It sounds like "queer" was going to be used as an insult and meant to show the speaker is the bad guy. Jjust using a word in dialogue isn't the same as the author using it, themselves, and is hardly proof of any bias or bigotry.

But I agree with Flanuer that it's sad, yet again, to introduce gay characters (or even just "extras", if you will) just to have them victimized. That has nothing to do with the word choice and everything to do with the plot itself. (Sorry, Ed!)

The saving grace, of course, is that it may be the first in a long line of gay references that vary widely and are not so formulaic. (They are in San Francisco, after all.)

Hardly the right foot to start off on, though, in my opinion. Like Northstar's planned AIDS diagnosis, it seems more predictable and lazy than anything else.

and for the hard of feeling - that's just a joke people!

The scene is quite easy to see as a "gay bashing metaphor"--but it still shocks me that so many readers (from reading the CBR forums on this issue alone) cannot see the similarities in between homophobia/anti-mutant hate and/or mutants/gays. When the books have been ripe with those parallels for years. Legacy Virus--AIDS. Mutation at puberty that causes teens to go into denial & secrecy & develop a fear of being hated/ostracized--gays discovering their feelings/longings during puberty & going into denial and developing fear as a result.

There are readers of the issue who CANNOT see any inkling that the male Dazzler fan could be gay (apparently he wants to get into Pixie's pants by attending a Dazzler concert--even though he talks like a jazzed-out queen that just saw their favorite diva icon). That's why I wish in some cases the parallelism went a little further than just allusion--and I wish the original line had been left in there to indicate such. Make it so that readers can't stay in that bubble where "mutant problems ONLY relate to real world racial problems."

As far as the scene itself played out, I had no problems and saw it what it was meant as. My only qualm is that I wish the "queer" slur had been left to heighten the emotion of the scene and to squash some of the ludicrous "interpretations" about the parallelism & to an extent the male character. But then again if readers have it set in their mind that "A =/= A" then even that may not have helped, lol.

Your category is just magnetic, I guess!

I suspect that if you went in to edit something in this post, it switched it up on you. This new WordPress does that.

That's all. Just a bit of housekeeping. Carry on.

A "hard on" in this context means you are already mad and looking for a place to explode. That you have pre-determined that someone is going to offend you that day, so you have your response ready to use. You can just be looking for any fight or it can be a specific subject. Also called having a chip on your shoulder. True example: I think many auto drivers are damned stupid, so I am always ready to tell these stupid drivers just how stupid they are.

Damn freak with wings just walkin' down the damn street like she ain't nothin'. An' of course the queers eat it right up.

Ouch. It almost feels like some kind of snark about queer readers eating up the stuff in the comic [and the 'eating', lulz]. I know it definitely isn't that because Fraction seems like a nice guy but ... wow. Lucky that was edited out.

Personally, knowing a story or text was changed doesn't affect my enjoyment of a story. I do find it interesting as trivia, ie, Jean Grey wasn't meant to die during the Dark Phoenix Saga, the Mutant Massacre was originally to involve James Jaspers and the Fury, etc.

Personally, Karma's intro as the X-Men are about to engage in their revenge tromping -- "This is Karma; she likes girls." -- bothered me a lot more than any slurs coming coming out of the mouths of fictional bigots would have. I rolled my eyes so hard I nearly strained something.

I'm not a native english speaker, so sometimes my statements are a little bold. Maybe I should've said : "The scene can easily be read as…" Likewise, I may have a wrong understanding of some characters' language patterns ("OMG, OMG…")
Although the edited line tends to confirm it was the original intent, I usually consider it to be better writing when multiple readings are allowed.

Also, Dazzler may be considered a little campy in the real world — hence the cliché and the dispute —, but she doesn't seem to be in the MU with fans like Cyclops or Juggernaut…

Michael : "It’s called a victim hard-on, Fox."
I'm afraid I don't see what you mean, really.

Of course the epilogue of #500 is meant to be read as gay bashing. The Dazzler fan with his pink-haired fairy friend ? The bashers have a shot at 2 “freaks” with one stone : the mutant and the “queer”.

There are plenty of readers who would (and do) disagree with you on that point, which is why I thought it interesting to see what texts people who differed on the meaning of the scene would allow to change their mind.

Would stuff outside the text like an edited line count? Or does it have to be literally IN the text?

It's been a long time since mutants have been a viable metaphor for gays, and they should be (among other things). Who else than gays is hated world-wide by some christians, jews, muslims, blacks, whites or asian ?

On the other hand, I do understand it's a painful trend to see gay characters pop up on the page just to be bashed, killed or tortured. (Which is not the case yet in this story so far).

As for the ACTUAL point of this thread, I usually read what's on the page. I'm only interested in the mechanics of creation after a very good reading with artistic merits.

There's no need to be in Frank Miller's kitchen to know he's mysoginistic, homophobic and freaked out by handicapped people… Sometimes the printed thing speaks volume.

The notion of it being anything other than a line of dialogue is so ludicrous, it never occurred to me that anyone would read it that way. Sorry 'bout that.

That sure does explain some reactions that were puzzling me.