I actually find Ian's arc of Caleb to Trevor really poorly written. Worse than s8.
The season starts with Ian reclaiming his sexual autonomy and not giving into pressure. We see Ian sleeping with a woman having been made to feel ashamed he hasn't tried it by Caleb. We see Ian is fully repulsed by her female genitalia. We then have the discourse of how Ian shouldn't be made to feel ashamed for only liking dick and not liking vagina (or wanting to have sex with someone with a vagina). We are encouraged to judge Caleb for making Ian feel weird about only liking dick.
But then the storyline with Trevor completely contradicts that whole arc because we then have Ian being made to feel ashamed because he doesn't want to sleep with Trevor (especially as he is pre-bottom surgery). Ian is essentially pressured into sleeping with Trevor, as only Trevor's personal boundaries are actually respected in that arc (which I say loosely as the whole discussion around Trevor's private parts feels gimmicky and disrespectful).
all a whilst these elements are happening, Ian is also shaming Debbie for her sexual exploration.
I don't know if im communicating well as I have a learning disability, But I just feel s7 feels actually really disrespectful to women's bodies and Trevor being a Trans Man, and I wish it had been written with better understanding and nuance.
I'm not sure I'm an appropriate person to ask regarding a lot of this because I'm a bisexual cis woman. But I do think a lot of it has aged poorly.
I didn't watch the show as it was airing, so perhaps it was considered to be pretty inclusive at the time. It's been like nearly 10 years since those seasons if my maths is correct? But I don't know enough about trans experiences, or about the audience response during the time, to know if Trevor and his arc was well received by the community.
I know a lot of people don't like Trevor based purely on ship-discourse. Because everyone wanted Gallavich endgame.
Because I watched the show much later, and already knew Gallavich was endgame, I just kinda saw the relationship with Trevor as a part of Ian's overall story arc and didn't really have any strong bias that some shippers may have had. If that makes sense?
I think that it's clear the showrunners are straight men.
I think there are certain parts of it that could have been handled A LOT better. But I also think that Ian's arc/reaction to these things felt mostly in-character and could have been great if handled with more nuance.
I don't think that Ian sleeping with Trevor negates his distaste for sleeping with women. Because we do see Ian really thinking through the logistics of it and trying to wrap his head around something he had no experience with (in terms of Ian had never even met a trans person before Trevor and often struggled, but tried hard to be respectful and learn the correct terminology etc)
I think Ian is attracted to masculinity. He likes men. And his experience with a woman was something he felt forced into because Caleb tried to guilt trip Ian to excuse his own cheating. Celeb said that attraction isn't binary and essentially refuted all labels, and doesn't seem willing to acknowledge that his experiences are not universal.
Ian did not enjoy the sex he had with a woman because he was never really doing it for his own enjoyment. He wasn't doing it because he found her attractive or because he wanted to have fun. It was to prove a point. And he was unstandably disgusted by the aftermath, because he realised that Caleb was wrong and now Ian feels a little violated.
The difference with Trevor is that Ian likes him. Ian is attracted to him. Ian does seemingly want them to give each other sexual pleasure, he's just unsure of how to go about that.
I think a lot of the conversations Ian and Trevor had regarding their sexual experiences could have been handled a lot better, especially in regards to how Trevor seemed so set in establishing his own boundaries that he wasn't always willing to accommodate Ian's.
But I do think that Ian being a gay man and finding men and masculinity attractive is not ever in question. It's transphobic to believe that Trevor's involvement negates that.
And in regards to Ian's attitude towards Debbie: he's ignorant af.
Ian has not ever experienced comp-het. He's always been very sure of who he is and what he likes. He's always been tenacious and independent in every aspect of his life, and his sexual identity is no exception.
He was fortunate enough to never feel like he had to conform. But it's sadly a very common experience for many queer people.
He doesn't understand Debbie's experience because he has a very narrow-minded view shaped by his own lived experience. And up until this point Debbie has been boy crazy, she's been desperate to lose her virginity, she's been asking how to attract boys.
Debbie has also had a tendency to latch on to people who show her affection quite quickly, even if those people are not appropriate or don't really want her. This is a byproduct of her abandonment issues.
So from Ian's perspective, his previously boy-crazy, desperate for love younger sister all of a sudden says she likes women. And so he's sceptical of that. No, it's not nice of him and it is ignorant af. But I don't think he's being mean-spirited or inherently biphobic.
He's probably just like "Debbie is becoming overly attached and doesn't know what she wants again".
