Representations

     I would hear about queer representation in a show and immediately want to watch it. craving for a version of myself relayed on screen. I would delve into the character and the back story as much as I could, scrolling through forums and online chat rooms full of people that made up their own stories of them. I would pick apart the characters bit by bit to have a mirror, a form of self-reflection that the rest of my straight friends and family would have, for just a taste of that equality, even if it wasn't entirely accurate. I will sit through the heterosexual people around me as they complain. "Do not shove it down our throats," they would say. "It is gross for a man to kiss a man. They may like it, but I don't," they would ramble. And to save my own skin, I would nod silently when all I would want to do is scream "How do you think I have felt?!" We had laws passed that television and movies and music were not allowed to speak explicitly about a queer couple. We had tropes where those who were gay or lesbian were either evil or killed or both. There were decades of movies showing that being openly queer ruined our lives in one way or another while straight, heterosexual couples were given the happy endings and the love interest and the freedom. We could not even be seen kissing someone of the same sex on the lips while in that same breath, queer people had to watch heterosexual couples kiss and get naked and have sex. We are slowly moving to a more open-minded society, but producers and directors are still quick to change things if there's too much backlash. "We will lose too much money" or "We can't throw it out there too quickly," are the excuses we hear. The Hays Code ran supreme in television for 38 years (1930 - 1968), when television and films were groundbreaking and making huge strides. Then, when there could be queer people shown on TV, we were the butt end of the joke. We were bullied. We were judged. We were killed off, cheated on, and broken-hearted people. We have had 55 years since the Hays Code, and we are just now being allowed to happily exist on the screen. How has this been too fast? How is this shoving our love down people's throats while we have been expected to just take the heterosexual love life in the most explicit of details? How is this too much when there are museum pieces of art and sculptures that are of lovers and they get described as 'friends'? (Refer to "Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum" below). The fight for representation has been long and hard, and it has not ended. Having a couple of gay characters appear on a television show is not enough. We still have bisexual people being painted as cheaters on television. I watched this get shown on Shameless. One of the main characters said that someone cannot like both, only one or the other, so anyone who claimed to be bi or pan was lying to hide their infidelity. Celebrities who come out as queer are asked why they are queer. We do not go around asking why people are straight. They just are. When are we allowed to have representation without the backlash? Because everyone knows that with every single accurate queer representation in popular culture, there are at least two dozen people staring at that screen in raptured awe, thinking "Yes. Finally. Someone gets it."