foolish_m0rtal | Queer Rep in Fandom

On the one hand, I *kind* of get young fandom's desire for their ship to be canon. Fandom interacting with canon is a mortifying concept to me, but I'm not the one doing it, so it's not my business to dictate. The pressure to do it "for the representation" gets a little murky for me personally, but I'm a pre-Oberfell, pre-DADT Repeal, etc queer.

On the other hand, look at when straight couples finally get together after seasons of Will They, Won't They. They become so boring. The ship teasing is a lot more fun, creative, and provides much more fic/meta fodder than post canon-confirmation. And do I want my ship to get the straight couple treatment? Not really. Fandom will always do it better than canon. Alex Avila does a great job of discussing this in his latest video essay, Queerbaiting Celebrities: An OverAnalysis, which I've linked above, as does the excellent verilybitchie in Good LGBT Representation is Boring (and why that's a problem)