[ SECRET POST #3616 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3616 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #517.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Like I said in my secret, I'm definitely being selfish about this to a point, but I honestly do think they would be interesting representation wise. It just never goes well when you admit that something you ship is something you also think would be good representation wise, so I fully admit my bias. (It's a little like the whole Peridot/Lapis thing in Stephen Universe, while I have limited knowledge about this I do remember there being a whole "shipping or legit representation?" fight happening, and sometimes I wonder why it can't occasionally be both? Why do these always have to be two separate concepts?)

Honestly even if I didn't ship anything in this fandom I'd feel the same way though. Like just delete these two characters from the universe entirely for a second, and my feelings stay the same. I'm really afraid Blizzard is going to pull something stereotypical and/or "straight male-gaze-y" and then act as if the rest of their otherwise quite diverse cast is otherwise completely 100% default straight. I think it would be a novel way to approach things by saying "some of the cast is LGBT" and then not confirming/denying who is or isn't. Not that it's something I'd want for EVERY franchise to do, but truthfully I think it's stopped a whole bunch of typical gamer "ew I'm not playing _____, they're a fag" type bullshit. It's been interesting to see a fandom develop where we know from the beginning that there's definitely 100% canon LGBT representation as confirmed by TPTB, but they weren't interested in spilling the beans (at first) as to which character(s) were said representation.

I'm not the only LGBT person that feels like this in the Overwatch fandom and I've seen a bunch of personal posts on my dash about it, but like I said, I know my reasons for not wanting this are partly selfish, even if I do feel that these two would be quite interesting in terms of representation for multiple reasons. Which is why this is a secret and not something I plan on saying outside the confines of a community specifically made for telling fandom secrets.

Re: OP

[feotakahari]

"Not that it's something I'd want for EVERY franchise to do, but truthfully I think it's stopped a whole bunch of typical gamer "ew I'm not playing _____, they're a fag" type bullshit."

No, they just apply it to Zarya.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

OP again

Honestly I think that's mostly because Zarya's a masculine-coded woman. I don't think that would magically stop if she were confirmed to be the straightest straight lady to ever come outta Straightsville. I'm thinking it's less about her perceived sexuality and more about her perceived gender presentation. They're uncomfortable with her because she's a muscular lady who looks like she could break them, and that doesn't make their genitals tingle so therefore she's a bad character in their minds.

If anything I'd just picture the jokes getting even cruder if she were "confirmed straight". Instead of the "hurrdurr butch lesbian" stereotype it's going to be "I bet she loves to dominate the shit out of her men, she probably only likes wimpy little cucks who let her peg them while they crossdress" type rhetoric. I've already seen a little of that unfortunately.

People are uncomfortable with characters that don't fit into a certain mold, and Zarya definitely qualifies.

None of it is right, but there is an absolute "boys club" thing going on where male characters being homo/bi-sexual get shit on way harder than female characters being homo/bi-sexual. I saw something like it firsthand in another gaming franchise of mine, where a male character was confirmed as bisexual and the fanbase threw a homophobic hoopla while meanwhile in the same game there were two female on female kisses and it wasn't even mentioned by the same guys flipping out about a "faggot" in their game. It's just another gross reminder of how female homosexuality has been branded as being "for men" and male homosexuality has been branded as "taboo". Neither is a good thing. :(

Re: OP

[feotakahari]

God, I am so glad I never hung out in the male-dominated sections of this fandom.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know why I bother to be honest. Being LGBT means I have almost zero in common with the average straight white fanboy of Overwatch and even if I like some of the same things they do we certainly don't take the same approach to it, but I like to spread my fandom experience across multiple platforms and sometimes that means I encounter idiots. :( Sometimes the fandom isn't so bad and I've been surprised by the average straight white fanboy before in other fandoms when they've casually accepted canon homosexuality and/or fujobaiting with not even the bat of an eyelash (or sometimes even getting in on the fun), but Overwatch's non-LGBT male fanbase is kind of cancerous sometimes.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I get that. I've hung out in male dominated fan spaces before like for video games or manga, and even though they're not terrible 100% of the time, In the past I have seen some, "gay people are gross and creepy and should just go away!!1" mindsets and opinions and it does hurt. :T

Re: OP

[feotakahari]

I check in sometimes on http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/. She's mainly Steven Universe, but she also reblogs a lot of Overwatch content that isn't heterocentric.