Jupiter's Circle #2

[lordultimus]

Warning for homophobia and suicide attempt.

Comments

[tinygaylaura]

Story: (Opens with a gay character envying straight people)

Me: Nope, sorry you've lost me already

I was down for the flying and the super strength and what not but my suspension of disbelief has got its limits

[fra080389]

Isn't this 1930 or something?

[lordultimus]

1959.

[buttz]

I think you really missed the point of this story...

[tinygaylaura]

Misery porn for straight people to pat themselves on the back over?

One thing I did like here though was the way Hoover was dealt with. There are few things in the world I hate more than a self hating gay man who is a traitor to his own people. So seeing him get taught a vauable lesson in not messing with those better than him here did make me smile

[wanderersoul25]

As for Hoover, he was such a POS that being, as you called it, a self hating gay man was the LEAST of his flaws.

[tinygaylaura]

The fact he died of a heart attack is the only evidence he had a heart at all

[wanderersoul25]

The story's set in 1959, long before homosexuality was widely accepted by American society. Hell, it was perceived as being just as bad as being outed as a Communist. Where it was hammered into people's heads through media and religion that homosexuality was a sin and a deviance. At that point in time, it was literally classified as a mental illness in medical and psychological textbooks. Loud and proud wasn't a thing, and people literally had to hide what they really were in order to avoid becoming social pariahs. That was especially true for celebrities ie actors, politicians, and in this context, superheroes. For many, the pressure was so overwhelming that addiction and mental health concerns were common. So yes, it's realistic in that a part of Blue-Bolt envied his heterosexual friends and he wished that he wasn't what he was. Again, it was the time and society that he lived in.

[tinygaylaura]

Oh I am well aware of what a hateful piece of shit the world of the 1950's in general and America in particular was. And how LGBTQ people could not be as open as we are now about our sexuality in all places. I have relatives who had the misfortune of growing up surrounded by the kind of inferior troglodytes that infested it like roaches. And said relatives have told me stories of how they had to hide their sexuality when enduring the presence of these mouth breathers

And I know that the moronic hatred of the knuckle dragging idiots of this time did indeed cause many innocent LGBTQ people to feel self loathing and depression. But I think the fact that so many stories about queer people favour the "Self loathing queer who wishes they were straight" story has nothing to do with condemning bigotry or encouraging compassion about mental health and acceptance and everything to do with the fact its the kind of portrayal of queer people that bigoted straight people are "Comfortable" with because instead of celebrating us it treats us as pitiable or broken creatures that hate ourselves. And put simply: I don't want pity. Especially not from straight people. I find stories like this condescending and patronising, especially since they're usually written by straight cisgender people

Many queer people who grew up in this time (Said relatives included) did not envy straight people. They despised them, as they should. They hated their moronic values and "Morals" and gleefully broke their laws. The great heroes of the LGBTQ community of this time were the men, women and non binary individuals who loved themselves and loved who and what they were and quite correctly viewed the pathetic repressed heterosexual society around them as deserving their scorn and as something that needed to be destroyed and replaced with a better world

And that's the kind of attitude I'd prefer to see here.

Well actually since this is a story set in a world where people have superpowers I'd prefer a story about queer heroes using their powers to force the world to change to be a more pro LGBTQ place and eliminating anyone or anything that stood in the way of achieving this goal

Which is absolutely what I would do if I had superpowers

[thanekos]

Mark Millar, spending an entire day workshopping Hoover vacuum jokes before going with that last page instead.

[zachbeacon]

Wait, the blackmailer was supposed to be Hoover? I was thinking he was just some random fed.

Yeah, this was a problem with an easy solution thanks to historical hindsight.

Glad the team (mostly*) stuck with Blue ... even if it comes off a bit too "don't ask, don't tell".

*Did Walter ever have any redeeming qualities?

[tinygaylaura]

From the looks of it no he did not