Article written by Dylan Bell
As I have stated before in many articles, film and TV are one of the great joys of my life. One of the reasons why this is, is because I love seeing relatable characters go through interesting and developed story arcs. However, being a gay man, it is disturbing how many portrayals of gay men I see that are flat out wrong.
Now when I say wrong, I do not mean that they are 100% bad portrayals, or that they are even mostly bad portrayals. I simply mean that they, for the most part, share a character trait that makes them bad.
Now, what character trait am I speaking about? Well, for the most part, being gay is considered a character trait; it defines their entire being, their entire sense of self. Whilst this is true for some people, I can assure you, being gay doesn’t define who I am. In fact, it doesn’t define most gay people I know. We are normal people and, therefore, our sexuality should not be portrayed as our most significant trait.
Being gay is a part of our lives, obviously, but it isn’t a part of our personality, and it isn’t the one thing that describes us as most media would have you believe. If you still have trouble wondering why being gay as a character trait is a bad thing, just think for a moment. When was the last time you saw a straight character whose entire personality, or even half their personality, was them being straight?
So, you might be wondering: 'Well, how do you do a gay character correctly?' Well, simple. You make a character, decide all of their character traits, story arcs and all those important things, then make them gay. It's not that hard, people.
One of the best examples I have seen of this is, ironically, from a show aimed at children. Voltron: Legendary Defenders is a delightfully surprising show. I decided to watch it because I had heard good things but, considering I am not a huge fan of sci-fi, I wasn’t expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the story interesting, but the characters are developed and are not two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs. What surprised me by far, however, was the reveal in the 7th season that one of our main characters is gay, and it was done perfectly.
So, what did they do to make it perfect? Well, simple; they did nothing extravagant. Let me explain. In the beginning of the 7th season we were treated to a flash back giving character development, depth and motivation to two of our main characters, and in one of these scenes we see one of these characters, Shiro, return to his home where another man is waiting. At first, we don’t know who he is or what he’s doing there, but Shiro doesn’t react, implying that this man being there is normal, and the conversation that follows is a detailed and deep conversation revealing a lot about Shiro’s character – but not that he is gay, despite their relationship being shown clearly to us. If that wasn’t enough, later in the season Shiro discovers that his former partner has died and reacts as anyone would if they had lost someone they loved, and later when making a speech about losing loved ones, it flashes to his partner's grave.
The reason this is perfect is because they don’t make a big deal about him being gay. The one character he was close to already knew and had no “shocking” reaction, and the others either don’t know or don’t care because it’s not important, which is how it should be treated.
To see such a perfect representation shown in a show aimed at a younger demographic displays just how easy it is, and just how much adult programs don’t know what they are doing most of the time. Now, I would like to repeat myself for a moment. Having characters where being gay is a part of their story arc is no problem at all, but that is completely different to being gay as a character trait.
I believe it's important to point out that being gay as a character trait is not a malicious act on the creator's part. Clearly, they wanted gay characters but were not certain how to write them, and that is perfectly understandable. However, it is important to understand that gay characters and straight characters can be created and constructed the exact same way, and there isn’t a need to make their sexuality a key component of their character. The more we start to realise that, the more we will see great gay characters in film and TV.
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