Gay Representation on TV

Gotham is, so far, one of the few shows I watch with my family.  On Monday I heard them rolling their eyes at the Renee/Barbara scene.  I refrained from getting into a heated discussion at that time, but I know inevitably one will be needed.

They're not full blown Homophobes.  In fact they've mostly taken my word on that The Bible does not Condemn Homosexuality.  But they definitely still have a Hetero-normative outlook.

They're the kind of people who complain about a Gay PDA, or something Gay on TV, and insist they'd feel the same if it was a Straight couple.  Even though I know full well they don't, at least the PDAs anyway.

Watching TV, indeed they will complain about what can be perceived as like a "Soap Opera" even about perfectly Hetero-normative Melo-Drama.  Their attitude toward those things are about the opposite of mine.  I'm all for the Melo-Drama.

On the subject of Gotham, I intend to explain to them that Renee Montoya is a Lesbian character in The Comics, and a very popular one.  But this triangle with Gordon and Barbara is not from the Comics, and I'm not very fond of how it's being handled thus far either.

I expect my dad to be all "I don't care if their Gay but that story doesn't have to be about that".  At which point I'm prepared to explain that I'd like a Gay character's sexuality to be "in our faces" no less then the Straight ones.  Straight characters get laid, and flirt, and get entangled in triangles all the time.  I know full they often enjoy seeing McGee and DiNozzo getting played by a female suspect on NCIS.  I think a Lesbian cop experiencing that can be just as fun.

Still, I wish I'd be having this discussion with them prompted by a Gay storyline I was more enthusiastic about shipping.  Maybe Barbara and Renee will grow on me more once they've had an episode where they're together for more then one scene.  But for now I'm still fearing it could wind up being more counterproductive.

So all that about Gotham I've been wanting to post for onto time.  Onto other more recent news.

It's been notated that lately a lot of Lesbian women have been killed off on TV.  Heather Hogan did an article mainly prompted by Arrow killing of Sara Lance Wednesday.  I agree this trend is very annoying, but Arrow is the last example that ought to be singled out (and it's not the only relevant show Heather covers either).  Sara was slated to die long before we knew she was Bi (they refused to even really label her that).  She's a non Comic character carrying the future mantle of her sister.  I wish her exit had more put into it, that she'd died more heroically, and been in her last episode for more then the last 10 minutes.  But it was still inevitable.

I'm more angry at SHEILD.  The fact that the entire selling point of this show was that it's incredibly secondary to the MCU and the Movies won't acknowledge it, is exactly why it pisses me off that they bring important SHEILD Agents from the Comics onto the show only to kill them after very brief story-lines.  And that it's been done now to more then one Lesbian character is really troubling.  It's the opposite of Arrow with Sara, it's closing doors from the comics canon rather then opening them.

But I feel like people in The Lesbian and Feminist communities are far more forgiving of Joss Whedon then they would be most male writers.  Yes he did earn a lot of cred with Buffy, which was awesome and my favorite TV show of all time before PLL came along.

But I frankly have always felt like the more a Male constantly proclaims himself a Feminist the less of one he probably really is.  Perhaps Joss doesn't realize Misogynist men can share his Fetish for watching Hott women beat up larger men.  I get annoyed when people act like Avengers proved Joss should've done his Wonder Woman film.  Being right for one Comic based story isn't right for all.  To me, no matter how much cred they have, when a Director says he doesn't think much of a Superhero's canonical villains, they should be ruled out for directing that character.

Back to Gay issues.  One fact about Buffy's history still bugs me.  Joss said when he originally did the Willow and Tara storyline that he only intended Willow to be Bi.  And given her multiple very real romantic affections toward Male characters before that makes much more sense.  He then decided not to do that because he was afraid it would anger Lesbians to see Willow get with a man after Tara.  I think it's a problem within the Community that so many Homosexuals feel like Bisexual representation means less representation for them.