#the queer art you want is made by the woman you bullied out of the field because her lesbian protagonist's life wasn't exactly the same as#yours so it bad representation#and the fourteen year old you sent death threats to for defining themselves with a word you don't like#and the cartoonist whose work you looked at through the worst faith lens possible#to find absolutely any scrap of something you could deem Problematic and Cancel them over#and the gay homeless junkie who you try to silence because he Makes Us Look Bad#and the sixty year old farmer whose pronouns make you uncomfortableÂ
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If you think that a pre-Hayes code silent movie is acceptable representation, then you have fundamentally missed the point of representation. Old movies and indie creators are important, they're our culture, our history, and our future, and we should protect them. But they're not representation.
Representation isn't for you, or me, or other people who have queer friends, access to queer culture, and at least some vague idea of their own sexuality and gender and how to move forward.
It's for the queer kids who never heard of the Hayes code. It's the bi kids who think you can't like girls if you like boys. It's the ace kids who think they're broken.
It's for their cishet classmates, who have no idea how to treat their queer friends or enemies. It's for the cishet parents, who love their queer children, but see children like their own being beaten, murdered, threatened with guns, and bomb threats. It's for the neighbors who don't want queer books or drag queens near their children.
It's turning on a major TV show, or walking into a blockbuster movie, the flashiest, most derivative piece of shit that Hollywood has ever pumped out, and seeing that it's perfectly fucking normal to be gay, or trans, or bi, or ace, or whatever. It's not a death sentence. It's action figures and t-shirts and lunchboxes.
It's saying, "I'm trans, like Dreamer," and having the other kids go, "Oh, okay," instead of needing an explanation. It's the slumber party question "Would you kiss Thor or Steve Rogers?" "I'm a lesbian." "Oh, okay, Valkyrie or Miss America?" It's being included. It's being seen.
You may be surrounded by a feast of queer movies, books, music, and art, but representation is for the kid at McDonalds that's getting a Happy Meal and hoping it has an Iceman toy. You don't have to want it. You don't have to like it. But it's not about you.
This. And to reiterate something someone already said in the reblogs: it is better to be pandered to than ignored and/or persecuted because that means they are not pandering to bigots.
