Bury your Gays - Research
- Emerson Pipes
- Jan 6, 2021
- 3 min read
Disclaimer;
My research is done in my own way. I look at other opinions from blogs/website/reviews/essays and videos that attain to my research. Looking at both side to any information and then summing it up in my own words. But I encourage others to also do their own research and not to take mine as a primary source.
Tigger warning:
Su*cide and Homophobia
Bury Your Gays has a long and interesting history. From around the 19th century, the act of ‘burying your gays’ existed in literature, due to the criminalisation of homosexuality.
In the beginning, queer characters were only shown in tv/film/literature as the villain, the one leading the main characters away and therefore their death was expected and celebrated. They were deprived and over sexual people who, because of their ‘sinful’ acts, are punished by killing them off. There was an inherent link between villainy and homosexuality. Men were shown as predatory and women as hypersexual femme fatal.
Then there is the twist on this trope, with the suffering and too good Queer character, who is relentlessly discriminated against and dies because of prejudice (Mostly by suicide) and helps the main character come to better understand the struggle or teach the audience a lesson about the struggle of queer people. This has been the more widely known version of queer representation. While it is important to show the effects of discrimination and homophobia this has resulted in a perception of homosexuals as sad and oppressed, struggling and under pressure in society-just this. The happier aspects are pushed aside to rather highlight the angst and trauma.
The less noticeable version of bury your gays are harder to spot, those outside the queer community may miss it or lack an understanding. For example, killing off a queer coded character before they can come out/confess to another character. Killing off one queer character of a couple before they can truly have a happy ending.
This isn't to say queer characters can't have tragic stories. This is more specif to situations when there is only one queer character in a show.
The most blatant recent version of this was in supernatural. Shocking everyone by having Castiel confess before his death. It upset and shocked many people as it was a clear fall back into the bury your gay's trope that had been seen to be fading away to some extent.
It’s a somewhat difficult thing to say, but in mainstream media where there is a heteronormative standard, killing off a queer character is objectively seen as homophobic. It can get so much backless, accusations of killing of the only queer character because they were gay. However, I think it is telling. If your show only has one queer character, killing them off may also (mind the pun) kill your ratings as the queer members of the audience no longer have someone to relate to. But this leads to an unfortunate flipping of the trope - preserve your gays - where tv/movies will avoid killing/hurting the queer characters out of fear of backlash.
It's a fine line to toe, however hopefully as tv/movies become more diverse the trope of Bury Your Gays and Preserve your gays will fade away.
Article on Bury Your Gays.
Tropes page explanation and examples.
History of the trope- with video.
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