it's ultimately harmless, i know, but your desire to headcanon characters as queer or read every story as an allegory for queerness feels less like a progressive lens to take to art and more like an inability to relate and empathize with characters or stories that don't directly reflect you
it hurts no one at the end of the day and it's usually not that serious but whenever i see it happen as "legit analysis" i just don't get it. "oh this character is trans actually" and it's scott pilgrim or cloud strife. are you just trans and like him as a character? "but he said he was in lesbians" or "but he wore a dress that one time" like cmon
this will sound mean but i find this to be more common among white ppl who have just discovered their own queerness and as such just acquired some marginalized identity, and it feels like they're not comfortable realizing that a lot of these stories have characters and protagonists that no longer share all their labels. instead of just empathizing with a character or narrative on a more personal and human level they start with these "headcanons" or "analyses" (read: wishful thinking) to make it easier to relate to whichever character or narrative. idk as a black person i've been empathizing with characters and stories that, on their face, have nothing to do with me. i share few, if any, labels with Heather from Silent Hill, but i still empathize with her character and story. it feels like these analyses really come down to the logic of "i like character/story so therefore character/story is similar to me." which is not true. it reeks of narcissism. and wrapping it in language of "representation" feels insincere.
and again, must emphasize, it's ultimately harmless for a person to look at all their favorite characters and go "well they're bisexual, actually" (they have a same-sex friendship) or "they're so autism coded" (they're kinda awkward in social situations) or "this story is a trans allegory" (a superhero has an alias) but it feels shortsighted. in that you can't look past your own nose.
