Not to mention iirc Peter Parker was literally molested by a guy as a kid. And had a super hot redhead girlfriend. And, y'know, was written by Stan Lee, so Stan Lee can say whatever he wants about him
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Maybe someday i'll hit my head hard enough to be able to understand why saying a character is 100% gay isn't bigotry, but saying a character is 100% straight IS bigotry
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Edited 4 years ago
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· 4 years ago
I guess it's kinda like dumbasses saying you can't be racist to white people or you can't be heterophobic (plus a chunk of LGT people also don't like Bisexual people for whatever reason). As I've said before, humans are too tribal for their own good and we'll find a way to hate someone for any reason they want to.
I get where you are coming from- and I am not saying that creators shouldn’t put effort into original characters, or that in most cases it isn’t a good idea to create new characters and stories written from and for the perspectives of different types of people- different groups and cultures often have different experiences and simply slapping a label or a color swap or a gender swap on a character does not create a story told from a new perspective.
That said- there are countless alternate dimensions in the MCU, ones where the nationalities and histories, even birth planets of various characters change. Genders change. Sometimes the species of a character even changes- so in some universe I have to imagine that Peter Parker isn’t white- or isn’t human, or is a woman, or is queer.
SHOULD they bother giving THAT Parker a book or movie series’s or a Netflix show? I dunnoh. Mary Jane is his classic “go to gal” but We’ve seen versions of Spider-Man that had other primary and central love interests from Felicia to others or even newly invented Characters. Much as we’ve seen Superman versions where It’s his classic Louis, or it’s Lana, or it’s a triangle, of its someone totally different. Batman doesn’t fall for cat woman in every story or universe. So I don’t know that it’s such a big deal to say he’s got a crush on Flash or Harry instead of MJ or Felicia or whoever.
I think it’s a bigger issue- a bigger question than just a simple “don’t change old characters” or “we need LGBTQ+ female, non binary, whatever versions of every established character...”
I think wether they SHOULD or not- trends for a decade have shown remakes and reboots and reimaginings and sequels becoming the majority of what’s on the market. I think as long as these things are profitable, franchise keepers will continue to do it vs. trying to launch new and untested properties and characters. I think in doing these re boots and alternate universes and what not- writers and marketing people are looking for stories that haven’t been told yet using these same characters- and as they do more stories they run out of things that are new to justify another run and “shake things up,” so its inevitable we’d see these “diversity reimaginings” regardless since eventually those would be the only ways to tell the story that handsome been done yet.
I also think that so long as legacy properties make up the bulk of media in the present mainstream- for better or worse, the best chance that real people who haven’t been represented much in the past have of seeing representation in mainstream a list fiction in the now: are these sorts of “alternates.” You can call him “Miles Morales” but he’s Spider-Man- Peter Parker with a different name and color and some details changed- but if you made him white and called him Peter Parker but kept the rest the same- it would just be an other alternate universe or reboot Spider-Man. So...
I don’t know that it matters much one way or the other. We could call it lazy pandering and not an actual “service” to the LGBTQ+ to just pencil Flash into panels where MJ was and call it a progressive masterpiece- but it’s also something they already do with everything from age and origins and live interest to freaking species. So... I think it’s whatever. It’s not accurate by their internal rules to say Parker could never be gay across infinite universes. But.... I’d agree that I’d rather see a queer writer create a queer character from the ground up that wasn’t defined by being queer- a real character with non queer stereotypes powers (like glitter beams or some shit) who just happens to be queer but that isn’t the thing we are selling the book on. But if marvel is going to keep turning out these “re imaginings” regardless- may as well do a queer one.
Yes Marvel is a little more flexibke bc of the different universes, I meant in general. Sometimes the fun part of this movies is to see it come alive how you picture or see it from comics of books. Just casting an actor because he is a different race is not making any justice. We need more character's representing different stories.
I am not sure I understand. I hope you didn’t mistake my meaning. I was pointing at your reply as to say: “Yes. THIS.” I agree with your sentiment but didn’t have anything constructive to add.
I don’t know Stan Lee. We weren’t close. I can’t say if he’s got issues with LGBTQ* or what not. For the most part his comics tend to have some messages about inclusion and Marvel has turned out some progressive and even controversially “liberal” comics in its run. I do not think it is fair to call Lee a bigot over one statement- or that one statement alone implies he is bigoted. Context and other factors are important- and people often speak in absolutes when they do not actually MEAN things as an absolute- by default most absolutes are false by nature.
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Maybe someday i'll hit my head hard enough to be able to understand why saying a character is 100% gay isn't bigotry, but saying a character is 100% straight IS bigotry