We Need To Stop Letting Ourselves Be Queerbaited By The MCU
Light spoiler warning for Thor: Love & Thunder
Looking to corporations for meaningful representation is always a mistake. LGBTQ+ people are a market, and appealing to them will remain a temporary pillar of support dictated by profits above all else. Our existence can be brushed away to appease international audiences while huge companies continue to support damaging legislation that puts our rights on the line. Yet the allure of rainbow capitalism will never cease, at least not until we start paying attention and demand that things change for the better, or look for queer stories elsewhere from smaller, more marginalised creators who actually have something to say.
Disney is improving, I’ll give it that. It has owned up to awkward mistakes and refused to censor Eternals and Lightyear despite several markets outright refusing to show the films if such alterations weren’t made. It’s making a statement, putting the presence of queer characters above profits for the first time in its history. The House of Mouse has to start somewhere, even if it refuses to comment on its own history and how representation has always felt like an afterthought invented to encourage headlines and discussion instead of actually pushing us forward.
Related: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is Just The Right Amount Of Horny
This happened with Loki, Avengers Endgame, Finding Dory, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and several others I’m probably failing to mention because they were little more than passing glimpses of disparate romance. Queer people are often expected to sing and dance at a piece of representation that is surface deep and has nothing to say, and I’ve lost count of how many articles I’ve read that empathise the existence of a cinematic
Read more on thegamer.com
