Happy Thursday 3.5 readers.
There’s been a twitter campaign as of late to turn Captain America gay. Have him fall in love with his good friend Bucky Barnes and have those two start going at it and everything.
Eh. You know, I’m sympathetic to the idea that gay people would like to see themselves represented in a super hero movie but I’m not sure rewriting a character who has been obviously straight (hello, he’s carried a torch for Agent Peggy Carter forever) and turn him gay out of left field.
Plus it seems stereotypical to assume that because someone has a longtime friendship with someone of the same sex (like Cap and Bucky) that they just can’t be friends and instead that friendship must somehow mean they’re gay.
It’s probably not all that politically correct to argue against it but the idea just seems to out of left field to work. Plus, I’m not sure movie studios want to start making changes to movies based on twitter campaigns. Before you know it, the masses will just start running the movie business.
A gay superhero could work but I think the solution would be to find or create a gay super hero and not necessarily rewrite a currently straight hero to become gay.
What say you, 3.5 readers?
Bookshelf Battle 
I think they should make it realistic and have him be bicurious. He can have a discreet thing in a Home Depot bathroom. Maybe with Hawkeye.
I’ve heard Hawkeye can put an arrow anywhere but this is ridiculous.
Isn’t that what fan fic is for? You make anyone you want do or be anything you like simply by writing it.
I should reintroduce this blog as entirely Incredible Hulk gay fan fiction. I’d get so many more readers.
Couldn’t agree more with your assessment, BQB. And, honestly, even though Cap has the lamest romance plot ever going on right now in the films, he’s probably the least likely superhero of all to work as a gay character. Why? Cause he’s Captain America, the most traditional superhero of all time. Incidentally, it also drives me nuts when people try to make the Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson relationship a romantic thing. AHHHH! Don’t ruin the awesome bromances with, you know, romance. Sam and Frodo, Cap and Bucky, Holmes and Watson – some things you just don’t mess with. And stories about brothers – not of blood, but of bond – are included in that. There are two types of stories that are guaranteed to get men invested if done correctly: stories about a son’s relationship to his father (ex. Field of Dreams) and stories about the bond between two best friends.
I feel like people singled out Cap just because he has that friendship with another dude. It’s kind of lame to assume that two dudes can’t be friends without being gay.
I guess their counterargument would be that gay people were kept out of being represented in literature/comic books a long time but maybe the counter-counter argument is now aspiring writers who are upset by this can make history by formulating their own novels featuring prominent gay characters.
A couple things: First, bisexuality is a thing. Bisexual people exist. If Captain America got a boyfriend, that doesn’t automatically make him gay. He could be bisexual. Because bisexuality is a completely valid orientation on the spectra of sexuality and romance. Saying he can’t have a boyfriend because he’s dated women is bi-erasure, pure and simple, and it’s something people say all the time, and it needs to stop.
Second, and probably more important, the hashtag wasn’t solely about Captain America. Yes, part of it was fangirls who think Steve and Bucky would be hot together. But the larger part was the complete and total lack of any LGBT characters in Marvel’s movies. They have not had even a single openly LGBT character in the movies, and that’s awful. So the hashtag was also intended to draw attention to that.
The people posting that hashtag knew Cap wasn’t going to hook up with Bucky. But they also knew that #MakeAGayAvenger wouldn’t get nearly as much attention. When you’re pushing for change, you need to get attention, otherwise you’re just shouting into the echo chamber.
So they made a hashtag people would notice. One that would spread around. One that got attention from mainstream news sources, who had to note in their coverage that no LGBT characters have appeared in the movies.
There are plenty of entirely valid reasons to take issue with Steve Rogers hooking up with Bucky. There are no valid reasons to take issue with the complete lack of LGBT characters in Marvel’s movies, and the hashtag made people think about the issue.
I feel like your cause would have actually been better served by #MakeAGayAvenger
#MakeCaptainAmericaGay just makes all of us straight nerds get over protective of our beloved Cap and then you guys get accused of trying to turn Captain America gay and then at the end of the day there’s still no one on the team who is gay.
Meanwhile, #MakeaGayAvenger could lead to some kind of bipartisan agreement for the introduction of a gay avenger in some manner.
But #MakeAGayAvenger wouldn’t get attention. #MakeCaptainAmericaGay did get people defensive, but it also led to a lot of them admitting that there should be an LGBT hero in the movies. #MakeAGayAvenger simply wouldn’t have registered for a lot of those people. It wouldn’t have gotten mainstream press coverage. It wouldn’t have gotten a tenth of the conversation that #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend got.
Only if they hook him up with the Hulk. Hulk Smash indeed.
I don’t think I’d want to see that at all. Yeesh.
Nope.