As a collection of five homo/bisexuals, we’d like to express an opinion.
We’ve noticed a large portion of people on this app are very hetero-exclusive. This came to mind because of a post I saw about a show called The Sandman. Just a note: I haven’t watched the show. The post was making fun of reviews that were complaining that homosexuality was overdone and shoved down the viewer’s throat. Which, in and of itself, is a valid complaint.
Look, representation is fantastic and we wish more proper representation existed in media. But flooding a show or movie or whatever with nothing but copious, exaggerated amounts of homosexuality and LGBTQ+ topics that are not directly linked to the subject isn’t representation. It’s pandering.
Balance. These things need to have balance. Having everything be entirely straight is a bad thing. Having everything be entirely gay is also a bad thing. Having a show be mostly straight is okay. Having a show be mostly gay is okay. But flooding a show with too much of one side is just shitty. It ruins the representation or doesn’t provide it, and it makes the point of the show convoluted.
Having gay for the sake of gay is perfectly fine and we support that, but distracting from the main point of a piece of media because of the LGBTQ+ parts is just cheap and shitty representation.
Balance matters. The members of our community who adamantly despise and try to remove all forms of heterosexuality from media/their consumption of media are no better than the homophobic people doing the opposite.
Be inclusive. Stop hating straight people for just being straight. Stop hating gay people for just being gay. And for fucks’ sake, have balance.
Having too much homosexuality blasted at you in a show is like taking a cake and smothering it in so much chocolate you can’t see the cake anymore. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Having no homosexuality excludes members of the community and makes us seem like “others”. It’s like making a chocolate cake with no chocolate. You’re left with kinda shitty bread. This is just straight up a bad thing.
Shows like The Boys do it the right way, with more topics than just homophobia. There are a number of cast members who fall under minority groups, and they are acknowledged for being part of said groups. But that acknowledgement doesn’t overshadow the show itself, or disrupt the plot.
Having a show that’s not explicitly designed to be an exploration of LGBTQ+ subjects filled to the brim with those subjects isn’t representation, it’s idolizing homosexuality. Representation is having members of our community as a part of shows and movies without it being overemphasized on. Overemphasis implies that this representation is a unique event, and not the norm. It should be a “hey there’s a gay couple in this show I like” not “OH MY GOD, THIS SHOW IS ABOUT DINOSAURS BUT WE’VE SPENT THE ENTIRE SHOW LEARNING ABOUT THIS GAY COUPLE. CUZ THEY’RE GAY. AMAZING, THERE’S A GAY COUPLE ON TV”. Pointing it out so hard makes it feel cheap and like you’re treating the gay couple like monkeys in a zoo.
Balance in representation.