Recently the cast of Supergirl sat down with MTV’s Josh Horowitz to discuss Seasons 2. This included a musical recap that had Jeremy Jordan (Winn) jokingly dismiss any possibility that Kara and Lena will be anything more than friends.
"They're only friends! They're not gonna get together, and they're only friends," he said during the interview. On the surface, I think the comment was meant to be, and is, relatively harmless. But I understand why fans are upset, and so should he.
This was a response to what many fans discerned to be a irrefutable romantic subtext shared between the two characters. What was clearly an attempt at a humorous jab by an actor clearly ignorant of the weight “shipping” bears in the genre, ignited a social media firestorm at perhaps the least opportune time imaginable.
While Jordan attempted to clarify what he meant by his comments on his instagram, now is not the time to make the LGBTQ community feel like pariahs, whether in the context of the U.S. as a whole or in the goofy pop culture distractions that define it.
The error wasn’t in declaring that a lesbian relationship wouldn’t happen anytime soon in a major network show like Supergirl (that unfortunately is probably more accurate than you’d like to believe). The error was in the scolding tone Jordan chose to address such speculations. I don’t think it was some indication of the actor’s bigotry or ill-will, but it was emblematic of just how far away we are from achieving that kind of diversity in the mainstream. You can’t help but think if Jordan was responding to rumours of Kara and a male character, assuming the romantic chemistry was just as palpable as it is with Lena, he would have had more compunction about defiantly dismissing the wish of fans to pair them together.
The underrepresentation of members of the LGBTQ community in tentpole genre properties continues to be a layered struggle. On one hand, you want to get the sense that the community exists in the various worlds that make up our fandoms, but without reducing said community to lame what if shipping-fascinations. Conversely, if a traditionally heterosexual lead develops what fans perceive to be an undeniable romantic chemistry (intended or not) with another character that identifies as the same sex, shouldn't that be enough to give the relationship the greenlight?
As a rule I’d say yes, though I’d caution against tone deaf incidences like Sulu in the Abrams’ Star Trek movies; an attempt at being progressive that amounted to: minor character gay cause actor gay. Moves like that have to feel organic or they're better off not being included at all. Having a character’s very identity be dictated by political or otherwise superficial motives compromises the ultimate goal of diversity. Ideally, we should strive to create wholly new characters that represent some facet of generally marginalised groups, in the vein of Kamal Khan, but sometimes it’s okay to shake things up.
Supergirl is one of the more queer-friendly genre shows airing right now, and a lot of members of the community have found solace in that. Here’s to hoping the cast and crew are more mindful of that going forward.
