dont get me wrong, i LOVE justice smith. ive watched pretty much everything he’s been in, and “i saw the tv glow” is genuinely one of my favourites. and i have absolutely no problem with them casting a poc. if anything, i think it’s fucking amazing that they’ve cast a poc because whiteness is EVERYWHERE and we desperately need more poc representation.
but like…justice smith isn’t plus sized. and that’s where my issue comes in.
i just wish they had cast a bigger person of colour. because erasing plus sized queer people, and bigger people in general, from these stories is honestly so fucking disappointing. representation isn’t a competition between marginalised groups. you can be happy about getting poc representation AND still be disappointed that plus sized people aren’t being represented. both things can be true at once.
i feel like queer media has progressed so much over the last few years, and genuinely, that’s incredible. we’re getting so much more queer representation than we used to, and i’m really grateful for that. but at the same time…why does it feel like the overwhelming majority of that representation is still skinny, white, conventionally attractive people?
i can barely think of any plus sized queer characters who actually get to just EXIST as queer people rather than being pushed into some specific role. isaac from heartstopper is one of the main examples i can think of, and even then i have complicated feelings about it. isaac is a bigger person and, imo, absolutely not unattractive, but he’s also aromantic/asexual. and obviously there is NOTHING wrong with being aroace. aroace people deserve representation too. that’s not my point at all.
my point is that when the bigger queer character is consistently the one who doesn’t get a romantic storyline, it starts to feel like a pattern.
because why is it that bigger queer people so often end up as the side character, the funny friend, the “relatable” one, or the character who doesn’t get to experience romance or desirability? meanwhile the skinny, conventionally attractive queer characters get to fall in love, be desired, have sex, be the main character, have complicated relationships, etc.
and i see a similar thing in fandom too. peter from the marauders fandom is another example that comes to mind, where he’s very often headcanoned as ace/aro, while the other characters are allowed to have all these romantic and sexual interpretations. obviously fandom can headcanon characters however they want, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with peter being ace/aro, but when you keep seeing bigger characters being assigned identities that remove them from romance while thin characters get to be desirable, it does make me raise an eyebrow.
and maybe it’s just me, idk. but my gut is telling me that a lot of queer media is still being made with a very specific audience in mind. the kind of audience that comments “thank you computa” under every queer man’s post and treats queer people like they’re some aesthetic or fandom accessory. like, queer enough to feel progressive, but still conventionally attractive enough to be palatable.
and THAT’S what bothers me.
i don’t want less poc representation. i don’t want less aroace representation. i don’t want less queer representation. i want MORE. i want bigger queer people to be allowed to be protagonists and love interests and hot and messy and desirable and complicated and fucking human. i want fat queer characters who get to fall in love AND fat queer characters who don’t. i want them to have the same range of stories that skinny queer characters already get.
because representation shouldn’t just be about putting a marginalised identity on screen. it’s also about who gets to be seen as desirable, who gets to be the protagonist, who gets to have a love story, and who gets to exist without their body becoming the reason they’re pushed to the side.
also, i genuinely shouldn’t even have to say this, but PLEASE don’t send any hate to justice smith over this. he’s an amazing actor and i’m sure he’s going to do an incredible job in this role. none of this is his fault, and he isn’t responsible for the casting decisions. i’m criticising the industry and the patterns around representation, not him as a person or as an actor. he deserves to be left the fuck alone and allowed to do his job.
