What the ‘Kiss of Death’ Means for ‘Agatha All Along’
By Anna Buescher
Spoilers for Agatha All Along
Disney has finally begun making advances with respect to queer representation. In the new series Agatha All Along we are blessed to see a handful of queer lead roles, with Agatha ending the series with a sapphic kiss, but why did these positions of queer visibility feel off? Firstly we see Joe Locke playing the lovable and openly gay “Teen”. While Joe Locke does a wonderful job of playing this role, it feels poorly written. With gay jokes that did not land and no romantic plot line, it felt more like “Teen” was written as a gay stereotype than an actually fully fleshed character. His queerness feels thrown around like a cheap squeaky toy. On the other hand, his costuming felt authentic, and Joe Locke fit the character well, but the truth is that he was a safe pick to play “Teen”, having already played a well received queer roll in Heartstopper.
As for our lead, Ms Kathryn Hahn takes her time and really shows a well developed relationship with Aubrey Plaza’s Rio. They have great banter and unimaginable chemistry on screen with a well written plot line, but there remains a hint of discomfort in their relationship. The developing relationship between the two begins in a way extremely similar to Disney’s usual queerbaiting- where characters are portrayed with intense chemistry and vague references to a relationship but never admit feelings or end up with a queer romance. Luckily this relationship did not end in a disappointing write off, the end of the show shares a passionate kiss between the two characters, but even in this beautiful display of sapphic love sat an unease.
Disney gave this romance an easy opt out. The kiss was a kiss of death. It can be easily argued that Agatha and Rio were not actually a pair, but instead it was all just a way to show the metaphor: Agatha flirts with death the whole show and ends her life with the kiss of death. By offering an easy out Disney puts once again a barrier between actual queer representation and the Disney franchise. Not to mention the lack of screen time between the pair. We rarely see the two on screen together unless it directly relates to them.
The choice to cast Joe Locke, an actor who was already associated with the LGBTQ community in a positive light to portray the young queer “Teen” adds to the feeling of inauthenticity. By choosing the safest possible options when it came to queer representation they took away some of the meaning behind what could have been an enormously positive step for Disney. Of course Joe Locke did a wonderful job portraying “Teen” and continues to be an amazing queer role model and positive representation for young queer children.
It was wonderful to see queer representation in a Disney production, but it felt cheap and inauthentic because of the effort to pad and make palatable the LGBTQ+ community. Even though Disney finally gave us queer characters it still felt like they were hiding. With the fall back that the Death metaphor offered and the safe casting of Joe Locke, the representation felt like it came with a child safety lid. It should be easy to write well rounded queer characters, but Disney showed that even when they allow queer representation it is heavily filtered, closely monitored, and not given the time or thoughtfulness that it should be given.
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.
