In which I give fandom more credit than it might deserve, and rant about gender. Surprise!
I'm on a huge huge huge gender kick recently, and I wanted to bring up something I've been thinking about for a long time.
Why do we make all of our favorite characters queer? It’s common to pretty much every fandom I’ve ever been in, and I really think that there has to be more to it then “OMG PRETTY I WANT THEM TO BANG!!!11!!”
I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that these characters we love are so often the “the other,” in that they are separate from both our early 21st century boring human selves and from the "everyman" of their situation. They’re either futuristic Starfleet officers, magical witches and wizards, special agents, superheroes, or so on. We see them as something greater than ourselves, with more evolved sensibilities in many areas.
It’s shown a lot on Star Trek-\hyper-evolved beings that have transcended even physical form (take your pick; they show up every few episodes). “Evolution” seems to mean the gradual removal of differences, and what are the differences that are most visible in our society? Sexuality and gender (and race, but I’ll get into that another time. This is a gender ramble, damn it!).
The current struggle for equal rights regardless of sexuality or gender expression is deeply personal for me-I am a queer woman, and the fact that I happened to fall in love with a biological male does nothing to change that. I believe that most people, regardless of their own orientation or gender expression, think that denying rights and treating people differently based on who they love or what genitals they have is flat-out wrong, and they feel guilty for being a part of an unjust society, even if they are actively fighting against this injustice.
So, what does this have to do with fandom?
People in fandom are generally more creative than the population at large. We are fascinated by what is different from the world we live in, and we envision these other worlds as somehow better than our own (unless, of course, they are dystopian societies, but that’s a different kettle of fish altogether). The inhabitants of these worlds are more advanced than we are.
Thus, the boundaries of gender and sexuality that we face, they do not face. They are heroes, and heroes are all about justice-heroes love whomever they love, regardless of what’s in their pants. We envision a world where this is completely accepted, because the Wizarding World is more special and different and wonderful than ours, or because the 23rd century has all sorts of other wonderful advancements and other species and must be better in this sense-hell, creatures with more than two genders are canon (Yay for Andorians!). Society must have adapted to these new developments by changing its ideals of what is acceptable to include non-binary gender and sexuality.
Additionally, the characters we focus on are larger than life-they save the world, they’re smarter than we could ever hope to be, they have magical powers, and so on. If they are larger than life, then their emotions must also be bigger-the friendship Harry and Ron share must become greater and turn into love. Kirk and McCoy find each other when they have no one else left on Earth to care about, so their relationship must grow bigger than normal friendship. Stakes are as high as they can be in these situations, and emotions run hotter.
So, while some people might be in it solely because pretty men kissing is pretty, there’s a lot more to it than that, most of the time. We’re in it because saving the world brings people together-men, women, and everything in between. We’re in it because there’s a lot of freedom out here on the final frontier. We’re in it because our society is fucked up, and we’re trying to keep hope for a better one alive through our art and discourse. Maybe that’s a little high-minded for something as loosely-organized and admittedly non-serious at times as fandom, but there is no telling where this internet medium will lead in the future-it might be crucial.
Why do we make all of our favorite characters queer? It’s common to pretty much every fandom I’ve ever been in, and I really think that there has to be more to it then “OMG PRETTY I WANT THEM TO BANG!!!11!!”
I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that these characters we love are so often the “the other,” in that they are separate from both our early 21st century boring human selves and from the "everyman" of their situation. They’re either futuristic Starfleet officers, magical witches and wizards, special agents, superheroes, or so on. We see them as something greater than ourselves, with more evolved sensibilities in many areas.
It’s shown a lot on Star Trek-\hyper-evolved beings that have transcended even physical form (take your pick; they show up every few episodes). “Evolution” seems to mean the gradual removal of differences, and what are the differences that are most visible in our society? Sexuality and gender (and race, but I’ll get into that another time. This is a gender ramble, damn it!).
The current struggle for equal rights regardless of sexuality or gender expression is deeply personal for me-I am a queer woman, and the fact that I happened to fall in love with a biological male does nothing to change that. I believe that most people, regardless of their own orientation or gender expression, think that denying rights and treating people differently based on who they love or what genitals they have is flat-out wrong, and they feel guilty for being a part of an unjust society, even if they are actively fighting against this injustice.
So, what does this have to do with fandom?
People in fandom are generally more creative than the population at large. We are fascinated by what is different from the world we live in, and we envision these other worlds as somehow better than our own (unless, of course, they are dystopian societies, but that’s a different kettle of fish altogether). The inhabitants of these worlds are more advanced than we are.
Thus, the boundaries of gender and sexuality that we face, they do not face. They are heroes, and heroes are all about justice-heroes love whomever they love, regardless of what’s in their pants. We envision a world where this is completely accepted, because the Wizarding World is more special and different and wonderful than ours, or because the 23rd century has all sorts of other wonderful advancements and other species and must be better in this sense-hell, creatures with more than two genders are canon (Yay for Andorians!). Society must have adapted to these new developments by changing its ideals of what is acceptable to include non-binary gender and sexuality.
Additionally, the characters we focus on are larger than life-they save the world, they’re smarter than we could ever hope to be, they have magical powers, and so on. If they are larger than life, then their emotions must also be bigger-the friendship Harry and Ron share must become greater and turn into love. Kirk and McCoy find each other when they have no one else left on Earth to care about, so their relationship must grow bigger than normal friendship. Stakes are as high as they can be in these situations, and emotions run hotter.
So, while some people might be in it solely because pretty men kissing is pretty, there’s a lot more to it than that, most of the time. We’re in it because saving the world brings people together-men, women, and everything in between. We’re in it because there’s a lot of freedom out here on the final frontier. We’re in it because our society is fucked up, and we’re trying to keep hope for a better one alive through our art and discourse. Maybe that’s a little high-minded for something as loosely-organized and admittedly non-serious at times as fandom, but there is no telling where this internet medium will lead in the future-it might be crucial.