Tumblr weirdness
There are a couple of Tumblr accounts I follow and their constant posting of GIFs and memes pertaining to homosexual relationships between two characters in TV shows they religiously watch, suggests that it's a subject close to their hearts.
The weird thing is, in one show there is absolutely no homosexual activity between two male characters, it's just a theme that has been picked up and run with by both Tumblr blogs and writers of fan fiction. The two male characters are close, but they're both portrayed as totally straight. They're just bros hanging out and having adventures.
In the other show, one character is married with kids, the other is a womanising singleton, but they eventually become romantically involved with each other. It's a great show and their relationship is endearing and the Tumblr fan base is absolutely batshit crazy about those two dudes.
I've just watched two series of the TV show Interview With The Vampire. It goes all in with the different sexual relationships of three male vampires, who all - at one time or another - obviously love each other. Tumblr blog hysteria about Gay Male Vampires = none.
I'm currently watching Six Feet Under, which has a gay guy as one of the main characters who's navigating the queer world with differing levels of awkwardness. He has a loving relationship at one point before crashing into the gay dating scene with varying levels of success. Tumblr hysteria about freshly out gay man adventures = none.
In these Tumblr blogs there's also a lot of references to The X-Files, where a female FBI agent works alongside a male FBI agent in a purely professional manner (until later in the series when the show runners bowed to fan pressure and got the two leads together). In the Tumblrs the two agents secretly yearn for each other but cannot express their innermost desires. Tumblr hysteria for emotionally repressed government agent sexual longings = off the flipping scale, mate.
This kind of suggests that it's not the gayness of the characters that's attractive to these blogs. It has to be something to do with either illicit love, or repressed love, or too-awkward-to-do-anything-about-it love, or restricted-by-the-situation love. The fact that openly gay vampires aren't worthy of memes and fanfics and fanart but guys who could be gay if you really thought about it even though they're definitely not are, kind of suggests that there's something going on.
Is there a word for people who create gay narratives between straight characters despite there being zero evidence for it?