#him being queer coded or whatever doesn't erase his attraction to women

[poppy-metal]

the queer community hates bisexuals sm it rlly never ends.

[algumaideia]

Leo's arc: Queerness

There are a lot of reasons why Leo's ending wasn't good, but the queer themes of his character make the heteronormative conclusion even worse.

I'm not exactly saying that Leo was queer coded, but there is a lot of queer experiences in his story. Not to say that what I'm going to discuss is a universal queer experience.

Starting with his complicated relationship with his masculinity. I know that being a queer man can make you feel disconected from your masculinity (my source is one internet friend and one youtuber). And Leo doesn't really like how his masculinity presents.

For Leo, good masculinity is the one that Percy and Jason have. They are strong, super powered, the hero type from movies that gets the girl in the end. Leo is very distant from this and this clearly bother him and gives him insecurities. It is important to note how this view of masculinity make women important, as both Jason and Percy are liked by girls in their life and are dating girls (i'm not saying they are straight).

In my humble opinion this disconnection from masculinity comes from the fact that his specific view of masculinity is very attached to heterosexuality: having a girlfriend, being a man's lady, making sexual comments about girls, plus whatever the hell straight boys do.

So if you feel other types of attraction of no attraction it can be pretty easy to feel disconected to masculinity, as those attitudes are an integral part of the masculinity you must seek.

And within his insecurities about his manliness, Leo almost seems to overcompasate when it is about the ladies. Which I find interisting is that he "falls in love" but quickly forgets every girl he meets. (I also think it is interisting that he doesn't seem to have type and just fall randomly in love. He is like wow this lady is traditionally beautiful gonna have a crush on her. But maybe that is 10/10 allo behavior wouldn't know). A thing that those girls have in common is that they don't really match with him and they are never girls he could pursue a relationship with.

And I'm not here to say that Leo's attraction to girls is not legitimate and we should ignore that he feels attraction to girls because it is convinient for my headcanon and reading. It is just that there is something about the way he is written that makes this whole situation not feel straight, but not that it erases his attraction to girls.

There is this line in Grande Sertão Veredas that I think summorizes how I feel about Leo's crushes:

"But I give you my word, I was very much of a man, and fond of women"

Riobaldo says this when he is talking about his love for Diadorim, another man.

In my eyes this is the logic between Leo's crushes. He is a guy and therefore he has crushed in beautiful girls. Riobaldo does feel attraction for women, but he also feels like his attraction for Diadorim strips him a little of his masculinity.

And there is also the fact that Leo feels left out among his friends in "straight relationships" (I'm not calling anyone straight). Always the odd one, not fitting in the heteronormativity. Queer, weird.

There is also the themes of self-acceptance in his story, because as I said Leo feels very insecure about himself and who he is which is a feeling that many queer people experience, feeling like you are wrong. Leo never gets to really have an ending for this problem (and the others) so it feels like his ending in this series is just his arc taking longer to finish.

And this brings up my last point. Leo's ending should not have been a traditional, usual one, the boy getting the girl, almost as a compensation for his actions. The fact that a traditional and expected ending in most stories are not for him, but that rather should have been unconventional because his situation is different than most stories seems pretty queer for me. Specially if we look through aspec lens and how friendship would have been a good ending for Leo.

So, my conclusion is that Leo's ending was a big win for amatonormativity and heteronormativity. I also probably read too much in these parts of his story and overlooked the actual queer ones...