#ted lasso queer rep

[church-of-lilith]

i just think it’s interesting how this episode of ted lasso focused on the straight character’s reactions to queerness, rather than the gay character’s actual queerness.

- we didn’t see Colin actually come out to the team, instead we were forced to assume it happened so we had enough time for Ted’s seven layer dip story.

- we got a conversation focusing on Isaac’s feelings about Colin being gay, but not Colin actually talking about his feelings besides with Trent very briefly.

- we also didn’t get Trent coming out despite the fact that they’ve clearly set him up as gay mentor & continually have him carrying that rainbow mug around

it almost feels like the Ted Lasso writers are afraid to say gay??? like they’re not able to fully embrace the queerness they’re so desperately trying to write into the show.

it would’ve been so easy to actually give Colin his moment without cutting away from that confession, or diluting it with a story about 7-layer dip. there are ways to create comedic moments without taking away from the heartfelt ones we actually want to see, not just infer.

[church-of-lilith]

okay let me say this while we’re all here barely recovering. tedtrent wasn’t queerbait. in reality there was no baiting, or actual set up for their relationship to be canon. we took little vague things and turned them into something bigger that we could enjoy, but the writers at no point actually queerbaited us. it’s not like we got references to them hooking up or anything a la tedbecca.

HOWEVER. them giving us queer trent and then no development or context or full coming out story sure as hell was a hate crime.

[church-of-lilith]

ted lasso’s groundbreaking ending to their queer storylines with colin & trent … I honestly had to laugh a little.

- Colin and Michael kissing on the pitch and nobody saying anything? when the whole thing this season was him not wanting to come out to the world? are we expected to believe no one saw that & that didn’t have any real world repercussions? (not that I wanted to see any repercussions, but to have that be a public gesture was certainly a choice)

- Colin never getting a toy soldier from Ted.

- Colin never introducing Michael to the team as his boyfriend officially after the whole ‘wingman’ set up.

- Trent getting a throwaway line about ‘learning to accept parts of yourself’ or whatever.

- Trent never interacting with Colin again or meeting Michael? Despite most of his purpose this season being to gay mentor Colin? And the whole convo they had about Colin wanting to ‘kiss his fella’ after he wins a match?

- Trent still having zero backstory we actually saw in canon? Who did he come out twice to? An ex-wife? His mom? What’s his daughters name? What’s that situation? There was a pic of her on his desk but she was never addressed again after that throwaway line in Sunflowers

- Apparently he was wearing a wedding ring in the book signing scene but I’d have to go back and watch to confirm? So possibly maybe an implied husband somewhere in the background?

Not impressed. Not amused. Though I can’t say I’m surprised.

[church-of-lilith]

if I hear ANYONE calling ted lasso ‘good queer rep’ in the future I’m making it my business to shut that shit down. I won’t have any revisionist history on this. they hardly did the bare minimum.

[church-of-lilith]

so did ted ever give colin a toy soldier after he came out to the team? or did that also happen off screen for us to imagine all on our own.

[church-of-lilith]

Have you seen Rowan Ellis' video about Ted Lasso? (Titled: "What even is "Good" queer TV") it covers so many of the talking points about the last season that I've seen you discuss on here in such a good summary!

hi anon! I saw this message when you originally sent it but I didn’t want to respond until I’d actually taken the time to watch the video.

I am so so grateful that Rowan made this video. Everything she says within it is exactly how I felt about the queer rep this entire season. It’s like she literally turned my endless rambling tumblr posts into a concise, well-organized YouTube video and it was so so satisfying for me to see my thoughts voiced on a bigger platform. I faced a lot of shit from a lot of people on here for calling out the TL writers for their treatment of queer characters/storylines. Specifically with Colin’s coming out episode centering basically COMPLETELY around Isaac and essentially serving as a way to comfort straight people. So to hear her touch on all the points I have been screaming about for months… just amazing.

Sad that Ted Lasso butchered their queer rep to the point that the video even had to be made, but I’m glad it was made. I implore all of you to watch this video which has changed titles multiple times but at one point was called ‘The Mysterious Failure of Ted Lasso’s Queer Characters’ and I thought that was the perfect name but I respect her for changing it back because it does touch on more queer rep beyond Ted Lasso.

[church-of-lilith]

All this talk about ppl unhappy about the lgbtq+ representation in the show but I’m gay and I had no problem with it. It’s not a show about gay ppl I don’t know what you were expecting

I’m glad that the queer representation worked for you! I’m not saying that anyone has to be upset about what we were given, but that doesn’t make the people who did expect more any less valid.

In terms of what I was expecting? So glad you asked. I outlined some of that in this post of mine. But I kinda just expected the bare minimum? Like Colin introducing Michael to the team? Us learning about Trent’s full coming out story/his daughter?

And good God don’t get me started on the way they portrayed Keeley & Jack’s relationship. It’s not that lesbians in media have to be portrayed as perfect all of the time, but the way they painted Jack as a red flag from the start and she just progressively got worse... atrocious. And to give us a sapphic relationship that was doomed from the start and somehow make it one of the only facets of Keeley’s character for the whole season (via Jack holding the company over her head post breakup,) was just straight up poor writing.

This is all before you look at it from the lens of casual viewers who are perhaps older and have never really seen queer relationships portrayed in media before (much less their favorite show). What message are they getting from all this? What are they seeing to represent us? A disjointed, terribly toxic wlw relationship, a mlm relationship that’s so far in the background we don’t even know Michael’s last name, and a universe in which homophobia only exists when it’s convenient for the narrative.

Oh yeah, and Trent who’s queer backstory was so ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ that the only reason most of them remember he’s gay is because of the rainbow mug he carries around in each scene.

This isn’t a show about gay people, you’re right. But if the show is going to choose to include queer characters and relationships, I expect them to do it right.

[church-of-lilith]

Do you think anybody on reddit has posted abt how unhappy sapphics are with the way they represented us or how bi coded Ted is? Cuz if anything that seems like the site where the writers might actually see it and it sucks they probably won't even care and think queer ppl should be happy with what we got

I don’t think anybody has posted about the poor sapphic rep or bi Ted on Reddit yet, at least not that I’ve seen. I think the main reason for that is because when it comes to posting about lgbtq+ topics, people are less tolerant over on Reddit.

Like most of the comments under the post of James’ interview about Trent having a crush on Ted were positive, but there was also definitely a fair share of homophobic trolls looking for reactions from people. The mods got around to deleting those comments eventually but it took a hot minute.

I’ve been waiting to see someone in the actual media write an article about how the queer rep in TL wasn’t all that, especially with the way Keeley and Jack were treated. I think that’s the only way the writers would ever become aware of how unhappy the general queer (and also specifically sapphic) audiences really were with their ‘representation.’ I don’t know that I’d be comfortable ever posting about it on Reddit though, because it just seems like it’s bound to draw in terrible people looking to comment hate more than it would draw in people looking to have an actual conversation.

And in terms of the writers seeing it on Reddit? Yeah it’s always a possibility, but like you said, I don’t believe they’d actually care. Brendan Hunt spent a majority of his AMA over there insisting that Jane wasn’t abusive & making very passive aggressive comments towards people who were calling him out on how that relationship was written. Not an ounce of respect towards anyone with differing opinions or an open mind towards any of the valid criticism. If he or anyone else did see a post on Reddit about any criticism towards the queer rep, I don’t believe they would actually care or come up with a worthwhile response.

Maybe someone braver than me will decide to start a conversation over there, though! Maybe it’ll be you! And if not, you’re always free to continue sending your thoughts here to my ask box because I definitely have opinions that I’m sure are very similar to your own. Thanks for sending this one in!