Originally, a bunch of different entertainment production codes that were in effect outright banned homosexuality. If you look it at that way, during the time that homosexuality was banned, the subtext in a bunch of old movies, television, comics, etc. was the closest thing anyone was allowed to do when it came to portraying homosexuality. It would be called queer-baiting by today’s standards but it was quite radical at the time.
However, as any entertainment fan knows, rating systems have replaced production codes and most people in the industry now realize that overt homosexuality is pretty much the same as overt heterosexuality in terms of what’s “appropriate.” In effect, queer-baiting in entertainment is essentially acting as though the production codes that banned homosexuality are still in effect. It’s self-censorship.
I feel like DC’s answer to the comics’ code going away was a really awkward one. I mean, they made Katherine Cane/Batwoman gay even though there’s nothing to suggest anything about her sexuality one way or another in the earlier portrayals of Batwoman. Same with Guy Gardner. On the other hand, couples that seemed to have quite a lot of homosexual subtext when the Code was still in effect—Harley Quinn /Poison Ivy and Plastic Man/ Woozy Winks are the ones I’m thinking of—and, to a lesser degree, characters—Black Canary was originally meant to be bisexual but they changed it despite her subtext with both Batgirl and Starling—were never really touched upon.
With Marvel, there’s more of a method to the madness (Runaways, I’m looking at you and giving you a round of applause!) but they share DC’s confusing non-outing of certain couples that had a lot of subtext. The question I’ve always had about Marvel’s approach to portraying homosexuality is this: why did they decide to ‘out’ some pairings and not ‘out’ others where nearly identical subtext was presented while the comics’ code was still in effect?
For instance, Marvel got away with lots in terms of portraying Mystique and Destiny’s relationship but they never outright said they were romantically involved until “Chaos War” which came after the comics’ code was replaced with the ratings’ system. Same with Rictor and Shatterstar. Until then, the closest thing to an affirmation of the latter’s relationship is simply a mention of the fact that Shatterstar sees Rictor as “more than a friend.”
(I should also mention that in terms of characters, Northstar was outed little by little until they finally outright referred to him as gay post-code. Karma was outed as gay and Deadpool was outed as bisexual soon after the code was repealed. The former had never implicated her homosexuality in any way…but Deadpool was pretty much attracted to everyone already.)
But those two couples were two of many that had subtext during the time of the code. While I’m not trying to say that Marvel had always meant certain people to be romantically involved, one can’t help but wonder.
Wolfsbane and Moonstar constantly embracing while naked or in their underwear? Toad referring to Blob as “baby” or “sweetheart?” Black Tom and Juggernaut constantly affirming their love for each other and raising Tom’s teenage niece together as her parents? Blink and Nocturne cuddling up on the beach, both topless? Did Marvel intend for these relationships to be romantic and/or sexual?
If so, why was Wolfsbane later revealed to be a homophobe? Why did Toad take up with Husk? With the latter two pairings, one member of each was killed off before the code was repealed. Is this queer-baiting? If so, why did they choose to out some pairings and not others? Why didn’t they just queer-bait everyone? Alternatively, if none of these pairings were meant to be romantic and/or sexual, why were such overt implications there in the first place?
I can’t claim to have any answers. I just think that no conversation about queer-baiting in entertainment is complete without at least asking some questions about what role production codes played/still play even if they’ve been repealed.
I just used comics as an example because I’m a geek.
Feel free to reply or reblog with your thoughts. I’d love to get some other perspectives on this issue.
PS: Marvel had gender-variant characters from the beginning. An entire species of gender-variant characters. I just want to put that out there. GO SKRULLS!!
