floriographylesbian - Tumblr blog

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"Jane Doe with this head" "Jane Doe with that head" fools. Jane Doe with a Lalaloopsy head

Yes, the hair is included with this.

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Its always “look at the different jane doe designs!” and never “look at the different virgil the rat designs” 😔

he's very special to me

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LGBTQ+ Representation: Beyond an Unreasonable Doubt

I wrote a thing about something annoying that I noticed in queer media representation a while ago and I decided to post it here, because I feel Tumblr is where it belongs. I might have gotten the details of some of the shows wrong, as I haven’t watched most of these in while.

Whenever someone tells me to watch a show because “It’s gay,” I ask them two questions. “Is it gay beyond a reasonable doubt?” and, if they say yes, I ask “Is it gay beyond an unreasonable doubt?” The first question is my standard for something being gay enough to warrant that particular sales pitch. The second question is to determine if it will be 100% certified grade-A representation. Now, to explain what I mean by all of this, I need to talk about some gay anime skater boys.

The anime “Sk8 the Infinity” is an excellent example of something that is gay beyond a reasonable doubt, but not beyond an unreasonable doubt. “Sk8” is an anime about using the Power of Friendship to break the laws of physics in dangerous underground skateboarding competitions. The first episode introduces us to Reki, our protagonist and the archetypical teenage skater boy. And Langa, a 17 year-old Canadian snowboarder who moved to his mother’s hometown of Okinawa after the death of his father. The main cast of the show also features a sassy pre-teen catboy, a very buff Italian restaurant owner, and a wealthy calligrapher with an A.I. skateboard. Throughout the first half of the show, Reki and Langa are implied to have romantic feelings for each other, mostly through visual language, which isn’t quite enough for less observant straight audiences to pick up on. In episode 8 while Reki is sulking because of an argument he and Langa had in the previous episode, Langa participates in a skateboarding race for which Reki was not present and realizes that skating isn’t fun without him, because when he skates with Reki his heart races and when he skates without him, he feels nothing. The two reunite in episode 10 with a reunion that my original, chaotic draft of this post described as “very cute and gay.” The final (twelfth) episode, ends with a narration monologue by Langa mirroring Reki’s monologue from episode 1. In the opening narration, Reki talks about happiness and expresses the idea that there is something scary and unknowable about the question of “What is your happiness?” He says that he knows what his happiness is, and it’s implied that his happiness is skateboarding, as the sentence is visually punctuated with a shot of Reki skateboarding. In Langa’s version of the monologue, he also claims to know what his happiness is, and the shot visually punctuating the sentence is one of Reki, implying that Reki is Langa’s happiness. I don’t know what kind of friendships you’ve all been experiencing, but the relationship between these two skater boys seems more than platonic to me. But they don’t date, or kiss, or say they’re gay, so the show has been deemed queerbait, which it effectively is. There are still some people who think these characters are straight, but those people had to do some impressive mental gymnastics to come to that conclusion. Those mental gymnastics are what I mean by “an unreasonable doubt”.

One of my personal favorite examples of something that does meet the threshold of being gay beyond an unreasonable doubt is “The Owl House,” which is so gay that Disney shortened the third season to three extra long episodes spread out by several months. The main character, Luz, is explicitly stated to be bisexual in season 3 episode 1, “Thanks to Them”. Even before that she had been officially dating another girl, Amity, who kissed her in season 2 episode 20, Clouds on the Horizon. No amount of cognitive cartwheels can deny that these girls are not straight. The Owl House also has a non-binary character named Raine whose identity is never named, but everyone refers to them as “they” and no one ever uses any gendered language to describe them. No one could in good faith assume that they’re a man or woman because nothing in the text at all implies they are either. They are non-binary beyond an unreasonable doubt.

Lastly, an example of something that I think is gay, but isn’t quite beyond a reasonable doubt. “Infinity Train” is an anthology series, where each season follows a different set of protagonists in the same setting. The fourth season is set in the 1980s and follows Ryan Akagi and Min-Gi Park, repairing their relationship and re-forming their band. The relationship between the two characters can easily be interpreted as romantic, but I can see how someone might interpret it otherwise without any psychological splits. Gay, but not beyond a reasonable doubt.

This method of categorization is a problem, albeit a somewhat unavoidable one. It shouldn’t have to work like this. Queer media should not have to include a kiss or someone outright stating their sexuality to “count” as gay. Even things like Sk8 that are practically beating you over the head with how gay they are aren’t considered cannon representation because they don’t include that explicit confirmation. The lack of queer representation combined with the prevalence of queerbaiting has made it so we have to gatekeep queer content by drawing arbitrary lines. Some people say that anyone who looks at media without explicit confirmation and comes to the conclusion that the relationship between two male characters is romantic are “destroying platonic male friendship by making everything gay” or something. The more you hear those mental gymnastics the more it gets in your head, and queer people start doubting themselves whenever they interpret something as queer when it isn’t outright stated. I have no idea how to solve this problem, or if it’s even possible, but I can point it out and give it a name, which might help smarter people than me to think of a solution or a deeper analysis.

[floriographylesbian]

Guys just one more anime is need to make the holy trinity of lgbtqia+ skating anime. I want it. You want it. We all want the leasbian roller durbey anime

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My favorite weirdly specific character trope is the friendly overpowered plant magic girl.

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I.. I... gay lizards.... help...

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My phone just tried to gaslight me into thinking that “fuck” isn’t a word. It almost worked, I had to look up the word “fuck” in the dictionary to make sure I wasn’t crazy.

[floriographylesbian]

us before, during, and after watching Hollow Mind

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This will most likely be our last batch of episodes where The Owl House is dark and depressing while Amphibia is cute and fun. They’re both going to be dark and depressing from now on.

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Commander Anne was such a cool episode, but it left me with some serious questions as

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT STATUE DOING IN THE RESISTANCE HEADQUARTERS!?!?

I mean was it remade? Did it survive toad tower? Did they go back to toad tower after the events of true colors and think that this was an essential thing to bring back to Wartwood?

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Look at this man. Look at his stupid gay outfit and his stupid angry face. I love everything about this but also why?