Parvathy S
The portrayal of the LGBTQIA+ community in media is something the queer community yearns for and at times fall bait to. Taking one example each from the top OTT platforms: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, let us talk about how they have utilized queer representation or queerbaiting successfully.
Queerbaiting falsely represents queer characters in media by promising the viewer queer representation but failing to do justice. This is a classic marketing strategy to bring in more queer audiences and capitalize on deceptive portrayals.
It can appear in your favourite shows in many forms. Betty and Veronica from Riverdale are a pretty good example of queerbaiting. Even if the storyline is good and the series itself is a huge hit, this form of ambiguous depictions cannot qualify as queer representation.
Allow me to kickstart this blog series with queerbaiting done by Disney in its recent popular show Loki.
Loki aired on Disney+ from 9th June to 14th July, with a total of 6 episodes. The basic storyline follows the protagonist Loki’s story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from a split point of time in the past. It did a pretty good job at really giving a close up on the life of Loki Odinson, the beloved Marvel villain. This popular show from Disney gave its viewers a great deal of excitement on both the gender and sexuality of the protagonist - Loki. However, despite Loki being canonically genderfluid, the only queer representation the viewers received was a single word in his case file saying FLUID next to the option of his sex. It also felt quite hilarious to see that it was not even the gender depicted as fluid but his sex. There is less awareness about how gender and sex are different and by the looks of it, Disney wasn’t so keen on checking facts either.
Many comic readers know that Marvel has never shied away from being open and proud about their characters' queerness. In the Original Sin comics (2014), Odin (adoptive father of Loki) himself has referred to Loki as his child, who is both son and daughter.
The line "a bit of both" blew up the very day episode 3 came out, indicating his bisexuality. It happened as a part of the conversation between Loki and Sylvie, his female version from an alternate timeline. Sylvie asks him about his romantic history, saying there must have been a princess out there for him; or perhaps another prince. However, apart from those four words, there was absolutely no indication of his sexuality.
The director Kate Herron tweeted about how important the revelation of Loki's bisexual identity was, only to give the fans a word written on a piece of paper indicating his gender-fluidity or a single dialogue about his bisexuality. She had also later said in an interview that they would not be exploring Loki's bisexuality further. If it was vital for them to explore Loki's identity in an entire series dedicated to that character, Disney should have done a much better job.
The show also blew up due to the romance and chemistry between Loki and Sylvie, but fans were split among two opinions. One side was quite accepting of the pair, and the other was troubled by the amount of amatonormativity - the widespread assumption that everyone needs an exclusive, romantic, monogamous relationship - and selfcest - sexual activity with an alternate version of oneself - in the show.
Loki and Sylvie have sizzling chemistry together. They are the same people but from different universes. It is only natural that they would feel a strong connection considering the fact that they are literally the same people but with different experiences. However, most of the interpretations of a strong connection in the media are romantic. For people who enjoyed the undeniable sibling dynamic between the two, it was pretty weird to see them slip into a kiss. They were bickering like little kids and rolling on the ground fighting for silly reasons at peak sibling behavior. Moreover, being aroace, it was just a tad bit disappointing to see amatonormativity in Loki too. Sometimes, when romance needs to be an integral part of their story, it masks other aspects of the storyline and characterization.
The writers have all the creative freedom to portray the characters and their relationships as they see fit. If Loki needs this love story, then so be it. However, the fact remains that Disney has not ended its long history of queerbaiting (Beauty and the Beast, Rise of Skywalker, and so on.) even with Loki, and who knows which character will be the victim of their next try at it.
I say give people the right material and content so that they can live in a society that is inclusive and treats everyone as respectful individuals. Of course this doesn’t confine just within Disney but for all platforms of media. We all yearn for that ability to relate to a character in the media, to know it is okay and to know that you are seen. And if the LGBTQIA+ community was represented as it should be then more people will know we too are just as valid as the other person.
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