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You Knew What You Were Doing, Marvel — A Small Rant on Queerbaiting in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) director Kari Skagland has been talking about the Queer subtext in the show, and… *sighs* I’m so tired.
(Warning: This post has v. mild MCU SPOILERS, and me getting extremely pi**ed off at Marvel’s heteronormative b*llsh**)
I’m so tired of Queerbaiting, followed up by fake-naive ‘no homo, I don’t know where you got the homo from, because these are just dudes being bros, just bros being dudes — two guys, sittin’ in a hot-tub…’ narratives.
There is no way in hell that Marvel, as a corporate and creative power, was unaware of the Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers decade-long Queer love story narrative, that was c*ck-blocked by the ending of Avengers: Endgame.
To then follow that up with obviously Queer-coded moments with both Bucky and Sam — you knew what you were doing, Marvel.
If you didn’t realise that people would read a Queer subtext into two men rolling through a field together, then you should be embarrassed.
Seriously. If that’s the case, then I’m embarrassed for you. This is embarrassing.
And the problem is: Queer folks want this so. bad. and Bucky, in particular, means so much to us, that most of us — myself included — will keep watching.
We’ll keep watching because we are so desperate for those Queer subtext moments which both hurt and soothe us at the same time — we are so desparate because we see ourselves in Bucky, yes, and because beyond that we are desparate to see people like us as the heroes.
Yes, even the traumatised ex-assassin heroes — to be honest, that’s got kind of a poetic justice to it.
If you want more historical and social context, YouTuber Rowan Ellis made an excellent Queer superheroes video essay, which also included a discussion of the clear Queerbaiting in TFATWS, which you can see here.*
*(Warning: Marvel and DC SPOILERS; discussions of: violence, abuse, sexual assault/rape, murder, Homophobia and general Queerphobia — including the false association of Queerness with paedophilia)
Stop it, Marvel, please.
You know I’m a big fan… but this hurts.
Originally published as part of a Comics Wrap-Up post at https://www.dorareads.co.uk.
