"Antoine's" Confession - s4 ep8 "Born to Be Brave"
Love this scene ngl. I wasn't even surprised that he wasn't actually French, or that he was into Big Red from the start. More so that they actually went this route, and brought Andrew back for it lmao.
Redtoine has been a goofy ship of mine since s2, and I'm happy it's real now! 🎉
Ok this might be a little ranty, but before I continue, I wanted to give a little disclaimer: This has very little to do with the actors in this show. I love Julia Lester and Larry Saperstien, and their willingness to put their identities on display is brave and appreciated. The problems in this show primarily come from the writing.
A little summary: Ashlyn and Big Red both come out as bi in the show. Which is great! But their discovery of their respective sexualities comes from both of them cheating on each other. Yes, the only two bi characters in the show BOTH cheat. They have a conversation with each other where they confess to their infidelity, and they're both really fine with it because apparently, cheating is fine if it's for self-discovery purposes. In a later scene, Big Red apologizes to Carlos for kissing his boyfriend, seemingly oblivious to the pain the action caused. And basically, it's left at that.
As a bi person, I find this upsetting, mainly because of how it reinforces negative stereotypes that already exist surrounding bi people. Many people have said that they wouldn't date a bi person because 'they're more likely to cheat' or 'they're not trustworthy'. Instead of taking the opportunity to potentially alter those perceptions and fill a gap in the film industry by displaying real, healthy bi representation, the show chooses to reinforce those stereotypes. They undermine bi identities by showing bisexuality as a 'path of self-discovery' rather than a destination in someone's journey. They show cheating as a valid option rather than depicting healthy communication between loving partners about developments in their identities. To make it worse, the choices that the characters make related to the cheating are very incongruent with their characterization. Essentially the writers went out of their way to make a harmful depiction of bisexuality, leaving bi viewers with nothing.
I'm mainly disheartened by this because I thought we were getting past this. I thought studios were more willing to listen to the voices of the people they represent and change negative narratives. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Heartstopper, which showed the beautiful arc of Nick Nelson, whose bisexuality served as a form of clarity and closure in his identity, and whose story was never shrouded by harmful stereotypes. Maybe I just wanted a little bi4bi representation... ;-;
Regardless, this season of the show just didn't do it for me. What did you think of the show? Am I overreacting? Is there something I missed? Please feel free to disagree or leave a comment. The comment box looks sad when it's empty :')