What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

On Sex in Sense8

okay but can we talk about how it’s not a coincidence that the sex Lito/Hernando and Nomi/Amanita are having in E6 of Sense8 is what drives the big group sex scene, and how it’s ALSO not a coincidence that the sensates shown participating along with them are Will and Wolfgang, the two straight white guys? 

like, it’s not just the unprecedented primacy this show affords to queer sexuality, sensuality, love and romance as a narrative prerogative: it’s the fact that, instead of making that scene an excuse to have Sun and Riley and Kala join in, which is something we’ve seen a billionty times before in narrative - that is, (ostensibly) straight women being sexualised, whether in queer contexts or not, for the pleasure of a (presumably) straight male audience - we had a scenario where the (ostensibly) straight guys were all either experiencing (Capheus) or participating in (Will and Wolfgang) queer desire, in such a way as to make straight desire the subtext of a dominant queer sexuality in a way that I’ve literally never seen done before 

and can we further talk about the very deliberate juxtapositioning of their reactions to it: because Will is clearly interested in Riley, and Wolfgang is clearly interested in Kala, but whereas Will gets completely caught up in the moment and comes (it’s implied) when Lito does, Wolfgang is completely unaffected, not because he’s a non-sexual character, but because we see Kala walk past in his vision at the start of the scene and his entire focus is on her: he’s not aroused because she’s not a participant, and I just - 

this is so important, okay? because not only are we given Dani as a deliberate perspective on straight female desire, and specifically desire for queer men, which the narrative both critiques (she’s voyeuristic) and validates (she’s allowed her arousal) - she literally replaces the usual straight male gaze as an outsider POV, touching herself as she watches Lito and Hernando, dropping her phone like a symbol for becoming a participant in their desire rather than remaining at a remove from it - and not only do we get two central, complex, loving, committed queer relationships to focus on and adore; but we also get two straight white dudes whose respective responses to being drawn into queer desire is neither confusion nor revulsion, but (in the case of Will) active participation and (in the case of Wolfgang) a disinterest that has nothing to do with the queerness itself, and everything to do with his specific preference for Kala 

and how all of this is simultaneously a callback to Lito’s interview response to being asked what a good lover is, where he says you have to be both selfless enough to place your partner’s desire above your own and selfish enough to want them more than breathing, which is itself a commentary on heteronormative assumptions about sexuality, because he’s a gay action hero being actively hit on by a straight female interviewer who thinks he’s talking about his experiences with women, but we’re given a deliberate flashback to him and Hernando to underscore the fact that actually, the most honest response in his entire interview is about his boyfriend

and as Lito is visiting/swapping with Sun while this happens, we’re also getting a contrast on the fact that they’re both being asked inappropriate questions about their sexuality by presumptuous outsiders, such that they both have to distance themselves from the experience: the woman interviewing Lito is being no less dehumanising in her assumptions than the prison doctor asking to examine Sun, and we’re invited to compare a gay man being perpetually forced to conform to straightness in public with an innocent, imprisoned women being forced to expose herself to a masculine authority figure and this show you guys, this fucking show

I need approximately a million more episodes of Sense8 please and thank

  1. imalwayspr3tty reblogged this from wellgnawed
  2. xandromedovna reblogged this from deinonychusindisguise
  3. slowtown12900m00ns reblogged this from winjennster
  4. nevergrowupandnevergiveup reblogged this from lexasami
  5. lexasami reblogged this from fozmeadows
  6. wondervoyager reblogged this from holden-norgorov
  7. insufferableknowitall1083 reblogged this from holden-norgorov
  8. holden-norgorov reblogged this from fozmeadows
  9. entransed reblogged this from wellgnawed
  10. commu-nephil reblogged this from wellgnawed
  11. wellgnawed reblogged this from loveyleanings
  12. fozmeadows posted this