Forced heteronormativity is Millie Brown feeling the need to delete an Instagram post of a picture of her and Finn Wolfhard at a premiere, with a caption about how much she loves him as a friend and co-worker, because people won’t stop insisting that “Fillie” is real. Forced heteronormativity is this poor girl feeling the need to APOLOGIZE for giving people the wrong impression when she did nothing of the kind, and how her fans choose to wrongfully interpret her relationship with her costar(s) is not her fault.
I saw this happen when the Harry Potter cast was younger and interviewers were constantly asking teenage Emma Waston if she would date either Daniel Radcliffe or Rupert Grint. She always deflected, but to be asked this time and time again about guys who were more like brothers to her must have been exhausting.
I saw this even more recently (and okay, this is an example of something else but in the same vein) with Glee’s Darren Criss and Chris Colfer, whose friendship was strained to the point of being unable to hang out in public together due to rabid “CrissColfer” shippers, who could not accept that Kurt and Blaine were only an onscreen couple and went so far as to openly hate on Mia Swier and Will Sherrod for being involved with Darren and Chris because they were “keeping them apart.”
How would you feel if people were constantly telling you how great a couple you and your best friend would be, when you knew the entire time that you did not and could not imagine feeling anything romantic toward them? At first you might laugh it off, but if too many people kept on bringing it up and insisting that the two of you should date, you’d get annoyed and uncomfortable pretty fast. It might even affect your relationship with your friend, which would be a terrible shame, all because people couldn’t just shut up about what THEY wanted to see.
I can’t control what fans of any show or film franchise do anymore than the actors involved can. But I wish SO much that people would remember that IT IS PERFECTLY FINE AND HEALTHY FOR CHILDREN TO HAVE PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHILDREN, REGARDLESS OF GENDER OR HOW “CUTE” EVERYBODY THINKS THEY WOULD BE “TOGETHER.” PUTTING PRESSURE ON THEM TO DATE, KISS, GET MARRIED ETC, EVEN AS A JOKE, IS UNSOLICITED, INAPPROPRIATE AND DISRESPECTFUL.
Ship people in your head if you like, that is fine. But don’t hound the actors with questions about who they would date out of their cast when they’ve already made it clear that they DO NOT have that kind of relationship with anyone in the cast.
Remember, “Mileven” is real and both Millie and Finn are big fans of their characters’ relationship. But that is where it ends.
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