why are LGBT characters in so much of media (especially american) so boring and sterile ? even when it's trying to be wrote to be acceptable of gays and trans people the characters tend to not be in any way actually interesting
>>12411. corporate ideology making everything boring, stale, neoliberal
2. the desire of people working in these industries to
normalize LGBT people by presenting them as "not that different from cishets after all," since the danger of presenting them as "in fact very different from cishets" is increased anger and scapegoating
3. the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator demographic while still "spicing it up" with "token minorities"
>>1241In Korra's case it was a last-minute "fuck you" to Nickelodeon for moving the show to streaming only due to lower ratings. It feels rushed because it was, it wasn't some grand culmination of years of character development, they just felt like doing it.
Taken in its time and place it was "envelope pushing", this was back before every other cartoon had lesbians.
>>1363I think it could work if it's simple as that and she's chill with it.
I remember transformers had a roadbump where Arcee was introduced as the first female transformer and she was distressed about it and wanted revenge because it was forced on her, which ended up being bad rep because it made transitioning look scary to an audience that might not know much about it. Later they retconned it so that the cybertronians saw other aliens doing the gender thing and liked it, and Arcee simply (and willingly) transitioned but still had beef with the guy that did it did some additional experiments that resulted in health complications: which allong with making female transformers easy to add to the story thereon, sorta implies that every transformer is trans, which is neat.
I see that kinda thing with the merging AI minds explore plural systems too, if you wanna look into that in your future writing endeavors.
>>1470Western ideas of cartoons being for kids means higher budget productions tend to be rated E for everyone. Kids get exposed to writing that is good enough to keep the attention of adults early, so demand for the bar for thematic maturity creeps upwards lest indie projects win the attention of the children.
Meanwhile media "made for adults" is cynical slop written with dart boards and dice where punch downs on marginalized demographics, and just general extinguishment of sincerity stand in for comedy (the later being Joss Whedon's fault) and swear words and narratively insubstantiated violence stand in for jingling keys to remind the viewer that they are "allowed" to see such things and that regular viewing such things affirms their adulthood, that being an adult is the consumption of a commodity that is garbage, is self-aware of that and promises to get worse. Also the majority of it is just clones of Family Guy, The Office or Law and Order in varying degrees of brazen-ness.
Ergo, until you get into indie and non-western stuff, you only get good western TV is from rated E animation. And maybe Breaking Bad but I haven't watched Breaking Bad yet so idk.
>>1470It's no different from adults getting their representation from soap operas or religion.
Also, because childhood nostalgia
>>1481This.
Even adult animations have to spoof kids shows for any sort of relevancy.
A lot of adult animations often use kiddy graphics for homely affectation.
>>1309it's dogshit regardless and it doesn't change the fact they tried to make gay couple over the nearest female for korra instead of a genuine relationship, her character basically war racketeer capitalist
>>1594 and far i know the show doesn't even acknowledge that part of their relationship at all and the show keeps focusing on a love triangle that wasn't working writing wise instead of the main story or relationship between theses two. This being "envelope pushing" isn't a good look, as she does war racketeering again by the time they're going to be in a/setting up the relationship. It would've interesting is she a better person over time as she fall in love with korra or their relationship is what her a better person but they didn't do that all.
>war racketeer >being a bull as she nrting with a brown woman >gain full control over war machine company >no repercussions over War profiteering>gains brown woman heartneoliberalism works
>>1481I really do hope live-action TV isn't that bad, but I have to admit I don't want a minute of it so I can't go against you. In fact, I don't know anyone who does much. Perhaps live-action writers have written themselves into a corner with their audience, typical audience know what shows they watch are like, and non-typical audiences also know that. There are niches, and it's hard to break into and out of them.
Indie projects of course don't have to follow those writing norms and hence can be satisfying both for adults and children.
>>1603>animeSo yaoi, shonen — made for Japanese boys mind you — and maybe a bit of yuri? You're never getting problematic queer represenation here, let alone any decent queer rep. Studios executives don't have the guts to pull that kind of risk.
Like you said literature provides better representation, hell even web-comics if you want something more visually appealing.
>>1599Oh believe me I'm well aware that Korra is neoliberal bullshit from start to finish + Asami is a mess of a character.
I'll be curious to see if Seven Havens learns from Korra or if it'll be the same "gee this villain that's critical of society has some good points, OOPS they're evil! back to the good ol' status quo!".
>>1810It depends on the execution.
But I think generally speaking homophobic/transphobic authors are not subtle. The only time you'd have that kind of "is it problematic" dilemma is when the character is being written by a well-meaning retard i.e. a cishet liberal.
>>1243This.
Boring isn't a bad thing.
The problem is, people try to hard to be interesting.
>>1241I would rather them be "sterile/boring" than have them be portrayed according to patronizing stereotypes of excessive campiness
>>1312This. Toxic relationships in general are glorified as "valid".
Anything cute and innocent is looked down upon as "fake".
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