Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Topic Of The Day: #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend and #JaneBond

So when I was on Facebook just now, I noticed that a hashtag started trending called #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend which is not too far from when #GiveElsaAGirlfriend, a fan campaign to make Elsa from Frozen a lesbian, started trending. Those two along with #JaneBond, which is a fan campaign to make James Bond into a woman, speak a lot of volumes and I want to touch upon it.

Now as a gay man, I'm all for more LGBT representation on the silver screen. But if they want to include more gay superheroes, they don't necessarily have to make Captain America gay. There are plenty of LGBT superheroes in the comics. Ones that are already famous including both Iceman and Mystique from X-Men. They can re-introduce those characters on the silver screen and have them come out as gay or introduce LGBT superheroes that haven't been brought to the silver screen. But if they were to decide to give Captain America a boyfriend, then that's still okay.

While it may not be a superhero franchise, there has been speculation as to whether Poe and Finn from Star Wars will be made into a couple in future installments. This is something I'd be very on board for. Casting a black and Latino man as leads in such a powerful tentpole property is quite progressive and having them represent another group would be even more progressive.

Next I want to touch upon #JaneBond. That is something I'd also be on board for. Yet I worry that it would suffer the same fate that the female Ghostbusters is having even though that film hasn't even been released yet. I do want to see the character of Bond get some kind of reinvention yet who knows how other fans will feel about it getting this kind of reinvention.

But I think all the aforementioned hashtags demonstrate how much opportunity that audiences want to see and that they don't always want to see heterosexual cisgendered white dudes saving the day. I don't know if Hollywood is picking up on the message quite yet considering how it is 2016 and we still have Caucasians playing roles intended for ethnic actors. But we'll see.

What do you guys think? Are you on board with #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend, and #JaneBond? Please feel free to write your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

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