"Turning gay" in canon
Reading through this post on canon gay characters in major fandoms made me think. Namely, I have the utmost sympathy for people who don't like non-canonical relationships or who don't like it when characters are turned into a sexual orientation they are not (turning a supposedly straight character gay/bi OR turning a supposedly gay character straight/bi). I have full sympathy for people who consider that bad writing and who don't think that men who have only shown to be in love with women in canon would just go gay at the drop of a hat (and I agree with that; I think that's a fanon myth/tool and that it is a lot more rare in real life, that most men wouldn't react like that.)
My issue is that canon is frequently as bad as fanfiction in that regard. Think about it:
Willow (Buffy): In love with Xander, loving relationship with Oz, then turns gay (and I personally can understand why many people might have considered that as NOT properly foreshadowed)
Julia (Nip/Tuck): Straight before the writers decide to have her explore her sexuality and start sleeping with a woman (Portia Rossi) in one of the later seasons
Dumbledore (Harry Potter): Again, no conclusive canon evidence until the author first introduces some subtext in the very last book and then declares the character to be gay in an interview
Beecher (Oz): Straight married man with kids. Goes to prison. Gets raped. His self image gets destroyed and he starts whoring around. Then finds his calling as a gay slut.
Isn't that precisely the kind of plot that most people would decry in fandom? I have been previously straight, but now I turn gay for you, whoohooo! (Willow, Julia) And I'm now gay from hence forward (Willow). And of course, I get raped and through that discover my inner queerness? (Beecher) Oh and remember Barlog? Keller's best friend from the outside who told Beecher that he and Keller were (straight) best buddies, but as soon as Barlog ends up in jail and Beecher gives him a blowjob Barlog realizes that he has been in love with Keller all along (after Keller kisses him once) and is immediately all set and ready do go down on his knees and give Keller a blowjob? Even though he told Beecher that he never had any gay feelings on the outside? [some video clips from the storyline here] (Heck, compared to that I find "I was always bisexual, I just never mentioned it before" more realistic. )
Just how many of us would consider that deeply crap writing if we saw it in a fanfiction? Yet what do you do when professional writers fall for the same kind of story tools? I'm all for denouncing these kind of stories unrealistic, but I feel rather conflicted about it when canon ends up doing the very same thing. What's good for the goose, is good for then' gander or shouldn't it be? If professional writers can make it canon, why shouldn't fanfiction writers be allowed to use the very same thing? Isn't canon ultimately the decider of what is "realism" as far as fandom is concerned? After all canon also decides whether space travel or vampires are "realistic" or not.
Or if it's to be an unsavory practice in fanfiction, shouldn't it then also be in pro-writing? Or are they in reverse an example that just because a character has canonical straight relationships and loves like Willow or Beecher, doesn't mean that the character can spontaneously be turned gay at the will of the creator?
My issue is that canon is frequently as bad as fanfiction in that regard. Think about it:
Willow (Buffy): In love with Xander, loving relationship with Oz, then turns gay (and I personally can understand why many people might have considered that as NOT properly foreshadowed)
Julia (Nip/Tuck): Straight before the writers decide to have her explore her sexuality and start sleeping with a woman (Portia Rossi) in one of the later seasons
Dumbledore (Harry Potter): Again, no conclusive canon evidence until the author first introduces some subtext in the very last book and then declares the character to be gay in an interview
Beecher (Oz): Straight married man with kids. Goes to prison. Gets raped. His self image gets destroyed and he starts whoring around. Then finds his calling as a gay slut.
Isn't that precisely the kind of plot that most people would decry in fandom? I have been previously straight, but now I turn gay for you, whoohooo! (Willow, Julia) And I'm now gay from hence forward (Willow). And of course, I get raped and through that discover my inner queerness? (Beecher) Oh and remember Barlog? Keller's best friend from the outside who told Beecher that he and Keller were (straight) best buddies, but as soon as Barlog ends up in jail and Beecher gives him a blowjob Barlog realizes that he has been in love with Keller all along (after Keller kisses him once) and is immediately all set and ready do go down on his knees and give Keller a blowjob? Even though he told Beecher that he never had any gay feelings on the outside? [some video clips from the storyline here] (Heck, compared to that I find "I was always bisexual, I just never mentioned it before" more realistic. )
Just how many of us would consider that deeply crap writing if we saw it in a fanfiction? Yet what do you do when professional writers fall for the same kind of story tools? I'm all for denouncing these kind of stories unrealistic, but I feel rather conflicted about it when canon ends up doing the very same thing. What's good for the goose, is good for then' gander or shouldn't it be? If professional writers can make it canon, why shouldn't fanfiction writers be allowed to use the very same thing? Isn't canon ultimately the decider of what is "realism" as far as fandom is concerned? After all canon also decides whether space travel or vampires are "realistic" or not.
Or if it's to be an unsavory practice in fanfiction, shouldn't it then also be in pro-writing? Or are they in reverse an example that just because a character has canonical straight relationships and loves like Willow or Beecher, doesn't mean that the character can spontaneously be turned gay at the will of the creator?