Lillian is out this week, guest comic by Sarah Gould!
Transcript
Two good looking dudes look playfully at each other.
Text Box One: Many authors worry that they’ll accidentally lead queer audiences on with characters who might be queer but are never explicitly shown to be. Avoiding this problem is a delicate and difficult process.
The dudes embrace in a kiss.
Text Box Two: Never mind, you’ve solved it. Congratulations.
Treat your friends to an evening of ritual murder – in a fictional RPG scenario, of course. Uncover your lost memories and escape a supernatural menace in our one-shot adventure, The Voyage.
Once or twice I’ve seen people accuse a show of queerbaiting when the show already had multiple LGBT couples. As long as there actually are LGBT couples can a show get away with say teasing a ship much like straight media does with their characters?
In general I would avoid it, since the potential for getting it wrong is so high. As a straight dude, I’m gonna leave the “Will They, Won’t They” stories to queer storytellers.
I do have a subplot in my time-travel romance, about the rivalry between the Hero and his Archnemesis. The Archnemesis is not the primary villain but is an antagonist hunting down the Hero. They even have a backstory; the Antagonist and the Hero were once soldiers in the English Civil War (both on Roundhead side). They best friends who became close as brothers. By the end of the war when Cromwell one, the friends became distant; the Antagonist was a devout Cromwell supporter and Puritan, while the Hero had a change of conscience and left the Roundheads to join the Cavaliers/Royalists. The Antagonist was upset and angered by this, but he still loved their friendship that he made it his mission to return the Hero to his side. But over the years the Antagonist has become cruel and religiously fanatical, but there is another side to him; his mother is none other the infamous Bloody Ogress, a wild cannibal woman whom the Antagonist is trying to cover up and protect because he’s secretly an undercover Mama’s Boy. The Antagonist wants his friend back, at any cost, he hides his criminal mother, he’s a devout follower of Cromwell, but also deep inside he knows Cromwell’s rule is unpopular and a failure, but he will not admit it.
Will that sound a little queerbaiting?
Possibly. It’s hard to say without seeing the story, but audiences do often interpret close male friendships as hints that the characters are gay. Bashir and O’Brien from DS9 are a good example. They don’t actively flirt, but they’re so into each other (while O’Brien doesn’t seem into his wife), that many people ship them.
In *most* cases, people will only see queerbaiting if the characters are doing something that would be construed as romantic between characters of opposite genders. If you can swap out the gender of one character and the story doesn’t feel romantic, you’re probably fine.
One way to take out an insurance policy is to make at least one of the characters explicitly queer with someone else. They might be gay, but they’re just not into the antagonist/hero.
I agree with the gist of this comic, but I’m just a little unsure about something. Does this mean that if, for example, I have two men who are lifelong and very close friends, it’ll be seen as insulting to not make either of them gay?
Depends on context and what you mean by “insulting.” Sometimes queerbaiting is extremely obvious, like the relationship between Sherlock and Watson in BBC’s Sherlock. There, you can easily tell that the writers are hinting at a relationship that will never happen. In other cases, banter and chemistry can make audiences wish for a romance between two characters even if the author never meant to imply anything romantic, as with Gimli and Legolas from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. In that case, fans will probably be disappointed if there’s no romance, because despite progress, there’s still a dearth of queer relationships in popular media. This will be less of an issue if the story is less heteronormative over all.
For more info: https://mythcreants.com/blog/twelve-signs-a-storyteller-is-building-romantic-sexual-chemistry/
Exactly!
For instance, with Legends of Tomorrow, Leonard Snart had a bit of a queer vibe to him (his actor also said in interviews that he headcannoned his character as bisexual), and his relationship with partner-in-crime Mick Rory also seemed to veer in that direction from time to time. Nothing happened though, but that was fine in a show that already has so many openly queer people and queer relationships.
When I watched Supergirl (only followed it for a few seasons) on the other hand, Supergirl and Lena Luthor got really annoying. Supergirl also has openly queer characters, and her sister Alex came out as a lesbian and got a girlfriend and lots of screentime, so it’s not about a general lack of representation in this show. But they filmed all these scenes with Supergirl and Lena that looked really romantic, including having Supergirl save Lena’s life and filming it just like classic scenes with Superman and Lois Lane. Like… just don’t do that unless you’re gonna commit!
It certainly didn’t help when the cast did that weird song making fun of Kara/Lena shippers.
Thank you very much for this, I really appreciate it!
In general, my story rarely touches on sexuality – the only hint of it in any case, (at least as of what I have drafted – that might change later) is if a character has children, and that comes up when it’s plot-relevant. The MC is the viewpoint in most cases, and most of his time as an adult is spent either on the battlefield, or training or preparing for a battle.
I could probably do a better job in that regard – I just don’t know how to right now, beyond possibly having offhand mentions by minor characters (which might possibly come off as cheap and noncommittal). Romance in general is something I don’t feel safe writing – for example, I was weighing having the MC develop one with another major character, a woman, but I’m hesitant because I don’t want her to be be seen as just a vehicle for his character arc.
In the case that prompted my question, the friendship between the protagonist and his right-hand man is one based on childhood friendship, proven dependability, and unshakable loyalty. Beyond the other issues and some (major) unfortunate implications this could present in the context of the story, a romantic relationship between them also has the issue that, while it wouldn’t remove them, it would reduce the significance of those factors.
What I mean by that is: what impression would you get from a hero sacrificed something to help a love interest, compared to doing so for some old man (like, for example, a neighbor)? Doing the first is so expected that it would be a major subversion if the hero *didn’t* do it. The second would leave a bigger impression – when a romantic connection isn’t involved, it emphasizes factors in a bond besides physical attraction. You would either see that the hero has a very deep and established bond with the old man (if the hero knows him well), or that the hero is a very selfless individual in general (if not).
Likewise, when characters have romantic relationships with the MC, audiences see those characters more as they connect to the MC than as they relate to the story as a whole. For example, think of the reaction when a hero’s parent is killed by a villain, versus a hero’s love interest. The first might be seen as a tired cliche for the sake of propelling the plot; the second is more likely to get backlash, with the audience more likely to see the killing as reducing a character to a sacrifice for the sake of motivating the hero. (This isn’t to say that the second reaction is unjustified – not at all. It’s just *easier* to see a character as being used as an object for the hero’s sake when they’re a love interest.)
I typed all this for a comic I *agree with* for the most part. There are many times when it’s obvious that the authors want the benefits of having gay characters, without wanting to risk upsetting a certain crowd. They should just stop being cowards and pull the trigger. Leaving subtext but not committing just reasserts the idea that homosexuality is something to be kept under the radar.
I just didn’t think that characters being close friends should qualify by itself. I wasn’t aware if my story would give that impression, because I think it’s a really underhanded thing to do.
On that note, I realized that my wording above had a potentially unfortunate implication. I said “make either of them gay” because I wanted to assert that, as the author, the sexuality of my characters would be a conscious decision on my part, rather than just something immutable and just a cold, hard fact of my universe. However, it could come off as me saying that I’m “making” characters gay, forcing them to deviate from their default state of being straight. I apologize – I can be very bad at getting my meaning across (which is why I often use a lot of words – it’s easier to be precise with more words, and being on the autism spectrum, I’ve learned to work hard to make sure that people have the same understanding of something that I do).
Oh, nevermind – I just thought of the *perfect* couple, and they would be characters with disabilities that play a major role in the character arcs of the MC and his companion. Just goes to show that I wasn’t thinking hard enough!