Why I Hate Identity Politics
Feb. 9th, 2007 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmatonakClaire's friend Zach, before his memory loss and subsequent makeover, reminded me of me in high school. I meant well, but I was terribly shy and repressed and confused. I would have had absolutely no idea how to handle a girl like Claire... but I really, really would have wanted to.
The producers had originally intended to leave the door open for the possibility of Zach being gay. They gave the kid a MySpace page in which his sexuality was listed as "questioning", and they "coded" Zach gay in all the ways that, in college, I was taught to associate with the films of Douglas Sirk. Then, because of actor rebellion or for some other reason, they apparently decided Zach was not so gay and stopped including those little hints.
Some viewers were up in arms. They were incensed that the producers had seemingly backed down from portraying a sympathetic gay character. I can sympathize. Honest. There need to be more sympathetic gay characters, of all ages and classes and backgrounds, on network TV. I do believe that. It is far more important to fight bigotry than it is to give me TV characters who mirror me. I believe that, too.
But I'm not gay. Gay is wonderful, but I'm not it. I can't have been the only kid that was like me, even if I was the only one I knew.
Zach reminded me, powerfully, of me. And, it was "obvious" Zach was gay. Apparently, there was no doubt of this in the minds of many viewers.
It makes for an odd and unsettling feeling.
(If I said this already and forgot, sorry for the spam.)
The producers had originally intended to leave the door open for the possibility of Zach being gay. They gave the kid a MySpace page in which his sexuality was listed as "questioning", and they "coded" Zach gay in all the ways that, in college, I was taught to associate with the films of Douglas Sirk. Then, because of actor rebellion or for some other reason, they apparently decided Zach was not so gay and stopped including those little hints.
Some viewers were up in arms. They were incensed that the producers had seemingly backed down from portraying a sympathetic gay character. I can sympathize. Honest. There need to be more sympathetic gay characters, of all ages and classes and backgrounds, on network TV. I do believe that. It is far more important to fight bigotry than it is to give me TV characters who mirror me. I believe that, too.
But I'm not gay. Gay is wonderful, but I'm not it. I can't have been the only kid that was like me, even if I was the only one I knew.
Zach reminded me, powerfully, of me. And, it was "obvious" Zach was gay. Apparently, there was no doubt of this in the minds of many viewers.
It makes for an odd and unsettling feeling.
(If I said this already and forgot, sorry for the spam.)
