Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4839682-20130723082014/@comment-22525977-20130930230311

GothicNarcissus wrote: I admit I have had difficulties in reading through the topic. It would appear as if someone has mistaken the writers not intending one single shipping to happen for their not wanting to addrress the LGBT topic at all. And I was totally bewildered when I read that some fans sente hate through social networks for such a fact... It's not the denial of Swan Queen specifically, it's that there are no LGBTQIA relationships or characters at all and the most we've gotten is vague suggestions that we'll have one in season three. (And for that matter, having one token LGBTQIA isn't exactly a shining example of representation—similar to the whole "Dumbledore is gay BUT ALSO has been celibate for a century and a half, nope, definitely no boyfriends after Grindelwald and by the way Grindelwald was just using him the whole time" thing.)

If, f'rinstance, Ruby were bisexual (I use Ruby here because she has chemistry with basically everyone ever) and pursuing a relationship with another woman? And this were portrayed as normal instead of, hypothetically, a symptom (for lack of a better word) of the horribly traumatic way Peter died? I would absolutely not be complaining about erasure happening in OUaT, regardless of whether Swan Queen was canon or not. Ditto any other character who was textually LGBTQIA for reasons unrelated to past trauma and/or evilness.

Regarding UST: There's a certain level of subjectivity here, obviously, but I found the Jefferson->Queengina thing to be less sexual tension and more invasion of space—it came off as creepy and vaguely threatening to me, certainly not something that was mutual except insofar as Regina exploited it to her benefit. On the other hand, especially in the first half-ish of season one, there was enough UST-y stuff going on between Regina and Emma for me to ship it.

In particular I remember a lot of staring at mouths. And also the fact that Emma opened the door to speak to Regina without wearing pants, and then neither of them were in the slightest bit bothered by this—no "oh excuse me, i'll give you a chance to finish getting dressed" or even hiding behind the door, which—I do theatre and while I'm completely fine stripping in an out of clothes for quick changes backsage in front of whoever, if someone were at my door wanting to talk, I'd make them wait until I put pants on unless I wanted them to see me in my underwear. So it's either a power thing (unlikely on Emma's part, at least, since Emma demonstrated surprising willingness to be vulnerable at Regina the day before) orrr... /runon

Of course UST alone does not a ship make and as it stands in the season two finale (haven't watched the season three premiere yet), they absolutely loathe each other and I wouldn't, at all, want them to get together right now or even soon. What I would be interested in seeing is them gradually work through their various issues—which they'll have to, because they're on a ship and working towards a common goal, and in-fighting is a guaranteed way to fail—and getting to a place where any hypothetical relationship would be viable (even just genuine friendship! there are not nearly enough well-developed healthy friendships in mainstream media).