Gender Roles in Queer Media
By Anna Buescher
We’ve all seen it. Two women in love on tv: one in a white dress and the other a suit and tie. Two men in love: one with painted nails holding a purse and the other with a full beard wearing khakis. Gender roles have stuck to queer relationships like a burr to a sock, remaining present but never desired. When presenting people in the LGBTQ+ community, why do creators always feel the need to dictate some societal gender norms on a same sex couple? Not every queer relationship has these strict masculine x feminine dynamics and the clear favoritism for couples that fit this gendered stereotype in the media is frustrating. You can see it in almost any queer representation you see.
Heartstopper is a perfect example. Charlie is a soft gentle boy who falls in love with this strong rugby player. Even Darcy and Tara have a masc/femme dynamic. In She-Ra it’s equally present with Catra presenting masc and Adora presenting more femme, and though one can argue that both women present fairly masculine, even then, creators felt the need to emphasize these rolls of masc/femme in scenes like the Ice Queen’s ball. Adora is dressed in a sleek red dress while Catra wears a disheveled suit. The concept of masc/femme relationships is not unrealistic, it is one type of relationship, but the continual stereotype in the media constantly forces straight dynamics on gay couples.
There are already some great examples out there of queer couples who do not fall into the base-line masc x femme role. In the movie Anyone But You, Halle and Claudia hold a beautiful wedding. Both women are femme presenting and wore gorgeous white gowns, but they still have an interesting push and pull with Claudia’s type A scheduling and Halle’s reassuring nature. Nico and Will from Percy Jackson live the popular orange/black cat stereotype. Rick Riordan let the two teen boys be teen boys and also live a stereotype without forcing a masc/femme role on the two. It’s high time we let these old, unimaginative gender norms rest. Leaving them a relique of the past will give those who are masc x femme better, more realistic examples in media and allow more space for all of the other equally interesting relationship dynamics to shine.
About the Author
Anna Buescher is a current junior at Butler university studying Biology and French. She uses she/they pronouns and identifies as a queer woman. She is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, fungi and much much more. You can reach out to her at abuescher@butler.edu.
