Queer people in media are generally represented as sociopaths, predators, stereotypically flamboyant or promiscuous. Occasionally we get portrayed as peripheral to a straight character’s happy ending, or our trauma is made the subject of a savior narrative or tragic drama and this is considered “inclusion”.
Almost never do we get to be at the center of happy endings and storylines of our own. So seldom that I can’t even name one example off the top of my head where somebody like me was represented as a healthy, functioning, and triumphant protagonist of a storyline that was actually about them. I’ve never seen somebody like me fight and win a cosmically significant battle, rescue the man of his dreams from certain doom, or beat incredible odds to complete an epic adventure.
I have seen someone like me gay bashed with a baseball bat (which happened to me in real life too), I have seen their romances cut short by social pressures that tore them apart, I have seen them die of AIDS and lose their jobs, homes and families, I have seen them get raped, murdered, and humiliated, I have seen them rape, murder and humiliate others, and I have seen them made the butt of countless “comedy” one liners.
But I have never seen their love portrayed as a building block of society or a foundation of their own triumph over a broader challenge they faced, I have never seen them laughing with their children in a plot that was about their family joy, I have never seen a sex scene portrayed as a loving and healthy progression of a romantic story arc. And while I’m sure isolated examples of these exist, the entire time I’ve been typing this, I still can’t think of a single one.
So please, let’s talk more about how this razor commercial harmed you by portraying people like you unfairly. Let’s talk about how stereotypes are hurtful, and how it made you feel less than to be lumped in with behaviors you don’t condone or can’t relate to. Let’s talk about what media representation does to the people it targets with blanket portrayals of the worst among them, and how the legacy of cisheteropatriarchy is harming all of us — including you.
Let’s talk about that, because I can relate. I’m as mad about it as you are. And I think we can do better.
