Hello there friends! Today we are here for some controversy!
Recently, we have seen an influx of news regarding the upcoming release of “Heartstopper” on Netflix. The show, an adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novels of the same name, is a highly anticipated release for many in the community. And hey, I’m not bashing it here at all! I’m actually really excited about it as well! Howeverrrr, an article about it brought up the topic of queer rep yet again by celebrating Heartstopper as more innocent and “not as wild as other teen shows”, and while I have no issue with that being the show’s vibe (trust me, I’m a sucker for some good, sweet sweet cuteness), it does bring to mind a common issue with queer representation and how restricted we are in terms of what queer characters are allowed to be.
A big part of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is the sexualization of queerness and the perception that being queer is an inherently sexual thing. A lot of that is directly related to the AIDS epidemic and the perception of queerness as impure and, therefore, dangerous. It’s why, for example, a lot of discussion is had to this day about whether queer representation in children’s tv is “appropriate” and part of why companies like Disney (known for its “family content”) tend to give us token, easily overlooked and ignored rep at best, so much so that “Disney’s first openly queer character” has become sort of a joke at this point.
When the article came out, it contrasted Heartstopper with the also very popular US teen show “Euphoria”, known for its exploration of addiction and also for its constant depictions of sex. Heartstopper would then mean a new look at teenage love. But does it really?
I have spoken before about my experience growing up with queer characters on tv that weren’t allowed any type of sexual or romantic expression. In Brazilian tv, on screen same sex affection was – and to some extent continues to be – taboo. It’s always, when portrayed, a topic, an issue to solve. Often, there is no affection at all. The queer characters I grew up with were usually there as comic relief, the gay sidekick, giving advice or serving the main character or the villain.
Now, Brazilian tv doesn’t represent the totality of queer representation, obviously, and we know that the idea that queer representation has to be romantic or sexual is also complicated and ends up excluding members of our community. That being said, there’s something to be said about the constant theme of sexuality (in the sense of sexual content) – or lack there of – and goodness being so connected to LGBTQ+ representation and what’s expected of us. And I mention goodness because often times morality (both on and off screen) is associated with sexual acts and sexual expression. Have too much sex? Talk too much or too openly about sex? Well, the morality police is coming!
Culturaly, sex is still very much a taboo even in the self professed progressive and liberated West, and as such, it’s expected that, as people on the limbo of goodness (aka, people that still need to prove themselves in order to be accepted) we are expected to abstain from it. At least in polite company, dear! (do read this with that period drama faux British accent, please). The problem with that, though, is the minute we step out of the very strict definition of “goodness” applied to queer people (and to minorities in general) we are immediately thrown off the limbo, the the bad category. And so, too, is our entire community.
Even taking out the extremely horrible idea that sex is inherently a bad or dirty thing, a thing that makes you less pure than others, we still have a big, big issue within that entire conversation: the necessity of being “a good model” at all times. The problem with the idea of “the ideal good gay” is that it makes it so that every single one of us is seen as an Official Queerness Representative, including the characters depicting us. But guess what? Queer people are people too. I know! Wild! And people are complicated. Hardly ever are people without reproach or flaws. We have all done things we aren’t proud of, even if it’s something really small. However, when you are an Official Queerness Representative, that one day in which you were rude to a kid because you were having a bad day and they kept pulling your blouse on the bus to get your attention and you just snapped a bit means All Queer People Are Rude to Kids, and that that kid is gonna grow up to be a homophobe and it’s all your fault! Congrats on making the world worse!
While we can celebrate good, fun and sweet queer stories, we must be able to do the same for the stories that deal with the messy characters, the dark ones, the bad. Because, hey, not all of us are good people. And we can admit that without having to pretend that it casts a shadow upon our entire community! It doesn’t. Or it shouldn’t! You do not have the weight of representing your entire community at all times. That’s not a fair thing to put on anyone, and we shouldn’t let others attribute that weight to us or to any person! It’s a way to keep us as forever-outsiders. After all, the allocishet white dude who murdered his kids doesn’t represent the entirety of allocishet white guys, so why should any of us be expected to be the model through which our entire community is judged?
Many of us are good people. Many of us are sweet and “innocent” and for many, many queer people, the experiences in Heartstopper are a lot more true to their experience of growing up queer than those in Euphoria. But the opposite is also true. Some of us are messed up. Some of us do messed up things! And that’s, well, it’s not good, but that’s the point. It’s human, and we must be allowed to exist within the full spectrum of humanity! And so must our stories.
Note: The point of the original article that inspired this post was not “Heartstopper good, Euphoria bad”, it simply raised that conversation within some circles on twitter and hey, this is something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while, so why not? That being said, I’m very excited to watch Heartstopper once available and I hope we can all gush about it together!
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