#analyzing reaction videos in depth is definitely the most unhinged thing I did in fandom

[lizluzz]

Okay, I've watched some reaction videos to ofmd (yes, I'm at that sad stage of hyperfixation, what can I do), specifically two reactions by straight guys, and I'm fascinated.

I know how important this series is for a lot of queer people, cause, well, I watched it, and also my best friend, and I'm also on tumblr. Seeing yourself represented on screen, having your story treated with love and respect, all that. But only after watching those people react am I starting to understand how important it is in general. It's also very interesting to me seeing their realization about the way the queerness in the show progresses vs. the usual tumblr user realization. Let me try to put this into words .

Let's start with Jim. While me and basically everyone I know immediately picked up on Jim saying 'I don't know' when asked if they're a girl now, deciding to stick with Jim, and being referred to as 'they', both guys doing the reactions did not. They thought until much later in the series that it was a classic 'girl who hides her identity to blend in', and kept referring to them as 'her'. But, and that's the important part, the moment they were clued in they stopped. They both learned about using proper pronouns and one of them even about the term non-binary because they watched the series. And it's not the language that's the real important issue here, imo, it's them understanding about the range of gender roles and respecting that. Because of this show.

Let's move on to Luscious/Black Pete. When it was first revealed, they were both surprised, as, I believe, most of us. That was the point, I think. Black Pete was presented as the most 'masculine straight guy' (aside from Izzy), and the show worked hard on deconstructing that. But despite not being immediately delighted to actually see queer people on screen like probably all of us, the sweet interaction brought them aboard pretty quickly. One of them got invested in the relationship almost immediately, and was very taken by the finger stuff at the end of episode 6. The other one took a while, but he accepted it and moved on without a fuss.

Now to the main pairing, of course - Stede/Ed. That was fascinating. One of them started to clue in on the moonlight scene, where I believe people were supposed to start seeing that there was something romantic going on. He was a bit weirded out, but definitely kept seeing all the obvious clues and talking about it in the next episodes. The second one (the one who was already very invested in Luscious/Pete), when on episode 6, kept commenting on Stede's immaculate appearance, until suddenly he went: 'Wait... he dresses well, loves theater, loves silk... Is he gay?' which was a bit hilarious. But also, really is the way straight people might look at this. This also made him start wondering about the Stede/Ed relationship, and interestingly, he said that it's maybe not so far fetched, because we already have one gay couple aboard. Cause that's part of how normalizing queer relationships work! The more you see of them, the more you open to accept they are an option!

There was an interesting contrast here with what I saw a lot of queer people saying at the time (before ep 7 came out). There was an opinion that because we got Luscious/Pete we're not getting Stede/Ed. Cause there's no way they'll do two gay couples! We got our representation and we should be glad with that! But that's just our past experiences and disappointments talking. For straight people who don't usually engage in queer discourse, it's the opposite. It signals - here is a place where queer relationships are an option!

By the time we got to the kiss, they were both fully on board, and they were both absolutely devastated by the, well, devastating events that followed. They both wanted a good ending for our guys as much as any of us. Because they were swept up by the story. Because it was treated so normally and with such care that it didn't matter it was queer. It was a good and wholesome love story, and who wouldn't want a good ending for that?

It's worth mentioning that both of them were also very interested in Blackbeard's story and his struggle with toxic masculinity, which is not less important for cis straight guys to experience.

So, this was super long, but:

Tl;dr: I knew theoretically how important it is to show queer people in the context of a story that is not explicitly about queerness, and to show a variety of queer people and queer relationships, but seeing in front of my own eyes and in almost real time how that helps with normalizing queerness, made me extremely happy and emotional.