#lgbt coding

Snow Patrol

Coding is the idea that a character is meant to be read a certain way, even in fiction, based upon things in reality. Humanoid characters do not have to be limited to the ‘default’ white, because they are in fact humanoid. They take inspiration from humans. Aliens likely would look absolutely nothing like us. But to make aliens we take inspiration from stuff familiar to us and put on a spin  on it, such as people, celebrities, clothing, and cultures. 

Lord of the Rings is clearly a European coded story, because it takes inspiration from European myths, European clothing, and European traits. Of course, in that world Europe doesn’t fucking exist and many of the characters are not human, but to say that Europe wasn’t inspiration for the whole story and world has to be the most ignorant thing I can imagine.

When someone is saying a character is coded as LGBT+, they are saying not “i think this character is LGBT+ based on stereotypes” but that it is extremely clear the creators had LGBT+ people in mind when creating the character, good or bad (such as most of the coding being used on villain characters in an attempt to demonize being LGBT+)

When someone says a character is coded as black, like Garnet from Steven Universe, they are saying it is very clear that the creators had black women in mind when designing her. We know Garnet is a rock alien, and doesn’t even really have an actual human gender, but to say “this clearly is a completely non-human entity that shares nothing in common with human appearance or culture” is ridiculous. And she is clearly coded black enough for some cosplayers to attempt to wear black face to dress up as her.

Fiction is inspired by real life. You’d be hard pressed to find any fiction that doesn’t draw from real life in some way. Those aspects of real life that ground fiction into our world in some way are what let us explore and grow attached to these works of fiction. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand it, this concept of coding has been around a lot longer than tumblr, and potentially longer than you. It is an important part of academic dissection and discussion of fiction, and will continue to exist.