pasher5620 t1_iubegrn wrote on October 30, 2022 at 1:01 AM

Reply to comment by OddFeature in Bryan Fuller Says Accusing ‘Hannibal’ of Queerbaiting Is ‘Cynical’ by i_love_anachronisms

People are downvoting you because you are doing what Mackie was arguing against. You’re taking things that are not explicitly gay (I.e. two men being close as friends) and turning it into them potentially being gay. The issue is that those tropes are seen as explicitly romantic when it should be instead viewed as intimate instead.

OddFeature t1_iubh3hw wrote on October 30, 2022 at 1:23 AM

Fair enough—I mostly disagree with Mackie’s point so that tracks. I just don’t see what the issue really is with interpreting a close male friendship as maybe being gay. It doesn’t invalidate the friendship in any way and I feel like he’s in some ways taking gay relationships a bit too seriously and inadvertently misrepresenting what they might actually look like in reality.

Like this comment he made about homosexuality is a little weird

> something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality

Gay dudes that are dating each other often have a deep friendship that in a lot of ways might resemble a deep friendship between two straight dudes. That’s all I’m really saying here. Like cool, they didn’t end up being gay and that’s fine—I just take issue with the implication that thinking they were gay really means anything or lessens the impact of their bond or really just says anything at all about straight male friendships. It’s just kind of a fragile and insecure take and I found it a bit disappointing.

DMPunk t1_iubk7by wrote on October 30, 2022 at 1:49 AM

The issue is that people see close male relationships as ONLY being gay. The idea that emotional intimacy with a male friend means you want to fuck them is why so many men have difficulty being emotionally open. It's a core component of toxic masculinity

OddFeature t1_iubol6y wrote on October 30, 2022 at 2:26 AM

I don’t disagree at all that emotional openness being seen as gay is a core component of toxic masculinity, but the best response to toxic-masculinity-fueled accusations of gayness is simply to be unbothered by accusations of gayness. The issue is the toxically-masculine viewpoint of gay = bad.

Also I more or less disagree that people see close male relationships as ONLY being gay. I personally don’t think that, for whatever that’s worth.