Sarah Z

i really liked this video for the most part, but i don't know if i ultimately agree with her conclusion. accusing real people of queerbaiting is a problem and is ultimately harmful, but i seriously disagree that it somehow means that it shouldn't matter if the media we consume is explicit in having queer characters.

her line here-

i agree with the notions of her conclusion- corporations aren't and never will be allies and we shouldn't be expecting truly queer media from them. we absolutely should be supporting independent queer work, and that's where we're going to find the stories that most relate to us. and, above all else, Death of the Author is a very real tool and there is a ton of media with themes that can be read as queer, even if the work isn't textually queer.

but, like, it being canon is important. queerbaiting as a term aside, not confirming when people are queer will always mean that the mainstream assumes they're not queer, and LGBTQ+ people stay invisible. The Legend of Korra having Korra and Asami be in a canonically lesbian relationship paved the way for more representation and more queer stories being allowed to be written and shown. Bridget being textually transgender is a huge boon in representation and is a big step in terms of visibility in more gaming-centric spheres.

i dunno, it's honestly a confusing addition to this video and weird conclusion to draw when the entire rest of the video was about the harm of accusing real life people of queerbaiting, and had little to do with fictional media.

and, at that, i think she writes off the importance of major figures being out as queer a little too quickly- a famous person being outwardly queer is a genuinely beneficial step towards normalizing queerness which benefits everybody. it isn't about being satisfying fictional representation for relatable stories, but about functional representation for normalizing queerness.

to that extent, i think that's where the stuff she talks about in her video becomes important. celebrities being gender non-conforming or flirting with queerness shouldn't be the target of derision and instead should be celebrated as a step in normalizing queerness, even if the celebrities aren't queer in and of themselves.

I have to admit I'm still puzzled by the logic of accusing a bi man of queerbaiting for holding hands with a woman.

Aren't things working as precisely as intended?

I don't think these people understand what "bisexuality" means.

For my part, I do think there is something to the accusations of "performative queerness" but that always stumbles on the problem that the focus should not be on the celebrities but on the massive corporations and the PR agencies they hire that control their public image.

As a rule of thumb you should get pissed at the system, not at the people.

Side-note: shout-out to the one straight dude who paints his nails because he wants to become an anime villain, a most worthy goal.

>I don't think these people understand what "bisexuality" means.

Yeah, straight up a lot of this "real person is queerbaiting by being themself" stuff is clearly biphobic if you pay much attention to it.

BTW I didn't spare a thought about her since my early years of high school, what's the deal with Taylor Swift specifically?

she has the least offensive brand on the planet- which of course in turn means no actual LGBTQ+ content yet songs that would vaguely imply it until she goes around and says "oh this song is actually from the perspective of a man"

swifties are also notorious for insisting that Swift is an LGBTQ+ icon, actually, and that a lot of her songs are secretly queer (when it's pretty plainly not true)

she's the steve x bucky of pop music. people will scream til their blue that its actually queer representation, but at the end of the day its got no basis in reality.

It's basically conspiracy thinking. She has a few songs where a relationship/love triangle is sung about in different songs from different perspectives. This means she has love songs that are about a girl (from a male perspective).

She also has some songs about keeping her relationship a secret/people disapproving of her relationship and some people decided that must mean it is about a lesbian relationship, because that can't possibly happen in a straight relationship.

She also had some close friendships with attractive women.

Taylor herself has always said she is not queer just an ally and expressed annoyance about people speculating her friendships are secret relationships, but some fans are still insistent that she's bisexual or even lesbian, which is even more ridiculous since she dated several guys, one of them for more than 5 years.

Also I agree with canon representation in mainstream media still being important for normalizing LGBTQ people. Most people are unlikely to read a queer webcomic or fanfiction (especially older people), but they are much more likely to watch a superhero movie with a queer character.

Eh, I don't agree with the argument that there is no basis in reality for Captain America/Bucky Barnes - at the least there is a scene in the first film that uses Homoerotic Subtext comparing Bucky to the Romantic Runner-Up of a love song to make a point about his fears of losing his friendship with Steve to Steve's LI, so even if it was likely sneaked in there by a rogue junior writer or music director rather than a case of the main writers suggesting the two are in a mutual canon relationship, that's still a textual implication that one of them may not be heterosexual.

With Taylor Swift, it's definitely a case of tinhat and conspiracy theory behavior. Usually what I've seen is that rabid fans desperate to claim her as an ally insist that certain songs are literally about the ship of their choice, and that she's a secret fan of their favorite media pushing a subliminal agenda in favor of converting others to their ship. E.g Supernatural fans claiming Taylor Swift is a fellow Destiel or Wincest shipper and the lyrics are a hidden allusion to those characters and certain keywords about flowers and the like are veiled references to the plot of the show, rather than the more logical assumption that the songs just have applicability.

Edited by AlleyOop on Sep 1st 2023 at 5:06:17 AM

Doesn't Swift also have some fascists claiming that she's one of them?

She used to. In the past Taylor Swift avoided talking about politics, since she used to be a country singer and didn't want a repeat of what happened to the Dixie Chicks.

However, some fascists decided this (and the fact that she was blonde with blue eyes) must means she's actually a fascist too and just too scared to say so. Which led to weird stuff like them calling her their "Aryan godess" and claiming her lyrics contain secret messages of support.

This (combined with the Trump election) led her to speak out about politics for the first times a few years ago, endorsing Democrats and criticizing Republicans.

The facsists stopped supporting her after that.

If you'll forgive a man some pedantry I don't think dating men stops a woman from being bisexual.

That aside, sounds like it's just a usual case of someone investing just a little bit too much of themselves into a celebrity projects.

I like to think the people who do this are all young and will eventually outgrow it, but I'm sure it must be hella awkward to run into on of them in the wild.

I meant claiming she is lesbian was ridiculous, because she dated men. I could understand people thinking she is bisexual at least a little bit, but some people claim she exclusively likes women and that all her relationships with men are faked, which is definitely ridiculous.

Sorry if my previous post wasn't clear enough. Bisexual women can date men and still be bisexual of course.

I'm kind of reminded about how I've seen some post-mortem discourse accusing David Bowie of being a "fake" bisexual and "exploiting" queer culture with his music and image.

If I have to guess, I will said that there is a sort of protectiness about behaviro as source of expresion and the idea some behavior is yours, not something people cant take away, between this and tendecy of fandoms to use behavior as evidence of queerness kinda tend to reinforce the notion of heteronormativity(or to put it better, a sort of "queers are for neptune, straight from uranus" kind of deal) which mean that some people does kinda fall into a sort of reverse typecasting.

I will said there is always a sort of grey area of stright and cis people who just want to explore and express diferent way of style or have more freedom from style and beauty standars than the norm and queer people who often see as way to express who they are(also, the oposite in theory happen, we have the trope stright gay and we dont call them fake gays or some weird ass nicknames). It just sort of happen

I like Cardi B's response to being a fake bisexual. "I've been eating coochie before you were born, sorry I don't have the Razr flip phone photos"

New video on "The Most Hated Buffy Season" and the clickbait thumbnail saying "It's Good, Actually."

Haven't had the chance to watch the video but I'm really worried that it's "people don't get it, season 6 is about depression and the Big Bad is life, man, you just don't get it." I want to have more faith in Sarah than that, but goddamn have I heard that take a lot and it has not gotten any more true.

I've seen it, I'd argue she isn't saying people who don't like it 'just don't get it'. She goes into the bad episodes as well as the good - her thesis is more that she appreciates what it's trying to do, warts and all, but she understands why the detractors don't like it. I admit I'm partial to S6 though (for weakest Buffy season I'd nominate 4 or 7 personally, assuming we exclude the first season due to it having the teething problems most shows have in their first season. Even then I might rank 1 > 7)

I think I'd like Season 6 way more if Season 7 stuck the landing, honestly.

In general, I'm not as hard on the season as others are, and can see why it has the reputation it does. I was always into the Trio as villains, and think they've aged really well, even if Andrew's redemption arc was kinda half-assed.