I'm only asking cuz all the examples I can think of off the top of my head at least, regarding recent LGBT+ characters/representation (Steven Universe, She-Ra, Owl House, etc.), all coincidentally involve gay/bi women. I'm having a much harder time thinking of any gay/bi men.
I hope you know what I'm getting at and I'm not coming off as a "WHERE'S WHITE/STRAIGHT PRIDE MONTH?!" guy.
I’ve always thought of it the other way. Lots of male Queer representation, but only insofar as “hey this guy is gay!” Not actual representation of queer romance, etc. I find that fem queer representation exists in ways that it is palatable to men - to the extent it is titillating
Yes, sometimes it feels like "some straight men think lesbians are sexy so we'll do this" and "ewww gays are so gay, no straight man would want to watch this shit. Let's not have any of this"
that's how it's seemed to me (not as much from the creators as from the producers deciding what gets on air/funded)
Jack Harkness from Doctor Who
:lt-kitsuragi:
Movies: Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight, Brokeback Mountain
Lil Nas X
Gregg and Angus from Night in the Woods
:shinji-screm:
The dudes in the anime Yuri on Ice (though they stop juuuuuust short of making it explicitly romance)
Some of the dudes in the anime Hunter x Hunter (though I wouldn’t say they’re good representation)
There are gay relationships in the anime Shinsekai Yori
My favorite band, Ghost, is sorta made up of fictional characters (it’s complicated) and they do a lot of gay stuff on stage. I think it’s safe to say all the frontmen have been bisexual.
It is with great reluctance and a heavy heart that I add rupaul’s drag race to this list
Todd from sad horse show is asexual
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll add more if I think of any
That one clown guy from hunter x hunter comes mind, very much under the category of representation, but not the good kind. Which kinda sucks since he’s so compelling in the bits I’ve seen.
Jojo's bizarre adventure is the only recent example I can think of. A lot of people say the show has homoerotic undertones, and in season 5 there is a gay couple, Tiziano and Squalo.
But I think that fem queer representation is more common at least in animation. For kids shows, maybe execs think they are "safer" because straight guys can objectify queer women, but not queer men. I'm thinking of Legend of Korra here, how Korra and Asami end up together, but they're the only named same-sex couple.
Fugo and Narancia were an item and you can't prove me otherwise.
Mista and Giorno were an item and you can't convince Narancia otherwise
Jojo always felt super queer coded, like Joseph is madly crushing on Caesar like a bi king is the only way I can interpret his actions in part 2 lol.
Not many in popular media. I can think of a few european shows, Versailles accurately displayed the Duc d'Orleans as gay and gender non-conforming. The Nevers (which was Joss Whedon's new show but is now run by a woman who is responsible for a good chunk of the plots Whedon is hailed for.) has a number of male gay/bi and neurodivergent characters (and is actually a decent show especially after Whedon's hand grows less influential.)
Always felt like it was the opposite until pretty recently tbh
Not comprehensive cause I haven't gone out of my way to find mlm content the same way I have for wlw content, so mostly just what I've picked up by osmosis:
Moonlight, Love Simon, Call Me By Your Name, a ton of books especially popular YA (the raven cycle, six of crows, red white and royal blue), didn't the Voltron reboot have some gay guys?, Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts
Please like me on Netflix has a main character who's a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality, it's pretty good
all of the boys in glee love simon looking rent elite moonlight how to get away with murder perks of being a wallflower
all of the boys in glee love simon looking rent elite
I thought this was one big sentence at first and I was trying to parse it
i realized i shouldve spaced but then i got lazy
just imagine this as a white gay spoken word poem
Raymond Holt, a main character from Brooklyn 99, is gay while mostly being the polar opposite of typical sterotypes. Generally while being cop show it does quite a few things well.
Also shoutout to Apex Legends for being a game that has a ton of representation with characters who are NB, gay, lesbian, bi and pan, and it being done differently for each one.
Valkyrie, the newest character, has quite a few voicelines that show she's lesbian while Gibraltar, the gay character, only has it mentioned in his character bio that he has/used to have a boyfriend. You could see this as evidence of your original point but then, he's also not a character who defines himself by his sexuality unlike Valkyrie, so it's a bit more complicated.
but will it affect his character in any way? the wretched mouse loves to have "gay" scenes that can be easily cut without losing anything.
very much agree. hard to find gay content that is romantic/fleshed out. I would recommend
- the heartstopper graphic novels (p inexpensive as they're B&W)
- the book the Song of Achilles
- the book Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe (not tropey at all)
