I keep seeing posts about why Tim gets such intense hate for contradicting and nonsensical reasons which increased after he came out. No need to mince words guys, itβs because of homophobia. They know if they just outright say it that they will be crucified for it so they use Tim (even more so poor Bernard) as their scapegoat.
Okay, I'm sure things have gotten worse because I've seen it. And especially in certain areas he gets a mix of what I will allow to classify as homophobia (targetted because he's dating another man), and also very specifically biphobia (the loud increase and insistence on calling him a cheater is definitely this, as well as quite a bit of erasure I've seen).
2021 did not invent Tim being specifically hated for stupid hypocritical reasons, and I have some other theories.
You see, every part of fandom absolutely loves glazing their favs at the expense of anyone that doesn't make that list for them personally. No one is an exception. Tim is very much not an exception.
But why do specifically the haters of Tim feel so comfortable with their hypocrisy and in such an extreme?
As much as people will gripe about how very annoying Tim Drake fans are, the majority of his fanbase is remarkably chill about suggestions of violence toward his character, and a whole bunch of other things you'd get skewered for if you were talking about literally any other character.
Imagine going to in literally any other Bat's tag and saying you want them to die. Imagine how that would fucking go over. Not great!
I've never done that, but I've been called terrible things for criticizing one of the other characters I actually like for doing things that were in canon.
There are certain groups of fans I am actually a little scared of. Even if I'm also a fan of that character. They can't hurt me, but they give me the type of anxiety that encourages avoidance.
You know who's fans don't scare me, even the really really annoying ones? Tim Drake's.
People can talk shit about Tim without being jumped on, just some people being "annoying". And to be clear that's good, like please don't start jumping on people. Do not let that be the takeaway here.
Also a factor is that people consider him an acceptable target. Kind of circling back to the phobia this started with, people who will call you racist for not liking a poc character (regardless of the reason) or sexist for not liking a female character (regardless of the reason) will not call you biphobic for not liking Tim Drake. Now, I don't think anyone is automatically any kind of bigot for not liking a character that just happens to be that, unless they have a pattern of not liking characters in that category, or especially if their reasons are hypocritical. But I do think that there is a sense that since the canon nature of a character's sexuality is potentially changeable, that it's easier to consider that not intrinsic to them, and therefore something that can be disregarded when considering someone's reasoning for hatred in ways that people don't give the same leeway elsewhere.
And I think it's easier to hide bigotry behind all that. Because "no, that's not why I hate him, it's all these other "moral" reasons".
Additionally, I find there is a tendency to attribute all of Tim's privileges as extending to his fanbase as a whole. It is not only "okay" to hate the "rich white boy" character, but also all of his fans. And absolving themselves of any wrong doing in being aggressive at these real life people as a whole (instead of specifically at people being awful) simply by being a fan of a character who is not one of those things. Which is absolutely not how the world works.
As far as Tim and Bernard, I'm going to just copy something I said in a discord server earlier today, because I find it relevant:
There's also something I've seen in other fandoms as well, where certain types of shippers hate to see a man with another man other than the one they ship him with very specifically, because in their heads, they justify their ship trajectory with guys canonically in m/f relationships as "he was secretly gay and not really into her", so if the man is bi and/or discovers that with a man other than the one they want it to be, that shatters their fantasy of the one true love
Because for some reason admitting the guy actually loved anyone he was with in that way bothers them
And yeah, I do think it's biphobic. And sometimes very specifically biphobia via people that think gay characters are acceptable, but one that was canonically into girls but now has a boyfriend isn't.
But people try to reframe it into something noble.
And they can hide it behind whatever happened they can pick to criticize "before it was canon", so that it doesn't visibly count as something so objectionable.
Despite the fact that whatever characters they don't object to do the exact same or very similar shit.
