Why do criticisms of gay male characters in the media always end up being femmephobic?
A couple years ago, I came across a post on a subreddit, which will remain nameless, asking why most of the gay male characters in the media were feminine or flamboyant. A lot of the commenters responding to that post kinda seem like they were bashing feminine gay men. They were saying stuff like, “I’m so sick of the gay men in TV shows and movies always being effeminate.”, “They’re always catty and bitchy.”, “There needs to be more normal gay men in the media.”, etc. It’s like they want all the gay male characters in the media to act no different from straight male characters in terms of their voices, mannerisms, interests, etc. like Max from Happy Endings, Ian and Mickey from Shameless or Captain Holt from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. And that they want feminine gay male characters like Kurt from Glee to not exist at all anymore. Look, I understand being frustrated by the lack of masculine or “straight-presenting” gay men in the media, but feminine gay men exist in real life, too. They deserve to be represented, too.