I've been trying to think of how to respond to this. Not because I think you're wrong but because I sometimes come across as a jerk.
I do wish they would flush out his character a little more and not have being gay be his whole identity there seems to be a turn in the LGBTQIA+ community against a certain "type" of gay individual, which is that of the "stereotype." While it is true that not all people are created equal and exactly the same, I've found just even from being at local LGBTQIA+ community groups that anyone who does act like a certain stereotype or who might utilize certain gestures, actions or behave in a certain manner is seen as being bad.
One of my friends commented to me not too long ago that he finds even people within our community respond badly, and sometimes hatefully towards him because his personality is too out there. He does love fashion, he goes have lots of female friends but when asked about it he said it was because neither gay nor straight men would give him the time of day and he wasn't willing to change who he is in order to make someone else happy because he'd already done that for 14 years.
He too has been watching Riverdale (we have watch parties when we can) and is disappointed in Kevin's character as well, because there's "too much shallow, and not enough deep end" but admitted he's kind of happy to see someone who is more like him on TV then not.
I should also say that I haven't read Archie comics in years so I don't know anything about that canon version of Kevin and that his character does feel a bit like baiting without follow through.
Don't worry; I don't think you sounded like a jerk at all! And if I come across as at all frustrated or rude in my response, it's because I'm angered with the portrayal both on the show and in the media in general.
My first rant about Kevin is here, where I discussed his character in the comics compared to the show. The main aspect of Kevin Keller was that he was very much not a stereotypical character in the comics. His portrayal was so well done that the writer of Kevin's series, Dan Parent, won the Outstanding Comic Book Annual GLAAD Media Award.
The thing for me is that non-stereotypical gay characters are the exception in media, not the norm. Gay stereotypes abound in shows like Glee and Modern Family. If you watch a show that's mainly about and written by straight people, chances are, the gay character is going to play to one stereotype or another.
To me, Riverdale deciding to take a non-stereotypical gay character and make him into a walking, talking stereotype with no further personality is just another way of othering LGBTQ folks. It's a way of them saying, "No, no, no, this is how gay men really act," and presenting their version of Kevin Keller, in all of his outdated, Will & Grace-esque glory. It's as if a gay character couldn't exist without falling into a bunch of easy categories: a promiscuous, catty drama queen who's ready to completely sell out the few morals he does have at the slightest possibility of getting laid.
Comics!Kevin was an athlete. He was involved in student government. He was tactful and sensible. He had both male and female friends, was Jughead and Veronica's best friend.
Riverdale!Kevin is none of those things, and as a side character, his strongest connection is to Betty, giving the impression that the writers didn't care about Kevin's character and just wanted him to be crutch to other people. I guess their way of doing that was to make him into whatever female character's BFF.
If they changed Kevin for a particular storyline, I might be willing to cut them some, but they didn't. For no reason whatsoever, they changed Kevin into a shallow stereotype, and to me, that is offensive and damaging. I'm sick and tired of the idea that gay people are some ~mysterious force~ who operate on an entirely different level than straight people and their ways can never be fully understood. Write them as you would write a straight character, but just have them date their own gender. Catering to stereotypes is cheap, lazy, and unimaginative, particularly for a character who deliberately never embodied those stereotypes in the first place.
In real life, I think it's fine for people to day and do stereotypical things and not feel bad about it. But for Riverdale to redesign the one gay character to serve no other purpose than to be a stereotype? That bothers me. We don't need more stereotypical gay characters; we need more well-rounded gay characters who prove those stereotypes wrong.
I do wish they would flush out his character a little more and not have being gay be his whole identity there seems to be a turn in the LGBTQIA+ community against a certain "type" of gay individual, which is that of the "stereotype." While it is true that not all people are created equal and exactly the same, I've found just even from being at local LGBTQIA+ community groups that anyone who does act like a certain stereotype or who might utilize certain gestures, actions or behave in a certain manner is seen as being bad.
One of my friends commented to me not too long ago that he finds even people within our community respond badly, and sometimes hatefully towards him because his personality is too out there. He does love fashion, he goes have lots of female friends but when asked about it he said it was because neither gay nor straight men would give him the time of day and he wasn't willing to change who he is in order to make someone else happy because he'd already done that for 14 years.
He too has been watching Riverdale (we have watch parties when we can) and is disappointed in Kevin's character as well, because there's "too much shallow, and not enough deep end" but admitted he's kind of happy to see someone who is more like him on TV then not.
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My first rant about Kevin is here, where I discussed his character in the comics compared to the show. The main aspect of Kevin Keller was that he was very much not a stereotypical character in the comics. His portrayal was so well done that the writer of Kevin's series, Dan Parent, won the Outstanding Comic Book Annual GLAAD Media Award.
The thing for me is that non-stereotypical gay characters are the exception in media, not the norm. Gay stereotypes abound in shows like Glee and Modern Family. If you watch a show that's mainly about and written by straight people, chances are, the gay character is going to play to one stereotype or another.
To me, Riverdale deciding to take a non-stereotypical gay character and make him into a walking, talking stereotype with no further personality is just another way of othering LGBTQ folks. It's a way of them saying, "No, no, no, this is how gay men really act," and presenting their version of Kevin Keller, in all of his outdated, Will & Grace-esque glory. It's as if a gay character couldn't exist without falling into a bunch of easy categories: a promiscuous, catty drama queen who's ready to completely sell out the few morals he does have at the slightest possibility of getting laid.
Comics!Kevin was an athlete. He was involved in student government. He was tactful and sensible. He had both male and female friends, was Jughead and Veronica's best friend.
Riverdale!Kevin is none of those things, and as a side character, his strongest connection is to Betty, giving the impression that the writers didn't care about Kevin's character and just wanted him to be crutch to other people. I guess their way of doing that was to make him into whatever female character's BFF.
If they changed Kevin for a particular storyline, I might be willing to cut them some, but they didn't. For no reason whatsoever, they changed Kevin into a shallow stereotype, and to me, that is offensive and damaging. I'm sick and tired of the idea that gay people are some ~mysterious force~ who operate on an entirely different level than straight people and their ways can never be fully understood. Write them as you would write a straight character, but just have them date their own gender. Catering to stereotypes is cheap, lazy, and unimaginative, particularly for a character who deliberately never embodied those stereotypes in the first place.
In real life, I think it's fine for people to day and do stereotypical things and not feel bad about it. But for Riverdale to redesign the one gay character to serve no other purpose than to be a stereotype? That bothers me. We don't need more stereotypical gay characters; we need more well-rounded gay characters who prove those stereotypes wrong.
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I see what you mean if he is so divergent from canon.
I need to catch up on this show tbh. I'm now an episode I think behind.
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