#it goes from yuri denying [badly] that he doesn't want victor to be his boyfriend to them getting married

[griseldagimpel]

More Thoughts on Representation

There’s media that does not have canon queer relationships, media that does have unambiguously queer relationships, and then there’s media that kind of falls into a gray area in between. Some of this gray area media is backed up by Word of God, and some of it isn’t. And what specific works fall into this gray area is debatable because heteronomativity is a powerful force. A standard I’ve seen used (by Is There Gay In It?) is the Grandmother Standard: Would a grandmother who knows nothing about LGBT rights recognize it as a queer.

Good Omens is a great example of piece that falls into this gray area. On one hand, you’ve got Crowley and Aziraphale having romantic dinners with each other and whatnot. On the other hand, there’s probably some grandmother somewhere who thinks they’re just good friends. Because heteronormativity.

Stephen Universe, She-Ra and the Princess of Power, and Supernatural (particularly the Spanish dub) are all stories that start in the ambiguous category and move into the unambiguous category by the end. Apparently, so does Revolutionary Girl Utena. (That one takes some serious heteronormativity, but there you go.) I mean, I could have told you Cas was in love with Dean in season 4, but it took a billion seasons to get an "I love you."

And on one hand, that’s frustrating because cishet couples don’t have to be super obvious for grandmothers to recognize the couple as a couple. On the other hand, it can be frustrating when queer couples are prohibited from having or denied the super obvious stuff. Even if public displays of relationship wouldn’t fit the setting, the writer could always choose to show the couple in private. Not doing so is a choice.

By the super obvious stuff, to be clear, I mean stuff like “we’re dating” or a chaste kiss on the lips or “this is my boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/partner/wife/husband”. With canon cishet couples, there’s never any hesitation about them having the unambiguous stuff. It’s just slipped in without the writers thinking about it.

I’ve seen well-reasoned arguments that Carol and Maria could be seen as a couple in the Captain Marvel movie. BUT Disney’s talking about how the Eternals will feature their first gay character, so apparently not.

And that’s part of the function of denying queer couples the super obvious stuff. It allows for that plausible deniability.

To conclude, it would be nice if heteronormativity wasn’t a thing, but sometimes the powers that be are just being cowards.

#queer stuff #good omens #captain marvel #yuri on ice is the most bizarre example here #because it's unambiguously canon but also there's a major lack of communication #it goes from yuri denying [badly] that he doesn't want victor to be his boyfriend to them getting married #with yuri calling the wedding rings good luck tokens or something #yuri will only be communicating through interpretative ice skating thank you very much #yuri and victor are going to be married for 5 years and yuri's going to break the news to victor that he's gay #She-Ra Reboot #stephen universe #revolutionary girl utena #supernatural