Yes, it's another week of Pride Fics Fest, where I stop pretending fanfiction is anything but All the Gay™.
(You can check out last week's post here!)
I figured it out, Marvel!
You just didn't know how to give us Bucky Barnes as a Bicon! You were afraid of messing it up! That's what it was!
How cynical and misguided of us to think that you were Queerbaiting with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) - extensively - rather than trying to find a way to express Bucky's Bisexuality.
Obviously, that's what you wanted to do all along!
Because you wouldn't try to lure in your Queer audience while maintaining plausible 'no homo' liability to not lose the Homophobic, mostly American, A-hole crowd - would you?
That would be an exploitative way to get maximum audience for your investment, of course, something of a cake-and-eat-it situation on the backs of a marginalised community. But you wouldn't... do... that...
It must just be that you didn't know how to approach the topic... aside from literally having Bucky and Sam rolling through a field together, but that's, y'know, clearly not a Queer thing... as far as anyone can prove.
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| Via Giphy |
But don't worry Marvel! The Gays™ have you covered.
Fanfic authors have seen the clear gap in your knowledge that you were begging to fill
Bucky will be Queer dammit! We will make it happen 😊
'He heard Sam exhale loudly. “Listen, I told you I-”
“I just didn’t understand how he knew,” Bucky breathed all at once. “About me.”'
Marvel - if you want Bucky to Come Out as Bi (and we've already established that you do, of course, because you're not a cynical money-grabbing faceless corporation... right?) this is the way to do it.
This fic is frustratingly beautiful and beautifully frustrating, dealing with Bucky fighting against society's programming, rather than Hydra's.
It's #OwnVoices for Bi rep - and it shows.
The visceral inability to force the words out of his mouth is... hauntingly familiar.
The feeling that you can't say it, but can't not say it, and when was the last time you breathed? Are we supposed to breathe? That's a thing humans do, right?
It dances around all the difficult feelings at play in a way that any author would be proud of.
Seriously, this is so well written.
And the interactions with Sam are perfect. The misunderstandings are frustrating but not so much as to make it cringey. It doesn't dwell, but it doesn't avoid sh** either.
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| Via Giphy |
...See, Marvel? We got you covered.
And if this isn't the way you wanna do it, I'm sure we can work out a different tone or angle. There's a lot of fanfiction out there. (Which, if you've been on this blog for any length of time, you'll know 😅)
Just let me know, Marvel, and I'm sure we can find a way to make this work. Any type of way you want. Plenty of ideas - just waiting for you.
While I'm waiting for that call from Marvel, dearest nerdlets (because, y'know, they clearly have me on speed dial 😉,) let's check out the Content Warnings for this fic:
- Coming Out
- Internalised Homophobia/Biphobia/Queerphobia
- Internalised Ableism/mental health stigma
- references to:
- violence
- injury
- torture
- mental health problems
- body image issues re: prosthetic limb
- racism
This week's fic is:
Heart's Not the Problem by atenebrae
How do you think Marvel should let Bucky Come Out as Queer (not necessarily Bisexual - we'll take other IDs, Marvel, if you're interested)?
Does anyone else keep accidentally reading 'bitcoin' instead of Bicon, or is this my tiredness levels catching up to me?
Talk to me! 😅💬
Last year's Pride Fics Fest:
Sharing and commenting is glitter and rainbows! 💖
Cee, I will back you up when Marvel calls. This fic looks so good! I don't read too much fanfiction but I will surely be reading this one.
ReplyDeleteAlso, yes I totally read Bicon as bitcoin. I was like... interesting angle, but ok???
Oh please do read it! Lemme know if you like it :)
DeleteAnd clearly digital capitalism has warped our generation's perceptions of reality! Lol <3