Episode 316: Yass, Queen
on June 15, 2015
and modified on July 6, 2018.
You can’t keep things bottled up forever. Especially booze, you shouldn’t keep that bottled up you should drink that.
The Adventures of Gyno-Star
Fighting the forces of evil and male chauvinism
Okay…time to face the facts…his macho act is repressing his powers.
I think you might be on to something…
I’ve been through the pressure to conform before and seen how horrible it can be, so I recognize it in Blaze.
Ha, beer pong!
Hahaha …holy shit.
Aahh… now we know Gynostar is invulnerable to explosions!
but nooo… Blaze has red hair? I wanted him to secretly be DJ 🙁
oh well. Blaze/DJ iz OTP <3
Hahaha I wonder if those two will get along?
I’m not too sure it’s presenting things properly by having a gay male character be so (literally) reactive to what amounts to gratuitous stereotypical “campy gay man” stuff over the past few strips.
And that’s not even entering into the fact that the whole interaction between them, to me at least, has it come off like GS is doing a rather unsettling imitation of someone trying to publically-out someone who doesn’t want to be outed. (The fact that Blaze is known to be gay by apparently everyone but himself seems irrelevant, the unpleasant vibe is still there.)
I feel like all it’s missing to be “gay stereotype overload” is a cameo by the dancers from the Blue Oyster Bar from the Police Academy films and/or someone dressed like Liberace in a sparkly pink feather-boa.
Blaze knows he’s gay. The issue is that he pretends to like hetero dudebro activities, which actually make him unhappy, while his powers appear to work based on how happy/excited/aroused he is.
Have you ever been to a gay bar or club, or a gay pride parade?
As a gay dude I have to say that there is a ton of guys that are not campy at all. My interests don’t fall into any stereotypes (transformers, urban farming, theology, geeky stuff) nor does my boyfriends (hunting, guns, jogging, scary movies, and haunted houses). I don’t hide I am gay but 99% of people don’t think I am and are usually shocked. So from my perspective it is like Gyno-Star is shoving a unwanted stereotype down this guy’s throat. Perhaps deep down inside he does want to be campy but this seems awful creepy to me honestly. I actually like this comic fairly well but Blaze’s arch is not something I can endorse nor does it seem grounded in reality.
I know there are many gay men who aren’t campy, as you call it. But I’m sure you also know there are very many who are.
I’ll admit it’s unfortunate that it’s Gyno-Star talking about this with The Blaze. If I’d planned the arc better, I would’ve had Little Sappho around to play this role. I agree, it comes off a little weird for that reason.
But gay culture isn’t a “stereotype” any more than any other culture is. I’m happy for you that you can express your gender in the way that’s most comfortable for you. A lot of people still don’t feel like they can.
I think someone touched on it and I think I agree that it isn’t necessarily that Blaze is into all those “campy” things, but that he feels incredibly pressured to be macho around the straight guys and it makes him very uncomfortable.
I’m a femme lesbian gamer…back when I lived in Savannah, I hated being around other lesbians because of how pressured I felt to be butch like so many of them. I had one friend have that pressure to conform push her into some very bad habits.
And that’s a lot of what I see with Blaze.
I for one appreciate the pun. He doesn’t so much have flame powers as he is flaming.
He’s going to be a fabulous superhero.
My six year-old daughter lives for fuzzy leg warmers and club remixes of Disney princess songs. Oh, and her favorite song of all time, which she listens to on repeat over and over again, is ‘YMCA.’
My eyes are being opened.
Sounds like she and I have a lot in common, actually.
Flaming over fuzzy leg warmers… omg…
To be honest, I could go for some leg warmers.
Nice abs
We cannot behave as though gay men’s expression of gender and sexuality is unaffected by heteronormativity and patriarchy, that a common refrain amongst gay men is that they’re not one of “those gays”. You guys are acting like even REPRESENTING a gay guy as having expressive inclinations is dangerous and potentially sullying to your identity.
As a gay man, I emphatically believe that stark separation between homosexual sexuality and traditional gay cultural expression is unrealistic and just reflective of respectability politics. “You can be a homo as long as you’re not a fag.” This strip isn’t about you, but it IS about a gay guy who deeply wants to fag out, but has been told by society he can’t be a serious crime fighter if he’s flamboyant or expressive. I think the point of the arc is that he’s most effective when he’s most himself. Gynostar’s tactics aren’t the MOST sensitive, but I think they’re honestly reflective of real world gay guy/straight woman friendships that Rebecca MAY have a great deal of experience with.
But I really, strongly agree with Rebecca’s assertion that gay culture isn’t a “stereotype”. It’s a system of expression that’s been valuable to many gay guys. Straight people didn’t just make up their cliches of how we act, what they did was place stigmas on our culture that you guys are now re-voicing and re-enforcing.
tl;dr Ain’t nothing wrong with gettin’ faggitty in Pride month
Can I honestly say…I have no idea what Gay Culture is and no one seems willing to tell me…
I don’t know.
I’d be more comfortable with it, if Gyno Star wasn’t assuming a lot of things. It’s great that he’s being liberated here, but we never get a scene where she tries to learn about him. Instead, she figures out he’s gay, then implies he can’t be gay and enjoy beer pong…
And then builds from there. Is she really trying to bring him out, or is she working from a stereotype and just got lucky? Because people who build from stereotypes might read this too.
It’s just a bit too much like some of her other “empathy fail” moments. (Thankfully, she’s not annoyingly perfect.) And it might be interesting to see what happens if she’s ever in a situation where she really put her foot in her mouth, despite her good intentions, like many allies will, eventually. (Or most people in general.)
Me, personally, I’m more like him – beer pong sounds like torture, my clothing/make-up choices lean towards the feminine, and there can be no such thing as too many sparkle unicorns, or vampire romance novels… but …
It really is uncomfortable reading. Especially since I’m a Kinsey 0, and I can only imagine how she’d stereotype me. (My own personal instincts for Victorian appropriate femininity would be like a never ending riddle for us both.)
Normally, I would not comment of the artistic choices of an author, but after consideration I believe you are not being true to your main character. In the ‘Happy Homemaker’ story arc GS fought passionately against the plan to force women into stereotypical gender roles, even to the point of saying she would “rather die than live like this”.
In this arc she is not using mind control, but she is pushing Blaze into acting out the same set of media stereotypes for gay men. She is coming across as hypocritical considering her reaction to being called bossy by stepping out of her ‘place’ and speaking her mind to the other members of the group. I believe she would try to help Blaze, but not immediately go straight to the campy gay jokes.
http://www.gynostar.com/archives/comic/the-world-itself-is-the-bad-dream
http://www.gynostar.com/archives/comic/the-feminine-essentials
So, I have to disagree with you on several points.
First, Gyno-Star is not forcing anyone into anything, and I’m not sure where you’re getting that. She’s not even “pushing” anyone. She has observed that Blaze is least powerful when he’s trying to act straight, and most powerful when he lets himself be… well, flamboyant. Maybe you have a problem with me writing a character who is happiest and most powerful when he’s being flamboyantly gay, but that’s not Gyno-Star’s doing. She’s just being an astute observer.
Second, I take issue with the idea that “media stereotypes for gay men” are in play here. Gay culture exists; the men who participate in it are not stereotypes, they’re people participating in a community. If you’ve been to a gay bar anywhere in the US that doesn’t have whipped cream vodka, I’d be surprised to hear abuot it.
I’m not suggesting that all gay men have to immerse themselves in gay culture all the time, and neither is Gyno-Star. (You may recall I made a couple of comics about media stereotypes and gay men during the Happy Homemaker arc that you mentioned.) But conversely, gay men shouldn’t feel like they have to act straight in order to be accepted.
I think the main issue that people are having is that if it was them in Blazes position that would feel like they are being pressured into being/acting in a way that they are not comfortable with. That may be because they just don’t fit that mold or just aren’t in a place mentally where they feel comfortable expressing themselves in that way. I’m one of those people who felt uncomfortable about Gyno is doing or rather so much WHAT she is but HOW she doing it. As a transwoman, for me, there was a huge difference between coming out to people and actually expressing myself through dress/behavior in the way i wanted in front of them. Part of that was the fear of rejection if I allowed those people to see who I really was and I think that that is what is happening right now with Blaze. That he is afraid that if he let’s people see that he has ANY interest in ANY of the things that are associated with gay culture that he will be rejected by the group. Which given what we’ve of the people in tht group I think is pretty likely. I don’t think they would outright kick him out but would that they would prolly treat him just like they treat Gyno.
Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Club remixes of Disney songs? They have those?
Do they ever! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttBNakW6ZgI
I prefer the original version. Not surprising, since I tend to not be a big fan of remixes in general. Maybe I’m just boring that way, since I like Vanilla ice cream on its own. I’d probably like the leg warmers if I wasn’t both a human heater and living in a very warm State.
For a second there, I misread your post and thought you’d just claimed to like Vanilla Ice.
Go to any science fiction convention and hang around the LGBT hospitality suite. You will see the gamut of all types of expressivity, including flaming campy gay guys who are channeling their inner Vegas showgirl. It is a hoot!
A gay coworker hosted a staff Christmas potluck once. I don’t know if it was just because he got more comfortable with the group of people or if the wine got to him, but he very gradually got more flamboyant as the evening went on. It was nice to see him relax and be himself.