[ SECRET POST #2286 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2286 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 100 secrets from Secret Submission Post #327.
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

[(Anonymous)]

This issue is multifaceted. I really agree with everything you're saying about the prevalence of fangirls who couch their canon aspirations in the language of fighting for equality and representation. This is extremely irritating. Like many other commenters in the thread, I also agree that writing frequently goes to shit when creators pay too much attention to the whims of their fanbase.

But on the other hand... creators STILL AREN'T writing gay characters. Yeah, times have changed enough that we all have a show with a gay character we can point to. Of course, for each of these shows, there are ten counterparts without a gay character in sight.

The complaint I think is particularly relevant to this secret is that creators are unwilling to write a queer character unless that character is immediately, incontrovertibly established to be queer as soon as they're introduced. Then that character is taken to have satisfied the gay quota, even if they're not a part of the main cast, even if they never have a significant storyline, even if they never have a same-sex romance. Meanwhile, all the other characters are flawlessly straight. Characters whose sexuality is never established are assumed to be straight. When these characters inevitably engage in romance, they will be confirmed to be straight.

'They'd be canon if one of them was a girl' is a cry commonly heard among slashers, but it isn't baseless. People say there's no canonical basis for these slash ships, but how much canon het have we seen come out of freaking nowhere? Castiel fell from heaven for Dean, but when he kissed someone in season six, of course it was Meg, because having thrown her down into fire and used her as a bridge is a much stronger basis for sexual attraction. Stiles has been written with purposeful hints pointing toward bisexuality, but the writer has no intention of actually going there -- and I don't mean with Sterek, just Stiles alone. Abed of Community had no sexual orientation established for a long time, so of course he's exclusively straight. Sylar of Heroes had no sexuality in the first season, so they randomly threw him with Elle and Claire. the list goes on and on. The creators would see the romantic potential in countless slash ships were they het. Instead, they just think we're crazy.

At least two things really, really suck about this. The first is that queer subtext is not acknowledged or respected the way heterosexual subtext is always assumed to be valid or canon by fans, the media, and creators. The second is that in these slash ships, the bulk of the emotional power in the male characters is shared with each other, not with their female partners, and the love interests are relegated to the status of sexual object or romantic possession.

[(Anonymous)]

I am drawing hearts around your last paragraph, jsyk. I'm going to save it somewhere as a friendly reminder to myself of why Supernatural is full of shit.

What I hate is the leap from your logic to "there's nothing wrong with asking Jeff for Sterek because queer representation" that gets made by the most vocal tumblr users. It's frustrating because I agree with them on several points - many of which you've written here. I am not ashamed of shipping slash and I get frustrated with portrayals of sexuality onscreen, but I don't think those things need to intersect, and I think the message is severely compromised when they do.
As i said in another comment around here, if you're going to argue for your slash ships the same way you would for a het ship, fine. If you're going to bug a creator about how their writing doesn't acknowledge the experiences of many people who don't fit neatly into boxes labeled gay/straight or man/woman, please do. But I don't blame creators for being confused and skeptical when you combine the two, particularly when (Teen Wolf) it seems like you didn't even watch their show.
It's fine to fix and change things about a show in fandom, but that has nothing to do with canon.

Anyway, your comment was so good I wanted to work out my thoughts on it. I hope I make sense. I agree 10000% with what you said about subtext. Anyone who mocks deancas shippers is an asshole- it's written into the show.

[(Anonymous)]

Castiel fell from heaven for Dean, but when he kissed someone in season six, of course it was Meg, because having thrown her down into fire and used her as a bridge is a much stronger basis for sexual attraction.

Sometimes it's not until you see shit typed out like that you realize how truly asinine something is.

This is one of those times.