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god DAMN it
I had a terrible day at work, and then I got home to discover that the new word-of-god on Marcus Keane is that he's not gay, he's bisexual. From this interview with showrunner Jeremy Slater.
If they had shown Marcus as bisexual since the beginning, instead of clearly presenting him as gay and then changing their minds, I'd be fine with it. Hell, I'd have been thrilled! But I am deeply suspicious of why they're saying bisexual now; if they aren't making way for a romance, either past or future or both, with Mouse I'll eat my hat. And that just infuriates me, especially in the context of Marcus's having apparently, in 2x05, drawn back from starting a relationship with Peter.
I was so fucking happy to have a gay lead character that I love in a show that I love. And now that's been taken away, probably in the service of putting in a het romance.
It also fucks up the whole way I understood Marcus, which considering I was thinking of writing fic is a big deal.
I remember now why I so rarely get into open-canon shows: because they can break your damn heart.
ETA: Now that I'm calmer I want to clarify what I meant. Wanting to introduce a bisexual character on the show is, in itself, great. The showrunners could've taken a character previously assumed to be straight and revealed them to be bi. Or they could've made Peter bi, since there's nothing to indicate that Peter is necessarily gay and not bi. But no, the showrunners pickedmy gay action hero a lead character who has been strongly suggested to be gay ("I didn't think girls were your flavor" says the demon, and it doesn't make sense as a taunt unless Marcus is indeed not attracted to women/girls). So, yeah, we get a bi character added, but at the cost of subtracting a gay one. The total number of queer characters on the show has not gone up, even though there are plenty of presumed-straight characters to choose from. And I do genuinely fear that this is in preparation for introducing a het romance for Marcus, because if they didn't want to show him in a relationship with a woman, why not just let him be gay? There is no shortage of het romance in the media, and I really really really really ohmygodreally don't want to see another one when the prerequisite for it is "Oops, Marcus isn't gay after all!" Honestly I'm dubious about any romance on the show (unless it's Marcus/Tomas, which we aren't going to get), and the idea of a het one gets right up my nose. The most cynical part of me feels like this is a way for the show to get inclusivity points without the ratings risk of showing an ongoing romance between two men. ("But Marcus is bi!" cry the showrunners. "He kissed a man that one time, remember? How much more do you people want?")
It makes me angry that this decision pits queer fans (and fans of queer characters) against each other. Because obviously it's good to have more bisexual characters in the media! But the price we're being asked to pay for that--one less gay character, when gay characters are underrepresented already--is not good. The obvious solution is fewer straight characters. But heaven forbid straight people not see themselves vastly over-represented in the media. That might make them uncomfortable.
At least the Australian postal vote on same-sex marriage is turning out strongly in favor, so the day isn't totally awful.
If they had shown Marcus as bisexual since the beginning, instead of clearly presenting him as gay and then changing their minds, I'd be fine with it. Hell, I'd have been thrilled! But I am deeply suspicious of why they're saying bisexual now; if they aren't making way for a romance, either past or future or both, with Mouse I'll eat my hat. And that just infuriates me, especially in the context of Marcus's having apparently, in 2x05, drawn back from starting a relationship with Peter.
I was so fucking happy to have a gay lead character that I love in a show that I love. And now that's been taken away, probably in the service of putting in a het romance.
It also fucks up the whole way I understood Marcus, which considering I was thinking of writing fic is a big deal.
I remember now why I so rarely get into open-canon shows: because they can break your damn heart.
ETA: Now that I'm calmer I want to clarify what I meant. Wanting to introduce a bisexual character on the show is, in itself, great. The showrunners could've taken a character previously assumed to be straight and revealed them to be bi. Or they could've made Peter bi, since there's nothing to indicate that Peter is necessarily gay and not bi. But no, the showrunners picked
It makes me angry that this decision pits queer fans (and fans of queer characters) against each other. Because obviously it's good to have more bisexual characters in the media! But the price we're being asked to pay for that--one less gay character, when gay characters are underrepresented already--is not good. The obvious solution is fewer straight characters. But heaven forbid straight people not see themselves vastly over-represented in the media. That might make them uncomfortable.
At least the Australian postal vote on same-sex marriage is turning out strongly in favor, so the day isn't totally awful.
no subject
I agree that is the kind of thing you worry about unless the show proves otherwise.
And if we're going to have Saved By Love, I want it to be same-sex love that saves.
I thought of your comment when I ran into this review of Helen Wright's A Matter of Oaths (1988):
"And Rafe, well. Rafe and Joshim are both men, and they end up lovers and strongly in love. And—in part because of this—Rafe gradually starts to recover pieces of his memory . . . Its vision of a space-faring society doesn't seem out of place to a contemporary reader, the way many other future visions of the eighties and nineties do, because Wright's space opera includes in positive, sympathetic ways people that those other visions leave out—like women reluctantly nearing retirement after a long career and men who love men."
It's not fanart, astonishingly. It's from the cover of a 1987 French magazine.
Go, Croc. The accompanying sketches are also delightful.