This is nothing ground-breaking. Not just the show’s treatment of genderfluidity, but my analysis of its reveal as being nothing more than queerbaiting, as this was mentioned by many people at the time. However, ahead of the show’s second season (planning to be aired later this year), I thought I would revisit and apply the representation criteria to see if there are any merits. If the rating is yet to give it away, prepare for disappointment.
Loki is the third TV series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, releasing in 2021. It follows an alternate version of the titular Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who steals the Tesseract during a time travel scene in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and is hunted by the TVA, an organisation designed to make sure only one version of the timeline exists. However, when the alternate Loki is given a choice by TVA employee Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help them instead of being erased, he ends up finding that the organisation goes deeper and more nefarious than expected.
Looking at this through my objective rating system has some obvious flaws. Its hard to define stereotypes, tokenism, and idyllic life to a character who’s gender identity spans as far as a solitary shot that shows a form listing his sex as “fluid”. Obviously, if this revelation was just for freeze-framers to discover to add a fun fact to their analysis video, I would not need to discuss it, as to even class this as representation is already too far. However, this scene features in the advertising for the series. That is the issue. As advert analysis is more in depth and more discussed, and forms the basis of articles and interviews released before the first episode aired, the inclusion of this implies it will be an important (or at least mentioned) aspect of the show. And yet, there was nothing. This is queerbaiting.
To briefly define queerbaiting, it is when a character is implied to be LGBTQ+ without any substantial evidence to confirm or deny that fact. Simply put, if you wonder how Ryan the flamboyant dancer from High School Musical was straight, that is queerbaiting. A character who is obviously gay, but has to be paired off in a heterosexual couple at the end because actually mentioning that other sexualities exist may "scare" children.
For Loki, you have a character who is known for his shapeshifting ability and gender fluidity in the original Norse mythology (and let’s face it, anyone under the non-binary umbrella would choose shapeshifting if given a choice of a superpower, for obvious reasons). The shapeshifting has carried through to the Marvel counterpart, as seen in several scenes where he has disguised himself as Odin, Captain America, and (as Thor described in Thor: Ragnarok) a snake. However, this is as far as this power goes, for devious tricks rather than the constantly shifting faces and genders of the mythological version. Granted though, to recreate that effectively will either cost lots of money in CGI or would involve recasting Tom Hiddleston (and nobody can replace him).
However, what is easier to replace is clothes, or make-up, or pronouns. How else do you think all us non-shapeshifters do it? And yet, the character uses he/him pronouns constantly, and spends most of the show in a shirt and tie. Unless you see the freeze-framer’s articles, or have really good eyesight yourself, it is very easy to assume Loki is just a normal cisgender man. But that is the point, as Marvel and Disney would not risk anything more than a teaser with the transphobic backlash they would receive. If anything, a shirt and a tie, and begrudgingly using masculine pronouns is what I do to disguise myself to avoid the exact same thing.
The closest the show gets to showing gender fluidity is the fact Loki has a female variant named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). This could be speculated as further confirmation, as characters seem shocked that a different gendered variant could exist, such as a discussion Loki has with other Loki variants describing her and that revelation as “terrifying”. However, without more context around the show, it is unclear whether this is normal across all variants, so does it truly prove anything? The show also shows an alligator variant of Loki, but nobody claims he must be reptile-fluid too.
To give the show the credit it deserves, it was a fun watch, and has a scene where Loki and Sylvie discuss their bisexuality. Given that Marvel didn’t have any openly LGBTQ+ representation until an extra is one scene of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and this show was the first instance of a main character openly being LGBTQ+, then this is an excellent step.
Unfortunately, this is a blog about non-binary representation, and in that regard, it is disappointingly empty. Maybe season 2 can expand on the genderfluid dynamic, and if so, I will definitely revisit the show later in the year. But for season 1, and the advertising around it, it is just your classic bait and switch, but the genderfluid switch is never really shown.
Rating
Avoiding Stereotypes – ½ a star
Avoiding Tokenism – 0 stars
Avoiding Queerbaiting – 0 stars
Too Idealistic or Too Cynical – 0 stars
External Effects – ½ a star
Overall: 1 Star
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