Posted in: Avengers, Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: film, marvel, representation

Schrödinger's Gay Makes Another Appearance In The MCU

Back in May director James Gunn was asked whether or not there was a gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He said that there are "probably, you know, gay characters in the Marvel universe and we just don't know who they are yet," basically saying that because it's never addressed then it could be there.

We are trying to make media more inclusive, and there are a lot good people working to make that happen. We want the kids of tomorrow to have someone to look up to, it's important, because who we idolize can shape the people we turn into. If a kid doesn't have someone to look up it can be very excluding. That is why movies like Wonder Woman and Black Panther are so important. However, representation for sexuality is a little different because it's not something you can see right away. It means that you need to develop three dimensional characters to find out how they identify.

Last week actress Tessa Thompson said that her character, Valkyrie, is bisexual.

People were pretty excited to see that and then Thompson said this a few days ago:

Once again we're left with what could be referred to "Schrödinger's Gay". It's lovely that Thompson said that Valkyrie is bisexual but unless we see some sort of action depicting that then it's just words from an actress. It's not representation if you need to look up a tweet to find the information.

This is not to say we want characters loudly declaring their sexuality. It can and should be subtle because we are defined by more than who we find attractive. The way Mitch in ParaNorman declares that Courtney would love his boyfriend. The way Sulu casually walks up to his husband in Star Trek Beyond and that no one makes a big deal out of. The way we found out that Jughead in the Archie comics is asexual.

We still live in a society where we assume someone is straight unless told otherwise. So the media we consume needs to be a little more blunt about this sort of thing until we no longer assume someone is straight unless we're told otherwise. So Valkyrie is bisexual, apparently, but unless we see something that even hints at that it's not representation. It's lip service and another example or the secret gay hiding in the Avengers or, if you will, Schrödinger's Gay.

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