“Deadpool is as straight as a pole in a strip club.”
Yeah, okay, buddy. Have you ever actually picked up a Deadpool comic?
OK but the thing you have to understand about this level of
no-homo oblivious bullshit is, it’s socially conditioned to an alarming degree? Because right now,
across most forms of media, if someone makes an overt reference to same-sex
attraction, whether their own or someone else’s, it’s frequently meant to be
read as a literal joke. And by frequently,
I mean like nine fucking times in ten.
Meg referring to Castiel as Dean’s boyfriend in Supernatural? Joke, even though it’s a structurally unambiguous
statement. Stiles in Teen Wolf
repeatedly asking Danny if he’s attractive to gay guys, then asking if Scott
will make out with him? Jokes, even though there’s nothing in the context to
differentiate this from an actual expression of bisexuality. Think of how many
times you’ve seen a straight male character say, deadpan, to his equally
straight male friend/colleague, “I’m so attracted to you right now,” or something
equally suggestive – but it’s a joke, and the way you know is because those
types of men – which is to say, protagonists
– could never be anything other than
straight. No matter how overt the example, it’s always a joke, to the point that suggesting otherwise is invariably
seen as biased readers irrationally imposing queer subtext on the narrative,
even though all we’re doing is refusing to treat literal admissions as
insincere gags.
So, Deadpool flirting with men? Gets read as a joke, because that’s what it usually is. Deadpool
clearly stating his sexual attraction to men? Gets read as a joke, because that’s what it usually is. Deadpool kissing
men through a mask, with no visible tongue? Well, sure, it’s pushing the no
homo envelope a little further than normal, but still – why wouldn’t that be a
joke, too, when everything else invariably is?
Like, I mean. I’m not defending this sort of bullshit AT ALL
– I’m just trying to point out why, given the cultural context, it’s not
completely impossible for someone to assume that all the above examples were
meant as queerbaiting humour: because that’s
what they usually would be. Hell, I can find some pretty similar examples of all
this stuff between characters who are still, canonically, held to
be straight. For instance:
Which is why I’m gonna go ahead and institute Deadpool’s
Rule: that overt statements of queerness should always be read as literal, not
joking, because queerness isn’t a fucking
joke. If you can imagine Deadpool saying it, then it’s a canonical
admission of queerness – because if not, you’re insisting that the only way for a
character to prove their sexual orientation is to state, explicitly, “I’m
gay/pan/bi/queer”, as though their actions will always be insufficiently
demonstrative otherwise. End of discussion.
Well, THIS post got better since the last time I reblogged it.
I always read Spike as aggressively bi if it helps so like
I accepted this new rule
The whole relationship with Cable is lacking here. And that’s everything but subtext.
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