Because of my feral hyperfixation on Bruce Campbell (that apparently has been mounting slowly since childhood), my sister and I often discuss his many characters. Because Bruce is such a charismatic and varied actor, we love discussing the flare he gives to those characters.
More specifically, the sexual and/or gender identities of those characters based on how Bruce plays them. In this post I primarily want to talk about Brisco but I feel like I have to talk about a few others first. Just a couple because my sister and I constantly talk about these characters’ identities.
First up is the lovely Charles Travis (From Congo 1995, for those that don’t know). My personal obsession since childhood, god I want to kiss him. *cough* ignore that...
In the unfortunately, very short time we have with Charlie, he definitely gives off straight vibes. But these are non-toxic straight vibes. Despite being exhausted and stranded in the middle of the Congo, he’s got a bright, friendly disposition and you can hear his chemistry with Karen in the short conversation they have. Honestly, we needed more of him but this post isn’t about that... anyway, Charles is a sweet straight/cis man who may or may not have daddy issues because he let his asshole father send him to the Congo for no good fucking reason!
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Up next is an easy and familiar choice: Ash Williams, the man who got bitchslapped by destiny and has three kids.
There’s a lot of content with Ash. You really get to see his chemistry with other characters. I won’t get super deep into it because so many other Tumblr authors
have described it in far more detail but Ash gives off the opposite of straight vibes. The man is definitely giving off bisexual vibes. Ash loved all his girlfriends very much and had excellent chemistry with them. But Ash also has a soft, overly friendly vibe with other guys such as Scotty and Chet. The particular touchy-feely, constantly stealing long glances at each other vibes that Ash shares with Chet is what I’ve talking about. Also, there’s the obvious headcanon that Ash is trans, which I love. The entire series is full of evidence of Ash being trans but I also like to look to the second season of AvED for evidence. The dialog in that season, especially when talking with Brock and Cheryl, is incredibly trans-coded. Go check it out, it’s a great show.
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Also, honorable mention before I get to Brisco: Autolycus
I haven’t gotten to the part of Xena with him yet but already I can tell you that this man is decidedly not straight. Like literally every other character in this show, this man is some intense flavor of queer.
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Alrighty, enough of that.
On to Brisco!
Brisco County Jr, the sweetheart cowboy who always looks towards the future.
The past several days I’ve been thinking a lot about Brisco. Why? Because I fell head-over-heels for his disheveled ass, shut up! Now, I would like to say that at the point of writing this, I have only seen the first few episodes but there’s been enough context there for me to really think about this. I know that Brisco gets a girlfriend later in the series/season (he’s a male 90′s MC, it was mandatory he gets one). That being said, I see Brisco as being Gay/Ace with intense top energy (his constant confidence and self-assured aura).
In like the three episodes I have seen of Brisco, this man has zero (0) romantic vibes with any of the women. His flirting, what little there is of it, is very mild and performative. Most of his relationships with women have a deep platonic vibe to them. Unlike Brisco’s energy with both Lord Bowler and Socrates. When he talks with them, it’s quite flirty and upbeat, playful. He teases them gently and is quite open with speaking to them. Despite him and Lord Bowler being rivals upon meeting, they already friendly protective of each other by the second episode.
The friendship that Brisco has cultivated with Lord Bowler by that point is very soft and affectionate. There’s a deep tenderness that transcends friendship. Lord Bowler drops his rough exterior around Brisco in ways that is not normally done.
People, you do not sing to your rival to comfort them while they’re in pain and dying unless there is something deeper going on with your relationship!
Also, in the episode where he goes to the town full of nothing but women, he doesn’t flirt with a single one. The professor keeps making insinuations about how great their situation is and Brisco’s just like “meh” about the whole thing. In that episode, during the trap set up in the bathhouse, Brisco never even casts an interested look at the naked woman in the bath. He simply thanks her for her help and leaves. Brisco also has decidedly platonic, almost sibling-like chemistry with the town’s sheriff. When he leaves town, there’s only a goodbye. No sidelong glances or shoehorned kiss. Nothing. They’re both the two least horny people in existence.
Speaking of Brisco not being horny, we not come to the part where I see him as being asexual. Though, he is not sex-repulsed. He will have sex if his partner wishes to. He’s not enthused or enticed by sex. Sexual intercourse is not a driving factor in his life. He would much rather be out discovering things or talking to his horse.
I have a few examples of Brisco in situations where in any other show, the male lead would be overly enthusiastically engaged in the situation:
This is the body language of a man who is viscerally uncomfortable. You can tell by the crease in his cheek where her hand touches that he is actively recoiling from her in-coming kiss.
For this gif, normally in this situation the male lead would be doing one of several things: leaning into the touch, eyes drift down to watch where she is enticingly touching, returning the soft touch, or leaning his head in to continue the conversation. But Brisco does none of these things. He completely ignores what her hand is doing. His eyes stay on her face at all times. He isn’t checking out her very obvious tits. and he is once against actively leaning his head back as he speaks. He doesn’t so much as twitch at her touch. Brisco is completely unphased and uninterested in the sexual implications of their intimate positioning.
This is the least sexiest version of the “omg, I accidentally fell on you in a scandalous way” position I have ever seen in my life. Brisco’s mind is entirely on the situation outside of his intimate positioning. His mind is no way engaged in the fact that he is basically straddling a beautiful woman, he is too busy calculating the amount of danger he’s in. Something that most male leads do not immediately focus on when in such a position.
In conclusion, I’m just here to say that Brisco is an example of performative heteronormativity. He is playing “his part” in normal society but is not enthused by it. He knows how he's expected to act and does so when the time calls for it but does seek out opportunities to act in a hetero or allosexual manner. He would much rather either be on his own and daydream or converse with male friends/acquaintances all while having a deep feminist respect for women and their rights to safety and happiness.
