@KaTrian and I have struggled with that too. The most blatant example was probably a scene in which a main character had to fight in a life and death struggle naked against a clothed soldier. The problem was that in the Eastern Promises scene with a naked and bloody Viggo Mortensen, there's gore and fear in the very brutal scene (it's a naked Viggo vs. two clothed guys attacking him with knives in a bath house, i.e. they're all men). Because the character in Kat's and my story just happened to be female, we were left scratching our heads: could we pull it off? Were we even allowed to do something like that? We wanted the scene to be ugly, brutal, suffocating etc. and be just as gruesome and sexless as the Viggo scene. We went through a few drafts before getting it borderline right, but we still need to get comments from a bunch of betas when we return to that MS because even if we see it as a non-sexy scene ourselves because we know what the character is feeling in the scene, but we don't know if the scene conveys the same experience to the reader or will it look like some twisted pervert's sick fantasy. In mainstream media it's even more blatant, e.g. with rape scenes: the vast majority of movies and tv shows show male on female rape as one of the most evil deeds, as it is, but quite a few productions portray female on male rape as something funny, something to laugh at. Sure, I'm not comparing the two directly because the nuances do vary, but the sheer number of comical portrayals of female on male or even male on male rape does reflect on how differently society views the sexes. The reviewer didn't happen to be Nostalgia Critic? I think I've seen the same review. And yeah, the Air Bender movie sucks horribly (what did you expect: it was directed by Shyamalan...), but the cartoon is one of the best TV shows I've seen, even when compared to live-action shows.
Also, and to swing things back on topic, we get another example of how lesbian couples are more acceptable than gay male couples. Don't get me wrong, I love DiMartino and Konietszko for ever and ever and ever for taking that chance in a kid's cartoon on Nick, even if it was on-line and not on the air. But it seems another clear example of how a lesbian couple is like a starter kit for accepting gayness. It's an easier sell. Had it been Mako or Bolin (Bolin being the obvious other choice for a gay character) falling in love with another boy, I just don't think the scare factor in that would have let it happen. Korrasami is canon. You can celebrate it, embrace it, accept it, get over it, or whatever you feel the need to do, but there is no denying it. That is the official story. We received some wonderful press in the wake of the series finale at the end of last week, and just about every piece I read got it right: Korra and Asami fell in love. Were they friends? Yes, and they still are, but they also grew to have romantic feelings for each other. .... But this particular decision wasn’t only done for us. We did it for all our queer friends, family, and colleagues. It is long overdue that our media (including children’s media) stops treating non-heterosexual people as nonexistent, or as something merely to be mocked. I’m only sorry it took us so long to have this kind of representation in one of our stories. ~ Brian Konietzko http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace
Just imagine if there had been a Spartan gay sex scene in 300, especially just before the final battle with the Persians.
I don't think lesbian couples are "more acceptable" than gay male couples, at all. In fact I think it's the other way around. Two hot female straight actresses being paid to kiss might be acceptable, but I do not think most men expect anything like that from real lesbian couples. The stereotypes for gay men is that they are attractive, fun, sophisticated, and eccentric. The stereotype for lesbians is that they are butch, quiet, and mean. At least, these are the stereotypes I am familiar with.
There was wasn't there? Or was I watching a different movie? To be honest, I could never understand why my mates were so traumatised by the opening scenes in Shaving Ryan's Privates either.
That sounds like a well-thought storyline, and like they actually put effort into making it emotional, realistic and central (instead of a sideshow curiosity). I can quite easily name lesbians and lesbian relationships on mainstream TV like in American Horror Story, Orange is the New Black, Stargate Universe... But it's been harder to find portrayals of gay men and their relationships. That's my experience anyway. E.g. in Warehouse 13 a side character was gay, but they didn't do much with it in comparison to the attention other characters' relationships got.
But none of these presentations have anything to do with stereotypes. It all has to do with what is acceptable to present. I meant 'acceptable' in that light. Korra and Asami are each physically stunning in their separate ways; thus, the fantasy portion you mention is fulfilled. Also, they are not real. They are made of ink. So the other side of the dynamic is also fulfilled. I do not think the risk would have been broached (and it wasn't broached) had it been Bolin (again, the obvious choice), though there was much talk in the fandom when he was having his fling with Desna. Desna and Eska, her male twin, are never once seen apart in the show and the fans read a lot of subtextual inference into this.
When the gay is not there, we put it there. Case in point: Supernatural. The show became self aware of the slew of fanfic pretty quickly, though, and started to provide some fan service, like Dean exclaiming "Castiel! Get out of my ass!" when he surprised him by suddenly appearing in the same room or making characters think Sam and Dean are a gay couple. However, even that show has used character homophobia for easy laughs, like Dean's expression and emotional discomfort when he found out that the two guys who cosplayed Sam and Dean Winchester (after a crappy writer wrote a crappy book series about their adventures that became a cult hit) are a gay couple. Although, I guess it could be chalked up to that's-how-some-straight-men behave. In another episode he and Sam sent this lesbian girl to steal information from a bad guy's computer. She bumped into a male security guard, and Dean instructed her over the earpiece how she should try to flirt herself out of the situation (being lesbian, obviously she had no idea how to flirt!). Again, Dean was written to appear visibly uncomfortable as he puppeted the girl out of the jam. Would it have been so out of character for a manly man in those situations to show enough confidence in his sexual orientation that he doesn't get flustered when faced with mild gayness?
To be fair, if the 'scare factor' didn't stop them from doing Korra and Asami, I doubt it would've stopped them from making Bolin and Dean get together.
Seth Macfarlane's fictional bantlings have ambiguous sexuality (and Tosh.0 does it too; all I do is contemplate whether I could find it funny) . It's something to discuss whether we're not all sexually ambiguous. But the shows are not realistic and like violence displayed for statistics, brain dead. Contrary to shows where sexuality is applied realistically; ambiguity is a sign of realism we don't see often (but when it's used as a tool to make fun of certain stereotypes there's better none of it at all). Without having seen Black Sails I can tell the creator cares about creating thematic controversy through careful modeling and molding of it's characters and their personalities, not just for tasteless shock value. *googles* Oh wow, real people. Well, I thought it was going to be anime, so that leaves out a big part of being able to apply artistic freedom. I have a limited range of understanding for almost every series with real people, and quite really often find I'm the only one. It disturbs me that often there's a team working on the same personality, on Monday Steve might feel a bit drowsy in the office and this results in dialogues you's never expect the characters to have in the first place about for example the serenity of death. On Tuesday Peter was incredibly hungover from the party he went to at "The Cock Ring" and still weak from poppers; he makes that episode where the whole cast relive the wild night Peter had the day before: what else could he draw inspiration from? I'm not very certain how they keep shows running for years, except for South Park i'm sure there's going to be several writers resulting in characters you doubt even are the same person. Only those shows that are prewritten (coming from the mind of mainly one person) have great potential of portraying legit characters. I've not seen Back Sails, but my two cents on it are that if this show is prewritten; we're just going to have to accept that the writer had this in mind a long time and even it's possible that (what we all don't like to admit) there were motivations involved that could have premeditated (controversial) impact
