Editor’s note: The below contains some mild spoilers for Peacemaker, Loki, and the Harley Quinn animated series.It’s no secret that entertainment historically has not been good to the LGBTQIA+ community. In fact, movies and television have shown through the decades that they were the ones who popularized and perpetrated a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes. For the bisexual community, that means most of the characters who were bi were often the hyper-sexualized antagonists who were there to tempt the heroic characters — or they flat out just existed in the story to be slut-shamed. Their sexuality was either demonized or played for titillation.
Recently, though, in the realm of superhero adaptations, there has been more of an attempt to normalize sexualities from across the spectrum. While it is a small sample size of media, comic book adaptations are without a doubt the biggest and most popular genre out there at the moment. If something shows up in a Marvel property or anything of that caliber in popularity, that’s an amazing step towards normalizing things that others might not understand.
There isn’t any one way to do good representation because each person will have their own ideas on what that even means. No one is the arbiter of representation, because it affects everyone differently — but these latest superhero-based portrayals of bisexual characters rank among the ones that are most progressive and most successful.
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Newest among them isJohn Cena’s titular character inJames Gunn’sPeacemakeron HBO Max. This sequel series toThe Suicide Squadis essentially a character study of Peacemaker (aka Christopher Smith), delving into his origin story and why he has become the man that he is today. Due to an upbringing at the hands of his father, the white supremacist and abusive supervillain known as White Dragon (Robert Patrick), Peacemaker has had a lot of backward and harmful values ingrained into him. This goes for both his feelings about himself and the world. Even with this complicated past, Peacemaker is still shown as having the potential for complex growth. The more he’s shown just how wrong his values are, the more he opens up and accepts himself and his newfound friends, effectively learning that the things his father essentially brainwashed him into believing don’t reflect the real world.
In spite of his backstory, Peacemaker is also weirdly progressive in some aspects. While he isn’t the most socially conscious person (and that’s putting it mildly), he is more open-minded about sexuality than would initially be apparent, although his tendency is still to crack jokes on the subject — which, again, seems to point to the view within which he was raised. From an outsider’s perspective, Leota (Danielle Brooks) doesn’t necessarily believe he’s evolved in his thinking, and to be fair, he doesn’t exactly open up about it to her in the nicest way.
Meanwhile, Peacemaker’s father is openly disgusted, embarrassed, and cruel about his son’s flexible preferences. While their interactions are very dramatically portrayed (since most people’s parents aren’t literal supervillains), this does get to the heart of an experience a lot of bi people have: the lack of acceptance from people who identify personally as gay or straight. Because bisexuality is closer to the center of the spectrum rather than being at either end, a lot of people from either side will not accept us. It’s so rare for anything to address this in any shape or form, partly because LGBTQIA+ individuals are lumped into a single category in films and television. Not only doesPeacemakeradd a lot of depth and nuance to the characters and story, it adds a sense of realness in a story filled with metahumans and aliens.
On the other side of the comic book to small-screen live-action monolith, there’s Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the show he headlines on Disney+. Through some passive mentions in dialogue and a some props with documents on Loki’s personal information, the show confirmed that Loki is gender-fluid, but male-presenting, and bisexual. The moment his sexuality is confirmed is when Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a Loki in her own right, asks him if he has had relations with any princes or princesses, and he responds, “a bit of both.”
It’s a fairly innocuous comment, given that it’s never really brought up again and one could argue Loki’s main love interest in the series identifies as female. His gender identity also never really comes into play, unless you consider Loki’s alternate reality variants as a metaphor for his fluidness — but with how variant characters are portrayed in this andSpider-Man: No Way Home, viewing it in that way gets kind of muddled.
The downside of this passing remark is that it feels very “rainbow capitalism,” as if it were only added to score brownie points in terms of representation, but perhaps it can be viewed in the vein of also normalizing such a character reveal. In the show, Loki’s identity matters to no one else but him, and it’s only a brief moment in the episode in question because Loki doesn’t think it’s that important. He doesn’t really care and doesn’t even define himself by his sexuality or gender. He’s more interested in being a mischievous scamp and probably plotting how to getOwen Wilsona jet ski. Just as much as we need representation about the bi experience, it’s equally important to have characters like Loki, where it’s just not a big deal. If no one else cares about his sexuality, why should viewers? This type of neutrality could actually lead to some rethinking their previously-held prejudices, even if it’s only subconsciously.
In terms of sexualities that are unapologetically portrayed, we can turn to Harley Quinn. In the live-action movies, her preference is alluded to but never really addressed. There’s a brief moment inBirds of Preywhere we see she once dated a woman in the past, but that’s about it. In her HBO Max animated series, though, it’s front and center. Harley (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) start the show as pre-established best friends who are just looking out for each other. Harley is leaving her abusive relationship with Joker (Alan Tudyk) and Ivy is starting a relationship with the iconic villain Kite Man (Matt Oberg, hell yeah). Both of these characters are shown to be actually in love with these two men, at least at one point. Then, as the show progresses, Harley and Ivy realize over time they’re actually in love with each other. The most recent season ends with the two officially becoming a couple and leaving their past relationships behind.
All of these plots in the show are super entertaining and hilarious, so the fact that it’s also an awesome representation is pretty much just some sweet icing on the cake — but the reason this show really stands out is that it actively subverts the tropes and expectations of bisexual women in media. In several landmark TV shows and films, a majority of bi characters introduced on-screen would be women. Then, through the story, they would almost always meet a man who would “fix” them, and then they would magically become straight. (A prime example of this trope occurs in the 1997Kevin SmithfilmChasing Amy; not only does the movie feature the trope, but the movie’s subtext revolves around how false and harmful it is.)
TheHarley Quinnshow, though, takes Harley and Ivy in a completely new direction. They’re genuinely loving, they have very human flaws, and they don’t need any men to “fix” them. The strong sense of humanity among the crazy plotlines is what makes the animated show shine so much brighter than others, both in regard to its successful character work and depicting the relationship between two women that becomes its most important one.
While none of these portrayals in the above series could be defined as perfect, the varyingly different takes on how they present sexuality are important because of their diversity and the fact that they cover a wider range of lived experiences. These shows are some of the most popular TV programs from the past few years, and that is a big step in the right direction. We should all cross our fingers that further representation of any bisexual characters is handled with the thoughtfulness and consideration that they are in these shows.
