I just wanna give a special shout out to all the people who write nice things in the tags when they reblog gifsets. It takes so much work to make a set and y’all simply saying “pretty!” or “beautiful!” or “I love this!” really makes gifmakers feel appreciated. We love u all
Can someone give me an example of representation that’s been or felt “forced”?
Lately that term is bugging me but I think I’ve just forgotten what it really must look and feel like.
I genuinely think that that’s a term that only ever comes from folks who just don’t want to see any representation that’s not straight/white/the default(s) on or in a form of media because I cannot think of seeing it ever being used otherwise
Once Upon a Time
The Ruby/Dorothy storyline. They kept promising LGBT+ rep in the fifth season and promised to build it up in the first half and? They didn’t? They fobbed us off with one measly episode with a brand-new character with whom Ruby had no prior interaction with, who we hadn’t seen her build up a bond with, and said ‘Here you go! That’s true loves kiss!’ while completely ignoring the excellent potential they already had, like Ruby and Belle, or Ruby and Mulan, especially seeing as Ruby and Mulan were travelling together, it would’ve been a prime opportunity for them to get to know each other and build a relationship that felt more authentic and meaningful.
Just, considering the screentime and attention that was given to the het couples on that show, to have the long-promised representation just thrown in as a placating gesture felt pretty gross. It was lazy writing and I’m still bitter. It genuinely felt like the writers just did it as a bid to stop the fans from ‘whining’ about representation rather than out of a genuine desire to show LGBT+ relationships on screen.
But honestly OUAT’s treatment of any characters who weren’t straight and white was abysmal
But that’s not “forced representation” that’s classic queer baiting by definition which that show is known for
Oh absolutely. But it did feel as if the writers forced themselves to do it. They didn’t do it because they wanted to. And I mean they did write an explicitly queer relationship, they just did an absolutely piss-poor job of it.
Right, I hear you. It went from one to the other for the audience
Just Sha 