Isn't it so funny how gay Deadpool is for Wolverine??
That seems to be the mantra of the currently ongoing marketing campaign for the upcoming Marvel Studios film Deadpool & Wolverine, and we are so tired of it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is famous for its terrible queer representation. The first queer character in an MCU movie was Grieving Man, a nameless queer played by Avengers: Infinity War director Joe Russo. Additional queer characters and storylines have been cut from Marvel movies, including a gay kiss in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a scene with a woman leaving Valkyrie's apartment and kissing her in Thor: Ragnarok, and lesbian icon America Chavez being reduced to a preteen with a rainbow patch on her jacket.
Now, the same company is trying to convince us that Deadpool is going to be gay for Wolverine in the new Deadpool & Wolverine movie? We have to laugh.
After the first Deadpool, fans celebrated that it had a scene where Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is pegged by his girlfriend Vanessa. However, he only agreed to do it because it was International Women's Day, and when it happens, the camera zooms in on his wincing face, showing he is definitely not liking it.
If the message was "it's okay for masculine men to get pegged," why end the scene with a joke about how horrible it feels for a man to be pegged?
Now, Disney and the MCU are doubling (and tripling!) down on the gay jokes...
The marketing for Deadpool & Wolverine is leaning heavily on the fact that Deadpool is pansexual and that he is head over heels gay for the gruff, stoic, and straight Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).
The IMAX poster for the film show Wolverine's fist with his claws out, as Deadpool gently strokes one of the claws and caresses his hand.
It's not meant to be sexy, only funny, that these two could be doing something even remotely intimate with each other. Furthermore, the marketing doesn't imply that anything serious will actually happen between the two men. It's all jokes. (Male friendship and intimacy, amiright!?!?)
Marvel Studio's parent company Disney also recently released a new illustrated poster (in Portugese) that was clearly inspired by the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast romantic poster. Here, Deadpool is in the role of Belle, dancing with Wolverine in the spot of the Beast.
Get it? Deadpool is the girl here. He's the effeminate one, he's the faggy one. Isn't that so funny??
And then there's the popcorn bucket. As soon as the viral Dune II popcorn bucket came out and people immediately started joking (or maybe being serious) about using it as a sex toy, the Wolverine & Deadpool team jumped at the opportunity to make yet another queerbait-y joke.
In the unveiling video for the Deadpool & Wolverine bucket, which is shaped like the lower half of Wolverine's face with his mouth wide open, Deadpool's gloved hands are shown stroking the face before pouring popcorn and butter all over the mouth, obviously reminiscent of semen.
Is this movie trying to convince us that Wolverine sucks dick? This is what queerbaiting actually is. If Wolverine ever sucks dick in the MCU I will happily issue a full apology. But that's never going to happen.
Instead of feeling like a step forward for queer representation in the MCU, this feels like a huge step back.
These jokes don't feel like they're coming from inside the queer community — they feel like the jokes frat guys and jocks used to lob at people like us back in high school and college.
These are the same jokes made in movies like Boat Trip, where Cuba Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sanz pretend to be gay on a gay cruise, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, where Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretend to be gay to get married.
Even the TVTropes website page for the homophobic trope "Queer People Are Funny" lists the 2016 Deadpool movie and its 2018 sequel as the second example in its Films – Live Action section.
"The titular Deadpool in Deadpool (2016) and its sequel is pansexual," the entry reads. "With his relationship to Vanessa being treated serious but showing him happily molesting other guys for comedy."
Now,
Deadpool & Wolverine is taking it to the next level of homophobia, making nearly every ad for the movie be these jokes about Deadpool groping his straight costars.
Obviously we are not falling for it. As the classic tweet says, getting queerbaited by the MCU is like losing at chess to a dog. And we know all of this dog's tricks.
Wolverine and Deadpool will not share a romantic kiss in the movie, they won't fall in love, they won't have sex. If anything, they might kiss in a joke-y moment, because again, gay is only okay if it's done as a joke...
