idle thought #198
Nov. 15th, 2020 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerokay also thinking about it and having read more meta
part of it is also that xander's so insecure, like dean
dean's much, much better at pretending he's machohetero
but it's only in later seasons xander figures out his strengths are 'not machohetero' i.e. the power of the heart comfortador! and he's so much more comfortable with himself this way (though he's still got issues *coughAnyacough*) that he has to work through.
maybe it's just his dad/bullies have made insinuations enough that he feels like he has to respond. maybe. there are some different reasons people can be defensive about their sexuality. (alternate interpretations do exist...but also i feel i should remind everyone that it was either willow or xander they were thinking of making 'gay' and to that i say ¿Por qué no los dos? So they can be lgbtq+ buddies, and stronger friends (because other than Bollywood and fighting monsters, there's not much shown that they have in common). (Though have it different. Like, maybe Willow's actually demisexual, or after some introspection she decides she's actually effectively lesbian aka, like, a 5 on the Kinsey scale, where Xander's bi or pretty close to it? Just throwing that out there) So until that writing decision was made they were both Schrodinger's 'gay'.)
also lo siento I have this habit of losing track of my parentheses and using way too many. i think i've wrangled them all now but lemme know if i missed one
part of it is also that xander's so insecure, like dean
dean's much, much better at pretending he's machohetero
but it's only in later seasons xander figures out his strengths are 'not machohetero' i.e. the power of the heart comfortador! and he's so much more comfortable with himself this way (though he's still got issues *coughAnyacough*) that he has to work through.
maybe it's just his dad/bullies have made insinuations enough that he feels like he has to respond. maybe. there are some different reasons people can be defensive about their sexuality. (alternate interpretations do exist...but also i feel i should remind everyone that it was either willow or xander they were thinking of making 'gay' and to that i say ¿Por qué no los dos? So they can be lgbtq+ buddies, and stronger friends (because other than Bollywood and fighting monsters, there's not much shown that they have in common). (Though have it different. Like, maybe Willow's actually demisexual, or after some introspection she decides she's actually effectively lesbian aka, like, a 5 on the Kinsey scale, where Xander's bi or pretty close to it? Just throwing that out there) So until that writing decision was made they were both Schrodinger's 'gay'.)
also lo siento I have this habit of losing track of my parentheses and using way too many. i think i've wrangled them all now but lemme know if i missed one
no subject
Date: 2020-11-15 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-16 07:15 pm (UTC)There's no 'have to' in this situation, obviously. Honestly, mostly I didn't cover your idea because I don't think it would've occurred to Whedon, not because I think it'd be a horrible idea. I know they'd thought about making Xander gay, so it's the easiest place to go. (Plus I'm not sure if they would've done it right, since they wrote it as if bisexuality "doesn't exist" since they didn't have a 'questioning if bi or Oz just is an exception' storyline with Willow.) I absolutely think trans or nonbinary Xander would be a fun character to write, because it's so believeable (Xander would be the type to be just as defensive under those circumstances, too). Plus they could explore related but different concepts than Willow and they could still be lgbtq buddies. /grins