Suddenly Sexuality: Difference between revisions

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== Comic Books ==

* Obsidian, a [[DC Comics]] [[Superhero]], is in the modern age written as an openly gay character despite having dated women in the past and having poor luck with them. He's had a lot more success after coming out, having a steady boyfriend in Damon, assistant to Kate Spencer (a.k.a. [[Manhunter (Comic Book)|Manhunter]]). Possibly subverted since in ''[[Justice League of America]]'', he did have a sorta-crush on Atom Smasher long before he was clearly identified as gay, but it may have been too subtle for people to pick up on and/or [[Depending On the Writer|forgotten by later writers]].

* Connor Hawke, something of an answer to the [[Nineties Anti Hero]] and something of one himself, was introduced originally as a man with [[Chaste Hero|no interest in romantic attachment]] (due to his being, y'know, a ''Buddhist monk'') in the relaunch of his title ''[[Green Arrow]]''. The book attracted a large gay following due to his lack of obvious heterosexual romantic attachment and received praise from both gay and straight sources due to its innovative and mature characterization. Naturally, when the creative staff changed and a new writer came in, he made quick work of introducing a sudden and [[Strangled By the Red String|largely forced]] female "love interest" (the woman who raped his father, to add insult to injury) for Connor -- causing an immense backlash and a quiet [[Author's Saving Throw|attempt to repair]] the near-[[Dork Age]] that occurred.

* Connor Hawke, something of an answer to the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] and something of one himself, was introduced originally as a man with [[Chaste Hero|no interest in romantic attachment]] (due to his being, y'know, a ''Buddhist monk'') in the relaunch of his title ''[[Green Arrow]]''. The book attracted a large gay following due to his lack of obvious heterosexual romantic attachment and received praise from both gay and straight sources due to its innovative and mature characterization. Naturally, when the creative staff changed and a new writer came in, he made quick work of introducing a sudden and [[Strangled By the Red String|largely forced]] female "love interest" (the woman who raped his father, to add insult to injury) for Connor -- causing an immense backlash and a quiet [[Author's Saving Throw|attempt to repair]] the near-[[Dork Age]] that occurred.

** For extra irony points, the author in question was [[Chuck Dixon]], who would years later raise a minor Internet kerfuffle for saying that the sudden presence of gay superheroes was shoehorning sexuality into books aimed at kids... and who explained the reasoning behind Connor's sudden love interest as, "Well, we didn't want people to think he was gay." What was that about shoehorning sexuality, Chuck?

* The [[Vertigo Comics]] miniseries ''[[Enigma]]'' actually makes the sudden sexuality switch of its protagonist, Michael, a part of the plot - it is revealed that {{spoiler|his lover, a sociopath, used psychic powers to alter his sexuality. In the end his lover feels regret and offers to turn him back, but Michael decides that he's happier as he is.}}

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* The ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward (Fanfic)|Forward]]'' actually ''subverts'' this in the "Mosaic" story arc, where River briefly kisses another girl. It turns out that River was in fact quite het, and instead was simply drunk and having a slight mental episode, and the entire incident was foreshadowing {{spoiler|the introduction of John Garis/Echo, an agent of the Academy who she was lured into a relationship with in order to keep her mentally stable and to not commit suicide.}} ....ItMakesSenseInContext.

* Marge in ''[[Bart the General (Fanfic)|Bart the General]]'' is implied to be a lesbian (or bisexual, at least), as Toadfish tells her "Don't worry Marge, we'll sort out the lesbian problem," and she is once shown having sex with another woman.

* [[Death Note (Manga)|Sayu and Misa]] are in a lesbian relationship in ''[[Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami (Fanfic)|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]''. Considering that Misa is [[Single Target Sexuality|Light-sexual]] in canon, this comes off as fairly jarring.

* [[Death Note (Manga)|Sayu and Misa]] are in a lesbian relationship in ''[[Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami (Fanfic)|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]''. Considering that Misa is [[Single-Target Sexuality|Light-sexual]] in canon, this comes off as fairly jarring.

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** And then there are [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/arts/29conn.html?_r=1 those] [http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/10/23/dumbledore-is-not-gay-taking-stories-more-seriously-than-the-author/ who] relate to the [[Death of the Author]], suggesting that the author's personal opinion about the characters has no more weight than anyone else's.

* According to an interview with [[Anne McCaffrey]], this can be executed by making use of a tent peg. Yes, ''that'' use of a tent peg.

** McCaffrey also has a gay character suddenly turn [[No Bisexuals|totally straight]] in the last book of the [[Tower and The Hive (Literature)|Talents series]], just so that a single woman could get a [[Last Minute Hookup]] without introducing [[Loads and Loads of Characters|yet another]] character.

** McCaffrey also has a gay character suddenly turn [[No Bisexuals|totally straight]] in the last book of the [[Tower and The Hive (Literature)|Talents series]], just so that a single woman could get a [[Last-Minute Hookup]] without introducing [[Loads and Loads of Characters|yet another]] character.

* In her book ''Commencement,'' J. Courtney Sullivan avoids the more obvious choice of using [[Straw Feminist]] April for this, making her (reluctantly) heterosexual - and gives the coming-out story to the least likely member of her [[Four Girl Ensemble]]: {{spoiler|Bree, the [[Southern Belle]] who arrives at Smith with plans to marry her high school boyfriend - before she meets [[Closet Key|Lara]].}} Subverted to some degree in that she has difficulty identifying as lesbian/bi and sees Lara as a case of [[If It's You It's Okay]].

* In her book ''Commencement,'' J. Courtney Sullivan avoids the more obvious choice of using [[Straw Feminist]] April for this, making her (reluctantly) heterosexual - and gives the coming-out story to the least likely member of her [[Four-Girl Ensemble]]: {{spoiler|Bree, the [[Southern Belle]] who arrives at Smith with plans to marry her high school boyfriend - before she meets [[Closet Key|Lara]].}} Subverted to some degree in that she has difficulty identifying as lesbian/bi and sees Lara as a case of [[If It's You It's Okay]].

* Dono, ex Donna, Vorrutyer in the [[Vorkosigan Saga (Literature)|Vorkosigan Saga]] probably belongs here. There is no mention of any lesbian tendencies being displayed as Donna, but after his [[Easy Sex Change]], Dono shows interest only in mating with women, and is engaged or about-to-be by the end of [[A Civil Campaign]].

* In ''Sweet Valley Confidential'', a spin-off from ''[[Sweet Valley High]]'' that follows Elizabeth and Jessica at age 27, the twins' brother Steven is suddenly revealed to be gay. He'd spent the entirety of the original books as ostensibly heterosexual, married one woman (Cara) and been engaged to another (Billie), and had a nervous breakdown over the death of ''another'' girlfriend. His partner, Aaron Dallas, was also presented as heterosexual in the original series; while Tom McKay, the only out gay character previously introduced, doesn't reappear in ''Confidential''.

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* ''[[Home and Away]]'' had a storyline where Charlie was assigned to a rape case involving Aden's colleagues Joey and Robbo (Joey being the female victim). Charlie eventually had Joey move in with her (and Leah, VJ and Ruby) to keep her safe from both Robbo and Joey's older brother Brett. This progressed predictably, to the point where Charlie and Joey were outed as a couple when Brett painted the word "queer" on Charlie's car. Charlie then buggered it all up in ''one month'' by sleeping with Hugo, and after they broke up (and Joey left the show), she went back to Angelo. So far, she's shown little sign of looking back.

* There was a skit on ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'' in which Scott Thompson (the [[Camp Gay]]) suddenly revealed he was straight, and married to a woman. He made an announcement where he basically said: "Sorry for coming out as gay, I guess I was just in a hurry."

** Subverting gay tropes is a bit of a theme with Scott in general, but he gets some mileage from this one. For instance, in the show finale his secretary character, Kathy, comes out {{spoiler|as a male transvestite, along with the rest of the skit's cast}}. Another time, he plays a [[Rated M for Manly]] action hero star, who promptly goes cruising for young men. In their movie, he plays his other usual role, as a stiff middle class family man, as a closet case whose sexuality comes off as this... to him alone. When he finally accepts it, he has a big song and dance number, parading down the street in celebration, climaxing with everyone else declaring they don't care and walking off.

** Subverting gay tropes is a bit of a theme with Scott in general, but he gets some mileage from this one. For instance, in the show finale his secretary character, Kathy, comes out {{spoiler|as a male transvestite, along with the rest of the skit's cast}}. Another time, he plays a [[Rated "M" for Manly]] action hero star, who promptly goes cruising for young men. In their movie, he plays his other usual role, as a stiff middle class family man, as a closet case whose sexuality comes off as this... to him alone. When he finally accepts it, he has a big song and dance number, parading down the street in celebration, climaxing with everyone else declaring they don't care and walking off.

* As the page quote demonstrates, Serena Southerlyn from ''[[Law and Order]]'' [[Coming Out Story|came out]] at the literal last minute, asking if it's why Branch fired her. If you go back and rewatch episodes featuring Serene Southerlyn, she's always been portrayed as very supportive of anything that carries the whiff of a "gay cause", so maybe this was simply foreshadowed way too subtly, especially on a show that [[Anvilicious|doesn't seem capable of subtlety]]. [[Word of God]] states that it was closer to a [[Throw It In]], and the actress' own idea, that she came up with right before shooting. Fortunately, given L&O's legendary aversion to showing the private lives of its characters or any romance (the aforementioned Claire relationship was established primarily through innuendo and a single line of dialogue from a later episode), the sudden revelation of Serena's sexuality didn't really have any continuity to violate.

* Tom Friendly, one of The Others from ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'', is revealed to have a gay lover on the mainland during a flashback. This really had no effect on the character at all and, in fact, was revealed after he had already died in the present. This has been subtly hinted at in an earlier episode when Friendly was still alive and kicking. Friendly was assigned to watch over Kate, who The Others have captured. Kate is told to take a shower, and comments to Friendly that she doesn't feel comfortable with him looking at her while she does so. Mr. Friendly tells her that she's not his type, and implies that his interests are for the other sex.

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* ''[[Dragon Age II (Video Game)|Dragon Age II]]'''s Anders did not appear as anything but straight in his first appearance in ''[[Dragon Age (Video Game)|Dragon Age]] Origins'' DLC, ''Awakening''. He flirted with all the female party members (including the PC), and even his character biography included a line about wanting to settle down with a girl. In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' it's revealed he is bisexual, but only to male players who have a chance of pursuing him. Female players do not have a hint of him being bisexual.

* Elk/Endrance of the [[.hack GU Games]]. Haseo can be this depending on who he sends a certain postcard to.

* Revolver Ocelot in ''[[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'' went from wolf-whistling at Sniper Wolf and ambiguously molesting Meryl as well as flirting with Snake, to having violent and unending [[Single Target Sexuality]] for [[Even the Guys Want Him|Big Boss]]. Still, the relationship was touching and well-written enough that this is generally regarded as an improvement.

* Revolver Ocelot in ''[[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'' went from wolf-whistling at Sniper Wolf and ambiguously molesting Meryl as well as flirting with Snake, to having violent and unending [[Single-Target Sexuality]] for [[Even the Guys Want Him|Big Boss]]. Still, the relationship was touching and well-written enough that this is generally regarded as an improvement.

* [[Mass Effect 3|Kaidan Alenko]] talked about his first girlfriend and was a romance option for a female PC in the first game, he also had some light flirting going on with a woman during the second. In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' he will come on to a male Shepard if treated like the close friend he is- even if he knows you are in a loving relationship with a woman/another man.

** [[Hand Waving|The dialogue states]] that the reason Kaidan never flirted with a male PC is because he was very focused on his career.

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== Western Animation ==

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' where Stan's friend's wife announces she's leaving him because she's a lesbian. When he protests, she says "You don't just ''become'' lesbian! [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|It's not like someone shot an experimental ray into my brain that made me a lesbian!]]" {{spoiler|Of course, Stan did just that; he's trying to get his friend, who's an atheist, to convert to Christianity by putting him through a [[The Bible|Job]]-like situation.}}

* Randal in ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' apparently has the power of inducing this, as it's revealed in Episode 5 that every woman he's dated switched teams shortly after breaking up with him. He takes this as a sign that he is the "ultimate male". And all of the lesbian characters in this episode were hilariously voiced by [[Cross Dressing Voices|male actors]]--one of whom was [[Kevin Smith]] himself. This is a [[Mythology Gag]] to ''[[Chasing Amy]]'', another part of [[The View Askewniverse]].

* Randal in ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' apparently has the power of inducing this, as it's revealed in Episode 5 that every woman he's dated switched teams shortly after breaking up with him. He takes this as a sign that he is the "ultimate male". And all of the lesbian characters in this episode were hilariously voiced by [[Cross-Dressing Voices|male actors]]--one of whom was [[Kevin Smith]] himself. This is a [[Mythology Gag]] to ''[[Chasing Amy]]'', another part of [[The View Askewniverse]].

* Lexington, of ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'', did show interest in a random group of human-turned-gargoyle girls in 'The Mirror' and chased after Angela when she joined the clan, but was also the first to stop chasing after her. It's been hinted [[Early Installment Weirdness|that his sexuality wasn't pinned down]] until the Angela-meets-the-Trio episode, and [[Greg Weisman]] has offered that Lex was just going along with what was expected of him as a young man to do, before he realized his heart wasn't really in it. That is how it happens for many real life queer individuals, so it works.

* Inverted in an episode of ''[[King of the Hill (Animation)|King of the Hill]]'' where Peggy finds out that her [[Camp Gay|effeminate hairdresser]] is straight, and has been married to a woman for some time.

* Patty in ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' seems like this at first when she comes out. She dates Skinner for a while and seems to enjoy it, dumping him because of her sister rather than her sexuality (though it's possible to read her relationship as being a form of [[The Beard]] knowing what we know now). The hints had actually been there for a while, the earliest one was in Season 4, where she's one of the people who went to the local burlesque house that Marge's group shame into getting to tear it down, just two seasons after she dated Skinner and long before it became official in Season 16. The even series [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on this, with her commenting "There goes the last lingering trace of my heterosexuality" upon seeing a naked Homer -- admittedly in a non-canon ([[Negative Continuity|even for this show]]) "Treehouse of Horror" [[Halloween Episode]], and another episode where the main family was watching a gay pride parade, and the float for the "Still in the Closet" gays featured two hands waving out, with one voice (obviously Smithers) chanting, "We're gay! We're glad!" and another voice, obviously ''one'' of Marge's sisters following up: "But don't tell Mom and Dad!"

* [[The Smurfs]] are supposed to be an [[One-Gender Race]] or genderless. Yet, right after Smurfette's transformation into being a real Smurf, they are like [[Hello Nurse]].

* [[The Smurfs]] are supposed to be an [[One-Gender Race]] or genderless. Yet, right after Smurfette's transformation into being a real Smurf, they are like [[Hello, Nurse!]].

* Mr./Ms. Garrison on ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' is the embodiment of this trope, starting out as a [[Transparent Closet|closeted homosexual]], [[Flamboyant Gay|token homosexual]], heterosexual woman (after her [[Gender Bender|sex change]]), a lesbian, and finally a man again (though his current sexuality hasn't been confirmed yet). This is even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when she tells her class about her sudden change to lesbianism, after she comes right out and says she's gay, and Stan asks, "Again?" Chef probably put it best a long time ago: "There's a huge difference between gay people, and Mr. Garrison" since he's also had sex with animals and tried to rape children.

{{quote| [[Oh, Cisco|That's our Garrison!]] ([[Everybody Laughs Ending|laugh track]])}}

{{quote| [[Oh, Cisco|That's our Garrison!]] ([["Everybody Laughs" Ending|laugh track]])}}

** Jimbo was similarly outed as a homosexual during a discussion about [[N-Word Privileges|f-word privileges]]. Garrison's use of the term was uncensored, and everyone else got bleeped. Then Jimbo said it. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

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[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]

[[Category:Suddenly Sexuality]]

[[Category:Trope]]