Julian, Melendez

Samantha, Ocena

WRI-001-107

12/3/2018

Love, Simon Blog Post MWA#3 rough draf

Self-acceptance, betrayal, with an ending reflecting one of the truest forms of purity, love; This is the
world that we are introduced to in Love, Simon, a film created by Greg Berlanti’s adaption of Becky
Albertalli’s novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Love, Simon follows the life of a high school
senior named Simon who battles with his identity once he begins to fall in love with an unknown male
peer who he meets on a school-oriented website. The story continues as Simon begins to feel trapped
within his emotional teramole to eventually be accepted no matter what his sexual identity. While Love,
Simon in it of itself is a loving and heartwarming movie, it places the concept of “coming out” in an
unrealistic light, as well as following the cinematic trend of oppressing feminine gay men in film.

Love, Simon is a film that depicts the life of a gay high schooler named Simon who struggles with his
sexuality, while trying to navigate the social structure of his world. The movie takes place in 2018
Southeastern America where the main protagonist Simon, must face an unforeseen obstacle when he
becomes a victim of blackmail, manipulated to work in the social high school dynamic, and forced to tell
the world of his true sexual identity.

Let’s start off with the good side. Love, Simon is a cute LGBTQ+ friendly rom-com that follows the cliche-
happy-ending-teenage-flick (Can I get anymore hyphens). Anyways the movie cast an overbearing theme
that Simon is “just like us”, which is hardly ever true. I’m not sure about you but I didn’t have a car in
high school nor did 98% of public high school children. Besides the car looking towards Simon’s parents
and their specified fields- Mother: Therapist, Father: Unknown- both parents make enough to own: two
cars, a two-story house, raise two kids, and yet still have time to be involved to be in their kids’ lives and
be an active role in the community; this is a luxury that most LGBTQ youth do not possess, nor do most
middle to lower class families, In which case, could the claim “just like you” stand true- the answer being
no.

The issue with Love, Simon isn’t the movie it’s what the movie stands for and represents currently.
Simon’s character being portrayed as heteronormative wouldn’t have been an issue looking towards,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story" the mere fact that Simon is portrayed as
“straight acting” by his low pitch voice, unflamboyant attitude, and lack of knowledge on gay culture
does show another side of the “coming out” coin, but this has been portrayed in many modern forms of
television. Yes, there are not just feminine gay men, but just like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, “My
characters also drank a lot of ginger beer because the characters in the British books I used to read also
drank a lot of ginger beer” which pretty much means the more we lessen our exposure to feminine gay
men on film the more of a norm it will become to not see them and thus influence the societal
oppression, prejudice and stereotyping that comes with the lack of knowledge.
It’s 2018 the gay panic defense motion is still in place within 47 states, and we still can’t correctly portray
feminine gay men in cinematic culture without stereotyping and ostracizing them to the public, which
influences the difficulty in “Coming out.” Looking towards forms of visual entertainment that have also
falsely approached gay characters such as: GBF – teenage comedy-, Family guy-adult cartoon-, Power
puff girls-kids cartoon-. even simon said it himself when placing his anger towards Ethan- the other
openly gay character at school- “I’m not like you.”

Films and other form of visual media portray LGBTQ+ culture in an overly stereotyped light that either
leaves the viewer with a just fear of homosexuality or bent reality of what it means to be gay.
Powderpuff girls an older cartoon made for children revolving around 3 superpowered sisters who must
rise and defeat evil villains who may attempt to overtake control of their peaceful little city. The villains
list includes, robots, other superpowered enemies, a genetically engineered ape, and a transgender
humanoid crab monster that then furthers the stereotype and fear associated with gay transgender men.

HIM is a red humanoid with crab hands and a tale, usually wearing clothing that’s commonly associated
with that of women; HIM is also commonly seen working out, being sassy, overly sexualized, and
flirtatious towards men, which quite resembles that of a stereotyped gay man. The exploitation and fear
mongering of gay men through portrayals of villains having qualities associated with gay men has been
apparent throughout cinematic history which makes the portrayal of HIM in a children’s cartoon less
surprising. The portrayal of HIM being very Homosexual stigmatizes Homosexuality because it influences
children and other viewers of the show to correlate the unjust actions committed by HIM to the LGBTQ
community, which separates the two groups of people – straight and gay- further apart.

When looking towards Family Guy we see the same situation of a bent reality. Herbert the Pervert is an
older gay man who lives by himself and has a fetish for younger men. This adds on to the stereotype that
older gay men are in fact child-molesters. Given that most people who watch the show are of mature age
to understand satiric humor, this isn’t the case for some. Due to the humor aspect of Herbert this allows
for a false belief of leniency towards none LGBT individuals who believe that since it’s joked on T.V, so can
it to be joked about in day to day life- no need for me to tell you that whomever freely makes
homophobic comments creates an ignorance based society that leaves the social world in a palm of
brotherly hate.

While looking towards GBF, we break away from the false reality stereotypes just a bit when we are meet
with two gay high schoolers each with similar interest but a different way of expressing themselves. The
mannerisms, cultural awareness, and mentality of the “normal” gay high schoolers is portrayed rather
accurately with the only issue being that the popular students at school only look at the gay high
schoolers as props in order to boost themselves forward in a popularity contest. What the movie in fact
gets right but twist to fulfill comedic purposes is the treatment of the gay high schoolers as props, and
vis versa. The idea of being anyone’s token friend is rarely appealing, but it may have been necessary to
achieve an equilibrium of social survival. When looking at Brent Staples experience walking down the
street in a white dominate neighborhood he needed a way as to not be seen as violent due to the racial
association to his skin; Brent states “The tension drained from people’s body’s when they heard me. A
few even smiled as they passed me in the dark.” With no change being physically done to Brent, he
managed to change the way the world perceived him by merely whistling a song associated with upper-
class culture, and just the same do the two gay high schoolers in GBF; by allowing themselves to be
viewed as props but in order to survive the social setting.
Love, Simon, Power Puff Girls, Family Guy, and GBF each portray a false light or stereotype onto gay men,
such as: its only easy for upper middle class white males to “come out”, If you’re gay you’re a villain, if
you’re gay you’re a pervert, and lastly if you’re gay your just as good as a prop. Popular culture constantly
bombards media with the belief of world acceptance but where does it draw the line between reality
and societal oppression of a specific group.

Why has typing become a mass panic of words? The keyboard no longer speaks to me. It never did. The
loss, the individualistic piece of paper, lost the physical embodiment of the soul. The lifelessness will
glimmer on the screen as the plasticity of life will be judged by the unforeseen reader.

Watch the days fade into one another

Where am I now?

I can’t be crazy if I think I’m crazy.

How do I survive, because I forgot how to live in a world where I don’t have to turn around?

The steps are getting louder

The eyes are in my mind.

Insanity

Time keeps slowing down, my back aches

I can’t breathe.

How do I live when all I know how to do is function with this burning rage, inside

constantly flickering out only to be revived by denial.

I’m ok.

Trust and compassion will keep me here. Sit down and breath. The worlds at peace,

I’m ok.

But when can I ever be when I’m my own most biased source
Is that true?

Self-destruction, insolation

Burn me, tie me to the cross and make me scared, I’ll die for your sins, and drown in mine, maybe then
you’ll learn to swim in a pool of self-reflection.

Who am I now other than the person I once was, the actions that I’ve committed, and my future self
each demanding justification as to why

Why was my childhood stripped away?

Why have I yet to learn how to love others?

How do I feel in a world of nothing but mute temptations?

It’s life get over it.