la .myrf. 🍍 @bgcarlisle@tenforward.social

So there's a lot to go through on the Odo/Lass thing, but now all this wine has made me sleepy and I'm done upgrades on scholar.social, so I'm gonna maybe draw some Stamets/Culber fan-art in which they wear standard Starfleet-issue leather harnesses and have piggy kinky weird sex because YOU CAN'T TELL US HOW TO LIVE

https://tenforward.social/media/5V1ETx2M9WKA3Cnccto

Which is also a line I have used before ahem "linking" with a same sex partner

As far as I'm concerned this is the best queer representation in Star Trek

Of note: Odo's line before he "links" with Laas here is, "TAKE IT"

https://tenforward.social/media/Q6Ts69CBdVLH8ba5AGE

And considering that they billed this as the Gay Star Trek, the one where they'd finally have a gay character, I'm just sad

So to sum up, Discovery was aiming at queer representation that was designed explicitly for straight comfort, which is why it was a low enough priority that we ended up with Bury Your Gays, and also why we had mostly Suggested But Deniable queer representation

Can you imagine what it's like to be the kind of person who's not disposable, if the storyline calls for it?

MUST BE NICE

But the straight dude needed somebody to kill to show just how tortured he was, so sorry Culber, but oops we killed the queer sorry oops we killed it

So if you want to have a gay character that's actually good representation, it takes some nuance

You can't just use imputed, borrowed "goodness" that you paint on an empty shell by giving it the trappings of respectability

You will need to give that character the screen time and a deep enough storyline for them to be all the things that straights hate and are afraid of, while still being an unambiguously good character

No don't use regex, I take it back

REGEX ONLY MAKES NEW PROBLEMS IT NEVER SOLVES THEM

So ya know what, watch Chimera from DS9, but:

s/changeling/gay/g

IT WORKS

By saying "this is the good kind of representation," what they're saying is:

Even in an idealised post-discrimination utopia, there is no place for you

So here's the problem with Respectable Gays as touted as the only queer representation in Star Trek

(Lol, there's a lot more problems)

* Respectability politics is just a huge concession of power to straight people to dictate what our lives should look like
* Respectability politics re-marginalises the already-marginalised

So imagine you *are* the kind of gay that these people hate so much. You like show-tunes and you lisp when you talk. You are a bottom, you're promiscuous, etc.

Or if you read any of their interviews, the emphasis is always on how non-threatening to straights they are

They're the Good Gays. If they move into your neighbourhood, you won't feel threatened at all, don't worry. They're just a straight couple but with their sexuality variable changed. That's how gay works, right?

Going back to "ultimately deniable" for a second (sorry, you're getting wine-fueled steam of consciousness here)

They brushed their teeth in cutesy matching pajamas and stood a foot apart, and even after that episode, they still could have denied that they're gay

Watch the episode

It was still queer-baiting then as far as I'm concerned

Gayer stuff has been no-homo-d away before

And the whole justification for that was that they wanted to be sure that them being gay wasn't their Thing

They needed so bad for their gay-ness to be secondary to them as characters

As if it was something bad for them to be gay

So they killed off Culber, which is a shining example of Bury Your Gays

And Stamets/Culber was what I would call "strongly suggested but ultimately deniable" queer representation until like halfway through the season

The reason for this is because I do love Stamets

But the way they've handled queer representation is kind of very hamfisted?!??

So if you're looking to have your playlist for this synced to mine, please start the original Rent soundtrack at "Seasons of Love" and follow along

Welp, I'm upgrading scholar.social, which means UNSOLICITED OPINIONS ABOUT DISCOVERY