#i'm just writing me thoughts for meself as i always do

[mapofthesoul20]

The Queerness of TXT

‘TXT gay’ might be a a common joke, but genuinely, TXT as a band has really unique concepts that do present queerness. And because that resonates with me, a member of the alphabet mafia, I wanted to summarize some of their production choices that, while probably not intentionally, do present queerness.

(Disclaimer: This was supposed to be like a five-paragraph essay, and I just got lazy. I’m not claiming this is done intentionally, I’m not claiming by any means that the boys themselves are queer just that the band’s concepts show this, and I’m discussing queerness through a western lens) 

Non-gender Conforming Styling

We all remember the pastels, crop tops, and whatever gender Yeonjun had in Minisode: Blue Hour, yes?

But even Dream Chapter: Eternity, their edgiest, most “bad boy” concept, still had them in painted nails and skirts and just schoolboy looks that reconstructed the “bad boy” concept

But The Chaos Chapter takes it a step further. Loser=Lover, their most heteronormative song, has them notably in skirts or completely genderless styling, refreshing the pop-rock genre looks which sometimes leans a lot on heteronormativity 

Non-conformity and Deconstructing Heteronormativity

TXT debuted with a youthful, cutesy boy concept, breaking with the more traditional “sexy bad boy” concepts that were really popular at that point, thereby establishing themselves as a non-conforming band. And by doing so, it’s intentionally choosing not to engage in the heteronormativity and sexualization that often comes with the “sexy bad boy” concept

The Chaos Chapter is about a heteronormative love story, but it still deconstructs heteronormativity from the love story, i.e.:

The love story is with “You” and You is MOA 

The female love interests are not seen in 0x1=Lovesong or Loser=Lover, and both music videos focus on how their friendship with each other saves them

The one mention of “girl” in 0x1=Lovesong (their other really heteronormative song), comes during Yeonjun/Soobin’s bridge, which the choreography again focuses on the tension between the two of them, not on connecting with the “girl” 

 There’s a really significant and powerful homage to gay icon Leslie Cheung’s famous mambo dance in 0x1=Lovesong. Also, someone on twitter pointed out that the bedroom scene framing also references another Leslie Cheung’s movie. MVs are expernsive and hard to make, these are not accidental choices but were very intentionally done so for whatever reason 

Lyrics, Particularly Focusing on Friendship 

Crown is a boy being ostracized for his inherent differences and finding community and love and pride in his differences with people who are also outcasted and different like him. Sounds familiar? 

Most of their discography centers friendship as the most significant relationship, which is unheard of in Western society, but even in Eastern society, particularly in the Kpop scene, that’s still pretty unique. 

Run Away and Loser=Lover idealizes life as a journey to take with your friends 

Even songs like Cat&Dog and Poppin’ Star which appear more romantic are also still about friendships 

And their discography develops friendship as a fully realized relationship.  We see them fall in love with friends (Cat&Dog, Our Summer), deal with heartbreak because friendships fail (Can’t You See Me), separation and longing for friends (Puma, Blue Hour, Way Home, We Lost the Summer) and growing up and its effect on friendships (Eternally, Minisode: Blue Hour, Chaos Chapter: Freeze)

Even in The Chaos Chapter which is about love saving them, there is only one mention of “girl” amongst 11 songs. In a way, the love that saves them is romantic, platonic, familial, whatever you want it to be

And even in 0x1=Lovesong, the way that it describes the love for this person as “holy”...is a very queer concept