It's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's… a really bad intro.
Hey everybody, I'm sorry about that.
It's just… how else do you do an intro for a video about Supergirl?
"I mean, you could actually be funny."
Anyway, so I wanna talk about queer representation specifically.
Because if you don't know, there are two girls in a relationship on Supergirl, and
a lot of people are really excited about it, a lot of people are very skeptical and critical
of, and I kinda fall somewhere in the middle.
But I should say, before we get into this, if you're just here to complain about diversity
and representation: shoo, go away.
This video isn't for you.
I obviously believe that queer representation -- and all forms of diverse representation
-- are important to have in our mainstream media, but this video isn't for arguing about that.
This video is for folks who are concerned about good queer representation in the media
and maybe have opinions on how Supergirl is handling that.
So there are gonna be a lot of spoilers here.
If you're not caught up on Supergirl yet, you might want to do that before watching this video.
But yeah, so the ship on Supergirl that I'm talking about is Sanvers -- Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer.
I mean, this ship is why I started watching Supergirl, because I saw gifs of them and
I was like, "Oh, cool, like queer girls on TV!
I need to watch this show."
And then I was watching the whole first season, and I was like, "Where -- where are they?
This is not what I signed up for."
Instead, there's just Supergirl with every dude in the world crushing on her.
Which is a plot complaint that I have that's kind of aside from the queer stuff.
But anyways, so in the second season, it's about Alex's coming out story, and that's
kinda tied into her relationship with Maggie.
And I had a lot of issues with the way that they handled her coming out story.
To me, it felt very much like a straight person writing a coming out story that they didn't
fully understand themselves, but they knew like the certain elements that had to be in it.
Like it really felt like the coming out story that a straight person would write.
And I don't mean that Alex's coming out story is bad; in fact, I think it's very important.
I think it's great that there's a coming out story on TV.
I don't think it's like... coming out stories are so overdone that we should never ever
ever do a coming out story again.
Um, I think, they're important, and often integral to the queer experience, and people like to
share those stories, and it's very helpful for young people to see those stories.
Um, and I don't know if the writers of Supergirl are queer -- if any of them are.
But to me, that's what it felt like.
It felt, uh, like it wasn't explored very much in-depth.
It was kind of like, "This is what we think coming out would be like," and there it is.
Um, I especially really did not like Kara's reaction to it in the beginning.
She just was very rude to Alex and just -- was awful.
And it just really made me not like Kara, and that's like the person you're supposed
to like -- that's the main character.
And then she just came around so quickly, and they have this whole like bonding, catching
up moment, and everything was fine.
But... like they never really addressed Kara's, like, pretty strong homophobic reaction.
I don't remember the language exactly because I watched the beginning of the second season
a little while ago, but I don't think they ever said "bisexual" or even hinted that that was a possibility.
It was kind of like, Alex likes girls, therefore Alex cannot like boys.
And I mean like that's fine if she is like canonically a lesbian, but like, just the
-- the idea that it's one or the other is very restricting, and, I think, very erasing of bisexual people.
In fact, I'm not even sure if they said lesbian.
They might've just said gay.
I'm really not sure.
I don't remember.
Don't take my word for that.
But I also think they touched on some things that need to be talked about within the queer community.
Like, Alex came out basically for Maggie.
But Maggie also turned her down because she didn't wanna be with like a "new gay", like
someone who had just come out.
And I think that there's problematic aspects to both of those sides that weren't really taken into account.
Like it's great if someone can help you feel comfortable coming out -- but, your coming
out shouldn't be for a person.
Like, coming out is a very personal, private thing that you have to do for yourself.
And while I think it can be tempting to come out because you want to be with a specific
person, it's like you're not guaranteed to be with that person because you came out.
They don't owe you that.
Like it's not a deal that you're like, "If I come out, we will date forever," you know?
Like, you don't get to trap them into a relationship by being like, "Well I came out for you, like
what'd you do for me?"
And I think everyone's coming out story is different, and some people do have an aspect
of a relationship that helped them realize that they wanted to come out.
So I don't think it's like necessarily a bad thing, but I think that's an interesting conversation
to be had that was touched on in the episode and then just never really talked about.
And likewise, Maggie's attitude towards Alex as being like, "Oh I don't wanna date someone
who's fresh out of the closet."
That also touches on some issues in the queer community
that maybe we should be talking more about.
Like is there discrimination against people who have just come out?
Are queer people who come out later in life somehow less valid or less queer because they
didn't figure it out until then?
I definitely don't think so.
And I don't think Maggie does either, but that was kind of the implication in what she
was saying -- that Alex hasn't become a full queer yet.
And so again I just think that's something they could've explored more of, uh, and never really did.
And so now, in the second half of the second season, we see little bits of them.
We see them here and there.
They're spending nights together.
They kiss every once in awhile.
Which I think is great.
I think it's amazing that that kind of relationship is just being
normalized in what is basically a mainstream show.
I think it's really good that they're not afraid to give them problems.
I think a lot of time, there's a tendency to go in one direction or the other, and it's
to either make them the perfect couple, um, that's just infallible -- or, it's to make
their story too tragic and to make it clear that like they can never actually have happiness.
When in reality, a lot of the time, it's both.
It's sadness, and drama, and it's happiness.
And so I do feel like in giving them problems and giving them relationship problems, it normalizes them more.
Because, like, queer relationships aren't perfect.
They have their problems too.
And a lot of times, queer people are afraid to talk about those, because we want to convince
people that our relationships are valid.
So having them fight sometimes, having them also just be in the background being happy
sometimes, I think is a nice balance.
I think there's definitely an argument to be made that I've seen a lot of people making
that they don't get enough screentime.
Especially in the second half of this season, they've really moved towards Kara and Mon-El
as like the big relationship thing, and kind of pushed Sanvers on the backburner.
Obviously I think that sucks.
But like, they are kind of side characters, as opposed to Kara who's like the main character.
But like I wouldn't complain with some more Sanvers screen time.
Maybe going more in their backstories, especially Maggie's, who we really don't know a lot about.
Um, instead, we're getting this whole Kara/Mon-El storyline, and I just think
they're a bad relationship -- entirely.
They're that classic kind of straight relationship where the guy is just an asshole until the
girl likes him, and it's just, "What?
That's not -- uh, that's not, uh, healthy.
That's not good."
He's awful.
He's like a prince from this planet where they had slaves, and he just objectified women.
And like, he seems really okay with that.
His transition into a relatively progressive Earth society seems a little too easy to me.
I mean, he was really bad on Daxum.
They just seem to have fallen for each other because they both have powers because they're
both not from Earth.
I don't know, the relationship just feels very forced to me.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Kara and Lena Luthor.
They -- I feel like they have to be doing this intentionally because if you watch some
of the scenes with Kara and Lena in it, there's some very obvious tension between them.
Lena will like stare down Kara, and like bite her lip at her, and they'll have this like
witty, flirty banter between each other.
They're very flirty.
They just -- they are.
I don't know how you can watch the scenes between them and not think that they're flirting with each other.
Like, they have such obvious chemistry that Kara and Mon-El don't -- that I just -- why
-- the ship name is called Supercorp.
Why is Supercorp not a thing?
Supercorp is a weird ship name, but I think it's because Lena's company is L Corp, and Supergirl, so Supercorp?
Corps?
Sure.
But really, that's the ship we should all be aiming for, is Supercorp.
Because it's so obvious and authentic and and good.
But no, unfortunately we get Karamel.
Is that what Kara and Mon-El are called?
That's also just an unfortunate ship name.
Overall, my opinion is that the Sanvers relationship is good representation -- maybe okay representation.
I'm appreciative that it exists.
Kudos to the writers and the people working on this show for putting in a queer relationship.
I think that's really important, I think it's great to be trying to do that, and to be trying
to get more visibility in the media.
But at the same time, It's also important to recognize that we could do better.
And I don't mean to say that in like a "nobody should ever try because they're gonna get
it perfect" kinda way.
I just think that people who are queer need to be in the process of creating these stories.
They need to be behind the scenes, writing it, and directing it, and producing it, and
like, controlling the story.
Otherwise I think it's inevitable that you get queer stories that feel like they're made by straight people.
But I love that children can see this on TV and see themselves represented and know that
it's okay for them to be like that.
And at the same time, I think that Supergirl as a show is just nosediving for me.
It's not great.
The Kara Mon-El stuff is really bugging me, and Supercorp is so obvious and so not happening.
And also, really, why does everyone have a crush on Kara?
Like I get it, she's great but like every guy who appears in this show has a crush on her.
And a lot of the girls, I'm pretty sure.
Definitely Lena.
Lena's crushing hard on Supergirl.
Uh, and this isn't even mentioning how Supergirl ties in with the Flash, which is like, I've
almost caught up on the Flash at this point.
Um, I was really trying to give it a chance because it's in the same universe, but it's
just -- it's gotten to the point where it's unbearable.
There's just -- there's no strong female leads.
There's very few.
The show rarely passes the Bechdel test.
Even Caitlin, she has powers, but can't use them, so there's like no good female superheroes.
And the supervillains that they get, who are women, are always like a seductress kind of
person who Cisco can like flirt with.
That show is just a train wreck of representation in my opinion.
And also just a poorly written story.
It's confusing and awkward and just doesn't make sense a lot of the time.
Like he's so fast that he can run around and like grab the guns out of like 27 people's
hands in under a second, but then like, one bad guy with a superpowered gun can like shoot him.
Like that's just -- I don't think they're estimating the speed stuff correctly.
And I've heard mixed things about Legends of Tomorrow, which I think is also in the same universe.
Cause they did like a crossover once, and that there's a bi girl in there who like dies
and then comes back to life -- I think.
I haven't watched the show yet, but I have heard mixed things about it.
I think I might watch it at some point.
I've probably given up on the Flash at this point.
Maybe I'll start Legends of Tomorrow.
I don't know.
Is it worth it?
I'll probably keep watching Supergirl just cause like I'm committed to it now.
And I really wanna believe that the Mon-El thing can end and we can move on and focus
on some other better relationships.
But yeah, so that's my opinion on like queer representation within Supergirl.
I would love to hear your opinions about it.
I don't think that my opinion is the only valid one.
I think that there is totally valid criticism out there, and I think there's a lot of reason
to be excited for this show as well.
So tell me in the comments, what do you think about Supergirl, and it's queer representation?
Also, are you excited for the Power Rangers?
I am so excited.
The yellow Power Ranger is gonna be a queer Latina.
The blue Power Ranger is black and autistic.
There's just such great representation in the Power Rangers, and I didn't even like
the Power Rangers growing up, but I'm all for it.
I really hope this movie is good, because I'm so hyped for it.
I just wanted to mention that because I'm excited and it's relevant to the whole queer representation thing.
So yeah, anyways, thank you so much for watching this video, I love you all, and I'll see you next time.
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