#pre-2017 queer representation is so near and dear to my heart because it still exists in me

[edens-pen]

queer rant below :)

i recently saw this tiktok and if i can find it again, i'll link it — but the creator was basically talking about how rare and sparse queer representation was in US media before they legalized gay marriage and so all people who knew/came out as queer before 2017 (when it was more acceptable to have popular and "main" side characters who were queer) had to have shreds and slivers of representation and be excited with that

and that's so fucking true !!!

i grew up in a mega religious household and every time there was even an allusion to a queer female character, i was heavily invested in the show from that point on because i desperately needed something to connect me with the rest of the world

(i was literally at a christian youth camp when the supreme court legalized gay marriage here and the only way i knew was because one of the youth pastors started ranting about how "vile and disgusting and sinful" the U.S. had just become)

and while i'm always thankful and grateful that we live in time where queer people are getting their own shows/movies, are now the main characters in their own media,

people try to apply this lens of representation/anti-queerbaiting to pre-2017 media and it doesn't work that way.

saying that korrasami or bubbline or garnet or even "him" from the powerpuff girls was "weak" representation makes me a bit upset because conservative parent groups (the american family association is literally a thing) would've rioted against these shows and burned them to the ground if queer characters got together before the series finale.

queer people were so heavily demonized that a kids/pre-teen show with queer people was unlikely and sometimes the most anyone could have was an allusion to a relationship (a very close female friendship with two women who don't have male love interests, or a woman who never shows any interest in men, etc).

it was never bad representation.

#— eden rambles and rants ^~<3 #i'll likely delete this later but this matters to me #like seeing emily fields kiss a woman on screen!!! i was STUCK #i was 9 years old and finally comfortable because this thing that i had done before was now on tv #and it wasn't gross or wrong—it was normal and i was normal and seen and heard #pre-2017 queer representation is so near and dear to my heart because it still exists in me #i have so much more to say but