I’ve noticed a trend in how people consume media — whether it’s in games, cartoons, or movies — where any strong emotional bond between two characters of the same gender is instantly labeled as romantic or gay.
For example, if two girls in a show are really close, support each other, or say “I love you” in a deep, emotional way, people immediately assume it’s a lesbian relationship. The same goes for male friendships — if two guys cry together or share a vulnerable moment, people jump to say it’s a gay couple.
Whatever happened to platonic love? The kind of deep, loyal, emotional connection that isn’t sexual or romantic — just human? Are we so used to hyper-sexualized media that we’ve forgotten friendship can be just as intense and meaningful?
I’m all for LGBTQ+ representation — and when it’s genuine and story-driven, it’s great. But not every bond needs to be a love story. Sometimes, two people just love each other as friends or like family, and that should be seen as valuable too.
When we label every close relationship as romantic, we lose space for pure, non-romantic emotional intimacy. And honestly, that’s kind of sad.
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I’d tell you the answer, but the redditors would crucify me
unfortunately this is a ridiculously nuanced topic that could be a dissertation by itself
We do this for same-sex relationships too. Arguably more.
The gay-ification of same sex friendships is the same as fandoms shipping any male/female pair just because they are of opposite genders and they are close.
Society as a whole has an issue with not recognizing platonic love enough, and thus immediately turning toward romantic or sexual love as an interpretation.
This isn’t an issue with LGBTQ pairings. It’s an issue with all pairings, homosexual or heterosexual. People just don’t appreciate friendship as just friendship and always want to see it as something more. Now that, we can criticize meaningfully.
I think a lot of people just want to see themselves in their favorite characters. There’s not a lot of LGBT representation in the media, so people make their own ships.
I also think that close and vulnerable male friendships specifically are already not normalized or represented in media, so when it is shown it looks romantic to people who aren’t used to seeing it.
There are plenty of people that forget that people can just be friends, regardless of who they are sexually or romantically interested in, both in real life and in entertainment media. I don’t really mind headcanon stuff much personally, but I also don’t engage much with it. I will also mention that some media does bait people into thinking: Could they be more than just friends?
This is how I felt in 1994 watching The X-Files.
Animals make everything about sex and romantic love. Happens all the time with male-female platonic relationships.
There are people out there who don’t even believe platonic love exists without turning romantic.
Can’t two different-gender characters just be close friends without being labeled as straight?
I’ve noticed a trend in how people consume media — whether it’s in games, cartoons, or movies — where any strong emotional bond between two characters of different genders is instantly labeled as romantic or straight.
For example, if a girl and a guy in a show are really close, support each other, or say “I love you” in a deep, emotional way, people immediately assume it’s a straight relationship. Or if a girl and a guy cry together or share a vulnerable moment, people jump to say it’s a straight couple.
Whatever happened to platonic love? The kind of deep, loyal, emotional connection that isn’t sexual or romantic — just human? Are we so used to hyper-sexualized media that we’ve forgotten friendship can be just as intense and meaningful?
I’m all for heterosexual representation — and when it’s genuine and story-driven, it’s great. But not every bond needs to be a love story. Sometimes, two people just love each other as friends or like family, and that should be seen as valuable too.
When we label every close relationship as romantic, we lose space for pure, non-romantic emotional intimacy. And honestly, that’s kind of sad.
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For real, OP. It’s almost like gay and straight people are not so different. This WILL keep happening in ANY media where two human beings are close together, and nobody can realistically do anything about it. We all know that straight romance is being pushed literally in almost every single piece of media on the planet, and platonic relationships like the ones you talk about practically do not exist, whether gay or straight. And even if they DO exist in the media, then there will be a crapton of fans who completely ignore it, and will consider them a couple anyway.
This is just how living in a media-filled world is.
I’ve noticed this with Gen Z. I’m sure there are millennials that do it, too, but there is something about Gen Z that is very LGBT hyperfocused, and it informs how they view or react to certain relationships on screen.
It frustrates me that it seems no one can just be platonic anymore, as you said. There’s a part in Pacific Rim where the male and female character are just sitting there and not doing anything, and if it were any other movie, it probably would have ended with a kiss or something. But it was completely platonic. I love that.
Now that “any other movie” thing is probably where this begins. There is a much higher likelihood of writers impressing upon their characters a romantic relationship if they are of the opposite sex, than if they are the same sex. I think Gen Z (and whoever else is participating, but I swear this is mostly a Gen Z thing) is trying to balance that out by impressing their own worldviews on same-sex characters, even if it isn’t the intention of the writers. And because it’s more often than not, not the intention of the writers to make same-sex characters be romantic, Gen Z wants to overcompensate and make every single close relationship a romantic one, straight or otherwise.
I don’t really understand it, myself. I’m on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, I surround myself with others of the same ilk, I want more same-sex representation in movies because I still feel it’s lacking considerably. But I don’t like this culture of making every close friendship into a romantic partnership. Having it secluded to niche fanfics like it has been for years is whatever. But it’s starting to seep into the mainstream zeitgeist a little too much now.
Yeah they can be friends but I think you should just ignore them because it’s gonna annoy you alot in the future. It’s a way they express their passion for a character or series even though it doesn’t make sense but for me I don’t really care about it because it doesn’t affect the characters or story for me so I’d suggest to not think about it alot.