Dear Starz, please, notice...

THIS:

is proper m/m representation

THIS, however:

looks very much like trying very hard to not offend the homophobes and shy away from all the ertoticism in m/m romantic interaction…  the gif is even making the shadow lighter than it was in the show, by the way.

Just saying…

Now which one is relolutionary, I wonder?

malec gif by  khylinrhambo

james/thomas gif by  flintxhamilton

….or one is a dramatic, passionate moment in a WHOLE DIFFERENT situation than the equally dramatic, passionate moment.

It’s not shying away from eroticism at all. I’d argue I got more shivers from the bottom scene than the top. It’s just a different story with a different situation. As for the light, that isn’t a strategically placed shadow. High contrast lighting like that is used to up the tension in a scene, and in a scene like this, the tension is definitely high. It is true, it is darker (uncolored gif to compare) but it’s not like by using a more contrasted lighting technique that the tender face caress is any less shiver-enducing.

Malec was a situation where Alec has decided ‘FUCK IT!’ and strode down the aisle like it was his personal catwalk and dragged Magnus into a big, dramatic kiss in front of the whole world. Yes, his culture is incredibly homophobic and there will probably be consequences, but it’s still a VERY different story than the other. (Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED THIS SO MUCH you don’t even know)

Thomas/James is a situation where it is the early 1700s, James is a young officer in the British Royal Navy and Thomas is Lord Thomas Hamilton and the precursor to this kiss was Thomas’s father having a go at how his son is a ridiculous dreamer with ideas that are outrageous and when he asks James to agree with him, James stands up and in an INTENSELY reserved rage (shaking but not moving, tight voice, but speaking at a calm level) dramatically rebuts everything he has just said and extols the brilliance and nobility of Thomas and then tells him to LEAVE HIS OWN HOUSE if he can’t be proud of his son, and after his father has stormed out, Thomas is in awe, he’s looking at him like he can’t breathe but can’t look away, and then he slowly approaches him. ALSO NOTE, THIS IS ALL HAPPENING WHILE THOMAS’S WIFE IS WATCHING (she’s in on it, obviously, but still, another person) and he gently touches James’s face and steps into his space and kisses him IN FRONT OF ANOTHER PERSON. James is visibly upset and scared so Thomas is so gentle in kissing him. 

It’s a tender, beautiful, romantic moment that I would was was unparallelled before this beautiful Malec kiss.

But the situations are different. Neither one is good or bad. They are both appropriate for the situation. It’s clearly not about ‘don’t offended the homophobes’ it’s because that’s the ONLY way it could’ve gone in that situation without it being extremely unfitting. ALL of Thomas and James is in a flashback so we know all along that they don’t get a happy ending. Whereas with Malec, this is supposed to be the beginning of something that CAN have a happy ending.

Also if you watch the show, you know that this kiss is a flashback of the origin story of the most feared pirate. Usually any hero or villain has someone they love taken from them and it starts them on their path, and anybody who watches Black Sails, you know that James’s fear of Thomas doing something that is impossible to pass off as anything but homosexual in front of others is WELL founded because what happens? They get found out and THOMAS DIES because of it. 

The situations are different, the stories are very different, and most of all, the narrative structure of these two shows is VERY different.

One is a supernatural show about demons and demon hunters set in modern day New York.

One is a gritty historical drama about the Golden Age of Piracy.

Anybody with the slightest training in film technique and film theory knows that there is no world in which the two are comparable in any way other than ‘both these narratives have a gay man as a main character’.

A lot of words can be said, a lot of explanations offered, but the fact stays a fact: Black Sails doesn’t treat it’s M/M relationship with nearly the same respect as it does it’s hetero- and F/F ones.

I could go on for pages here how they use this gay plot as a shock value to the audience, and how they use the idea of this eternal love from the past in order to not let Flint act on his sexuality in the current timeline, and how they never showed an actual sex-scene with Thomas, only a very safe and totally non-threatening cuddling… etc. etc…

But I don’t feel like repeating my own words for like a 1000th time.

I repeat: Black Sails doesn’t treat it’s M/M relationship with nearly the same respect as it does it’s hetero- and F/F ones. End of story.

First of all, I never gave you permission to use my gif. I would appreciate if you please refrained from using my gifs in the future. And I would ask you to please remove my gif from your post. I have previously posted on how uncomfortable I am with the way James/Thomas gets treated in these arguments and I really do not appreciate having my gifs used to further this argument.

Second, the fact that the validity of a lgbt+ relationship rests on whether or not a couple has had sex is abhorrent (not to mention acephobic). The fact that lgbt+ couples need to meet this list of things to be considered real and not “shock value” is appalling. As someone who is in an f/f relationship, I am extremely offended by this notion, also by the notion that f/f relationships are “just for the male gaze” and “everyone’s okay with lesbians.” You know why otherwise homophobic people are okay with f/f and m/f sexual scenes? Hint: it has nothing to do with being okay with lgbt+. It’s about sexualizing women, the two things those types of pairings have in common and why some people are not okay with m/m. Not because they are true supporters. 

Despite the fact the writers have continuously underscored Flint/Thomas’ relationship’s importance in the show, have built it up so the entire plot wouldn’t exist without it, have shown how much Flint loved him and how important Thomas was to him, but this is apparently all “shock value.”

Also, they are not using Flint’s “eternal love” to keep him from having a relationship. You can be in love with more than one person and have important relationships with more than one person (this show has two polyships….) If someone’s spouse dies it does not stop the person left behind from loving and remembering them, nor does it stop them from falling in love again. You know what distracts people from relationships? Watching someone you love get shot to death right in front of you not a few months prior when you’re already traumatized from so many losses.   You know what else distracts people from a relationship? Last time he got into a relationship, the man he loved freaking died because they had their relationship used against them. You know what else distracts people from relationships? Fighting a freaking war. 

I have zero problem with wanting another m/m relationship, or sex scene, or another relationship for Flint, so you can miss me with that. What I do have a problem with, is people devaluing their relationship and reducing lgbt+ relationships to only sex scenes.

End of story :)