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[LordOfLore]

Link.

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story proclaiming that the new Power Rangers movie “breaks ground with [the] first queer big-screen superhero.” Which sounds like a huge deal — as dominant as the superhero genre has become, it’s been slow to open up in terms of LGBT inclusion, at least on the big screen. According to the THR piece, “there’s a scene in which the titular heroes learn that the Yellow Ranger, Trini (Becky G.), is coming to terms with her sexual orientation.” “Really she’s questioning a lot about who she is,” director Dean Israelite is quoted as saying of Trini. “She hasn’t fully figured it out yet.”

So, here’s how the sequence actually goes: Trini and the other Rangers are sharing personal stories around a fire, and Trini explains how she’s preferred to keep her family out of her day-to-day life and her relationships. “Boyfriend trouble?” Black Ranger Zack (Ludi Lin) asks. “Yeah, boyfriend trouble,” Trini says — maybe sarcastically? It’s hard to tell, as Becky G delivers 99% of her lines with a sardonic lilt. Zack squints, then asks, “Girlfriend trouble?” Trini doesn’t respond.

It’s a minimal beat that opens up the possibility that Trini has been romantically involved with a woman without providing concrete confirmation — if anything, it’s as notable for the way Zack doesn’t assume straightness as for Trini’s silence. She doesn’t say anything more about her sexuality and doesn’t have a romantic interest in the movie (none of the Rangers do, though there’s some Red-Pink flirtiness). But that half-minute exchange is all it took for a story to spread to dozens of outlets proclaiming Power Rangers as a landmark for representation in the genre. While, to be sure, even incremental progress should be celebrated — any forward movement is better than none — this is an incredibly unsatisfactory beat to go on to be widely disseminated as a breakthrough for inclusivity.

But then, so is the “exclusively gay” moment in Beauty and the Beast in which the Gaston-adoring sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad) shares a two-second dance with another man in the movie’s finale. It’s a scene, as Pop Culture Happy Hour panelist Glen Weldon put it when he tweeted, that’s “exactly the kind of throwaway gay joke Hollywood’s always churned out, just without the gay panic.” It wasn’t the only one either — LeFou’s dance partner is a character who, in an earlier scene, is shown being unexpectedly pleased with the women’s clothing he’d been forcefully clad in by a combative Madame Garderobe. Yet that was enough, apparently, to mark LeFou as Disney’s first openly gay character in a wave of coverage that director Bill Condon himself described as “overblown.”

Then there was last year’s Star Trek Beyond, which, also before its release, made the reveal — one treated as a bigger deal in interviews than it ended up being onscreen — that its incarnation of Lt. Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) was gay. It did this by introducing a never-named-on-screen husband, played by screenwriter Doug Jung, who Sulu was shown pulling into an affectionate but not especially nonplatonic embrace during a visit as they strolled away with their daughter. “If you blinked, you missed it,” said George Takei, who played Sulu on the original Star Trek television show. “There are others who are dealing with LGBT issues much more profoundly.”

Which is inarguable. It’s not news that indie films like this year’s Best Picture winner, Moonlight, have always been leaps and bounds ahead of mainstream ones with regard to LGBT representation and storytelling. What is notable is the degree to which TV has also left blockbusters in the dust. And not just cable — in a world in which How to Get Away With Murder plunked a scene of implied rimming between Jack Falahee and Conrad Ricamora onto primetime network TV two years ago, it seems particularly eyerolly to give a studio movie a pat on the back for including a shot of two men with their arms around each other, in a totally gay way, they swear.

More at the link.

 

[tbm24]

Short of extreme Hyperbole and calling these moments groundbreaking, how do you celebrate these small moments? Do you at all?

 

[Platy]

It is like trans people in gaming.

We have so little that someone like Poison or Birdetta are celebrated, even with them being ridiculously shitty examples IF we had lots of examples to take from.

We celebrate doing nothing more than your obligation and after we have a considerable amount of examples we start saying "so ... this is actually pretty shitty, you can do better"

In other words, you need a solid foundation before you are able to complain about how you want stuff

 

[BronsonLee]

But I was told there was a gay Power Ranger and a gay LeFou, did news media lie to me

It is like trans people in gaming.

We have so little that someone like Poison or Birdetta are celebrated, even with them being ridiculously shitty examples IF we had lots of examples to take from.

Yeah those are godawful examples

 

[Sanjuro]

But I was told there was a gay Power Ranger and a gay LeFou, did news media lie to me

At the end of the day, Sausage Party probably did more for the LGBT community than Beauty and the Beast did.

 

[norm9]

This is a bad thing? Wouldn't exposure make it so the next movie would have even more representiation?

 

[tbm24]

At the end of the day, Sausage Party probably did more for the LGBT community than Beauty and the Beast did.

Sausage Party did more than most movies quite frankly, in particular ones where it's implied rather than explicit.

 

[A Link to the Past]

Short of extreme Hyperbole and calling these moments groundbreaking, how do you celebrate these small moments? Do you at all?

The issue is that the moments aren't worth celebrating; they're table scraps.

 

[Ogodei]

International markets are the problem here again. Can't make a blockbuster with an outsize queer presence or you'll have to butcher it for Russia, Africa, and markets across the Muslim World, so you have these little moments which can be edited out or interpreted as just platonic with little trouble (or simply translated to not mention LGBT, like that line in Power Rangers probably will be).

If there was less dependence on homophobic emerging markets, i think we'd see more and better representation in blockbuster movies instead of these trifles.

 

[Imperfected]

Yeah those are godawful examples

In Poison's defense, she is a child of the 80's. Everything was horrible back then.

 

[zeemumu]

At the end of the day, Sausage Party probably did more for the LGBT community than Beauty and the Beast did.

The last 10 minutes of Sausage Party is insane.

 

[smokeymicpot]

The issue is that the moments aren't worth celebrating; they're table scraps.

Exactly. It is nothing special. Especially in Beauty and the Beast case. It was nothing.

 

[Koomaster]

I'm pretty sure most of these 'moments' are studios expecting a golden star for being inclusive without actually fleshing out a character's sexuality and how that shapes their life. It's less than nothing as it's basically just reaching for the free PR boost and not caring about LGBT+ people's lives. If it's not already, it's definitely bordering on exploitation.

It's like when Rowling said Dumbledore was gay. Okay, so what, that never came up or mattered in the books or movies. You want some credit for having a character be gay when it didn't mean anything to the story? It's tiresome.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I'm really glad someone wrote about this. I feel like an asshole for complaining about what we've been getting, because at least it is something...so I've kept my mouth shut. But I've been kind of grumpy at how much people have been complimenting some of these films for pitiful representation. Hollywood can do better...but I'm at least hopeful we're getting there.

Maybe Dadpool 2 can give us an explicit man-on-man sex scene between Reynolds and whomever plays Cable. Light some fires.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Short of extreme Hyperbole and calling these moments groundbreaking, how do you celebrate these small moments? Do you at all?

When I catch something like this in a movie without it being all hyped up, I always think it's a nice step. I'm all about inclusiveness on a larger level (like, where's a big budget rom com that's not about two straight white people?), but I also think these little moments help normalize minorities as just a regular thing in the world.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

GAF -> Internet -> GAF
Okay, but it's funny they literally used the same examples I did in my post in the last Power Rangers thread, and my thoughts on it are still (obviously) the same

Honestly I can't wait until this stuff is normalized to the point that every movie that has a 1 second scene acknowledging the existence of LGBT people doesn't prompt an article declaring how ground breaking the tiniest modicum of effort they put in is

OMG Sulu hugged a guy for a few seconds!
OMG a dude dances with another dude in Beauty and the Beast!

These are fucking breadcrumbs of inclusivity. I don't even know why such incredibly minor things are even being applauded when they're basically nothing

Yes it should be celebrated, but let's not do so disproportionately to the point studios start thinking a small scene counts as an earnest effort on their part.

 

[OfficerRaichu15]

Never understood since the Fosters does such a great job as a tv show why can't movies?

 

[Servbot24]

Short of extreme Hyperbole and calling these moments groundbreaking, how do you celebrate these small moments? Do you at all?

You say "that's a step. Now actually do it."

 

[spyroflame0487]

I was thinking about this the other day when I saw multiple articles pop up about the Power Rangers thing, and quite a few last week with Beauty and the Beast. These things get hyped/blown way out of proportion and I don't think it's fair to the LGBT community that these are what they have to "celebrate" if you want to call it that.

No one probably saw ParaNorman, but that one had a great scene at the end of it and I don't think I've ever seen it get mentioned.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

GAF -> Internet -> GAF
Okay, but it's funny they literally used the same examples I did in my post in the last Power Rangers thread, and my thoughts on it are still (obviously) the same



Yes it should be celebrated, but let's not do so disproportionately to the point studios start thinking a small scene counts as an earnest effort on their part.

Well that's Hollywierd for ya, it's almost the same way on them just have a Chinese person appear for a brief moment or have a few lines but if they could imply someone was Chinese instead of getting someone they probably would

 

[Carcetti]

Hey, remember when this old teen show Buffy had a really clearly depicted lesbian relationship with a long romance and (clothed) going down and orgasming on screen from 1999 to 2002. And that was just about the most loved relationship on that show.

Not very impressed, Hollywood.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

This is a bad thing? Wouldn't exposure make it so the next movie would have even more representiation?

Not a bad thing but it's tempering responses to token representation. The story over Beauty and the Beast was overblown since dude hinted at his sexuality.

 

[CopperPuppy]

This reminds me of when Meryl Streep proclaimed Hollywood as a bastion of diversity standing in united opposition to the bigotry of the Trump administration.

I couldn't believe my ears.

Hollywood still has a LONG way to go.

 

[Ridley327]

I'm really glad someone wrote about this. I feel like an asshole for complaining about what we've been getting, because at least it is something...so I've kept my mouth shut. But I've been kind of grumpy at how much people have been complimenting some of these films for pitiful representation. Hollywood can do better...but I'm at least hopeful we're getting there.

Maybe Dadpool 2 can give us an explicit man-on-man sex scene between Reynolds and whomever plays Cable. Light some fires.

If for nothing else, I did appreciate that Deadpool acknowledged pegging as a thing and it served as a very memorable conclusion to an already fun montage of randy sex scenes. Very nice to see something like that in a mainstream film that's not exactly known for acknowledge heterosexual positions beyond missionary and whatever variation of cowgirl they can get away with on an R.

 

[Poor GRIMES]

Well that's Hollywierd for ya, it's almost the same way on them just have a Chinese person appear for a brief moment or have a few lines but if they could imply someone was Chinese instead of getting someone they probably would

"My name is Goku."

Thread:
I agree, hopefully there's a better effort to have LGBT representation in the media. It's getting better though. Laverne Cox getting roles outside of her debut in OITNB tells me we're getting there.

 

[Pandy]

You probably don't remember all the fuss your parents made the first time you managed to take a dump in the toilet without covering yourself or your clothes in shit.

This is how we let people know they are doing the right thing, so that they keep doing the right thing in the future.

EDIT: Maybe it would have been better to say, 'even though you covered yourself and your clothes in shit.' I'm not trying to say that we don't have a long way to go.