wishthiswasqueer

[wishthiswasqueer]

Make It Gay: Wonder Woman 1984

Honestly, I could not have said this better myself.

I think this movie tried to do way too much. I think they should have focused on Barabara as the "villain" of this story instead of Maxwell Lord. I found her story and Kristen Wiig's acting much more compelling. The first half of the movie really focused on Barabara then we switched to Max and then sort of back to Barbara. It made the pacing choppy and slow in certain portions.

They also should have leaned into the relationship between Diana and Barbara instead of focusing on Steve again. I would have much preferred to watch a movie where we see Diana move out of grieving Steve and into a new relationship. I mean imagine the character development instead of literally going backwards.

If we had been focused on Barbara as the villain and her growing relationship with Diana, it would have been much more dramatic. I truly think this would have made the movie way better! It would have been fresh, new, and somewhat unexpected. The writers really missed out here.

Diana and Barbara: From A Queer Perspective

*Major Spoilers Ahead*

Wonder Woman is finally out! (in more ways than one). Get in queers because I’m about to take us all down this little gay road by gushing about these two and their very delicious—and hella gay—dynamic. This post is purely coming from both a fun shipping and queer perspective with how I’ll be discussing and interpreting their relationship. So, if that’s not your cup of tea and you feel like disagreeing, then I recommend finding another post to leave your opinions on. However, if you’re like me and were already going through shipping name ideas as soon as you saw these two together, then enjoy this chaotic mess of feels.

In this post I’m going to be both analyzing Diana and Barbara’s relationship while also pointing out all the queer subtext within every scene because I must. So, let’s start from the beginning. 

First Meeting

We begin with an old but classic trope. It’s the typical “nerdy character drops their items and there crush ends up coming over to help them”. Right off the bat this sets these two up in some kind of adorable queer rom-com. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time this has happened, am I right? *coughs* The Half Of It *coughs*

We immediately see Barbara become taken by Diana. While part of that most likely is coming from the fact that she’s surprised that someone like her is actually acknowledging her presence, it also could be interpreted that an additional reason for her expression is due to immediately falling for her. It would fit her character quite well if that was the case as Barbara even admits that she tends to fall in love a lot. But I’ll get more into that later on.

The way in which Barbara stares at Diana throughout this scene and how excitedly she says her name as she leaves very easily plays into that high school trope of how someone acts around a crush, which is how the first part of their relationship feels like. At least from Barbara’s perspective.

With Diana, I feel like it took her a minute to gain that attraction. The reason for that is because during the time in which she meets Barbara she has continued to maintain a distance from people. We saw in the beginning how she’s closed herself off and hasn’t allowed herself to form any type of meaningful relationship with anyone. With Barbara it was no different. In fact, there is even a moment where after she helps Barbara she says goodbye and tries to walk away, only for her expression to drop slightly when Barbara ends up following her and tries to continue a conversation before quickly asking her out to lunch. We can see the discomfort that Diana has in regards to forming a relationship with her, even if it’s just a friendly co-worker hang out. But have no fear my little queers! We’re only just beginning.

Second Meeting

The next time they meet up is when they’re going over various artifacts and this is where we begin to see that attraction beginning to form for Diana. When it comes to attraction, I feel like Diana is someone who falls for who a person is and not necessarily for the physical. In fact, the entire storyline that she has with Steve in this film essentially confirms that.

So when it comes to Barbara I feel like it isn’t until Diana starts to see more of who she is that she begins to form some sense of a crush on her. There was even a couple of moments throughout their conversation where Diana seemed to take a moment to really take in Barbara. The smile she gives her felt like one of endearment which I think was due to how open Barbara was with her. Diana even mentions that she envies how open and free she is. While Barbara may sometimes try to appear cool, the core of who she is always shines brightly through and she never censors or suppresses her true self, and I think Diana really enjoys that. While she may not have been in the mindset of wanting to date at that time, I still think there was a part of her that desired to form a connection with Barbara and deep down did feel that beginning to form.

Dinner Date

Then we go into their dinner date (yes I’m 100% calling it a date) where there were heart eyes happening all around. There are enough gifsets out there already from this scene that clearly show all the queer looks and smiles that they both were giving one another. There was so much happening that, honestly, just slap this entire scene down as being queer as fuck. Now while I could go over every cute look and smile that happens (and trust me, I’m tempted), what I really want to highlight specifically is a line that Barbara says. This may be one of my favorite lines from her and it’s after Diana asks her if she’s ever been in love, to which she replies:

“So many times, yeah. All the time. Often.”

The reason why I want to highlight this line specifically is because it really says a lot about Barbara as a character.

It’s evident that she always was an outsider. She was the one that when everyone was out at a party, she was on the outside looking in, desperately wanting to be a part of it all. So when it comes to love it makes sense that she’d be someone who would fall for many—and fast— as it plays into her desire to want to feel seen by someone. I also think that due to her admitting that it happens a lot that could be interpreted to her being queer. I’m not saying that all of us queers fall fast and hard…but also let’s be real, we fall in love with anyone who shows any form of niceties. So Barbara falling for Diana just for helping her pick up her papers is like the gayest thing she could do.

The way that I view Barbara is that she doesn’t really have any sense of preference as to who she gains attraction to. She just has an overall yearning to feel desired by any and all. So, when it comes to gender, I don’t think that would play a part in her ability to feel attraction towards someone, just like Diana. And as a quick reminder, Diana is canonically bisexual. So that is something that doesn’t even need to be debated or interpreted, it’s just a fact.

Diana protecting Barbara

Another classic “hero saves their love interest” trope and I love to see it. What I love about this scene is that it kind of implies that Diana was watching Barbara as she walked back to her workplace. I mean, sure, it could’ve just been Diana’s superhero radar powers that somehow informed her something wrong was happening and she quickly zoomed over to help. However, I just love the thought of Diana secretly deciding to trail Barbara to make sure she was okay due to already feeling protective of her and was just like “I must make sure my tiny dork gets back safe”. 

Later on there is then a moment where Barbara describes Diana, in which one of the words she uses is “sexy”. While it’s obvious that this scene was intended to show her listing the things she herself desired to be, there is also a fine line between “do I want to be like them or do I want to be with them” when it comes to a lot of queer attraction. So, the fact that Barbara called her sexy, I absolutely think it’s due to her wanting to be like that. However, the way in which she said it held no amount of jealousy and, to me, it played on that line of both admiring Diana’s beauty while also being deeply captivated by it.

Jealous Diana 

I’ve already seen other people picking up on the jealous vibes that were coming from Diana when Max Lord was flirting with Barbara and I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one! The fake smile, the back and forth eye glances between Barbara and Max, the obvious annoyance she had for him…all great, all amazing, all queer. 

One thing I want to point out is how this is the first time Diana is seeing Barbara after she made her wish. Now, I don’t know if Diana is somehow immune to its charms when it’s other peoples wishes, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. Meaning, that when Barbara wished to feel special that would’ve effected Diana as well. That could explain why in this scene Diana seemed more protective and forward with expressing her distrust and disdain for Max flirting with Barbara, like how she physically moved closer to her and then hinted at Max to leave.

It could very well be that due to Diana already having formed some type of attraction towards Barbara before this, that now the stone has amplified those feelings and caused her to gain a sense of jealousy towards someone else being flirtatious towards her. A fun idea to play with, for sure.

Jealous Barbara

The tables then get reversed later on when Diana goes to meet up with Barbara again but this time with Steve. It’s evident that Barbara gains some jealousy from seeing Diana with Steve, especially after she describes him as being an old friend. That causes Barbara to add on that she is Diana’s “new” friend. A simple form of jealousy from feeling like you’re being replaced as a friend? Sure. But if you take away the word “friend” and replace it with “partner”, this shifts the mood of this scene entirely. It now makes it seem like Barbara is Diana’s new crush who is meeting her old ex partner for the first time and is jealous over them hanging out. While you have Steve as this big puppy being completely oblivious to all the queer undertones that is happening between them. Yeah, I like that interpretation better. 

From friends to enemies…to lovers?

After this things start to shift into becoming more hostile as Barbara starts to lose more and more of who she is. However, even as this is happening, I love that Barbara continues to help Diana. We can see that she is starting to treat others more harshly, like how she spoke to the guy as she was researching about the stone and then how she beat up the man who harassed her. Yet, during all of this, she still kept on researching for Diana and helping her out. It isn’t until Diana becomes a threat to her losing what she wished for that she begins to turn on her.

Now, I don’t know about all of you, but I’m always down for some friends to enemies queer subtext for my ships, so I was more than thrilled to see these two go at it. They made incredible adversaries which I’ll definitely be making a post about in the future. 

Throughout the rest of the film they pretty much stay in the enemy category, with Diana continuously trying to get Barbara to recognize what has happened to her and to help her put a stop to all of this. So, not much goes on here except for the fun of seeing these two women battle it out. However, there is one moment when they were fighting that I—for a split second—hoped that they were going to kiss.

It was during the scene when they’re both in the water and Diana is trying to get Barbara to renounce her wish. Both were so close to each other and it would’ve been such a great moment to have had one of them go for it. Had they played into the romance between them, I could’ve seen either one of them initiate a kiss in that moment. For Diana, I could’ve seen her do that as a way to snap Barbara out of her rage for a second and to show her affection. While with Barbara, it could’ve been a quick moment of her essentially confessing her love to Diana with a kiss, since she has always had feelings for her, even now. Only to then afterwards have her once again attack her as I’m sure her anger would’ve won out and taken over again. Sadly, that wasn’t what happened. But, damn, how amazing if it did?

Ultimately, I know that Diana and Barbara ever becoming a canon couple and/or love interest with one another is most likely never going to happen. Seeing as how Patty Jenkins never intended to include any type of romantic feelings between them, I doubt it’ll ever happen in the future. However, I still love these two as a ship and if they ever do make another Wonder Woman film where these two are reunited, you bet your ass I’ll be reading everything that they do and say to each other as queer. They make a really great ship, and even if the creators won’t give us that, we can at least still bask in the subtext.

[wishthiswasqueer]

Make It Polyam: Riverdale

Betty, Archie, Jughead, and Veronica should be in a polyamorous relationship.

I really hoped that the time jump would be good for Riverdale. And they almost had me. But in this most recent episode... let's just say they lost me a bit with the relationships.

That being said, I have been thinking this for a while. This show would be sooooo much better if it was about polyamorous relationships instead of these stupid triangles.

Betty and Jughead (Bughead):

This relationship really allows both of these characters to be comfortable with their "darker" sides. They support each other through their struggles because of their deeper understanding of what the other is going through.

Betty and Archie (Barchie):

These two have childhood history on their side. The nostalgia and innocence is there, but they also have (unexpected) passion. They support each other in a healthy way: listening or just being there when needed.

Veronica and Archie (Varchie):

Honestly, these two are just passion and sexual energy. I don't think they do a great job of emotionally supporting each other, but that's OK cause they do better when they are just having fun together.

Betty and Veronica (B and V):

These two care about each other deeply. From the beginning, they have been making sacrifices to try to make each other happy. And I mean there is obvious tension there. I mean do straight girls really just kiss their gal pals out of the blue like that? Veronica definitely thought about it before that.

The only two I can't really see happening are Veronica and Jughead. They are so entirely different and don't really even seem like good friends. I could see a possibility of Archie and Jughead, but I think they would probably be a little hesitant (compulsive heteronormativity be like that).

I honestly think this story line would be better. Not only is it fresh and different, if they put the old patterns aside, I think this would open up so many potential storylines. How does this change in dynamic affect each member of the group? Would it be more fulfilling to experience the different uplifting portions of the different relationships? Would they experience jealousy or compersion? Would this be sustainable or would it be too much for one or multiple members? What different work would be needed: navigating boundaries, schedules, etc.? Would they experience their regularly scheduled near death experiences differently? I mean there would obviously still be drama but different, new drama instead of the same old boring things we see in everything.

Basically, everyone should date Betty and the Riverdale writers are really missing some amazing opportunities here. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.