• deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I’ll tell you why:

    Because it, kind of like Brokeback Mountain all those years earlier, appreciates that homosexuality and the gay community are not one in the same. While the gay community is extremely important and should never be downplayed, media always tends depict gay people as connected to it or at the very least evoking many of the same aspects and tropes.

    This isn’t an unfair thing to depict, far from it, but it has the unfortunate result of making many gay characters feels rather same-y, occasionally even one note.

    Offerman’s character depicts a very accurate thing that doesn’t get as much attention in media: the straight acting man discovering his sexuality late in life. With the exception of his piano playing and his penchant for wine and setting the table for elaborate dinners, his character has none of the telltale “gay” aspects you typically find in media, nor does he develop them. In fact his character aspects (survivalist, paranoid, shut in, loner, even a hint conservative) are generally not associated with gay characters, out of fear of depicting them in a poor light.

    That’s not at all to suggest other depictions of gay men are wrong or bad, Bartlett’s character is very well done too. The characters of Bill just feels more notable and fresher in our current media landscape because we see it far less often.

    • SuperSynthia@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I really appreciate this take. A lot of us are trapped in the closet for a variety of reasons and it takes years to finally be yourself comfortably. Once we are out, we can exist as just people…if our community lets us that is.

    • SatyrSack@lemmy.one
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      8 months ago

      homosexuality and the gay community are not one in the same

      I think a lot of people don’t understand that being GSRM does not automatically make you part of the LGBT community.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think this is a good take, but my criticism of Disney is more in line with my perception of their business model - art by focus group.

      They know that if they combine these 3 IP’s with these 3 diversity checkboxes, the movie will return x, meaning they have a budget of y to deliver a given ROI. Much like their endless parade of remakes, it’s cynical commercislism that has no interest in storytelling artistic value, or representation - and it shows.

      To your point, TLOU separated the relationship from the community, and while the community representation is important, this type of representation is critical to normalising homosexual relationships - “oh - they’re in a regular loving relationship just like me - it’s not all disco music and flapping about in sparkly clothes, making catty comments.” kinda deal.