The Art of Normalcy in Queer Representation: Finding the Story for You
27 Dresses, When Harry Met Sally, The Holiday, and Sleepless in Seattle: some of the best rom coms of all time. In my opinion, no matter how pretentious or intelligent your taste in movies may be, everyone loves a rom com. The trope of a man and a woman so perfect for each other it hurts yet so oblivious to it is obsessive and heart wrenching every time. But that’s just the thing: a man and a woman. For as long as movie and TV has been made, it’s been made for straight people but in the past couple of decades more queer stories have emerged. It started as a coming out controversy, a character who’s only personality trait is being gay, or the token gay friend. In later years, lesbian stories became more wide spread and despite the occasional gem of a queer film such as But I’m a Cheerleader, over sexualized depictions of sapphic relationships were the main source of lesbian media. Recent media such as the Netflix original series Heartstopper have received criticism for being basic, cliche stories with the only twist being that they’re gay men. But, the fact of the matter is, those cliche stories need to exist because after enough gay media is made, the fact that they’re queer no longer becomes a twist.
As much as any topic in queer communities is controversial, representation is controversial. It’s hard to understand a topic that doesn’t affect or relate to you but queer representation in TV and movies affects a lot of people and it’s importance is often overlooked. Finding something to watch, or a story to love is hard when all that exists is the character who’s only personality trait is being gay, or a couple of lesbian sex scenes. Which is exactly why show’s such as Netflix’s Sex Education are so important, the show follows Otis (Asa Butterfield), a teenage boy who’s mother (Gillian Anderson) is a sex therapist as he ends up becoming a sort of “Dear Abby” of sex advice for students at his school. While the show deals with sensitive concepts such as relationship insecurity, fear of intimacy, and sexual assault, it has also done lots for the queer community in terms of representation. An often overlooked example of this is the character of Jason, school jock, and his moms. Roz and Sofia (Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Hannah Waddingham) are an interracial lesbian couple which is already much more characterization of queer people than most media but on top of that we see into their lives as parents. In the first season they deal with marriage struggles which seems unimportant but is in fact vital in showing the humanity and realness of queer couples and parents, reminding people that every marriage is equal. In this way, LGBTQ+ representation is as important to straight people as it is to LGBTQ+ people as it portrays that gay couples are not only normal but just like everyone else.
One of the show’s main supporting roles is Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) a Black gay teenage boy and the son of immigrants. We see glimpses into his life and problems as a gay kid, his inability to communicate his sexuality with his parents, and his desire to be like everyone else. But more so, we see him fall in love. We see him awkwardly stumble around his crush, and find solace in the boy no one expected; we see him dance around his room, and play with makeup; we see him happy. This is the distinction between positive depictions of queer people and rather boring or inadequate ones. Not only is the character gay, there also a real person and on top of that: a happy person. Seeing queer people as people and on top of that as happy people is highly beneficial, we see that gay stories can be more than just hardship and coming out and that queer people are more than their sexuality or what makes them different. Of course this is only a small description of how Sex Education supports the LGBTQ+ community as it also deals with diverse sexual and gender identities, and topics of female empowerment.
Queer happiness comes into play once again in Netflix’s Heartstopper based on the graphic novels of the same title by Alice Oseman. Heartstopper fixates on Charlie, an awkward, music-loving gay teenager who falls for Nick, his rugby-playing classmate. The two become good friends after Nick convinces Charlie to join the rugby team. From there the romance blossoms as Nick discovers his sexuality. The cast, however, does not just center on gay men but includes trans and lesbian characters as well as queer people of colour. Its importance is in the fact that it’s a story you’ve seen before made for people who have never seen themselves in that story. The axis of the plot is not based on homophobia or struggle but rather the joy of first love as a young queer person.
Both of these shows are excellent examples of stories that represent and inspire LGBTQ+ youth, but I Am Not Okay With This also from Netflix shows an often overlooked side of the portrayal of queer stories. The show, based on Charles Forsman’s graphic novel by the same title, follows Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis), a young girl as she navigates new and old friendship, family, the loss of her father, school, and her newfound superpowers. As the show progresses it becomes increasingly obvious that she’s in love with her best friend Dina (Sofia Bryant) but that she herself doesn’t realize it. The story of her sexuality is intensely relatable as she discovers who she is in real time, experimenting along the way. It also covers a lot of lesbian stigma, such as not coming out due to fear of how other girls will think of you, and the cliche yet always heart wrenching trope of falling in love with the best friend. However, the most important part of I Am Not Okay With This as it relates to the LGBTQ+ community is in the fact that Sydney’s sexuality is not a major part of the show. At its core, it’s about a teenage girl with hereditary superpowers as she learns to harness them, and a mystery relating to her late father. At its core, it’s an action-comedy show where the main character just so happens to also be dealing with a sexuality crisis. In its own way, its monumental in the field of queer stories because it isn’t a queer story. Being able to see a show about superpowers, fighting evil and trying to survive high school with a gay protagonist lets queer people see that the stories that, until now, have been for straight people, exist for them too. They too can be superheros or princesses or dramatic leads and their story doesn’t have to be based solely on their sexual identity. Similar to previous examples, this also allows those not in the community to feel familiar with seeing LGBTQ+ characters in the same light that they see straight characters.
Overall, the hope is that queer representation will no longer be a thing. Simply because one day, LGBTQ+ characters will be a regular part of media and storytelling. As of right now we need it, and we need it in these forms. But I’m A Cheerleader was revolutionary for it’s time, but if our representation and stories don’t grow with the rest of the media, we get left in the dust with nothing but overdone sex scenes and character’s who’s only trait is being gay. For now, I recommend the above TV shows to celebrate these stories that just so happen to also have queer characters.
