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DC TV Universe

  • 15-03-2017 7:59pm
    #1
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,513 ✭✭✭


    Not sure if this has been discussed at all but I am curious about the opinions on recent DC TV series with gay/bi-sexual characters. Now I know many people think comics are just kind of stupid but to me they are a valid medium for story telling. Anyway when they move over to TV and movies their is often some changes as one it is a different medium and another the stories do need to be update and often are in comics themselves. Overtime as people became more accepting characters race, gender and sexuality have changed. Some was just tokenism and others were about real change.
    I enjoy mindless TV so I watch the series from DC that have added some changes but I really wonder are they actually offensive. In the Legends of Tomorrow they have a character Sara Lance who is gay. The weird thing is she travels all through time and everywhere she goes she hooks up as if not only does she have to be gay but seems to have the super power to change everybody else gay and attracted to her. I guess it is similar to the way James Bond is attractive to all women in fiction and it is just fiction. It is kind of tongue in cheek but is it offensive?


Comments

  • #2
    Ten of Swords
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,380 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    The weird thing is she travels all through time and everywhere she goes she hooks up as if not only does she have to be gay but seems to have the super power to change everybody else gay and attracted to her.

    There were gay people in the past, there will be gay people in the future. Homosexuality is not a 21st century phenomenon. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for the producers to retcon the character bio somewhat to include the occasional hookup.

    As far as introducing LGBT characters to comics, TV shows and other mediums as centric characters rather than comic relief or tokenism is a good thing as far as I can see.

    A while back there was a thread in this forum about the evolution of gay characters in video games. More recently I put up a post about a TV commercial from a couple of years ago that gained more than it's fair share of publicity (in a good way) because it implied the characters were gay. I found that ad very comforting at the time as I was working through some issues and it helped normalize a few things for me.

    TV Ad

    Moderator: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender, Vegan & Vegetarian

    Category Moderator: Social & Fun



  • #3
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,513 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Ten of Swords wrote: »
    There were gay people in the past, there will be gay people in the future. Homosexuality is not a 21st century phenomenon.

    She snogs with a grieving Guinevere shortly after her husband is killed. Of course she could meet gay people in the past but they are making it out like everybody is gay for her.
    I wouldn't be so flippant about not minding comic relief of somebody's sexuality in any medium it has a lot of power.


  • #4
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,158 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Why would it be considered offensive?

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #5
    JackTaylorFan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭JackTaylorFan


    Some a-sexuals are upset by the character arc of Dr Sheldon Cooper.... and the world keeps spinning.


  • #6
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,513 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Joeytheparrot wrote: »
    Why would it be considered offensive?

    I guess I think it seems to trivialises sexual orientation and personal identity. In the same way it would be offensive to suggest a gay person could be turned straight once they meet the right person of the opposite sex. I don't really see much differences between the two.


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  • #7
    LLMMLL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,590 ✭✭✭LLMMLL


    I don't think we've reached a stage yet where characters are just gay and it's not part of their storyline. They either have to be coming out, in a relationship, or having sex all the time. Like the sister in Supergirl had her coming out story, and is now in a relationship that gets oodles more screen time tan any other relationship on the show.

    It's kind of similar to the gay chracter conor on how to get away with murder who is basically a sex pest predator. On the one hand it might be deemed offensive, but on the other I'm pretty sure it's written by a gay sex pest predator so maybe that makes it ok.

    As for Sarah on LOT, I quite like the portrayal. I don't think lesbians have the same sex pest image that gay men do, so it's not like it's feeding a negatibe stereotype. More likely they think it's a fun way to say "lesbians are not all perma-relationship cat ladies".


  • #8
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,158 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    At least she is alive. There's a well known TV phenomenen of killing off LBTQ women known as the dead lesbian syndrome

    https://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/

    http://fusion.net/story/283340/dead-lesbian-syndrome-on-tv/

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #9
    ixoy
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 18,003 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    The gay male characters in the CW universe only ever get to kiss each other chastely, mostly on the cheek - Curtis and his husband for example or, on 'The 100', Jackson and Bryan.
    The female couples do get a lot more "action" and part of it, I do think, is for titillation when it comes to say Sarah Lance. Their audience, bluntly, is probably happier seeing two women snogging than men.
    Thankfully though they do at least build relationships up for some of them too but there's definitely an imbalance..


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