Historians Will Say They Were Good Friends
Why we can't tell bromances from queer relationships, and LGBTQ representation in 'Good Omens'
Welcome back, angsty readers!
I had initially planned this newsletter for June, but keeping with Angst Alert tradition, it is being published slightly late. You could also interpret it as a subversion of LGBTQ content being restricted to Pride Month. Since apparently it exists somewhere in a dark vacuum for 11 months of the year, waiting for rainbows to grace all logos, social platforms, and publications once more.
To summarize, I’m queer, it’s July, and season 2 of Good Omens is coming out soon.
The Good, (And Mostly) Bad And Ugly Of Popular Culture
Remember that episode in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. where Ross and Joey wake up to find themselves cuddling on the sofa? After horrified reactions and repeated proclamations of “I’m not gay!”, they finally admit that they really enjoyed the nap and would like to do it again.
While this scene, along with Chandler and Joey’s close friendship, were merely comedic tools for the creators of F.R.I.E.N.D.S., popular culture has continued to blur the lines between bromance and gay romance for one simple reason: entertainment.
Many popular shows today have been accused of queerbaiting their fans by developing character relationships that teeter on the edge of queer romance but are fully acknowledged or developed as such.
The characters stand too close to each other, go to ridiculous lengths to protect each other, have ‘romantic’ moments to keep their fans hooked, and even joke about their closeness/romance.
Some examples are Sherlock and Watson from BBC’s Sherlock, Dean and Castiel from Supernatural, and Arthur and Merlin from Merlin. This YouTube channel does a great job of dissecting these bromances and separating the queer representation from the queer bait.
India’s very first mainstream (and laughable) queer representation, Dostana, relied completely on this bromance dynamic. With two straight men pretending to be a gay couple to woo their oblivious new girl best friend, they created waves with the promise of a single kiss. *gasp* Recent LGBTQ films feature actual queer characters, which should really be the minimum requirement for a queer film.
Before Queerbaiting, There Was Straight-Washing
Queerbaiting makes straight friendships seem like queer romance. This is hilarious because it flips a much older and more problematic phenomenon: queer romances being recorded as straight friendships.
There is a running joke among the global queer community that historians have a way of turning queer couples across time into friends or roommates.
All types of historical figures — rulers, artists, writers, scientists — have had this aspect of their identity conveniently erased. Some examples are Anne Frank, Freddie Mercury, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and Frida Kahlo.
There was also a 2011 biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld which stated that Gandhi was queer. It received outrage and was banned in several parts of India for the reasons mentioned here. The Bad Gays podcast is a great source for discovering surprisingly queer people, although they do focus on the complicated ones.
Feminist and poet Adrienne Rich wrote extensively on the concept of forced heterosexuality or heteronormativity — where everyone is considered heterosexual unless specified otherwise. This also affects LGBTQ people in the present, forcing them to ‘come out’ repeatedly to family, friends, co-workers, and strangers.
Angel and Demon: A Queer(ish?) Love Story
Good Omens is a fantasy novel with your typical impending apocalypse, a bunch of characters trying to prevent it or make it happen, and a group of children right in the middle of it all.
We follow two main characters, Aziraphale (an angel) and Crowley (a demon / fallen angel), who are representatives of heaven and hell on Earth; observing humans, and performing minor miracles or acts of chaos. They cross paths repeatedly and go from being convenient acquaintances to the best of friends. In fact, 30 minutes of episode 3 are dedicated to showing how this bond developed over centuries.
Crowley and Aziraphale scramble to prevent the apocalypse, even though the angels and demons are rooting for it. They flout the rules because they like being on Earth. And in each others’ lives. Their affectionate banter, subtextual dialogue, and the ‘forbidden lovers’ trope leads to strong romantic tension. Some of this can be attributed to the actors David Tennent and Michael Sheen, who add a lot of chemistry to their scenes.
But no matter how many instances audiences point out or how many compilations they make, the fact remains that the show does not outright label the characters as queer or call them anything other than friends. Nor do they show any physical affection except giving each other soulful looks like they are on Bridgeton.
So are these characters canonically queer? Or is this another murky case of queerbaiting?
Neil Gaiman, who co-authored the original Good Omens book with Terry Pratchett and is the showrunner of the series, calls the show a love story with no labels and insists that the characters can’t be ‘gay’ since they don’t have a gender.
"Angels are sexless unless they specifically make an effort… Crowley and Aziraphale are two ethereal and occult beings who aren't really quite clear on what mammals are about, even. I don't really think that they've sussed complicated human things like gender."
This article does a great job of exploring these different labels and what this representation could mean for them. But is not excluding queerness equivalent to representation?
Queerness As An Afterthought
The Good Omens book — where Aziraphale and Crowley were definitely just friends, maybe even acquaintances — came out in 1990, long before I was born. And in the last three decades, the book has built a growing fanbase rooting for these two characters to be together.
Neil Gaiman has spoken about how he added romance tropes in the series — like a “break up” scene at the gazebo and one of them drinking champagne at the Ritz while a love song plays in the background — essentially ‘queerifying’ the relationship.
“I needed extra material for them, ’cause there just wasn’t enough in the book. I felt, well, why don’t I essentially take the beats of a love story and see how that works?” - Neil Gaiman on The Mary Sue
Queerness is often used as an afterthought in mainstream stories — as a marketing ploy to engage LGBTQ fans.
Like Dumbledore from Harry Potter, who was never gay in the books or movies, only in JK Rowling’s tweets that conveniently added to the canon. (Her descent into transphobia is not something I want to address in this newsletter on queer representation.) Rosa from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, on the other hand, is an excellent example of a character whose queerness is introduced in the latter seasons, but does not seem like an afterthought.
The argument is that confirming a sexual relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley would rewrite what's considered canon in the book, and simply become fanservice. But the queering of these characters is not the only difference between the book and screen versions.
Since the series and books are ultimately two different texts, the series has some significant variations from the book to suit the format (video) and the times (the 2020s).
For instance, God is voiced by a woman. Pollution is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. (This sounds absurd out of context, but pollution is a replacement for pestilence, one of the four horsemen that rise during an apocalypse.) The four horsemen ride bikes instead of horses. And Famine runs a fast-food empire. So what’s stopping the show from taking this relationship forward?
Love, Like Gender, Is Fluid
The argument circles back to: gender does not exist and love needs no labels.
One can argue that Good Omens is all about breaking the binary — between good and evil, angel and demon, man and woman. Apart from Pollution, some angels with ‘masculine’ names and pronouns like Uriel and Michael are played by female actors. Even Crowley spends a few years as a female nanny, with no indication that this is considered cross-dressing or ‘changing genders’ in any way.
Whatever the love between Aziraphale and Crowley might be, it’s pure, selfless, and highly enjoyable to watch. And my brain might try to deconstruct whether Good Omens is an example of good or bad representation, and what good representation even is, but my heart cherishes these characters and their relationships.
Like any other show, there are other criticisms of Good Omens. Though angels supposedly have no gender or race, the two main characters are still played by white male actors. With season 2 coming out this month, the show promises to address some of these criticisms, with the expectation of a lesbian couple and some more people of colour being introduced as new characters. Neil Gaiman is also hyping fans up with the promise of more romantic moments and a potential kiss in the rain.
So maybe our (my) favourite characters will get their queer romantic moment after all!
Indian LGBTQ Recommendations
Books about how queerness in Indian culture: Devdutt Pattanaik’s Shikhandi: and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You, Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kiwai’s Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History
Biographies: A Life in Trans Activism by A. Revathi, The Man Who Would Be Queen by Hoshang Merchant and Homeless by K Vaishali
Podcast: Atypical Dikkatein Podcast where Soumya Mishra talks to fellow queer, neurodivergent and disabled folx
Quick read: Queer literature for children is changing minds in India by Chintan Girish Modi