#and parade the ''big company inherently evil'' argument

[macgregorhoughton]

So now with a new Disney film coming out with a "first gay" character, those lists are doing the rounds again and it makes me so irritated seeing McGregor on there. Like yeah, in Beauty & the Beast or Cruella or Onward they were not fleahed out, throw away gay characters, but MacGregor is a Main Character! Who is fleshed out and fully part of the story and he and his relationship with Lily drives it in many parts, and his being gay is actually part of his character rather than just hinted at and argh! People keep writing him off as "ooh, another 1st gay!" But he actually was! And you bet its mostly people whove never seen the film just reacting to the bad faith takes some people put online

A large reason I ended up making this blog (aside from I was hype for the movie even just based on the trailer) is because I knew this would happen and I wanted to create a space where people who actually saw themselves in the character could express how the character and movie as a whole make them happy and they could find positive posts and not be constantly reminded of all the bad faith takes. I don't talk about these bad faith takes a lot for this reason (I have some posts tagged #representation compilation where I discuss all of this) but I whole-heartedly agree with you anon.

a lot of people, me included, were really touched by MacGregor's coming out, saw themselves in his struggles, appreciated what a well-rounded character he is, and I suspect many more people would feel the same if they gave the movie a chance. But unfortunately "disney's 200th first gay character" jokes get more likes so they overshadowed any good feeling anyone might have been having. and I got messages from people who were absolutely crushed by this too. it feels like people are mocking them for seeing themselves in it, shaming them for liking a gay character that was arbitrarily deemed bad by people who never even saw the movie. (there is also a larger conversation to be had about the sense of moral superiority derived from deeming certain portrayals of a minority "bad" and shaming others for enjoying them in an attempt to appear more enlightened when in reality none of this really matters and personal enjoyment of media is not indicative of someone's morality or ability to treat people well and respectfully irl, whereas publicly shaming and mocking people constantly is kinda indicative of a failure on both accounts)

the opinions "we shouldn't have to beg for representation from huge media companies that only care about us when they can profit off us and instead support struggling queer artists' work more" and "a gay character from a huge media company can be someone queer people see themselves in and like watching" can coexist. feeling the second doesn't automatically make someone a bootlicker and thinking the first doesn't mean enjoying an enjoyable thing once in a while makes you a hypocrite.

#jungle cruise #ask #anonymous #macgregor houghton #representation compilation #there is a lot of hypocrisy I see tho where the ppl who think themselves better activists or whatever the hell for shitting on macgregor #and parade the ''big company inherently evil'' argument #are the same who look at other disney properties and love them for various reasons‚ sometimes even representation that isn't even there #and get pissy when people may point out negative aspects and say ppl should let others enjoy things #but they don't see how the same applies to what they're doing #and I'm not joking or exaggerating. it really is the same ppl who arbitrarily choose a disney property to use to show how woke they are #who also like and adore and defend other disney properties. #idk if their hate is a form of compensation for what they feel is some kind of sin committed by liking a disney thing #but either way they should look within themselves and whether this really is the path to queer liberation or just virtue signalling #also a tiny sidenote: the gay character in strange world is the first gay teenager in an animated disney movie #this is a factual statement #it explains in what way this is a different situation than for example gay characters in live action movies or animated tv shows #but people hate reading so they stop after ''first gay'' and think haha millionth first gay character joke