well, that was unexpected
I just watched DS9 7x23, "Extreme Measures." I don't have the time or energy to say anything in-depth about the show right now, but I must note that I'm astonished that the show took O'Brien/Bashir out of the realm of subtext and more or less into text. Usually shows that feature an intense male friendship avoid truly acknowledging the potential homoeroticism; at most (and perhaps at worst) they include a lot of jokes that are meant to defuse the erotic charge.
But DS9 surprised me once again. O'Brien and and Bashir had a real conversation about their feelings for one another and how those feelings affect O'Brien's marriage and Bashir's supposed love for Ezri (which we hear a lot about but see precious little of, by the way). It was superficially a jokey conversation, I'll admit, but deeply serious under the surface.
After they got out of Sloan's head I was expecting there to be an awkward "let us never speak of this again" moment. Instead, they seemed to be closer than ever, with O'Brien literally making room in his married life for Bashir (which has been a recurring theme for a long time in any case).
I'm gleeful about the slash, of course, but what really makes me happy is the acknowledgement. The show isn't playing the bromance/shiptease game; it isn't adding in a little gay for deniable titillation or for laughs. By showing respect for the characters' emotions and their complicated friendship, I think the show ultimately challenges the heteronormativity of the "bromance" paradigm. Bromance depends on a separation of same-sex friendship and (inevitably heterosexual) romance; its narrative trajectory is to endlessly gesture towards undoing that separation but never actually to do so. O'Brien and Bashir's conversation, on the other hand, blurs a lot of boundaries. And I'll take one moment of honest, adult complexity over all the bromantic flirtation that less discerning creators (of House and Star Trek XI and the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movie and others of that ilk) can stuff into their Not Really Gay Of Course But Aren't We Bold To Hint At It stories.
It probably helps that DS9 was made before "bromance" became an established (and in my view pernicious) trope. The creators had to think about what they were doing rather than having a shorthand to fall back on.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.
But DS9 surprised me once again. O'Brien and and Bashir had a real conversation about their feelings for one another and how those feelings affect O'Brien's marriage and Bashir's supposed love for Ezri (which we hear a lot about but see precious little of, by the way). It was superficially a jokey conversation, I'll admit, but deeply serious under the surface.
After they got out of Sloan's head I was expecting there to be an awkward "let us never speak of this again" moment. Instead, they seemed to be closer than ever, with O'Brien literally making room in his married life for Bashir (which has been a recurring theme for a long time in any case).
I'm gleeful about the slash, of course, but what really makes me happy is the acknowledgement. The show isn't playing the bromance/shiptease game; it isn't adding in a little gay for deniable titillation or for laughs. By showing respect for the characters' emotions and their complicated friendship, I think the show ultimately challenges the heteronormativity of the "bromance" paradigm. Bromance depends on a separation of same-sex friendship and (inevitably heterosexual) romance; its narrative trajectory is to endlessly gesture towards undoing that separation but never actually to do so. O'Brien and Bashir's conversation, on the other hand, blurs a lot of boundaries. And I'll take one moment of honest, adult complexity over all the bromantic flirtation that less discerning creators (of House and Star Trek XI and the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movie and others of that ilk) can stuff into their Not Really Gay Of Course But Aren't We Bold To Hint At It stories.
It probably helps that DS9 was made before "bromance" became an established (and in my view pernicious) trope. The creators had to think about what they were doing rather than having a shorthand to fall back on.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.