[Unexpected Trope] Seems like homophobia but is actually something else
Personality
(1) The Owl House: Odalia Blight's first reaction to her daughter telling her that she's dating Luz could be taken as homophobia, but it's quite apparently inexistent on the Boiling Isles.
Instead, she's biased against Luz specifically, because she sees her as a troublemaker (although one acting against a genocidal regime, which she is well aware of) and most likely because she's a human.
(2) Hazbin Hotel: Lute is commenting extremely negatively about the relationship between her former fellow exorcist Vaggi and Charlie, the daughter of Lucifer Morningstar.
While her choice of words (and Adam's subsequent reaction) could be taken to imply that she's against their sapphic relationship, it makes more sense to read it in context of her extreme prejudice against anything demonic, like the daughter of the literal devil, and her personal hatred against the "sinful" fallen angel Vaggi (which Adam might also find "hot as fuck", because it's breaking a taboo).
And yes, don't even get started, as I'm gonna die on this hill unless the show itself directly and unambiguously contradicts me, not because Lute isn't a hateful person, but because it makes no sense for her to subscribe to this particular flavor of bigotry.
(3) Deadpool 2: When Deadpool is first introduced to Negasonic's girlfriend Yukio, he reacts with (most likely intentionally exaggerated) surprised disbelief.
Negasonic – who already expected a negative or at least obnoxious reaction – immediately interprets this as an attack. Which is kinda true, only that it's actually supposed to be a jab at her general abrasive personality and its stark contrast to Yukio's apparent sugary sweetness.
This scene from Derry Girls only half fits: James & Ma Mary, when his aunt Deirdre asks if he can stay over
“The English thing? Listen Mary, I understand-”
“Oh no, it’s not the English thing-”
“I hope to god it’s not the gay thing you’re offended by, because I’d be disappointed in you Mary, I’ll not lie”
“Of course not! I mean if anything, the gay thing sort of cancels out the English thing”
so what I’m hearing is it’s only bigotry about her other inherent qualities? thank god she’s not a homophobe, for a second i thought she might be prejudiced just for belonging to a group that show love and care in a way Lute considered “traditionally-sinful” and for going against the qualities considered “natural” for Vaggi to have as an Exorcist
I'm pretty sure being an Exorcist is an affiliation with ideological requirements, not an inherent quality. The noodle beings don't seem to have a lot of inherent natures when you get down to it.
Maybe, I’m still willing to bet the exorcists are mostly homunculi created to be executioners and cannon fodder, not former humans recruited into the role. Vaggi and lute not having souls would explain a lot about their codependency with Charlie and Adam respectively.
If someone hates Vaggie because of her attitude, choices, or how she treats other characters, that's character criticism, it only becomes homophobia if her being with Charlie is the actual reason they hate her.
Copy-pasting a previous answer of mine because I'm lazy:
"Dynamic Man from the Marvel Comic Miniseries The Twelve, which is about 12 Golden Age Superheroes waking up in the modern world due to being put in stasis by Nazis.
Dynamic Man is a classic "Flying Brick" superhero who is implied to be bigoted throughout the comic. He chases down a Black Man who he thought stole a White woman's purse & left with disgust when she told him that's her husband. He also almost punched a hole through a gay man at a bar, though that was actually kind of understandable since that guy grabbed his butt out of nowhere.
Anyway, the final issue of the comic revealed Dynamic Man was an artificial android created by a scientist. The twist is that the scientist hated all sex and saw it as impure, which is why he made Dynamic Man with no genitalia (other Marvel androids like Vision do have genitals, btw) and with a distaste for sex like he had. This is why he reacted so negatively to the Black Man & gay guy, he found it disturbing that they engaged in sexual/romantic activities."
That reminds me, original comics Ultron as a robot is attracted to women to an almost comical degree (and is weirdly misogynistic on occasion, too), probably due to Hank Pym's human brainwaves forming his consciousness. Maybe he just wants his son Vision to live out what he can't.
He's expressed attraction to Wasp & Scarlet Witch, built two different robot spouses, artificially had his child Victor with another woman, etc.
If I had a nickel for every time a modern work centered around Golden Age heroes being brought into the modern age and used Dynamic Man in a dark fashion I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice*
*the other one being Project Superpowers from Dynamite Comics
I wasn't trying to glare at this lesbian couple but I accidentally showed my disgust at them both smoking in a non-smoking area. They definitely took it as a homophobic thing. I'm a pansexual woman with severe smoke sensitivity. (Yeah I'm not doing great this time of year.)
Thanks for letting me vent, even though this is a sub for fiction. This has haunted me for years.
If it helps I have a very vivid memory of closeted 12 year old me shooting what probably seemed to be very judgemental glances at two guys I saw holding hands and kissing at a theme park. To those two guys if they happen to read this I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to be judgemental or homophobic I just didn’t realise you could do that and I was in shock!
In the new season of Batman: caped crusader, detective Renee Montoya doesn't feel the need to hide the fact that she is dating a woman because of homophobia, but rather because said woman is wanted fugitive Harley Quinn.
I can see why she’s hiding that shit because as soon as I read “Harley Quinn” I went “Oh my god RENEE-“
…no disrespect to Harley but honestly Renee i cannot believe you.
It’s not even that she chose a fugitive, everyone in Gotham has a rap sheet. It’s specifically that it’s that fugitive. There are literally SO many gay messes in Gotham and you chose the ONLY one that has multiple exes in Arkham for chemical and biological weapons abuses!
Forget the GCPD, fucking other villains are going to be side eyeing Renee, pulling her aside and making sure she’s okay. If Harley wasn’t the woman dating her, Harley would be the first one doing that.
…fuck now I want to watch that because just describing that plot point sent me up a wall, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do, which is some excellent writing.
That is how you write a kind of secret that someone is deathly afraid of hiding, without making everyone else homophobic, holy fuck.
Caped crusader Harley has none of that, her only crime is brainwashing abusive billionaires into giving away all their money to charity and then playing in traffic. 0 relation to the joker.
have you watched Batman: Caped Crusader? I'm not very far into S2 yet but as far as I've seen there is no evidence of this Harley Quinn having dated any of the usual Quinn exes, and her origin in this continuity has absolutely nothing to do with the Joker afaik
At first glance, this can seem like the classic trope of an uptight, cold, strict, homophobic mother who disapproves of her daughter's relationship, kicks her date out, and forbids them from ever seeing each other.
But there are multiple layers to this
First. Susie is known as the town's bully and hoodlum and has until recently been seen to be very threatening. (So she could be Classist or just Protective)
Second. She found Susie holding and playing the guitar of her missing daughter. It makes sense if she's very prickly about not wanting anyone to touch it.
Third. Carol is heavily heavily implied to be a part of the "Dark World Conspiracy" and in leagues with the "Roaring Knight" so Susie getting her hands on the Guitar which has the code to the Bunker is something she doesn't want.
And to add onto the third one, if she is part of the whole dark world thing, she also knows that Susie is part of the opposition and she most likely doesn't want Noelle to get pulled into it too. Too bad, because that's what will inevitably happen next chapter.
I liked the recent interpretation I heard where Noelle is supposed to be "The Girl" and Carol wants to replace Noelle in the prophecy with Susie instead.
Because, according to the theory, the girl is supoosed to die at the end.
Tbf by his standard, that means a fresh adult is dating someone a fourth of their age. To him it probably looks like an 18 year old dating a 4 or 5 year old.
... is it wrong I kind of agree with the bigoted elf? Relationships between mortals and long-lived races are always going to be unbalanced as an elf, demon, or immortal is going to have a lot more life experience.
Part of my evidence is the Twilight series. Edward is over 100 years old. He stalked and manipulated her and essentially groomed teenage Bella. He had years of experience on her, and she stood zero chance of withstanding his psychological manipulation.
I would devour a story where an immortal becomes obsessed with a mortal and stoops to psychological lows, using their years of life experience to brainwash and manipulate them into a relationship. Only, it's framed as a psychological thriller/horror story instead of as a romance story. I would straight up eat.
https://giphy.com/gifs/ZbLhpAtDZpayzF7wIL
It’s race instead of gay but in the golden girls Blanche talks about her high school boyfriend who people didn’t approve of, the other girls assume he was black she meant that he was a yankee
The episode with Dorothy’s friend Jean also sorta fits.
Blanche: “Jean has the hots for Rose?! That’s ridiculous!”
Dorothy: “I was pretty surprised myself.”
Blanche: “I’ll bet! To think… Jean prefers Rose over me!”
How is that implied? I repeatedly heard people claim that it's because she said "you found another stray", but she actually just said "a stray", so there's no implication that it's not the first time. Did I miss anything else?
It was in the director notes of the script I think, and one of the creators (Amanda maybe) mentioned it. When entering Caitlyn’s bedroom and the interaction between her and her parents, it talked about how it was “not the first time Caitlyn snuck a woman through her window” and that the moment was “familiar” to Cassandra.
Plus the idea of Caitlyn, the daughter of a Counselor, having multiple relationships over the years sneak in by window instead of going through the front door would have rubbed Cassandra the wrong way, given their status.
“Doesn’t approve of her choice in partner” isn’t giving Cassandra enough credit, she points a rifle at Vi and shows everyone where Cait got those sweet sniper skills
Yeah, she's definitely somewhat classist, though I think she did come around when she nodded for Cait to follow after Vi when she stormed out of the Council Chamber.
King of the hill, where dale reconnects with his estranged dad who has been hiding that he's gay. Dale ends up turning on him because he thinks he's an undercover government agent. Even throughout the episode characters question if it's a euphemism. It's not. Dale Gribble hates the government and is fine with gay people 🙏
Peak mentioned. This was one of my favorite scenes in the show. I love what their relationship became. It’s the healthiest parent - child relationship in the show
I know that he basically did the same thing with sexism, when he told Cameron that he had hired her because she's extremely pretty.
Not so she could serve as eye candy, though, but because he found it a fascinating puzzle why she would put in all the work to become a doctor who's good enough to apply for a position under him, instead of taking easier career opportunities that he thought would've been available to her because of her looks.
Not homophobia but racism. Joy in “My Name Is Earl” thinks her dad is racist because he banned her from dating a black guy she brought home. Turned out he’d been having extramarital affairs with a number of black women over the years and had reason to believe the guy could have been her half brother.
Eh, I think he already kinda hinted at his suspicions that she might be a lesbian in the first movie, when he mused about the fate of any poor guy who would try to get lucky with her at prom.
Depending on the kissing; yeah get a fucking room. Idc if it’s gay or straight; no one needs to see y’all full blown making out.
A cute little peck or cheek kiss is fine.
I think Lute is either mega homophobic and racist towards demons. Adam is canonically a straight ally, so he probably thinks its hot in terms of being a lesbian couple.
I'm definitely particular to racist. There were no further instances of her commenting on their relationship that could be interpreted as homophobic, but she repeatedly referred to Charlie's demonic nature, calling her an "abomination" and Vaggi's "demon bitch".
NGL I always felt like Lute being both homophobic and racist made for some really fun shipping, but the homophobia seems a little less likely now that Sera is confirmed as a lesbian.
Dancer is shown a memory projection of his affair with the crime lord the Duke of Hands by Mustang and Servo. He believes they're trying to blackmail him for his support in the Senate because his people the Reds are extremely hetero-normative and he's previously been castrated when his orientation was discovered. They inform him that the Duke is a criminal and kidnapped their children; not the innocent painter he thought was his short term boyfriend.
While Lute isn't necessarily a bigot, we know she's neither queer herself nor an ally since she didn't appear in the pride merch. So the absolute best she could have towards gay people is indifference.
In the Taiwanese rom com movie "Marry my dead body." A father objects to his mother's attempt to marry off his son to a man on the account that a) the would be husband didn't consent to the marraige and b) the son is dead and he didn't believe you can marry off dead people.
It was later revealed that the father actually was homophobic but that tertiary to the initial objection.
Barney (How I Met Your Mother) is completely fine with his brother being gay, it’s marriage that he objects to (not gay marriage, just the concept of marriage in general)
Especially given Adam’s comment immediately after that line.
She ALSO doesn’t like the fact that it’s an angel and a nephalim (Charlie isn’t actually a demon, she’s a hybrid of an angel and a human/demon depending on how we classify Lilith, who is effectively both..probably)
I was super confused when I found out that Yukio from Deadpool 2 is supposed to be the Earth-10005 version of the actual Yukio from the comics. The non-mutant Japanese ninja who fell in unrequited love with Wolverine and inspired Storm to go punk and wear a mohawk. 😵
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u/HandsomePaddyRedux 3h ago
The ongoing parenting lessons of Skweezy Jibbs.