Author: Your Magazine

The term “pride and joy” has been used since the early 1800s when Sir Walter Scott used it in his poetry. These terms have evolved over the years, but I believe queer pride is deeply connected to joy. As a genderqueer person who is pansexual, I have been numbed to the fact that all queer representation in the media is depressing, tragic, and an excuse for representation. The issue can boil down to simple queerbaiting, which is a term for when writers tease, but never actually show, queer representation or joy. 

They were never pregnant. They have a miscarrige. They back out at the last minute. They become ill and die. They are forced to continue. They decide adoption would be a better fit. Television will do anything and everything to avoid actually depicting a character actively getting an abortion. Walking right up to the line, or rather the clinic door, before turning around and never discussing it again. 

Picture this: a woman in her early 30s, hair in a messy bun that’s one faulty bobby pin away from total collapse. Her mascara slightly smudged from yesterday’s cry session over a tub of ice cream, stumbling into her quaint London flat with an armful of paperwork, and a splash of coffee on her wrinkled white shirt. That, dear reader, is the epitome of “frazzled” in the world of rom-coms.