#consider why

I blocked them, but I want you all to see this.

Look at the tags on their pinned post, and tell me it doesn’t worry you. Tell me it doesn’t give you a pit in your stomach.

Ooooooohhhhhh I’ve been waiting to talk about this because I think about it SO much. Basically, I want to talk about how people always say that “Merlin and Arthur are brothers” and “stop trying to make everything queer” and “just because they hugged doesn’t mean they’re gay” and—you get the idea. Today I’ll be hitting the first point, and will be doing two and three in other posts.

Queer interpretation doesn’t invalidate male platonic intimacy

Fiction v. Real Life

Did anything actually change?

ONE:

To start off, queer interpretation is just that: it’s a different perspective on the same piece of art/whatever. When people try to say that there’s a crisis in male friendship because of queer interpretation, I struggle to see the reasoning. Why does someone saying that a pair on TV seems queer affect the way you see that pairing?

Really, it’s an inadvertent way for many men to accidentally invalidate their own friendships. When men in these intimate friendships become insecure because of a queer interpretation of that same sort of intimacy on screen, and when they try to tell queer people that they shouldn’t be speculating in this way, they give unwanted power to those who don’t want to wield it. All most people want is representation in the sparse land of English film and tv. So what if I think that Merlin and Arthur hugging in that way is gay as hell? You can still hug your male friend as a man in that same way and it not be queer (mind blowing). The point is, just because queer people are interpreting media in a queer way, doesn’t mean they’re trying to invalidate male intimacy and male friendship. And trying to say that there should be no queer discussion or interpretation is like saying that people can’t have any other opinion than a heteronormative one.

Want to also recommend that you watch AreTheyGay’s YouTube video on the “crisis of male friendship”. It’s so well crafted and I draw a lot from it!

part two sooooon. Stay along with me if you want to hear my bit on fiction v. Real life male intimacy!