#they'll rather give the screentime to the awful man that bullied n insulted the queer women on the pride episode

[metabolizemotions]

The show seems to be almost fetishizing sex b/w gay men while having an aversion to a stable relationship b/w them. Ironically, they have an aversion to sex and intimacy b/w 2 women in a stable relationship. Queers can't seem to have both.

Representation matters. Maybe a dad comes to accept his gay son. Or a lesbian finds a way to come out to her mum. But it would also be nice for representation on network tv to go beyond queers just existing.

Positive representation doesn't mean the queers make no mistakes or not go thru life's messiness like other humans. The framing of the narrative is important too. Use the tropes, but also subvert the tropes.

What is the entire purpose of this Pride episode? Highlighting the negative queer stereotypes - hearing Beckett's views and proving him right is most definitely important, isn't it? Straight allyship? To state the obvious that queer-phobia is a fact of life? To showcase yet another awful man in a position of power? What about celebration the positive of queers? What exactly are they celebrating at the station? Definitely not the happiness of the main, longstanding queer couple. That, they want it to show in isolation, quickly, including very far-away shots. Like an afterthought.

It is both a bug and a feature of S19 to focus on the negative. Granted, it is a tv show, n conflicts are nec for plot dev. But it is also a fundamental guiding principle of the show to give more screentime and emphasize - even relish - the struggle, never the triumph. On big systemic issues they can do nothing about. On women struggling against toxic men. On people struggling to be happy - and when they are happy, queer women's joys are excluded and/or minimized exclusively.

There is no timeline for grief or coming into one's queer identity. I empathize with Travis's struggles. But this is one of the many stories about queerness. What about those of queer women? That has been the case for seasons now. Not even the mere mention of the struggles about where Carina came from? Of the trepidation surrounding Marina's marriage rights in this political climate? Of their feelings about having a baby together - thru ivf or adoption?

I am sick and tired of people telling us it's only in our narrow, biased perception and our deluded imagination that there is a disparity in the treatment of w|w n m|m. That other stories are not told at the expense of Marina's. We did not say we want theirs to be the only story, queer or not, only that it be given comparable screentime, importance and care. Even after taking into account the call sheet, it does not make sense.

Just like showing Marina's queerness exclusively would be wrong, the same goes for excluding it. Almost every aspect of it. How do you justify every decision to keep shortening and overlapping the scenes depicting the momentous changes in Marina's lives with others?

Those are very conscious and deliberate choices made. Even with a shortened season, even after including everything they wanted, they could have tightened up the longer scenes to properly give Marina's scenes a more reasonable length. Have them voice their feelings about Pride, about everything happening in their lives. Even just a few lines. But they didn't. And they wouldn't.

But what we have of Marina, is what D & S built over the years, I love and cherish it, and I will hold onto it. No matter what happens.