Thanks for this. It’s just too bad as you’re seeing below, that this salient point will sail right over the heads of many here, because pointless virtue signaling is more important. 

Wrong. Men have intimate and beautiful but not necessarily romantic or sexual relationships with each other all the time and they can be far deeper than romantic relationships with women.

There’s no question of a need for more and better representation of homosexuality in media. But the central thesis of this article is, “What it means to you is what it means to you, and nobody can touch that.” It’s a nice sentiment, but it begs the question of does that apply to all interpretations of a work,…

If the viewer is interpreting and contextualizing a film in a way that is meaningful to them and reflects their worldview and experience, regardless of creator intent, that’s perfectly fine, is what this article seems to be saying. So how would it be different?

Does this argument mean that the opposite situation is acceptable, where characters intended to be gay, but not directly stated as such by the creators, are then perceived by the viewer as straight? Because I have a feeling it wouldn’t be.

Sure, imagine all you want, that’s perfectly healthy.

Well there’s a set of people who think there is a subtext that says that. And there’s nothing wrong with that but the idea of an objective subtext when the “author is dead” is never gonna fly.

I think the point Mackie was trying (and admittedly failing) to make is that the insistence that male characters must want to fuck each other if they are vulnerable, emotional, or caring towards one another is just a well-meaning but still pernicious form of homophobia that contributes to and reinforces toxic…

Nope, not what I said. Queer kids are not creepy. Adults who impose their own wishes on someone else’s story are creepy, especially if the author of the story says, “hey, that’s not what I’m writing about” and the person leans on their own intepretation of “the subtext” to continue to hijack the story or the…

The part where Alberto gets jealous because Luca is hanging out with Giulia more is definitely a pre-adolescent thing to me, since even (over 30, Jesus) years later I do still remember how kids start to get mad that their friends are growing up faster than they are, and realizing that, on some level, they’re both…

What a lot of adults seem to forget is that there was a time when many of us had intense, close friendships with same-sex friends. We spent as much daily/weekly time with our prepubescent “best friend” (if not more) than we would with future sexual mates. On the phone, hanging out, going on vacations with each other’s…

This is an interesting and thoughtful piece, but where I think it misses the mark is that it seems to confuse the themes of a story with the plot of a story. Mackie’s issue was with people who insist that the characters actually are gay when they are not; he rightfully didn’t comment at all on identifying queer themes…

I know absolutely nothing about Luca, so I can’t speak to that. But for Falcon and Winter Soldier, I don’t see what coding is happening. Is it the scene where they fall out of a plane, hit the ground, and then start rolling around? Personally I read that as a comedic scene where they were acting like stubborn…

What a ridiculous argument to make. People don’t get to change whatever facet of pop culture they like to suit their preferences*. Does this mean Hamlet and Horatio are gay because it seems to me that he’s way more interested in spending time with his servant buddy than Ophelia? Or that Princess Leia isn’t actually…

The problem is supporting Trump and the Republicans largely undoes whatever good he may have done. You can’t just cancel out the harm with a few charitable donations. American healthcare wouldn’t even need so much charity if the Republicans and their supporters didn’t cockblock a socialised healthcare system every…

the core belief that human life beginning at conception isn’t a nonsensical one.

Are you saying he was forced to donate to bigots? No, he donated to them because he wanted to. He was lying to our faces with words while his actions told a different story. He got caught. You don't give money to people without a reason. He can't plead ignorance here. 

Scott, bro, you don’t have to retire. You can just *own* this if you want. Just straight up be like “yes, I love my LGBTQ audience, and I am also sending money directly to politicians who will use said money and their positions of power to reduce this audience to second class citizens in a best case scenario.”

“Pro-life” people say that there is zero reason for abortion, ever, full stop.
Any that don’t are outliers. And possible converts to pro-choice because the occasional “legitimate” need for an abortion (in their eyes) can be potentially shown to them to demonstrate that abortion must be a right even without a need, in…

I’m pro-life ... I believe in common sense.