Queer Bookworm

Hi I'm Ruby and this is the tumblr I've made for my Queer Studies 304 class. Queering the Screen, Queering the Spectator

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Looking To the Future

I think the biggest problem with queer representation right now, other then of course how little we see of it in the first place, is the lack of diversity. The LGBTQIA+ community is made up of a lot of different identities that don't really get a lot of screen time, if any at all. Its true that the quality and quantity of appearances of LGBTQIA+ characters is lacking on all fronts, but the disproportionate representation of some groups is astonishing to me.

I want to see a much wider variety of queer representation, and I want to see it over all media types. While I'll always love a good queer film or show that breaks boundaries and shows the struggles that our queer community faces, I'd also really love to see queers in everyday life, or out on an adventure. I'd love to see story's about queer characters that show the reality of being queer, but include more then just that. Where the queerness of characters is real, represented accurately, and given sufficient screen time, but there is still an interesting story behind all that. I want to see queer super heroes, and queer adventures. I want an interesting story and queer representation all in one.

Here is some fan art other people have made, of popular characters in the media, but with a queer twist. I'm already a huge fan of most of these series, and if they were really queer I would love them a million times more.

Here is a picture of Ginny and Luna from Harry Potter as lesbians!

Here is Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and Bruce Banner in a Poly relationship!

Here is a picture of Bakugo from My Hero Academia as a Transgender man!

This is a non-binary Midoriya from My Hero Academia!

Here is a transgender/Bi Peter Parker and a gay Ned Leeds!

Here is Bucky, Jenny and Sour Cream from Steven Universe in a poly relationship!

Here is Valkyire and Captain Marvel from the MCU as a couple. There are hints throughout their respective movies that they might be lesbians, but hints aren't enough!

Here is the entire cast of the Teen Titans with different queer identities!

Here is the original Disney Bi Icon Li Shang from Mulan!

Here is  Pan Sanji and  Genderfluid Zoro from One Piece!

Finally a couple pics of gender queer Sherlock Holmes from BBC's Sherlock!

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Week 10 (Part 1)

Neutering of queer characters in film and TV is sadly still an ongoing issues. In this meaning of the word, for a character to be neutered means that the intimacy of their personal relationships isn't depicted, and that lack of depiction can be very serious. The intimacy I'm talking about doesn't necessarily have to be explicit sex, it really just depends on the form of media we are talking about. For instance I'm going to start this off talking about cartoons aimed at children. Of course, there can't be explicit sex scenes in this, but there can still be shows that are neutered and shows that are not.

For my first example I'm going to talk about Avatar: The legend of Korra, specifically the ending. Korra was a really good show, that depicted a strong woman of color, learning and growing and coming into her own. For a bit of context I will explain that Korra dated her friend Mako for a while and they are shown kissing multiple times.

Sometime after Korra and Mako break up, Asami also dated Mako and again they are shown kissing multiple times.

Over the course of a few seasons Korra and Asami grow very close to each other. Asami is the only one Korra writes to for a period of a few years. Their rivalry turns into a deep friendship and at the very end of the series they are shown gazing into each others eyes and walking into the distance together whilst holding hands.

Which is most likely a direct reference the the prequels ending with Aang and Katara.

The creators of the show later confirmed that Korra and Asami ended the series as a couple, which you can read here on tumbler here.

However due to the restricts placed by the network they could not show an actual kiss scene, or really anything more clear then what is shown. Even today, almost five years later, Korra is renowned for its inclusiveness, yet still this ending leaves many of us feeling it was inadequate. I think Katie Schenkel in her article “On That Legend of Korra Ending Scene & The Desire For Explicit Representation” says it best:

And many other fans seem to agree with this sentiment, going so far as to create their own fanworks to fill in the gap:

Here is a search result showing there are over four thousand stories on Archive of Our Own alone that feature Korra and Asami as a couple:

So clearly we can see that Korra and Asami's relationship has been neutered. Multiple straight couples are seen kissing through out the series, and yet they couldn't spend fifteen extra seconds to do the same for their queer characters.

Part 2, Part 3

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Week 10 (Part 2)

You might be wondering how it would look for a kids show to have an explicitly queer couple, and the answer is simple, Steven Universe. Though Ruby and Sapphire spend much of their time fused as Garnet, the times they are depicted as being apart they are shown being extremely romantic in a way that is still appropriate for children to see.

Steven Universe is the perfect example of how to depict queer characters in a children's show without neutering them. Many other fans agree as seen by these comments:

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Week 10 (Part 3)

Now I'm going to move on to depictions of queer neutering in media not aimed at children. The example I'm going to focus on is The Imitation Game. The movie is supposed to be based on real events and depicts the life of Alan Turning as he struggled to create the enigma machine and help save lives during WWII.

Turning was a gay man and the government refused to acknowledge his contributions to ending the war for many many years after the fact, because of this fact. At that time in history it was illegal to be gay, and some time after the war had ended when the police got evidence that Turning was gay, they chemically castrated him for it and two years later he died from suicide.

Throughout the movie Turning is never once seen in any sort of romantic or sexual way with another man. He is depicted as a young child to have a crush on another student, but that is it. Not to mention that his relationship with Joan Clarke, a good friend of his, is overly romanticized. Here they are dancing in a way that seems very romantic:

In an article Turning's own niece, Inagh Payne, expresses her anger regarding this over romanticized depiction.

When asked why they didn't put a gay sex scene in the movie, both Benedict Cumberbatch who played Alan Turning, and Morten Tyldurn, the director, defended the choice saying that not only did Turning not have a very active sex life, so it would be inaccurate to show any sort of sex scene, but also the fact that he was gay was only a small part of what they wanted to portray about Turning. They said they didn't want the movie to be all about his sex life. Also they said that we don't need to see a sex seen to know Turning was gay and a sex scene would have been irreverent.

However the fact of the matter is that Turning was gay and he did engage in sex with another man. That is why he was castrated after all. Which means that it is extremely relevant to the movie. The fact that his relationship with a woman was overly romanticized on top of the fact that they refused to show him in any sort of way with a man shows that they have clearly neutered his character.

The interview can be found here.

I will admit a large amount of the comments to this interview upset me. Most were similar to the few I have put bellow, they argue that ts is good there were no sex scenes because they would ruin the movie. Many even said how all movies should get rid of sex scenes. Many more said they think people just wanted to see Benedict Cumberbatch naked.

I find these statements very offensive. The LGBTQ+ community is extremely under represented and accurate depictions of our sexuality on screen can really help people feel more safe, represented, and like they aren't alone. The following are some more comments that I found regarding the subject that honestly seem more thoughtful and considered. Though I did have to look a lot harder to find these then the rest.

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Week 9: Gender Explosion

If we are talking gender explosion of course I'm going to have to go back to Steven Universe again. I've already talked about Stevonnie back in week two in the the post we did about Best Queer Representation. I do want to reiterate how amazing it is to have a main character who is intersex in a TV show aimed primarily at children, but I don't want to repeat myself so instead I will look at some other characters that seem to explode the gender norm. But first a quick gif of Stevonnie just being awesome as themself:

Amethyst Is a really cool character. When she was being formed (as gems are not born) there were some problems. She was born late, when all of the rest of her squad had already left. She didn't realize at first, as she was all alone for quite a while, but it became apparent later when she meet other's of her species. She wasn't 'right.' For an Amethyst she was too small, not strong enough, and able to change her appearance easily, a skill that was not normal for other Amethyst.

Here you can see Amethyst with the other Amethyst's. She is the tiny one being held in the middle. Amethyst was originally self consensus regarding these 'deficiencys', but with the help of her family she has come to except herself for who she is.

Also I want to touch on how all gems in Steven Universe, excluding Steven who is half human, are female by default. Since gems are grown underground and not born organically there is no need to reproduce. However, even though all the gems are female, not all of them are feminine.

Here are some cool examples:

Bismuth is really cool and masculine, also awesome rainbow hair!

Jasper is also very masculine, in both appearance and mannerisms.

There are even some characters that appear feminine at some points and masculine in others. Amethyst is a really good example of this as she actually shape shifts to join a wrestling tournament as a male.

Here you can see Pearl in two very different outfits, one flowy and feminine, and one a very classicly masculine suit:

I think it is so important to have characters on TV and media that break the gender and sexual norms of society. Not everyone fits into little boxes an it can be really confining to try to be surrounded by such black and white standards. People say things like ‘girls should act like this’, or ‘those are boys toys’, or even ‘let the boys get that you'll hurt yourself’, and it just makes me so infuriatingly mad. People are people, whats between our legs, or the clothes we wear, or the toys we play with as a kid, none of that matters. We aren't that different from each other, and we don’t have to be a certain way because of our physical characteristics. We are all Human. We are all equal. And we should all be free to make choices about how we wish to present ourselves to the world.

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I feel like Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye is a really good example of gender explosion. Jonathan openly identifies as Non-binary. His physical appearance, the way he presents himself, as well as the way he dressed is a fluid mesh of both masculine and feminine.