TW: mentions of fictional homophobia
I'm @theothergal. I'm a 17 y.o. Italian girl, and today I'm gonna explain you the meaning of the Italian idiom "sparare sulla croce rossa" (literally : shooting at the Red Cross).
This expression means taking advantage of someone's inability to answer back or to defend himself, or, in general hitting an easy target. Often, this phrase is used to point out how easy is to do something.
You may ask, why is this post on the "anti the selection tag"?
Well, because shooting at the Red Cross is exactly what I'm gonna do in this post.
This is an analysis (more like a rant) on a scene from the last book of the spin-off of this serie, The Crown and why that scene sucks. Which is incredibly easy to tell. There will spoilers, so don't read if you don't want to spoil yourself the story.
The scene I'm talking about is Hale's coming out. Now, for the ones who don't remember: Hale, a mildy important side character, reveals to Eadlyn that he's in love with Ean, another mildly important side character, and so neither of them want to marry her. She whines because the fact that two men, quoted, "prefers to stay with each instead that with her", makes her feel unlovable, even though she's LITERALLY having an affair with a guy that is not even part of the Selection (seriously, how self centered can you possibly be?). But she agrees on sending them home because she's Good™ and everything ends well.
Personally, I keep this scene inside my heart since I was 12, when I read the Selection Serie for the first time. At the time I was a baby queer just trying to figure out my identity, and seeing that Hale and Ean were in love made me think "Wow! Gay characters existing! Cool!". And then I started writing a fanfiction about those two. I slowly lost interest and I left it interrupted on chapter 7...until this year, when I remembered that I have a Wattpad account and I decided to continue it.
But I needed to reread the books first, and so I did.
And my love for the Selection turned into hate. A fiery hate that fueled my creativity, but still hate nonetheless.
Because these books are...the worst thing I've ever read (yes, even worse than my drafts).
Nonsensical. Full of plot holes and bland characters without any depth. And, worst of all, cursed with the most obnoxious main character EVER. I wanted to slap Eadlyn every instant. She acts like she's the most oppressed person ever even though she's the future queen of and absolute monarchy where people literally die of starvation and post caste discrimination is rampant.
But I'm not here to talk about her.
This is an analysis on the coming out and why this scene doesn't make any sense.
Let's start with the fact that Gale and Ean never, and I mean NEVER, interact with each other in two books.
In the Elite there's a similar storyline: Marlee, America's best friend, falls in love with a guard, and they have a secret relationship. Now, in their case there are subtextual clues that they are in love. The same subtext can't be found for these two.
Hale could've fallen in love with Kile, with Fox, with his unnamed servant, with Gianfranco the Panini Man, for what it's worth, and nothing would change. The same for Ean.
So their relationship is only a convenient plot twist to get rid of two useless characters and at the same time throwing some token queer rep to make the plot spicier.
Now, talking about the coming out, the only thing I have to say is... WHY?
Ok, let's believe that Hale and Ean are in love... This doesn't explain why the hell is Hale coming out to Eadlyn.
We now that Illéa is a canonically homophobic country:
"When the castes had been in place, it was law that every family fell into the caste of the husband. Because of that, there could only ever be one male head of the household. The same went for women: no married couple, no legitimate household. Some people lived together without bothering with marriage, calling their lovers roommates, but it was frowned on. Mom told me about a same-sex couple back in Carolina who’d been shunned to the point that they were driven out of town."
"Regardless, same-sex couples tended to live in the shadows, on the outskirts of society, and unfortunately that was still the case today. This made Ean’s acceptance of not finding love in his life much more understandable."
Hale 's relationship with Eadlyn is a cordial acquaitance at best. They' ve know each other for less than three months and he doesn't know how she will react because they've never discussed the subject before, so why would he tell her? Especially considering that she's not a random girl, she's the almost queen of said homophobic country. And he's supposed to be one of her suitors. And the punishment for the Selectioned who have affairs outside the selection is DEATH.
Ok, we know that Eadlyn is Best Person Evah™ and the Sun shines out of her ass, but Hale doesn't know. This make Hale coming out not only incredibly dangerous for both Hale and Ean, but also useless, because if they didn't want to take part to the Selection they could just... Go.
One of the rules of this Selection was that none of the Suitors was forced to stay, if he changed his mind. They could just ask to go back home.
Unless Hale wanted to die, this is not how a closeted gay boy in an hostile place would act.
But ok, if I can, with BIIIIIIIIIG stretch, understand why Hale told her, we are forgetting about someone.
Ean is described as a smart and cunning guy who trusts no one, and since book 1 he states that he has renounced finding love and he prefers to be wealthy and safe.
Ok, maybe in the span of two books he's changed his mind, but it still doesn't make any sense that he would allow Hale to come out and put the both of them at risk. Because yes, when Hale comes out he reveals that Ean is his lover, so I assume that Ean agreed to be outed.
If Hale just outed him without is consent, not only would he be a gigantic asshole, but Ean would be justified in dumping him.
But the text makes it clear that Ean knew and agreed on Hale's plan, which is both incredibly stupid and OOC af.
So, in conclusion, Kiera Cass has no idea of how to write a realistic queer character. Her queer rep is just a lazy excuse to move forward the plot and to make the MC look good.
The rant is over, if you wanna add something write a comment, I hope you'll like it.
