Diversity in films and TV has always been an issue, but the blow up over having an openly gay Lefou in the Beauty and the Beast remake still brought out a lot of homophobes. Let me give you some context. I’ve pasted the video below from Try Guys.
While watching reading the comments of the video attached to this status, I realized again just how stupid, insensitive, and just fucking IGNORANT people can be. This one BITCH, said, “But why does Lefou have to be gay? Like, it’s so random and serves no purpose?” Bitch, why do you think every character is supposed to be heterosexual?? You don’t question the “purpose” of people’s heterosexuality. As if some sort of story plot point is necessary for someone to be gay. As if gayness is only acceptable in our media if it’s to prove something or to push the story forward. Lord FORBID, there be some non-hetero characters who actually have ambitions and lives beyond proving how gay they are and that gay people actually EXIST despite all of the closed-minded bigots attempting to push the LGBT community into nonexistence. Just as heterosexuality is part of a character’s personality or character development, so it is with anyone of any orientation or gender.
I’m trying to explain to you how pissy I got when I came across this comment because, while I do find lots of funny stuff in comment sections, as you can see from this example, I also find a lot of stupidity, bigotry, and insensitivity. Excuse me if I actually enjoy seeing all sorts of characters with different backgrounds, cultures, and identities, but clearly the lack thereof has spawned a lot of people who don’t understand the “point” to equal representation. But I do. Therefore, I can no longer give respect to people who think that is okay for minorities to conveniently appear in our movies, TV shows, and books solely as a means to an end. Blacks and hispanics aren’t the only ones who are gangsters. White, heterosexuals are not minority saviors. Minorities have all the power to save themselves if only our oppressors would stop stomping on our efforts to make progress, be counted as equals, and be shown as anything other than maids, slaves, thugs, and crack whores in entertainment.
Naturally, the craziness did not stop there. So OF COURSE, there are the cry babies talking about how this video slays Christianity. I’m just like, you know, if Christians had been this sensitive about going into other people’s countries, raping the women and children, snatching the people, enslaving them, raping the men to demean and demoralize them, raging wars in the name of Christ, and about 5 million other offenses I cannot even begin to name, then there would be no reason to check radical Christians. Emphasis on radical, as I’d like to avoid being accused of making too general of a statement that brings about more tears. Because naturally, people want to talk about so-called “Christian-offenses”, as in how people don’t blow up and throw hissy fits when people slam Christianity but Lord forbid we talk shit about Islam (an edited quote from the comments section) and its oppression of women, as if Christianity isn’t the base with which this shady, culture-killing country is founded upon.
Look, I don’t hate Christians. There is nothing inherently wrong with being Christian, just like there is nothing wrong with being Islamic, heterosexual, trans, lesbian, bi, pan, or asexual despite what the majority of people would have you believe about these “sinners”, but if you don’t believe the history of Christianity is cloaked in blood and has been used to wage wars, slaughter innocents, and about a fa-fillion other horrible things, you are dead wrong. I’m not going to argue with anyone about this because these are facts. Another fact is that Christianity is the reigning religion in this country and has been used to oppress blacks, as an excuse to deport people who pose no threat to us, and to shame non-hetero people for non-traditional love. Yes, I accept that these qualities are not limited to Christianity, but as this video is making fun of a movie theater that refuses to show Beauty and the Beast because of a gay character, many assumptions have been made that it is an attack on the religion itself.
No, it is not. But that did not stop another crybaby from complaining about why it’s okay to make satirical videos about Christianity but not about other religions, as if the mainstream nature of Christianity hasn’t been the cause of Muslims always being cast as terrorists, Asians as some kind of ninja warrior assassin or geek, or black people as angry, uneducated, and violent. If it makes sensitive people feel better, you are not the only ones who have been victimized by the entertainment industry, but you’re clearly new to it. It is amazing the things that the dominating culture will subject minorities to, but when a little bit of shade is thrown in the opposite direction, the majority cries, melts, faints, is horrified and offended. And for what reason? Your lives have never been in danger. You are the majority. You are in power. You are the reason that we need to show black lawyers, Hispanic presidents, and gay men who slay zombies. The weight and influence of the majority has spent centuries crushing minorities, but we are real, we will not sit down, and we will not shut up.
You don’t get to cry about a culture you created. Christianity is very famous in this country for being a tool to justify war, slavery, and the persecution of the LGBT community. I repeat: Christianity is a TOOL to justify war, slavery, and the persecution of the LGBT community. Do you believe that just because slavery ended, that there are no longer slaves? You are wrong. The law has never been in our favor, though people will believe whatever lets them sleep peacefully at night, ignoring how many graves built their bed frames. You are not wrong for being a Christian. You are only wrong for using your religion to oppress others and that oppression extends to the media. Minorities are not plot points. We are people. We have our own hopes, dreams, and ambitions that have nothing to do with being the immoral, undereducated, and sinning rabble that you try to paint us as.
Ignorant, bigoted people need to sit down and shut up. You are the new overseers, protecting a system that keeps you on top, but no one respects you as human beings. I know I don’t. I could never respect someone who uses religion as a weapon, thinks of minorities as conveniences and lessers to make your stories more interesting, or who sheds metaphorical tears under the warm fire from a SATIRICAL video. You are not under attack the way minorities are daily. You are not dying. You have no reason to cry. So maybe you ought to shut up and become better people who respect other people as whole human beings and view them not as expendable pawns for this very un-fun chess game of life, but as your equals. For they are.
This is by no means the end of LGBTQ people getting more representation in books, movies, and TV. There only have to be people who are brave enough to write reality into their stories to show the world as it truly is, gay as fuck and trying to hide it.
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