Well I don’t know about you, friends, but I am still riding high on that Candace Parker news! But here’s the other news I could gather for your mid-week Pop Culture Fix!
+ Hawkeye continues Loki’s biggest LGBTQ mistake.
+ Related — Hawkeye: Kate Bishop is a step backward for the new MCU hero.
+ Please allow me to note that the easiest way to gay up both this comic book and this show would be to just make Kate Bishop gay like she has been FOREVER in the multi-verse. Let me just quote America Chavez here: “Princess, you’re not that straight.” Why! When MCU fans are literally begging for queer rep, and Kate Bishop is canonical queer rep, and Hailee Steinfeld already has an enormous queer following from Dickinson — why would you not just MAKE HER GAY? This is seriously getting ridiculous, Marvel.
+ Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, Ashlyn Harris, and Ali Krieger all joined the Off The Looking Glass podcast this week. Lots of talk about Bend It Like Beckham!
+ It’s the stealth queer storytelling that redeems some of TV’s nostalgic revivals.
+ Fried Green Tomatoes 30 years later.
+ The Naomi trailer is here!
+ Lesbian TV writer Natalie Abrams is working on a new CW series called Gotham Knights! You know her from Batwoman and All American and that means this one’s gonna be gay too! Probably!
+ The Watermelon Woman and Pink Flamingo were added to the National Film Registry.
+ Disney+ has cancelled Diary of A Future President, which is an enormous bummer.
+ Ashley Nicole Black seals an overall deal with Warner Bros.
+ Why Women Kill has been renewed for a third season.
Everyone’s odd obsession with sexuality is getting annoying. I find this article very poorly written not only for the out of context quotes but the very short explanation on why the character should be changed in the first place. She is not “cannonicaly” gay. She has been shown so far as straight. And she admits that she’s straight in the same comic that the “your not so straight” joke form her friend was referenced. I’m not against it but expected much more from on why she should be changed other then “cause I want it” and odd misinformation.
Yah I’m not sure why the character’s orientation even matters to the story. What, are we just throwing random biographical factoids about characters into stories now? “Kate likes pineapple on pizza!” Stories are life with the irrelevant bits left out. If it doesn’t matter to the story, it doesn’t belong in the story.
the false equivalency between pizza toppings and sexuality lmao
everyone can know I like feta on my pizza bc it’s relevant to my narrative! but the bi thing is just fun trivia you only know if you go out with me
Great answer. The writer of the article is literally making things up to force the character into being queer and not one of the reasons for making Kate gay make any sense.
Thank you, Jennifer. I am all for representation because it reflects our reality, but I have to laugh when the writer of this article says “…begging for queer representation” as if there is none in the MCU. Valkyrie (a character that was never queer) is now famously queer + Black, which is Marvels famous 2 checkbox system of intersectional “diversity” for profit. Marvel used this method once again with Phastos, who was never gay, Black not married, but now the “first gay Black male superhero”. Aside from the two are the upcoming America Chavez, there’s Ayo (who’s sure ti he explored in one of the talked about spinoffs), there’s Billy/Wiccan (who we’ll see down the line), there’s Loki, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio, the latter two who were transformed into being lesbians onscreen. Otherwise, as you said, the article leaves leaves little reason for just up and making Kate queer, other than…just because?!?
Also, Kate is NOT cannonicaly queer. In the source material (which many MCU, non-comic fans just toss aside) Kate is nowhere near queer. She’s only dated guys (Patriot, Noh-Varr who is now gay, Fuse, had a weird thing with Speed, who is also now fully gay) and the character doesn’t NEED to be gay to enjoy her. Same as characters don’t need to be straight to enjoy them. I’m all for creating new queer representation for comics and the films, but the writer of this article offers absolutely no concrete reason as to why Kate needs to be changed and referenced a comment in the book without context. Kate said “Am I the only straight one in this group?” Meaning: she’s heterosexual. Period.
as a gay person i want more gay characters, it’s not like there aren’t enough straight ones…
I don’t give a damn about comic canon, just give me sapphic superheroes please
Is there anything other than that one America Chavez line that makes Kate “canonical queer rep”? I’ve only read a handful of Young Avengers books, but it’s my understanding she’s never self identified as anything other than straight. Don’t get me wrong, the MCU obviously is ok with changing things about characters from book to screen, and I would be very on board for a queer Kate Bishop. Especially since we’re getting MCU’s Miss America next year.
Exactly, America Chavez is coming next year, and she’s actually queer in the source material. No need to just change characters sexuality just for profit or out of boredom. Make new LGBTQ characters and stop changing old one just because someone asked. It’s becoming ridiculous.
I want them to make Kate Bishop Emily Dickinson, or maybe the other way around. Dickinson should end with Emily becoming immortal and then eventually she becomes Kate, sort of like the Cheryl Rivervale story, or Orlando.
i feel like the MCU is happy to be lazy with characters’ sexualities when they’re only subtextually queer (although it’s not like comics-canon queerness gets translated, look at Loki)
kate has only dated men on the page and has never explicitly stated that she’s queer, so even though i believe in my heart that she and clint are both bi disaster humans, i don’t think we can claim her canonically
that being said kate bishop is queer and mcu kate chose a suit for a formal occasion SO
Kate Bishop is not and has never been queer in the comics. What is it with the LGBTQ community just deciding someone is queer? Stoppit and enjoy the show. I don’t always see Black folks on a show to have to enjoy it.
Meanwhile, no one is talking at all about Moiraine in Wheel of Time… I keep coming back to the site to see if y’all have talked about it at all and NADA. It was winked at in the books as “pillow friends” (apparently because publishing in the 90s was not down with lesbians, not shocked), but the show pulled no such punches in last week’s episode.