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Heteronormativity: How it Stunts Queer Representation (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2022-06-29 23:01:01 +0000 UTCI wanna talk about queer representation in media
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When it comes to queer representation in modern-day media made for the masses with the intent of normalization, it can be...all over the place.
My relationship with it has definitely reflected that kind of thinking. I never had Noggin or The N growing up, so I didn’t know Degrassi existed until I was already in college. The same can be said of pretty much all of the progressive “gay” episodes of network cartoon shows missing me by 5 or so years
But since I’ve gotten older, I unlearned a lot of toxic things in order to better and accept myself within my own bisexuality, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel weirded out going back to that content to try and find any relevancy to it.
Soon, more queer media began to release itself with the help of streaming networks, and queer characters were beginning to be introduced to less niche bits of media that were available for multiple individuals in the form of cable network television and theatrically released movies.
However, the more I saw the ones that were presented in the way that they were presented, the more dissatisfied I was with how they were.
And that was mostly because while I was seeing the decisions a lot of mainstream media were making regarding how to present queer representation to the masses, I was actaully experiencing things about queer culture and community from multiple angles now that I knew where to look; from tribes that I initially clicked with, and those that I didn’t but still respected.
I experienced them in both adult, and what can be considered, family friendly ways as well. All the while educating myself on aspects about queer culture and attuning to queerness according to the individual.
But for some strange reason, out of all the content featuring queerness that I would see from cable television and mainstream movies...
/Steven Universe was the only way I saw it even close to how I’ve seen it play out in reality./
And both the worry and frustration only grew when I found out that not only did Rebecca Sugar have to fight in order to get what the show was able to display greenlit...
/But that others in both film and television at multiple film studios weren’t so lucky with a lot of shows and movies we’ve all experienced./
So as I learned what it takes to get produced -- both the intentionally planned and the water droplets that are approved -- learning that things are cut and adjusted to sell the features overseas or just being “too progressive,” and even what qualifies as good representation or not, I began to see a pattern that, thanks to now having the knowledge and terminology necessary to explain my overall frustration with what has been presented as “acceptable” queer representation, has presented itself to me in order to know how it is stunted.
And that’s the social construct of heteronormativity.
What Is Heteronormativity?
Now before we can begin to cross-examine heteronormativity’s hand in queer expression and representation, we first have to explain what heteronormativity is, along with how its related to everyone’s favorite western societal bedrock.
The real ones already know what I’m referring to without having to actually call it by name, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Heteronormativity is the pervasive and largely invisible heterosexual norms that underpin society.
Heterosexual norms in this case referring to a list of standards, rules and expectations that align with a society crafted in favor of heterosexuality. It’s because of these norms that there’s a sense of societal control implemented simply because of how long the normalization has been established, and has since become the unspoken standard, expectation and dominant ruling of how life should be lived within said society.
And while it’s not as systemic in nature as, for instance, the fight for civil rights and women’s rights were during the era of Jim Crowe and the like...
/As the movie Hidden Figures illustrated regarding those aspects of racism and sexism that had -- and STILL have -- a vicegrip on our country, it applies a similar set of control in which to the people it doesn’t affect can simply say.../(that is just the way things are)
The reason WHY that societal control is so similar to past and present forms of systemic oppression, is that heteronormativity as we know it -- as you probably guessed -- is yet another root in the tap root system that is white supremacy. (Raises hand) Show of hands; who all saw that coming?
One of the main forms of heteronormativity, is how it projects the idea of family units consisting of a “mother” and a “father” as “ordinary,” and suggests that certain milestones in life -- including marriage, reproduction, parenthood and the like -- are considered “good” and promoted as leading a successful life if they pass through each of these stages at an appropriate speed.
This mindset is mostly thanks to the promotion of the nuclear family from the 1950s to the 1970s, when a mother, a father and their children all lived under the same roof and capitalism heavily benefited from a family man’s need to prove that they’re man enough to provide for their family via hegemonic masculinity.
And while this applied to white families that were middle class and higher when they retreated to the green zones of the suburbs in order to build generational wealth, both the desire and the pressure to follow this form of patriarchal capitalism disguised as theology thanks to heteronormativity wrapping around it like a weed, increased over time in minorities, hoping to copy a sense of personal success that would never really be in their reach no matter how hard they tried.
That went double for black folks and other people of color who were denied said solace thanks to redlining, and white suburbanites making it impossible for them to move into their neighborhoods.
They either felt forced to apply this same structure to their way of life to less avail as their white counterparts, or ended up deviating from it all-together in the form of familial matriarchy or other theologies that come more natural to their ethnic upbringing, as opposed to the heteronormative-coated patriarchy that promotes the toxic and exploitive aspects of masculinity that keeps men from freely expressing themselves less they be viewed as emasculated and worthless to society...
And keeps women under the belief that they need to be submissive and subservient to their male partners as opposed to being exactly that: a PARTNER.
If white supremacy is the primary taproot, then patriarchy is the secondary taproot that grows from that, followed by capitalism being a tertiary root growing from it, and heteronormativity being one of the many rootlets springing forth.
It’s all part of a sense of societal control that has had multiple people regardless of sex and gender in a vicegrip, that has only recently began to be challenged by late 20th century civility. Anyone that DOES challenge it -- such as the matriarchal black families I mentioned eariler and the very existence of queer people -- is considered deviant.
/Because as Stevi Jackson declared it in her essay “Intergchanges: Gender, Sexuality and Heterosexuality,” Heteronormativity defines not only a normative sexual practice, but also a normal way of life./
Queer representation in any sense of the word naturally challenges what was only recently modern-day heteronormativity as previously explained. And that’s only thanks to queer and feminist protestors of the 1970’s being able to put it together that what has been accepted as heteronormativity falls under the same umbrella of white supremacy that the civil rights movement has been fighting since the 1950’s and earlier.
Nowadays, we do have more proper representation in the media. But in order for us to see how much of ACTUAL modern-day heteronormativity has affected it, we must examine how far our reach has been allowed to stretch in a society that still thrives off of straightness, whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalistic masculinity as norms.
And that means acknowledging that in order for our queerness to shine in ANY capacity in mainstream entertainment, those initially looking for it have to do a bit of digging.
Mining For Gold
/“The Quarry” is a 2022 horror video game created by interactive drama game developer Supermassive Games and published by 2K Games./
With TellTale Games and Quantic Dream, Supermassive is one of the three most well-known developers for pushing this type of gaming experience to modern mainstream, and as of right now the only one out of the three that has remained pretty unproblematic.
/The Quarry is about a group of camp counselors forced to stay on the grounds after it's closed for the summer, and they all have to survive the night as they discover secrets about the grounds involving ghosts, monsters and curses./
It also, coincidentally, happens to be a very good modern day case study regarding how heteronormativity has affected both the creation process of media featuring queer representation, and the thought process of certain demographics of individuals who partake in it.
As you can imagine, despite taking place in modern day, the story is modeled like a supernatural slasher horror movie from the 80s.
The main theme song of the film sounds like it came right off the set of A Nightmare On Elm Street. There’s an 80’s costume pack DLC for the main cast that you have access to after beating the game the first time.
/And there are nods to Friday The 13th with the main characters being teenage camp counselors that have already graduated High School and some about to begin college once this summer gig is over./
/Two of these camp counselors are queer; Dylan Lenivy, played by Miles Robbins -- son of Shawshank Redemption’s Tim Robbins and Speed Racer’s Susan Sarandon -- and Ryan Erzahler, played by Justice Smith, who in real life is ALSO queer./
And similar to the Crystal Lake camp counselors they were inspired by, they are just as prone to fun, flings, hookups and romance as their straight counselor counterparts at Hatchett’s Quarry. Equal footing, right?
/Well, not when you realize upon playing the game that, when it comes to subconscious heteronormativity and marketing, the fact that these two characters are queer is incredibly subtle when compared to the two heteroromantic couples in this game, Nick and Abigail, and Emma and Jacob./
When we play the first chapter of the game, we are immediately introduced to the jock trope character of the scenario Jacob.
/Who, thanks to the help of long-time platonic friend Kaitlyn played by Disney Channel Star Survivor Brenda Song, reveals to us that he and Semi-Mean Girl Emma had a fling over the course of camp. While she cut it off at the end of the summer with that takeaway in mind, he ended up catching feelings over the course of it./
Now this scene informs us that these two characters in question were in a heteroromantic and heterosexual relationship, and it’s pretty much one of the FIRST THINGS we learn about them upon being introduced to them.
/However, after a bit of gameplay from Jacob’s POV, we’re given ANOTHER cutscene of Jacob and Kaitlyn talking and dissecting the breakup, in which we’re given an option to have him counter her queries with one of his own; specifically about her crush on Ryan./ (Wait, are we talking about Ryan, the sailing instructor with a sexy, brooding loner thing that totally doesn’t do anything for me at all?)
Remember what I said earlier. Ryan is queer.
/Bisexual, specifically, according to what the writer for his character Graham Reznik confirmed on Twitter./
/But Ryan isn’t there to declare his bisexuality as easily as Kaitlyn, Jacob, and even Nick later on in the scene were able to do, nor is he really given the opportunity to establish that aspect about himself from the getgo./
So because Kaitlyn is a woman exclaiming her feelings for him to a guy that treats it like any other heteroromantic attraction, a player that’s still enthralled in the societal control of heteronormativity or isn’t privy to any real life or meta information regarding the game...
Would then file Ryan in the same bin as any other queer fictional character who’s non-heterosexuality is made to be a thing that has to be DISCOVERED in order to be validated; straight until proven gay. And by gay, I mean the LGBTQ neutral terminology.
/Dylan falls privy to this as well. His introductory scenes are quick to paint us a picture that he’s the pseudo-stoner chill hippie type that’s here to provide comic relief the way he roasts his fellow camp counselors, and only doubles down on that once Kaitlyn’s attraction to Ryan has been established in the game. It’s only through his POV scene after they’re stranded and the others begin to question Ryan’s taste in podcasts that his options reflect Dylan being romantically interested in Ryan, but are made so subtle that heteronormativity would have you think that he’s just being a bro./
Now there IS a moment after the group ends up stranded that if certain dialogue selections are chosen during Ryan’s POV that causes him to get frustrated that the group aren’t willing to stay in the cabin like their boss tells them to...
/Dylan reacts in a way that hints that he’s upset that him suggesting a party made Ryan walk off./
/But the only time we really get confirmation of both Ryan and Dylan’s queerness and even their romantic interest in each other, is when the two are exploring Chris’s office charging their phones, and through certain dialogue options you have the opportunity to learn that they’re both single, Ryan has no gender preference between male and female, and they’re both interested in each other./
And also, depending on whether or not you choose Dare as Ryan during the Truth or Dare scene, just like the tweet I shared earlier describes...
/You get solid confirmation of Ryan’s bisexuality when given the option to kiss either Kaitlyn or Dylan./ (I guess “both” isn’t an option?)
The thing is, that’s ONLY if you choose Dare, which is part of the point that I am trying to make.
While Dylan and Ryan’s queerness is present in The Quarry and is just as important to their characters and personality, it’s never given the equal amount of prominence as the straightness of the other characters. Especially when you consider how much the story relies on hetero-focused decision-making.
/Jacob’s heteroromantic and heterosexual desire to spend one more night with Emma in order to convince her to be his long-distance girlfriend, causes him to either cut the fuel line or steal the rotary arm in the van to keep them all at the camp in order to do so, and set the story into motion. Emma kissing Nick in the game of Truth or Dare knowing that Abi likes him just to help light a fire to get them to finally talk and admit they like each other is a pivotal point that moves the story forward regarding the group learning about the Hackett’s werewolf curse./
And while some queer individuals are either happy or unsurprised to hear that hetero-leaning actions are the cause of plight these couselors have to go through, it doesn’t really change the fact that the very social control that heterosexuality has on modern society is the reason why these characters’ straight identities and their straight decisions are incredibly more prominent and impactful than that of their queer counterparts, in which you have to do an unfair required amount of digging in order to discover said queer identity in comparison.
“But this is just a case of media literacy” Yes, you’re absolutely right. All of the heterosexual identities and relationships in this game should ALSO be just as subtle and ambiguous as the queer ones.
Now we as queer consumers of media like this are used to this type of subtleness when it comes to seeing ourselves in tv, movies and video games in order to find a place in to heteronormativity’s societal structure and can point out the representation in the subtlety.
/My YouTube mutuals Miles Jai and MacDoesIt are great examples in their separate streams fo the game./(montage of Mac and Miles discovering RyanxDylan)
However, as you’d expect, straight consumers have been conditioned by heteronormativity to not see it as quickly as us queer folk, if not at all.
Heteronormativity grants straight-identifying individuals caught up in its norms the privilege of not having to IMMEDIATELY consider non-straightness into the mix. Especially when a game like The Quarry comes out the gate immediately swinging a bat of heteronormative pragmatism in its storytelling.
/Some immediately dismiss it as a default reaction -- or a natural response -- if they find themselves stumbling upon the queer breadcrumbs those of us who seek representation immediately look out for. Then the game confirms it, and the ones that are aware of heteronormativity having a form of control on society begin to internally normalize it and roll with it as much as a straight one./ (JackSepticEye Footage)
Some like Jirard Khalil on Jesse Cox’s Scary Game Squad on the other hand are boundless enough on heteronormativity, thanks to personal growth and experiences...
/That they’re able to see Ryan and Dylan’s queerness despite not making the immediate choices that make it obvious. Even in the midst of someone along for the ride who isn’t really that convinced that something’s there./ (He’s gay and he’s bi-curious/is that what you get from this?)
Am I telling you to boycott Supermassive Games? No, absolutely not. Like I said before, they are pretty much one of the only well-known developers of interactive drama games that have remained unproblematic and their games are super fun.
/That doesn’t mean however, we can’t critique their partner publisher 2K games for possibly limiting the amount of queer representation we were allowed to see throughout/ (Such REPRESENTATION! We gotta sell this game in China, that’s all you get. MacDoesIt).
Am I telling you to cancel Jack Septic Eye or Jesse Cox? No, not because of this. If you’re gonna cancel one of them, it should at least be for THIS!
What I am saying is that when it comes to queer representation, the current state of heteronormativity has it so that in order for us to see ourselves, we literally have to dig in order to do so.
And instead of our identities, feelings and decisions being a pivotal aspect of development, plot and story, it's left as something that’s only worth acknowledging if it’s actually discovered.
/And even then, thanks to how inclusive it is to the overall story, depending on who’s participating in it, its relevance is up for debate./ (I don’t think it’s all THAT...)
This lack of representation and equality in modern day storytelling, believe it or not, does more harm than good.
Because while it IS present in the work in a “Where’s Waldo” type deal, it begins to set a precedent for how it should be handled in OTHER works while still allowing heteronormativity to be front and center. And we got our first example of that situation and how heteronormativity can be allowed to mold a homonormative one to its liking, in the form of one Katie Mitchell.
She’s One of The GOOD Ones
Katie Mitchell is the main character in the animated movie “The Mitchells vs The Machines.” She’s a queer and quirky aspiring filmmaker who can’t connect with her dad, and is going to film school across the country now that she’s graduated High School.
/The film surrounds her dad canceling her plane ticket and cobbling up a last-minute family road trip to take her to school himself -- all without her consent -- which as a result causes them to be the only humans available to stop a rogue AI from launching all of humanity into space. The two find a way to bond and better relate to each other over the course of it, family hilarity and heroics ensue, and everything you expect to happen in an animated film focused on the importance of family happens./
Now one of the main critiques I had about the movie was that, though it handled Katie’s relationship with her family beautifully, aspects about her queerness were left to be desired.
Despite it being marketed that Katie’s present queerness in the movie was a huge milestone -- especially in mainstream animation -- all that was present over the course of the movie was a pride flag button on her hoodie, and her mother alluding to a possible same-sex relationship she has with her roommate at the end of the movie.
/And in my video that I made upon the movie’s release, I addressed the reasons that were more than likely responsible for said lack of representation in Katie’s character./
I explained that despite this being released on Netflix, The Mitchells vs The Machines was made by Sony Animation and originally slated to be released in theaters via Sony’s Columbia Pictures before the arrival of COVID-19, along with the impending lockdowns and quarantines that followed.
Because of that, Sony’s interference via shareholders and studio executives regarding the amount of queer expression Katie was able to share and that her family was able to celebrate was limited -- no matter how much of it was initially planned by the film’s writing and animation teams -- since it was initially planned to be released worldwide; China included.
So when the pandemic hit in 2020, Sony struck a deal with Netflix to distribute the film everywhere BUT China for around 110 million dollars. But by that time, the film had since been finalized and promoted worldwide, with all of the executives and shareholders demands to keep the film as heteronormative as possible already implemented and applied.
What do I mean by heteronormative? Well, I mean the fact that despite Katie being queer and just as capable of love, crushes and feelings that are similar...
/It’s her 6 year old little brother Aaron we see develop a crush on the daughter of the family’s next door neighbor MULTIPLE times over the course of the movie./
/Whereas outside of her mom wondering if she and her roommate Jade are going steady 2 weeks after school started, the closest thing we get to allowing Katie the same luxury, is a group zoom session she’s participating in with both Jade and at least 3 other attendees of the film school of multiple genders, and the heart forming insinuating that this is her clique and that she “finally found her people.”/
There are MULTIPLE ways that Katie’s queerness could’ve been displayed over the course of The Mitchells vs The Machines that have since been normalized over the course of fighting for equality and acceptance.
/Katie’s mom loves making home movies, so it wouldn’t be out of her character to have planned and recorded a “Congrats on Coming Out” party for Katie that her dad watched the night before deciding to go on a road trip./
Hell, since the initial premise was pulled from “A Goofy Movie,” they could’ve adjusted things so that we can see Katie actually pine for Jade over the course of the road trip like Max pined for Roxanne.
/Every opportunity that they had to do so was given less notice because it was always Jade plus their overall social group in order to insinuate she was missing out on hanging with her new friends./
Even Aaron’s crush on the neighbor girl could’ve been used as a way for Katie to share some advice to him about how to talk to girls having had to do so through trial and error herself.
Thanks to heteronormativity and how it plays a hand in both patriarchy and capitalism, Katie’s queerness in the film is limited thanks to having to conform to the societal norms surrounding heterosexuality and making it the main priority, regardless of who the film focuses on.
And while some would argue that the focus is on Katie’s creativity, passion for film, and reconnection to her family over her sexuality -- even from fellow queer people -- it’s still a very important aspect of her character that isn’t given the same time of day as the other aspects of herself.
/Because if you have a character who’s queerness can be easily watered down to the point where everything else about her takes higher priority, why even make her queer to begin with? She’ll just be another Will from Stranger Things season 3 and 4; a character with a sexuality that’s up to interpretation in order to mesh with societal norms, while everyone else has the privilege to display their straightness to the masses, simply because it’s what society expects./
When I initially made my video critiquing this aspect of the movie, I was bombarded with bot and troll comments from accounts that were made at least 3 to 4 months beforehand.
And while some were what you expected -- like one that said “well what did you expect to see her do in the movie? Scissor another woman?” -- others decided to make their comments the queer version of “I’m black, and I found this funny” by saying they had no problem with the way Katie was utilized in the film.
But then I started receiving comments from ACTUAL accounts from queer people, who appreciated the subtlety and the handling of Katie’s character because of how much content they’ve seen before regarding queer characters was just soaked in stereotypes that gave others a reason to disrespect us. That in featuring her in the way that the movie does, she’s just depicted as “normal.”
And while I respect their opinions, I must say that some are saying this without the realization that what they consider normal for the longest time has only recently been adjusted for us to be compliant with how things currently are.
For the longest, we’ve thought that all it took to be accepted into this mold that is heteronormativity is to make sure our inserts didn’t pierce through anything; that if we positioned ourselves just right to be visible when the final product hardens, that we’ll be fine.
But -- and I say this having experiencing everything that I’ve experienced as both a queer man AND a black man -- the problem is that we are trying to exist and be seen in a societal structure that only “normalizes” us when its beneficial to THEM. And even then, it’s on THEIR terms.
And when THEY set the terms for us regarding how WE need to act in order to be considered “normal” or “acceptable” or “one of the good ones,” bitch, that’s called Conformity. And I don’t do that.
/Mystique said it best in X2: X-Men United when Nightcrawler asked a question regarding her abilities/ (Why? Because we shouldn’t have to)
I want it on record that I’m not condemning anyone who seeks a sense of equality in their queer representation.
You have every right to achieve the same ideal dream, the same white picket fence, and the same livelihood that your straight white counterpart has been allowed since the moment they stole this land from the Native Americans.
What I’m trying to do is paint a more accurate picture of how heteronormativity and the use of it has governed how appreciative we are supposed to be whenever it decides to include us.
While I understand the worry of stereotype association, remember that it’s the oppressors and those the norms initially cater to that usually create the stereotypes as a way of dehumanizing and bringing illegitimacy to the ones that deviate.
The reason why the racist stereotype of black people loving watermelon exists, is because once we were freed of slavery, we grew, sold, and ate watermelon enough to associate the fruit with our freedom and emancipation, and white folks didn’t like that. So they spread the rumors and associated watermelon with our so-called laziness, childishness and unkemptness through post civil war propaganda, and it’s been associated with us ever since.
And as recent actions against queer rights by government officials and groups that fear what they don’t care to understand have shown, this same mentality has been utilized when individuals say that queer individuals are inherently self-oversexualized. (P) That we’re child groomers. (P) That trans women are predators and rapists. (P) That furrys are zoophiles and practice bestiality. (P) That we’re trying to turn “straight” men gay whenever patriarchy and fragile masculinity begin to lose their grip on someone.
It’s all the same form of oppression from a system that was never meant for us to fit in, no matter how much we try to be “one of the good ones” as many viewed Katie Mitchell in The Mitchells vs The Machines as.
And while protests and holding film studios accountable have helped us have more of a say in how we should be represented in mainstream media on a global scale...
What has been incredibly noticeable when it comes to queer representation completely pushing heteronormativity’s control out of the way, is that it has not proven to be the best way of allowing US the means of setting the normative standards of how OUR lives should be depicted.
As you can imagine, the main way we have been able to do so, is that we make our OWN media, and partner with companies that allow us to do so fully.
Get Used To It
I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t let the heteronormative standards that set the stereotypes about queer identity and culture that I didn’t identify with, dictate what I was and wasn’t fine with experiencing.
I know now that it was nothing but internalized homophobia and that last bit of deprogramming I had to do regarding toxic masculinity telling me that, despite me being bisexual...
Emasculation of the masculinity I already naturally represented would happen if I entertained any femme-leaning traits and activities, or explored sexual desires usually associated with feminine roles when looking at relationships strictly through a heteronormative lens.
Which is a very long way of saying that because of toxic masculinity during the beginning of my self-acceptance, I was a strict top for the longest time.
And while I now know better that the embrace and celebration of femininity in the midst of a system that wants to control and condemn it even amongst cisgendered women, is an aspect of queer culture and identity that is to be respected and revered -- regardless of how much of it is reflected in one’s own self expression...
Heteronormativity would see this “deviancy” and label any form of it as a stereotype that, because it’s an insert that doesn’t fit into the mold enough to mesh with the rest of the resin, would stick out like a sore thumb when it cures and hardens.
I make D&D dice sets as a hobby, so that’s the analogy we’re using.
So, like some of the comments on my Mitchells vs The Machines video that stated they preferred Katie as she was initially portrayed because they didn’t want to see her made into a bundle of lesbian stereotypes...
There was part of me that was worried certain shows and depictions of queer characters in them would be given that same treatment when it came to making content specifically catered to us.
/I have no problem admitting that this was one of my fears when I found out Q-Force was gonna be a thing on Netflix. ESPECIALLY after the first trailer for it was released. And for the longest time, I didn’t really bring myself to watch it./
It wasn’t until a fellow queer friend of mine from out of town came to visit me, sat me down on my own couch and turned it on that I decided to give it a shot.
And when I paused an episode to go use the bathroom and Netflix showed the thing that was like “Are you enjoying Q-Force?” I found myself out loud saying “You know what? Surprisingly? YES!”
Q-Force ended up being a celebration of queer existence in every shape and fashion.
It was created by queer people, it starred queer people, and it was written by queer people of multiple walks of life in a way that allowed us to healthily critique multiple aspects about each other.
/Including things that some queer folk need to work on about themselves./
But what spoke to me the most was the season-long story arc it told regarding the conspiracy around the American Intelligence Agency -- the spy organization Q-Force works for...
/And how in the past they would brainwash agents they found out were queer in order for them to forget their sexualities and association with the organization, and live out their retirement in a Stepford Wives-ass suburb./
And while the program was abandoned and they instead made the decision to just transfer every individual under their ranks they discovered was queer to West Hollywood on some “be with your kind and out of our hair” type shit...
The entirety of the situation really opened my eyes to how heteronormativity overall polices what is and isn’t acceptable in its sphere regarding queer representation
We can’t be flamboyant or outwardly proud of who we are in the process of wanting to be showcased on equal grounds of our straight counterparts, otherwise said expression is used to perpetuate stereotypes and be examples of how NOT to act if you want representation that matters according to the norms and standards heteronormativity put into place.
/And when you LISTEN to that, and buy in to the idea of being queer in a way that makes you tolerable for heteronormativity, it can be looked at as a form of brainwashing that not only keeps you from deviating and semi-tolerable, but also forgettable./
Q-Force’s collection of queer actors, showrunners, producers and writers took that heteronormative oppression and formed a story around it that highlights what happens when queer folk conform to it in the search for equality.
/And in the process, it celebrates everything that the social control of heteronormativity tells us we shouldn’t if we want to have a place in it; the flamboyant, the feminine... everything that has been used by straight creators to poke fun of and dehumanize how some queer folks choose to express themselves./
Not only was it reclaimed, but it provided actual representation that provided the normalcy of multiple aspects of queer lives, which is what we want to see.
We shouldn’t have to be satisfied with damn near sterile and neutral depictions of queer characters in mainstream television just because any other depiction of them being as confidently queer as straight characters are confidently straight would result in them being offensive stereotypical caricatures.
They shouldn’t be robbed of their agency and struggles and what they have and had to deal with in order to be accepted, just because it’s not necessary to the plot of the story.
If they are supposed to be believable characters in the story they are portraying, then what they had to deal with to get to the point of where they are now is just as important as whatever struggles a straight character in the same story had to deal with.
/And THAT’S the ACTUAL normalcy we desire when it comes to queer representation./
Conclusion
The way heteronormativity has dictated how queerness is represented, when queerness is represented, and where queerness is represented, along with the fact that it always expects a form of compliance from us says a lot
And I must remind you that thanks to its root in capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy’s perpetuation of systemic oppression, it also affects representation from ethnic minorities in multiple aspects just as well.
The reason why it took Marvel Comics so long to produce movies about Black Panther, Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel and Black Widow was because Ike Perlmutter is too racist and sexist to think that movies with black, asian, or female leads wouldn’t sell.
And even now that there are more people of color starring in both legacy properties and even their own brand new IPs, people who the ethnic norms that this society cater to -- straight or otherwise -- have been throwing hissy fits that, while it’s entirely possible for them to enjoy it like the rest of us, it’s not catered specifically to them.
So when we as queer folk see that happen -- and ESPECIALLY us queer POC who pretty much get a double-whammy of restrictive queer representation compounded with an abundance of whiteness -- we notice it. We put 2 and 2 together. We fight back. Especially when it’s against a company that wants to regulate how much is enough in order for it to be sellable.
Heteronormativity accepts queer expression in a way that, instead of normalizing what it’s like to be queer in a world we share with straight individuals, says what’s acceptable to normalize in said world and waters us down to what it deems a tolerable level as a result.
And while creators who want to put our stories on the big screen under the banners of Disney, Warner Brothers and the like have to fight tooth, nail and claw for it to not be just a small queer spec in a bigger narrative subconsciously catered to societal heterosexuality that is only left to interpretation, we make our own through the means that allow us and it is cherished all the more.
We run successful kickstarters for graphic novels for queer fantasy adventures and queer supernatural romance.
We produce a web romance comic of an out gay teen and a coming-to-terms bi teen in the UK that gets published as a graphic novel...
/And turned into one of the most successful queer teen dramas on a streaming service./
We create a graphic novel starring a gay trans boy working at a haunted amusment park that’s allowed to deal with problems and situations that a gay trans boy would deal with in real life, despite the story being first and foremost about him and his co-worker working at a haunted amusement park...
/And then that being so successful that it’s turned to an animated series on the same streaming service that’s quickly becoming beloved because of how much the normalization of the character has carried over from the source material and properly addressed throughout./
The reason why the queer representation we have been craving for such a long time exists, is because we are the ones that are making it.
And those with the power to bring what we make to more people than we can possibly reach ourselves, realize that what makes it so special is that the want to see ourselves in media just as normally as our straight counterparts is on par with them -- greater, in some instances -- because seeing themselves is so status quo at this point that they don’t even realize it most of the time.
Speaking of which, some straight creators that want to feature queer characters in their stories are just now realizing that the normalization of the queer experience is what we TRULY want as opposed to trying to fit queerness into the boundaries set by heteronormativity.
/Our Flag Means Death creator David Jenkins is a great example of this when he reveals that he had no idea how annoying queer-baiting in movies and tv was for queer folks because of him being privileged enough in his presumed straightness and his place in heteronormativity to never experience that./
But right now, it’s proving that the best way to let others know this is to make the content that we want to see ourselves, and fight like hell against the companies that want to control how much we decide to show in order to make it profitable elsewhere.
But we can’t just assume that it’s always gonna happen now, thanks to Disney being forced to put back in the cut kiss scene from Pixar’s Lightyear after they were called out for their hypocrisies regarding Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
If we want the capabilities of having our stories told on the mainstream as well as it has been on the independent -- if we want to normalize our lives outside of the norms that society has deemed acceptable -- we can’t let up. Otherwise, we’re just gonna do nothing but repeat history and continue to allow heteronormativity to stigmatize queerness.
