Why Captain America Should Stay Straight (Opinion)

So a few days ago, I saw news that a hashtag was trending on twitter called #givecaptainamericaaboyfriend. About a week later, the hashtag has died down a bit, but some smaller news outlets are still reporting on it. So, I figured I might do my own piece on it and throw my opinion out for debate as well.

Now here’s the thing about comic super heroes. People look to them to be inspired, they idealize being something more than ordinary, something more than human, hence the super in superhero. And that is why everyone wants to be able to relate to them. Wouldn’t it be great if you or I could be a super hero like Ironman, Captain America, and many more? The thing is being able to relate to these characters makes it possible for us to imagine that we could be them. This is where the desire to make Captain America Gay may stem from for some people. If they could relate to him then they too would be able to imagine and work towards being someone that does good and helps people.

Unfortunately, this hashtag isn’t wholly stemmed from this innocent desire to be able to relate. It’s politically motivated. The motivation for this hashtag is to force change in American society. The people behind this hashtag want to see an America that they feel comfortable in and they want to change it to suit them. There is nothing wrong with them wanting to feel comfortable, but the problem is what it takes to make them feel comfortable. It is not enough if Captain America, a long standing icon of the Country is accepting of Gay people and Culture, he must be Gay himself!

They might say that this isn’t too much to ask, but it actually is. Entertainment has two main purposes. The first is to make money, and the second is to entertain. Yes, the first is to make money, after all the employees of Marvel and Disney wouldn’t come to work if it did not permit them to be able to feed their families. Entertainment can be entertaining and make no money but in most instances it cannot make money if it is not entertaining.

Why does that matter? Because simply put, entertainment that is blatantly politically motivated is not entertaining. In fact, it is the opposite. It causes disdain and has the opposite effect of what is often desired. Making Captain America Gay will only cause the comic to suffer because as they read it the majority of people will know at the back of their heads that the events in the comic are due to a political movement carried out by an extremely small group of people. This inherently makes the quality of writing in the comic be perceived as weaker and a much poorer quality. The Comic will make less money hurting the folks at marvel and Disney, as well as making existing fans enraged that their comic that they loved is ruined. This anger will be directed at both Marvel and the very community that worked so hard to change the thing they loved for the purposes of their own political agenda. You think making the Captain gay will help progress for the LBGT community? No, it will only make existing fans of the comic resent them. Instead of progress, they will get the opposite.

There is nothing wrong with Gay superheroes. But there is something wrong with ruing an entire franchise in order to make a political movement. Make new superheroes that are Gay and no one will have the right to complain. But change an existing one for a minority of people and you’ll be taking away from the majority. Every group of people has to build their own successes, not just take them from the majority. That way what they build will have value and will be appreciated instead of being hated.

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