#representation issues

me: what about the t?

I’m already seeing some return of the speculation that Ayo and Okoye are dating in the film Black Panther. (You’ll remember there was a rumor early last year about a scene being removed.)

This is all still just speculation. We’ve had no confirmation about the sexuality of various characters.

We know the character of Ayo (played by Florence Kasumba) is in a lesbian relationship with her fellow dora milaje ANEKA. (This character,as far as we know, does not appear in the film.)

Would it be super cool to have a queer relationship in the MCU? Obviously, yes.

Is it likely? Unknown. Marvel is said to have cut a scene that made it explicit that Valkyrie was in a relationship with a woman in Thor: Ragnarok. (Valkyrie is bisexual in the comics.) Actress Tessa Thompson lamented it’s erasure.

Adding to this complication, the character of Ayo was first portrayed as queer in the “Black Panther” arc by Ta-Nehisi Coates which began in June 2016. But production on Black Panther the film began before that issue appeared on newsstands. (Lupita Nyong’o was announced to star in May 2016, for example of how closely these two stories were being developed.)

So if she is based on the Coates run, it would have to be something added during filming.

Hello anon! Those are very valid things, so to my followers, these series do exist, and they do have representation - I don’t want to act like they don’t. 

However while I haven’t read Lady Midnight, I have read Shadowhunters, and there are many problematic aspects to CC and her books, which is why I personally cannot support her book series. Obviously I cannot stop anyone from reading her books - especially if they find representation in there - but I don’t want to pretend like I support the books, and I do want to give people warnings before they read the series: 

Magnus and Alec are canon bi & gay characters (not pansexual, as the ask says, but we’ll get to that in a second). However, Alec was consistently biphobic to his boyfriend, expressing distaste that Magnus dated females before, and claiming, “Is there anything you aren’t into?” with disgust. Magnus is the second character to be slut shamed - the first being Izzy, who is also shamed for her clothes (and her TV counterpart was also slammed by CC, who has tweeted disrespectful things about the show in general). 

Here’s a post that puts in the problems with Malec (and also compares it to the show). 

The character of Magnus Bane is bisexual in the books; however, Cassandra Clare tweeted that she thinks he’s pansexual but currently identifies as bi (the question was if he would date a nb person, and when asked if that would make him pan instead of bi, she stated “yes”, and as a bi woman that is frustrating, because bisexual people can be attracted to non-binary people). 

She does this to another character - Raphael is asexual purely through “Word of God” (and while this blog does accept Word of God as canon, and Raphael’s situation is fine, it can be problematic in situations like Magnus’s where a sexuality is changed by the author after the fact, even though he had been bisexual in the entire book series).

*SPOILER ALERT* Raphael (one of the few POC characters in the books, and asexual from CC’s own word) gets killed off. 

Major coddling of the abusive character Jordan - he often gets more sympathy than Maia, the one he abused. 

Jace himself, who has been abused, can be extremely rude and prejudiced towards others. 

There’s also emotional abuse between him and Clary after a while and it can be triggering for people to read.  

While it does not relate to representation, there are reports that CC plagiarized her books.

same soup, just reheated. this article brings to light the problems this walker reboot already presents, and how the cw continues to work against the “inclusive” message it’s peddling.

This is a show that, in the midst of longstanding sociopolitical crises that have been actively fostered by the enabling bothsidesism which— in the name of balance— elevates extreme viewpoints with the credibility of fact, is choosing the same tactics to paint itself as a safe middle road while claiming progressive credentials. It is this call for a fair and balanced approach, perhaps, that allows Walker to just as easily advertise on Fox News as Tumblr.

This was not a program greenlit with queer leads, its audiences were fraught and miscalculated, and it was playing by a different rulebook from the seeming contemporaries ten years its junior that are afforded queerness with varying privilege. Supernatural was playing a sophisticated, risky game. Push the subtextual restraints until they break. Hold the pieces up to the world’s eyes. Dare it to put them back.