just saw a tiktok of the party genderbent and thought about how if they were actually genderbent in the show people/GA would probably think or at least consider m!el and m!max as queer. like:
one girl in an all boys friend group: the girl is a straight tomboy, a pick me, or all the boys first crush and framed more as a desirable object for the male characters than being a fully fleshed character on her own. âsheâs one of the boysâ in the cool girl male fantasy way not the queer way
one boy in an all girls friend group: heâs queer or a loser they take pity on, or both
and this to me is another example of how homophobia is rooted in misogyny. men associating with girls and femininity over boys and traditional masculinity is a signal for queerness because under the patriarchy theyâre both signs of weakness.
thinking about how the GA needed to have willâs queerness spelled out for them in s4 to get it and many still thought he was straight until s5, even when heâs the only party member to experience homophobic bullying. being in a friend group of mostly boys and his negative comments about girls and girlfriends in s3 gave him cover because hating women is a normalized part of masculinity, even though anyone actually using critical thinking could tell he was acting that way because he was gay.
people will take ANY opportunity to deny queer visibility until it is blatantly spelled out and impossible to ignore. and when that happens they respond to it with hostility (review bombing willâs coming out scene and the onslaught of homophobic comments)
romaincrisis
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
