#representation compilation

[macgregorhoughton]

no but between a woman who doesn't meet other people's expectations and ideas of womanhood and refuses to accept the binary gender roles of her time and a man who is dealing with homophobia but learns to love and be himself after finding a place where he's accepted, Jungle Cruise really just warmed my queer heart

[macgregorhoughton]

So now with a new Disney film coming out with a "first gay" character, those lists are doing the rounds again and it makes me so irritated seeing McGregor on there. Like yeah, in Beauty & the Beast or Cruella or Onward they were not fleahed out, throw away gay characters, but MacGregor is a Main Character! Who is fleshed out and fully part of the story and he and his relationship with Lily drives it in many parts, and his being gay is actually part of his character rather than just hinted at and argh! People keep writing him off as "ooh, another 1st gay!" But he actually was! And you bet its mostly people whove never seen the film just reacting to the bad faith takes some people put online

A large reason I ended up making this blog (aside from I was hype for the movie even just based on the trailer) is because I knew this would happen and I wanted to create a space where people who actually saw themselves in the character could express how the character and movie as a whole make them happy and they could find positive posts and not be constantly reminded of all the bad faith takes. I don't talk about these bad faith takes a lot for this reason (I have some posts tagged #representation compilation where I discuss all of this) but I whole-heartedly agree with you anon.

a lot of people, me included, were really touched by MacGregor's coming out, saw themselves in his struggles, appreciated what a well-rounded character he is, and I suspect many more people would feel the same if they gave the movie a chance. But unfortunately "disney's 200th first gay character" jokes get more likes so they overshadowed any good feeling anyone might have been having. and I got messages from people who were absolutely crushed by this too. it feels like people are mocking them for seeing themselves in it, shaming them for liking a gay character that was arbitrarily deemed bad by people who never even saw the movie. (there is also a larger conversation to be had about the sense of moral superiority derived from deeming certain portrayals of a minority "bad" and shaming others for enjoying them in an attempt to appear more enlightened when in reality none of this really matters and personal enjoyment of media is not indicative of someone's morality or ability to treat people well and respectfully irl, whereas publicly shaming and mocking people constantly is kinda indicative of a failure on both accounts)

the opinions "we shouldn't have to beg for representation from huge media companies that only care about us when they can profit off us and instead support struggling queer artists' work more" and "a gay character from a huge media company can be someone queer people see themselves in and like watching" can coexist. feeling the second doesn't automatically make someone a bootlicker and thinking the first doesn't mean enjoying an enjoyable thing once in a while makes you a hypocrite.

[macgregorhoughton]

The way I saw it, Macgregor being a prim Edwardian upper class young man was what most of the joke centered around, which I really liked, as him being gay wasn't ever the butt of the joke (aside from that innuendo scene but that wasn't a butt of the joke as much as they're all being as inappropriate about Frank's little sword problem as possible). Hes not a gay stereotype, hes just English. If anything, Jack toned down his usual more camp persona tbh

honestly?? I thought the same thing. when people were outraged that he's "effete" in the movie I thought that is the dumbest thing ever cause that's what Jack is like. And then watching the movie I realised he was a lot less camp and feminine than in a lot of other stuff- because he was mostly copying his dad in the role. All that attitude and whatever that people somehow viewed as a gay stereotype was very clearly posh English and I'm not surprised that a lot of (especially) Americans don't know the difference, just disappointed they think attacking a supposedly straight man for being effeminate is valid somehow.

The butt of the joke was that he's a rich, posh man, not that he's gay.

[macgregorhoughton]

My middle-aged, straight friend who barely speaks English understood that MacGregor was coming out as gay in Jungle Cruise so I'm begging everyone to stfu with the "it's too ambiguous" because it really isn't.

[macgregorhoughton]

It honestly hurts that so many lgbtqia+ people are so salty and greedy about Mcgregor’s coming out not being enough for them. I saw so much of myself in the character that it made the movie one of my top 10 favorite movies. I’m honestly afraid that because of the outrage from the lgbtqia+ community, Disney will just shy away from the topic of gay characters all together.

I must admit I feel the same way. It means so much to me seeing this character, especially after growing up in a world where gay characters couldn't be in Disney movies because it was "inappropriate" or "dangerous" and seeing that we actually get the acceptance we deserve was so emotional.

people reblog the coming out scene directly from me, trash talking it like I didn't just open up about how much it meant to me, telling me THEY think it sucks and therefore it's bad. That hurts ngl.

And all the headlines about an "outrage" make me afraid of the same thing. This movie could develop into a franchise, a franchise where MacGregor is one of the main characters, a franchise that could really dive into his sexuality but seeing so many people attack the character for the stupidest reasons makes me afraid that if it does become a franchise, he'll get sidelined or his sexuality ignored. Not to mention other movies in general.

And it's not about blaming the community for the lack of representation that might result from this since we're not the ones making decisions. But if the people who don't want gay characters because they're homophobic send hate and boycott movies AND the people who are gay also send hate and boycott movies over a gay character, why would a media company include them then if none of the audience appears to want them. And then we're back to square one where everyone asks why Disney has no gay characters.

MacGregor is a great character. There's no real reason for the community to be outraged about him. That outrage hurts people in the community so much because it does hurt to see people trash a character you see yourself represented in and claim he's objectively bad just because they personally don't like him.

[macgregorhoughton]

The negativity from other people in the community is also making me a little upset when the coming out scene is actually done so well AND him being gay is also super relevant to his character and relationship with his sister. Like we're actually (slowly) moving past the stage of the token gay character that is just there for brownie points, and we got one of the main characters in a Disney movie as confirmed queer which is pretty big to me and others I'm gonna assume. And I agree that Disney shouldn't be put on some kind of pedestal for these little things, but discouraging the representation that we actually do get and hating on people who actually appreciate it, isn't gonna do any good either

Yeah I absolutely agree with you 100% on all of that.

I think most people who are very vocal about hating it already had that opinion long before they saw the movie and didn't give it one chance or even stopped to consider how others in the community might feel. I understand having personal preferences for media but the kind of hate (specifically the presentation of opinions as objective truths) the character gets is unwarranted.

[macgregorhoughton]

I've seen people complain about how Disney handled McGregor's coming out but I honestly believe that it was the best way possible. due to the time period It makes sense that he wouldn't put a name to his attraction. not to mention that he is a main character WHO UNO REVERSE CARD BURY YOUR GAYS AND WASN'T DEMONIZED FOR A SEXUALITY. And not to mention it showed how much McGregor trusted Frank with a secret that could possibly get him killed or thrown in jail. not to mention it was in a movie targeted towards kids. like this was a big step a very big step and I honestly wanted to cry when I saw that scene. they could have queerbaited us but I'm so glad they didn't. maybe in the sequel Frank and McGregor can kiss because I believe in Frank bisexual rights.

Fully agree! I have nothing to add that I haven't said before 👏

[macgregorhoughton]

not to sound all "disney isn't evil uwu" bc it absolutely is but I think saying MacGregor should've used the word gay, otherwise it's a bad coming out scene is p unfounded criticism imho.

if you look at his characterisation as this posh englishman who tries to live up to his family's expectations but just bc he's gay they want to cut ties with him bc this english upper class is so bigoted that they'd never accept a gay man as part of it, it makes absolute sense he would talk about it like that. he was raised in this repressed society that taught him only what a shameful topic this is, so it makes sense that he'd still only allow himself to talk about it like these uptight people who refuse to ever address anything "shameful" directly.

it actually is exactly how you communicate how the character sees himself; that he still carries all that shame and fear of rejection. the way he tells frank is exactly the way someone who hasn't been allowed a single day of being proud of or happy with their sexuality would say it. In my opinion it's perfect for the storytelling and very much in line with his characterisation.