Image source: The 'Killing Eve' Finale has Infuriated Queer Fans
Blog Post #11: Killing Eve and "Bury Your Gays" Backlash
By Madeline Feehan
Some of the fiercest allies and supporters of diversity, equity, and inclusion (and some of its greatest opponents) can be found in the unlikeliest of places: Tumblr, Twitter, and AO3. What do these people all have in common? They are heavily immersed in fandoms. Whether they're reblogging content or creating their own, whether they're starting Reddit threads, writing fanfiction, drawing fanart, posting to their stories, making video edits, or starting petitions, these fans all share a passion for fictional worlds.
So what happens when a fandom all comes together and agrees on one thing? This is what happened with the Killing Eve fandom after the show's finale. Sometimes audiences are split between opinions. For example, when a beloved book gets turned into a movie, some will argue that the book's better or that the movie's better. However, when it came to Killing Eve, all I saw was unanimous outrage. Even a Google Search of "Killing Eve" finale feels like detonating a bomb. All you see is article after article of the finale being viewed in a negative light with headlines such as: "Killing Eve fans hated the finale," "As a Killing Eve fan I feel betrayed," "Killing Eve” Season 4 Finale, Explained: A Stray Bullet Buries a Queer Character on TV — Yet Again," and "How Killing Eve Buried Itself along with its Gays."
Of course, there's always odd ones out. There are people who, despite everything, liked the ending, but they are few and far between.
Suffice it to say, the show does not have a happy ending. The main characters finally get together, but their happiness is instantly ruined by a bullet. It especially feels like a punch to the gut because of how outwardly queer the show was. Fans from all walks of life were disappointed that the show went against the book's much happier, subversive ending (where the characters fake their deaths and live a peaceful life together) and had your classic heartbreaking "bury your gays" ending.
Going from an ending that celebrates queer joy to a stereotypical traumatic ending made many fans feel betrayed, and it felt retroactive and regressive.
For those who don't know, "bury your gays" refers to a common trope where LGBTQ+ characters die in media, but it's not that simple. The trope does not occur when an LGBT character dies; instead, it becomes a trope and becomes harmful when characters continually die or seem to be punished because they are gay or die disproportionately compared to the straight characters in the same world.
Killing Eve falls right into this trope's trap while being seemingly progressive otherwise, so that's why it felt like such a low blow. It also doesn't help that this finale aired at a similar time as Supernatural, which did the same thing. Both shows had a gay ship consummate their relationship or confess their love, only to have one of them die right after. Killing Eve is cited as feeling intentionally personal and cruel because it felt like they were dangling a carrot in front of the audience's faces. They built up a lesbian ship for 4 seasons, put fans through the slowest of burns, promising validation, only for it to finally happen and then immediately get taken away. As the Vanity Fair article cites: "For a few short moments, they got to work together as a team, as carefree lovers crazy about each other. And then it was taken away in a way that wasn’t just cruel, but stereotypical and exhausting" (Still).
While some fans wrote angry letters to the showrunners and made their negative opinions clear on every social media platform, some had a different response. Some fans chose to ignore the ending and focus on the positives. Many wrote alternate endings for themselves and pretended like the finale never happened. Social media allowed them to come together and rewrite the story.
This shows that when it comes to DEI, fans have power and social media is their battleground. As Kristen cites in her post about the whitewashing of the Bad Batch, fans can hold creators accountable. Fans can express their discontent and use their voice and find a community that agrees. Fans can also make the piece of media their own and resist the harmful tropes by rewriting the story. Whichever way you interact, just know that ordinary people have the power to create change. If enough fans are dissatisfied, it can make a difference. Showrunners and creators can take a deeper look at their work and it can make them strive to better represent minorities and better incorporate diversity. They can see when people are complaining for complaint's sake, and when there seems to be a serious DEI issue. It can be tricky to navigate what is "ragebait" (a manipulative tactic people use to cause outrage and gain attention) and what are raw, honest reactions, but it's worth it. This is not a call to action to cancel creators; instead, it's an opportunity to reflect. Everyone's entitled to their own personal opinion; however, when hundreds of personal opinions are all echoing the same thing, maybe it's time to think critically about what stories you want to tell and what audiences you want to appease.
I love that both of our posts this week focused on fandom drama--well, I hesitate to call it "drama" since that invalidates the completely valid rage many fans felt here. I was going to comment on Supernatural before reading your mention of it--it's troubling that this is such a common thing among shows. While each creator has their own personal vision of how a story will play out, it's very important to understand the audience you're building--what draws them to your creation? What about your themes/characters/world is meaningful to them? It sounds like Killing Eve was important to many fans who might have seen themselves in a wlw couple who ultimately triumphed over adversity, only to have it unceremoniously ripped away (I'm glad the book gives them a happier ending). I do appreciate your mention of how some fans wrote alternative endings for themselves. It reminds me a bit of "fix-it fics" that you'll see on Ao3, where fans write stories in which characters are able to work on issues they didn't in get to a show/book/etc. Social media can a great space for fans collectively disappointed or shocked by these decisions to come together to share these stories, building a community of support.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen, thanks for this thoughtful response! Your fandom-related post really inspired me to talk about something I was passionate about. I agree that each creator is allowed to have their vision, even if it doesn't align with expectations, but this specific choice (especially since it completely went against source material) stood out as questionable to me. I was devastated by the finale as a fan and honestly did feel betrayed. All the fix it fics and efforts were much appreciated, and I agree that it's really sweet that mutual hatred/anger over a creator's decisions can really bring people together. Even though we've all shared and experienced our own share of horror stories on the Internet and in fandom spaces, it's nice to see people build communities and find each other.
DeleteHi Madeline, thanks for such an important blog post! I really resonate with the harmful impact of tragedy that befalls so many marginalized identities, and the power of fans and fandom in coming together in a digital space, to gather and communicate their feelings of distaste on such a commonly found occurrence. I wonder how we, as librarians, can recreate this participatory culture model for our teens in a safe digital space through our libraries, or in person through programming, because it is such an intentionally significant and important topic to dissect safely. Thanks for your share!
ReplyDeleteHi Tova, thanks for this great response! You're so right that marginalized people do not have it easy in life and in fictional media, so it's nice to see people come together and go "hey this feels weird/oddly hateful" regardless of their background. I definitely think libraries should consider more fandom-based programming that appeals to teens. For example, my library hosts a Pokémon club for teens which I'm running this year. It's very loosely structured, the kids come in and essentially run the show. It's their time to geek out, whether it's creating their own content, playing the game, talking about it, or (most popularly) showing each other their binders and card collections. I think some kind of club where teens meet up after a popular show has aired to discuss the latest episode and share future theories would be awesome and a great way they can healthily engage with fandom.
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