We really do need more realistic depictions of people interacting with their enemies, because why can’t a woman be uncomfortable with two murderous demons flirting with her without people headcanonning that she’s either only attracted to women or attracted to both, but hates the fact that she’s attracted to men?
Don’t get me wrong, I headcanon Mira as queer too, but the line of logic that gets you from “these dangerous men that have killed people she’s sworn to protect are flirting with her and she’s repulsed by it” to “so that must mean she’s not attracted to men, or she is and she hates that about herself” is a massive leap.
Like, Rumi and Zoey falling for Jinu and Mystery really set her up to be over analysed and picked apart for being the most normal person in their group.
It makes me wanna barf when I see people saying "Oh well I can see how the depiction of Mike's character could be internalized homophobia, even if Byler doesn't end up being endgame."
What the actual hell are these people talking about?
Internalized homophobia is specific to people who are gay. I guess it could be true that he could still be gay and not end up with Will but it just wouldn't make any sense narratively because he clearly is in love with Will.
But if he ends up being straight as well as not ending up with Will then it's not internalized homophobia, it's just straight up homophobia. That would be a straight man who is best friends with a gay man, letting what other people say about Will get in his head and then turning it around on his friend. That's not OK and would be a complete dissemination of his character. Why the hell do people want Mike to be a homophobic prick? Because that's what he would be. That's what y'all are asking of his character to end up being if Byler doesn't happen. 
With no confirmation of Mike liking Will, there's no confirmation that he's queer. Everything can then be left up to interpretation, and people can conclude that he's just straight, even with all of the queer coading. Why queer code his character if there's no pay off? I'm so sick of it.
So the message of the show being that straight men or secretly gay men will always listen to homophobia and turn it around on their friends and act weird and rude and uncomfortable once they realize that their friends gay and never apologize or reciprocate and gay people will never have the people that they love, love them back and they're always gonna be alone and suffering for most of their life.
Yeah! Great message! Not like I haven't seen that one before!
Absolutely none of either scenario makes any sense and would be such a waste.
I survived Bucky and Steve, AND Sam and Steve, AND Bucky and Sam. (MCU)
I survived Clark and Lexa (t100).
I am currently surviving Will and Mike, Steve and Eddie, AND Nancy and Robin. (Stranger Things)
I have suffered through: queerbaiting; "everyone experiments in college"; queer coded? - they must be the villain!; "the inherent tragedy of gayness" (repression, AIDs, violence, hatred); girl-on-girl male fanservice; "pray the gay away"; and, most personally painful, "bisexuals aren't real, they just need to pick a side". (I mean, I am though?)
I have been fully and irrevocably traumatized by having to watch my beloved queers be buried over & over & over.
I have literally spent three-and-a-half decades in a toxic, abusive relationship with (not so) queer media.
Upon recommendation of multiple queer friends, I (skeptically, cynically, borderline angrily) watched their so-called "GAY PIRATE (affectionate)" comedy, and was gobsmacked.
Our Flag Means Death gave us: well-rounded characters that are 'no-room-for-guessing, even-your-deeply-repressed-insufferable-republican-uncle-can-see-it queer! Multiple queers with disabilities! Neurodivergent queers! A genderqueer pirate so slay I lose my breath every time they are on screen! Sex between mlm not reduced to 1) tittilation or 2) the raunchy punchline of a mean joke! An unapologetic celebration of Found Family! Drag treated with respect, and as a catalyst for openly queer joy! A fabulous gay wedding! And that's not to mention the loving, romantic, complicated, vulnerable, beautiful relationship between the two male protagonists!
I saw it. with my own two eyeballs. for the first time ever. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I assumed everyone must be as thrilled, honored, and overjoyed as I am for all the rep, positivity, and LOVE.
I was wrong.
It breaks my queer little heart that so many people on this glorious hellsite are furious, indignant, and quick to cancel the characters, the actors, the writers, and the showrunners for not being spoon-fed perfect queer characters in perfect queer relationships for perfect queer rep in ACTUAL queer media that exists! In canon!
It hurts to be vilified for being a fan who refuses to condemn the show and for loving concerningly imperfect and deeply-flawed queer characters.
I am sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, LOVE WON. We won. Please stop coming into my house (blog) and pissing all over my rainbow parade.
“Lipstick sapphic” trope (a feminine sapphic) and the movies/shows books about it
*Reminder that all the media included here does not necessarily portray the characters as something positive, this is just about which media has this trope.
*Pls check parental rating if you’re a minor.
MOVIES:
Lesbian characters: 88 Minutes, 100 Girls, Alto, Bit, Breaking The Girls, But I’m a Cheerleader, Jack & Diane, Life Blood, Life Partners, Margarita, Margarita with a Straw, The Roommate, She’s Gotta Have It, Dear White People.
Sapphics: Alena, Carmen Y Lola, Compulsion, The Duke Of Burgundy, Elena Undone, Gia, Girls Like Magic, The Guest House, Kaboom!, Loving Annabelle, The Perfection, Princess Cyd, Room in Rome, Rough Night, Saving Face, She Hate Me, Side Effects, Steam, Summerland, Thelma, We Are the Night, When Night is Falling, With a Kiss I Die.
Trans characters: Bit.
Bisexual characters: Chasing Amy, Colette, The Haunting, Jennifer’s Body, Kiss of the Damned, Kissing Jessica Stein, Love Is Not Perfect, Sappho, Sweet Sweet Lonely Girl, The White Orchid.
LITERATURE:
Lesbian characters: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Manifestation, Odd Girl Out, Rollerskater, Tell Me How You Really Feel.
Bisexual characters: Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating.
Sapphics: Just Juliet, Of Fire and Stars, Zara Hossain Is Here.
TV:
Lesbian characters: American Horror Story (Asylum), Batwoman (2019), Chasing Life, Dark Desire, Das Boot, Degrassi: Next Class, A Discovery of Witches, ER, Nancy Drew (2019), Riverdale, Supergirl, The Owl House.
Bisexual characters: All Rise, The Boys, Heroes (season 4), Pandora, Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
Sapphics: Almost Family, The Baby-Sitters Club, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Burden of Truth, Cold Case, Control Z, Cursed, Dickinson, Don’t Look Deeper, Dracula (2013), Euphoria, The L Word, The Magicians, Orphan Black, Pretty Little Liars, Sense8, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Shadowhunters.
I was thinking about the Bryan Fuller interview with Pink News and him talking about queer coding and censorship. Specifically things that might feel queer to queer people but wouldn't hit that way for others.
(Link, read it, its really good)
Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller on queer horror, growing up in a violent home, and being called homophobic slurs on set.
Even more specifically my brain is on the potential queerness of Dead Like Me. So pilot episode heavily implies Clancy was secretly gay, and then that is dropped immediately. This is likely the gay character turned straight Fuller meant, though part of me wonders if that potential to be queer might have existed in other characters (George seems to be equally fascinated with men and women a lot of the time). There is also the episode The Shallow End which while a little clumsy, features one the first tv episodes I saw about a trans woman where she wasn't a joke (I first watched it when I was in middle school).
Despite not being outright queer, Dead Like Me has always felt like a queer show. Maybe it is that feeling of "passing" but knowing you are different then those around you, the loss of your bio family and the gaining of new family based on the shared trait, the game of trying to tell if people around you are like you, and the fear of people not like you finding out what you are. Hell even the way the reapers see the world, seeing the dead still there, seeing the gravelings moving things about, can also be interpreted as how queer people see queer coded media.
But the one thing that always stuck with me the most that felt like this show was meant to be queer, was the amount of platonic touching between the main characters. It was always a divide I noticed between my straight and queer friends, straight people were always nervous to be physically affectionate to others, while my queer friends were always fine with hugging, sharing beds platonically, leaning on each other, holding hands, etc. And this happens a lot through the show, especially between Mason and George, two characters who could very well have a non-platonic interest in each other. But they don't, a (assuming sexuality) straight man and woman of close enough age to not be creepy on TV are shown petting each other on the head, falling asleep leaning on each other, and just lying down in bed next to each other with no romantic or sexual tension.
And that always stuck to me about Dead Like Me, characters could love each other and show affection and exist as more then potential partners. It's something a lot of more straight minded shows I find lack, this potential to truly exist outside of romantic and sexual relationships.
I love Dead Like Me but its also a show I spend a good bit of time mourning the potential of. If Bryan Fuller wasn't forced into making the story line more straight, if Betty "killed off" for not being "hot enough", if it had lasted more then 2 seasons.
