str8 ppl dont know subtlety

hi hi coming out of hibernation to rant about heteros again lol

so gay ppl are accused of being too (outwardly) sexual, exhibitionalist, pervy n all that 

my mind cannot comprehend how tho

talking ab mainstream media, straight ppl have ALWAYS BEEN outwardly sexual, like u get the typical blonde bombshell and men are always thirsting after her

straight men are allowed to find women sexy, straight ppl are allowed to publically make out, like u see straight ppl posting the most cringe jokes ab genitalia and men vs women n all that gender essentiallism (not to mention the 'buhbuhbuhbuhh i hate my wife' jokes)

ok im getting off topic BUT 

again talking ab mainstream media, gay ppl and gay romances are rarely granted that freedom. but that in turn makes the bond between two characters so much more interesting to follow: in a movie/TV show that doesn't show any elicit queerness, every look, every smile, every touch becomes filled with extra meaning. the characters don't or CAN'T say 'i love you' explicitly, so their feelings and connection then have to be shown through other ways

and a lot of times, that makes the ship actually believable. im not saying there are no good straight ships or couples, obv, but i just feel like gay characters are made to have much more intense emotional connections (tho i feel like thats precisely BC the writers dont allow anything more than that)

the same goes for romance books actually. like in modern romance/romantacy/dark romance book or whatev, a lot of the time, the FMC starts thirsting after the love interest wayyy too quickly. like it seems to me that the relationship is mainly built on sexual attraction, and then the author has to come up with a way to make it more than that (obv nothing wrong with having just a physical relationship but thats not usually what the author is going for) by having the characters have a little heart to heart sharing their half thought out backstories. that ultimately becomes just feeling bad about the man's trauma and giving him a pass to abuse the mc

i know im talking ab just specific instances but COME ONN im tired

in the end it all comes down to the fact that straight ppl have never had to hide their affections/desires, their sexuality has never had to be hidden or be something to be ashamed of

gay and queer ppl, on the other hand, had to. that shows through especially in older movies/TV. but bc of that, their relationships had a multilayered-ness to them. they were usually hidden in the subtext, which wasn't usually caught by straight audiences. 

many queer love stories had/have that extra layer of subtlety, nuance, hidden (or, to be fair, NOT so hidden) subtext that relied/s on viewers to be more attentive to details and have critical thinking to see that connection between characters. that in turn, i think, makes the story much more engaging and interesting

this topic is much broader than im presenting it here (for example, letting queer characters be explicitly queer is a whole other discussion to this) but i just think that subtlety is often a great tool for creating impactful and compelling relationships 

okkkkkk bye <3