Hello!! I was wondering what is your opinion on Viscount Druitt? Does he count as a Antagonist or Comic Relief?
Dear Defnotabot11037,
The Viscount is quite unambiguously both antagonist and comic relief. He fits the “all queers are pedophiles” trope and “queers are funny” trope like a hand in a custom-made-glove.
“All Queers are Pedophiles”
The first trope to address is the “all queers are pedophiles”. It is a very simple one: for a long time homosexuality and pedophilia have been conflated, especially in men. Queer men have often been portrayed as the predatory gay/pedo in media. This stems from the misconception that men who don’t like women have “sick sexual interest”, and the logic follows the slippery slope argument of: “oh first men, then what next? Dogs!? Children!? Oh protect the children!” The moral argument used to call people into action to hatred is: “If you don’t care about men, then fine, but what about the well-being of children? If you don’t then what are you? A monster!?”
Yana seemed to really like this trope too as she did this TWICE.
“Camp Queer Comical Villain”
The way he carries himself is the textbook example of the camp queer. Such camp queer characters in pop culture have mostly been portrayed as the comical antagonist. Usually there is something unhinged about such characters which is employed to make the audience feel uneasy. But then the comical aspect is inserted to help the uneased audience cope.
Laughing has always been a form of coping mechanism, which inspired the trend of portraying “gays” or any other form of male that “threatens” masculinity as the comic relief. This comical portrayal can help “take off an edge” of that which is too threatening somehow. Not just can a comical portrayal help take off the edge to the oh-so-scary-queer-man, it also functions as a tool to discourage people to present themselves as queer. “You will only make a fool out of yourself” is the underlying message.
Obviously the Viscount is not gay because he is canonically also interested in adult women. But in the trope of “the comical queer villain” it does not matter too much to the writers: “same difference, queers are all sexually depraved people. period.”
..............let’s just say I am happy that Yana seems to have left her awful yaoi-industry- mindset behind and has grown. Judging from what she has been doing recently I cannot imagine she would have made those dubious choices now.
Related posts:
Yana and her past ultra toxic yaoi-industry mindset.
Nina Hopkins - Another The gays are pedo
