Is it wrong if there is something that is bugging me? When Tim had two interracial relationships, they didn't get 1/10th of the attention/praise as his current queer yet white relationship. Interracial relationships are themselves pretty unrepresented in comics especially with black women so the lack of attention given to his relationships with Tam and Zoanne bothers me. DC even seems to pretend his relationship with Tam didn't happen.
It's not wrong at all, anon! Your frustration is valid!
Now I wanna preface that I am not an authority on this topic. I am a white woman, and there are many other voices online that are better suited to speak in depth about the lack of characters of color in comics, and how when they appear they are easily pushed aside or discarded altogether.
I'll do my best to speak briefly about this, because even an outside eye should see the issues that are present here.
Idk who really got it worse here.
Zo was BARELY with Tim. They have their first kiss in Robin #156, their first date in Robin #159, and she breaks up with him by Robin #161
Now, she's in more issues than that but she's such a fleeting character that she hardly gets established. She's just sort of there. She's a love interest, and then she's basically gone. At least it does seem that Tim genuinely likes her, but he wasn't able to give her the decency of his time, and she knows this. She also knows he's in a rough space mentally.
Tam gets it bad in a different way.
She's featured in a lot of the Red Robin run, but genuinely is just about as fleeting as Zo. I mean what do we really know about Tam?? And her relationship with Tim is vaguely one-sided. She's in love with Red Robin, Tim is a part of that package deal, Tim likes her, but he's not in the headspace to be in a relationship. Tam is along for the ride, and she turns into a responsibility for Tim. That's not me trying to push her down. In Red Robin #19 when they head into the Unternet, he literally pictures her as a toddler...
He also calls her his "friend". A girl he's seemingly been on dates with, has kissed, has travelled with. Just...oh boy Tim...
And then of course after Tam finds out Tim has been lying to her about her father being dead, she slaps him and breaks up with him in Red Robin #25.
Tim doesn't give these women focus, and neither does DC. They're here to push a point. That Tim is going through some shit that he needs to sort out, and then they're gone. They don't get to stick around and try to help him through it like Ari or Steph was allowed to, or even now, Bernard. They don't get to peel back more than one layer of the mask, IF that.
I will give it to DC for allowing these women to have the agency to break up with Tim, but it falls flat when their only agency was to make him feel worse about himself in the first place.
I was not into comics around the time that these were being published, so I cannot say much for the media's response to it, though I'm sure that it was not nearly as talked about as his current queer relationship.
That being said, it's still VERY important that his current relationship is well circulated and given a spotlight for what it is, but it's a shame that Zo or Tam were not given an equal spotlight, or even one at all really. They got a partially burnt bulb, dusty, forgotten lamp that someone fished out of a box at a free box on the sidewalk.
And the sad thing about all of this is, what more do we know about Bernard other than that he's Tim's boyfriend? What's his story, his agency, his purpose? I feel like I have LESS info on Bernard than I did Tam or Zo, so why is he more important???
Idk anon, this is a conversation for someone other than myself to lead, but I am with you.
