also autistic. He isn’t portrayed as particularly aggressive, stupid, or as any other common stereotype of black men. He’s also very much socially awkward, but his friends don’t mock him for it. The most they do is cut him off if the situation calls for it. They acknowledge his support needs and adhere to them! When Jason hugs Billy and Billy asks Jason to stop touching him, instead of the common “it’s just a hug dude”, Jason listens.
Zack is a complete subversion of Asian stereotypes in film. While he does take care of his mom (because they live ALONE in a trailer park and she’s heavily implied to have cancer) he’s not a studious kid. He skips school most days, he’s loud, he’s borderline eccentric.
Especially in the 2017, post 2016 Election political scene of the USA at the time of this film’s release, I feel like this probably had a MAJOR part to do in it’s failure at the box office.
(Another part might be the way they handled Rita Repulsa and the lack of morphing until the last 40-30 minutes of the movie, but that’s another story.)
STAN has a new Aussie series coming out that's based on a book, and it looks pretty good.
Haven't read the book but
A) set in australia
B) lbgt+ (mainly mlm), indigenous and rural representation
C) Heath from Nowhere Boys and Pia from Looking for Alabrandi
So we'll see when it's released next month!
Folktales you can read as queer without squinting
Happy Pride everyone! Here is a selection of folk and fairy tales that I enjoy for both their plots and their queer vibes. I speak of vibes only, because I cannot say I have insight in the historical intention of these tales, but I do vouch for me presenting them to you unaltered, as I found them.
I will give the titles with links to the full texts here and summaries under the read more:
Gold-tree and Silver-tree Scottish fairy tale, collected by Joseph Jacobs, published in 1892. [Cw: abusive parent, murder.]
The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces Cape Verdian folktale, collected by Elsie Clews Parsons in 1916-1917. [Cw: attempted poisoning]
The Unicorn Spanish fairy tale, collected by Aurelio Espinosa in 1947. [Cw: murder, attempt at being outed, awkward use of pronouns.]
The Tale of Tamamizu Japanese literary folktale, written by an unknown author between the Muromachi period (1336–1573) and the beginning of the Edo period (1603–1867). [Cw: tragic ending.]
The Tale of the Marquise-Marquis of Banneville French literary fairy tale, published in 1697, authorship contested (suggested: François-Timoléon de Choisy, Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier, Charles Perrault). [Cw: gender dysphoria, age difference.]
Bisclavret French literary legend, written by Marie de France in the 12th century. [Cw: wolf-violence]
Keep reading
Hypothetically, if I wrote a queer-platonic sans x reader, And said reader was also
- gender queer
- a person of color (Latino specifically)
- and neurodivergent
Would anyone read it?
I'd make it regardless, cuz I just want some representation
But would anyone read it??
AROACE AND QUEER (OR NOT) PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP OR NOTHING. ‼️‼️‼️‼️
Waiter! More aroace representation in modern media, please!! And add some extra queer platonic relationships on top!!
Not a squid game fan but as a trans person, I feel the urge to repost it.
#She was the first woman that used her correct pronouns. And called her beautiful. She felt accepted for once.
On “The Owl House“, my fave is Amity Her emotional range runs the gamut-y And we all know her crush Upon Luz makes her blush If they’re not end game, that’s a calamity - Mod M
About good queer rep, I have no qualm Which is why Owl House is the bomb aaaaaa AAAAAA That was my reaction to Grom :) - Mod M
I’d also like to mentions the Pinterest pins I keep seeing that say “Marauders fan when you express your opinions” or “The Marauder fandom when you have a hc that doesn’t match theirs”
And then their headcanons are all the same: everyone is straight. Their OTP is Jily, and I’m NOT dogging on Jily, it’s an adorable ship, but they make it like every other straight ship in existence. Simultaneously, these are the same ppl replying to comments on their pins that say “why? /gen” and the reply is always a variation of “honestly I hate wolfstar like it’s such a dumb ship”
Isn’t that… hypocritical?? Are you not hating on opinions and headcanons yourself? Obviously, this is a generalization, and there are some ppl that have respectful opinions that are overshadowed by the ppl like this who have either non-sensical reason or none at all.
This will probably be controversial, but I feel like it needs to be talked about. (Marauders fandom edition part 1?)
Before I say anything else, I want to preface this by saying that everyone can have their ideas and headcanons about characters, you do you. So what I think we need to talk about is things like this:
“Omg no, the Marauders are definetly all straight, wydm??” “In canon they’re all cishet, can we keep that?” “Why is every single character some form of gay?”
In canon, little is known about them, but that’s not my point. This fandom is made up by 90% queer people that are making representation for themselves in media, because in said media, most of the “representation” is just one stereotypical queer person so the production team can claim they’re not homophobic. So when you take representation made by queer people for queer people and start packing it back into the same cishet boxes in was in before, you’re taking something that wasn’t made for you, and altering it to fit in a way you like. This sub-fandom wasn’t made by queer people so that straight people could take it and rewire it to fit them. Some *specific* instances of this are asexual Evan Rosier, trans Regulus Black, pansexual James Potter, and aroace Peter Pettigrew. While I’m not sure if this was representation some in this fandom made for themselves or others, it’s still important. What I’m really trying to say (it’s 12:36 at night, please) is that this fandom wasn’t made for straight people.
Marlene McKinnon isn’t headcanoned to be a lesbian so a weird uncle named Fred could fetishize her, she’s headcanoned to be a lesbian so that a 14 year old girl could see a character like her and feel seen. Sirius Black is not headcanoned to be gay/bi so a lonely wine mom could sexualize him. He’s headcanoned to be gay/bi so that a teenaged boy doesn’t feel so weird anymore.
Again, it’s okay to headcanon whoever to want to be this that or the other, that’s not what I’m addressing. It’s making everyone the same carbon copies of straight, white, and cis.
I’m done yapping now, go drink some water.
This will probably be controversial, but I feel like it needs to be talked about. (Marauders fandom edition part 1?)
Before I say anything else, I want to preface this by saying that everyone can have their ideas and headcanons about characters, you do you. So what I think we need to talk about is things like this:
“Omg no, the Marauders are definetly all straight, wydm??” “In canon they’re all cishet, can we keep that?” “Why is every single character some form of gay?”
In canon, little is known about them, but that’s not my point. This fandom is made up by 90% queer people that are making representation for themselves in media, because in said media, most of the “representation” is just one stereotypical queer person so the production team can claim they’re not homophobic. So when you take representation made by queer people for queer people and start packing it back into the same cishet boxes in was in before, you’re taking something that wasn’t made for you, and altering it to fit in a way you like. This sub-fandom wasn’t made by queer people so that straight people could take it and rewire it to fit them. Some *specific* instances of this are asexual Evan Rosier, trans Regulus Black, pansexual James Potter, and aroace Peter Pettigrew. While I’m not sure if this was representation some in this fandom made for themselves or others, it’s still important. What I’m really trying to say (it’s 12:36 at night, please) is that this fandom wasn’t made for straight people.
Marlene McKinnon isn’t headcanoned to be a lesbian so a weird uncle named Fred could fetishize her, she’s headcanoned to be a lesbian so that a 14 year old girl could see a character like her and feel seen. Sirius Black is not headcanoned to be gay/bi so a lonely wine mom could sexualize him. He’s headcanoned to be gay/bi so that a teenaged boy doesn’t feel so weird anymore.
Again, it’s okay to headcanon whoever to want to be this that or the other, that’s not what I’m addressing. It’s making everyone the same carbon copies of straight, white, and cis.
I’m done yapping now, go drink some water.
the thing about working on childcare these days is that I'm blown away by how open minded and genuinely curious these kids are. there are multiple openly queer kids, who are aware of the intricacy of the queer community and the multi-faceted nature of queer identity.
none of that was around 10 or 20 years ago. queerness wasn't even necessarily taboo during my childhood experiences, it just,,, wasn't taught or talked about, even from one child to another. I just didn't know it was a thing. but these little kids know about intersectionality!!!
and then when I was in high school, kids used 'gay' as an insult, but these kids at my job don't even blink differently when I told them the little queer flag pin on my messenger bag was the aroace flag. some of them ask what it means, because perhaps they've only heard of gay lesbian and trans. (and they've heard of gay lesbian and trans!!!!) I explain my flag and what it means, and it makes sense to them. that would have been alien for me as a ten year old.
some of these little lesbian girls and aroace and bisexual boys, the pan, poly, demigirl and nonbinary little ten year olds are the best friends that little me needed.
it's refreshing and heartwarming to see that the young ones of today are the kind of people this world needs.
PROTECT QUEER KIDS!!!! EMPOWER QUEER KIDS!!!!
Which is also the excuse that proshippers use but i doubt they are okay with that, so why is erasure okay then?
- “its just fiction” i love how u guys use that excuse every time u erase gay rep 💀
“Nico Di Angelo is a token gay! His coming out scene sucked!” babes I’m BEGGING you to remember 2013 gay characters were not allowed in children’s media.
Lemme say that again: In 2013, it was expected that gay characters would be censored in children’s mass media.
Remember Korra? How she and Asami had to settle for ambiguous handholding rather than a kiss? That was fully a year after House of Hades came out. Nickelodeon said No Gays, the Children™ can’t handle that. Too risky. And people said man that stinks, but that’s how these things go in 2014 America.
Gay marriage was literally still illegal in the vast majority of US states. As of October 8th, 2013 (House of Hades release date) Gay Marriage was only a thing in thirteen fucking states. California had only legalized it that year.
Gay people were still very much on the fringes of society. It was an acceptable political position on both sides of the aisle to be against the existence and equal rights of gay people.
Nico was legitimately a landmark character in queer representation. To my knowledge, there wasn’t before an openly gay main character in a bestselling ya/middle grade fantasy fiction series. It simply was not a thing. They didn’t exist. They weren’t allowed to exist.
I remember people crying. Finally. It was a watershed moment. Kids all across the world finally got someone who represented them. It was such a big fucking deal. And it was controversial!!! Not for the reasons it is today, but because people thought gay kids having representation was inappropriate.
Is Nico’s coming out a great scene? No, these days it leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and I’m sure Rick wishes he could change it. But the fact that’s the case is a wonderful reflection of how far we’ve come.
All of your gay heroes in children’s media have Nico Di Angelo to thank. It was important, and good. It deserves to be celebrated, even if we’ve progressed past it since.
Why you should watch KAOS (2024) on Neftlix:
- Jeff Goldblum as Zeus
- A disabled actors play a disabled characters (Mat Fraser & another secret one [because spoilers])
- A trans actor plays a trans character (I won't say which one since it's kind of a spoiler)
- Set in modern times, uses characters from old myths but isn't a simple retelling; it's a whole new story
- All your favs are there (Prometheus, Daedalus, Persephone, Dionysus, Cassandra, Medusa, Charon, Ariadne, the Fates, the Furies, just to name a few)
- Speaking of Persephone, she and Hades are actually in love (the version of the myth which I know much of you love)
- Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss Hera (as in, she literally does all those things)
- The gods' actors' ages actually make sense, they didn't cast solely young people or make young people look older; you've got Zeus (72), Hera (63), Hades (61), Persephone (56), Poseidon (56), Dionysus (27), you get the idea
- Killer soundtrack
- Actual realistic queer characters/representation in a natural, unforced way
- Enjoyable story and comedic but also has depth (I binge-watched it in a day)
- Not a huge commitment (8 episodes of about 50 minutes each)
- Have you ever thought "What would the Ancient Greek gods be doing in modern times?" This show answers that question!
- It wasn't renewed for a second season due to viewership, so if the views explode, maybe they'll renew it and I can find out what happens next (I know it's not likely, but I can dream; besides, if just one person watches and enjoys it, then this post will have been worth it)
I ask chatgpt why Xena warrior princess feels more progressive than shows of today.
It's crazy to think we still haven't gotten another show like Xena since we've been promised with progression. It just feels like corporate marketing blurbs even shows like Agatha all along still doesn't compare to Xena warrior princess for one it was too goddamn short.
Concept art for Younglings/Jedi Initiates, Kildo, Tep Tep, and Gavi by Petur Antonsson