Peacemaker’s bisexuality should be more than a Suicide Squad Easter egg

Over the course of eight episodes, James Gunn’s Peacemaker It did something really surprising, it made a flat-looking villain out of Suicide SquadYou will be the star in an unexpectedly touching and fun spinoff. You can find out more at In Suicide Squad, Chris “Peacemaker” Smith mostly serves as a joke about American imperialism. In reality, Peacemaker, he’s a tortured man with an abusive and dark past, who turned to violence in the hopes of making amends for his worst mistake. He’s also a glam rock fan, the best friend of an eagle, and, as Gunn revealed in a recent interview, bisexual.

You might be surprised by the last bit. All eight episodes I watched were without Peacemaker ever being called bi. After going through all eight episodes, I realized why. To the extent that Peacemaker’s bisexuality exists within the actual text of the series, it’s largely in the context of throwaway jokes and “blink and you’ll miss it” innuendoes. In the first episode, Peacemaker references having sex with other men while in prison; not long after, we’re given a post-coital shot of a three-way Peacemaker has with Vigilante and Amber (also known as the woman he briefly holds hostage alongside her husband). Later in the series, Peacemaker’s dad belittles his manhood. And, of course, he’s a big fan of glam rock and gender bending rockers.

Read one way, it adds up to a bisexual character, especially if you’re used to queerness being doled out in sidelong glances and crumbs. But it’s also just as easy to interpret the character as a super horny straight dude who will sleep with men when they’re the only option, is happy to share a female sexual partner with a male friend, has a homophobic dick dad, and is passionate about really good music (which, to be clear, is how I read the character on my first run through the series).

Peacemaker isn’t the only bisexual — or bi-coded — male character who exists in this grey area. Bisexual (and even pansexual or omnisexual) male characters have become more prevalent than ever. Yet, their queerness rarely seems to extend beyond jokes and innuendo. Whether it’s Deadpool, Loki, Lando Calrissian, Bob Belcher of Bob’s BurgersRick Rick & MortySterling Archer or? Archer (just to name a few examples), bi male characters — or at least characters read by audience members as bi — may flirt with men, call other men hot, or even obliquely reference past boyfriends (as in the case of Loki’s official “coming out” in Disney Plus’ Loki). In some especially edgy cases, they’ll be sexually involved with other men in a one-off gag, as with Peacemaker’s three-way. These characters are usually partnered only with women when it comes down to onscreen relationships. Their interest in men is largely a theoretical matter, and often played up as a joke. On screen, men’s bi experiences seem rooted, not in a desire for intimacy and closeness with other men, but more a freewheeling horniness that’s expansive enough to encompass male bodies and sexuality. It’s bisexuality by way of being — to quote Parks & Recreation’s Jean-Ralphio Saperstein — “open minded as hell.”

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It’s not that there’s anything wrong with identifying characters like Peacemaker or Loki or whomever as bi, or that every bi male character NeedsTo have an intimate relationship on screen with another man. Like all sexual identities male bisexuality can be very complex. For some bi men, the queer part of their identity really does begin and end with sex; and it’s not hard to see why a character like Peacemaker, who grew up in an incredibly conservative, and homophobic, environment, might be more comfortable sexually pursuing men, or buddying up with them in threeways, than actually pursuing a gay romantic relationship.

These are what you need to know. OnlyIt reduces the understanding of bisexuality as a man by showing male bisexuality in films and TV. Instead of seeing the many diverse ways that men can be bi — whether that’s mostly straight men who occasionally pursue sex with men, mostly gay men who periodically enjoy flirtations with women, men whose sex and dating history includes partners of a range of genders, or other experiences entirely — we’re stuck with a limited vision that reinforces the idea that male bisexuality is nothing more than overflow of indiscriminate horniness, that bi men are nothing more than straight men with a broader sexual appetite, rather than an entirely separate category of man with its own relationship to sex, intimacy, and masculinity.

It’s an interesting contrast to portrayals of female bi characters, who are often given much more fleshed out queer identities — sometimes even in the same properties that merely hint at a male character’s desire to go both ways. You can read more. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rosa Diaz is openly bisexual and depicted in relationships with both men and women; Jake Peralta, on the other hand, remains in bi-coded territory, with some fans reading him as bi due to a his willingness to acknowledge other men’s attractiveness and a professed crush on Mario Lopez. You might like Peacemaker, Harley QuinnThis is a fresh and interesting take on the topic. Suicide SquadCharacter; not like Peacemaker, the show’s title character actually winds up in a same-sex relationship, paired off with her best friend at the end of the show’s second season.

It’s a strange thing to witness: even as queer representation flourishes on TV and film, with thoughtful, complex LGBTQ characters of all stripes popping up all across the spectrum, bisexual men remain on the margins, stuck in this territory of plausible deniability. Is there a reason?

Well, for starters, there’s a long history of stigma around male bisexuality. In the mainstream straight world bisexual women are often seen as attractive and wild. Their attraction to other women is often what makes them stand out. Continue readingMale partners will find you more attractive than your female counterparts. Bisexual men are, however, more likely to be dismissed by men as gay and closeted, or worse, as vile intruders. Bisexual men were often portrayed at the peak of the HIV epidemic as vectors of infection, which allowed HIV to spread from gay communities into straight women. Decades later, bi men still get treated with suspicion — even in porn, where pretty much every female performer is expected to be (or at least pretend to be) bi, male bisexuality is largely taboo.

These properties can be winked at bisexuality in males, which allows them to get representation credibility without even having to address the awkward ideas that people still hold about bisexual men. Further, the specific flavor of bisexuality that pops up again and again — the dude so horny he doesn’t care What he sticks his dick into — doesn’t require us to think more deeply about how bisexuality might alter a male character’s relationship to masculinity and other men. After all, what’s more manly than just wanting to fuck all the time? When asked, by Vulture about Peacemaker’s bisexuality, Gunn responded with a comment about the character’s liberal attitude towards sexuality — which he then contrasts with the more “conservative” monogamous marriage embraced by lesbian character Leota Adebayo.)

What would it mean to give Peacemaker a more fully fleshed out, and more nuanced, queer identity — if, instead of just appearing in bed with Vigilante and a woman, he was actually allowed to explore a romantic relationship with Vigilante alone? What if Loki’s romantic interest in his self-titled series wasn’t a gender swapped version of himself, but instead another man? Would it change how we view a character like Deadpool if, instead of merely expressing (frequently violent) sexual desire for other men, we were asked to accept him as someone who’s sexually and emotionally vulnerable in the company of men; someone who doesn’t just ruthlessly dominate, but opens up emotionally, forms romantic bonds, and even, perhaps, sexually submits?

It probably would — but there’s good reason to think that change would be for the better, not just for bi men and the people who love them, but for the quality of media in general. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that bi female characters were stuck in a similar position as bi male characters are now; reduced to flat, 2D caricatures whose bi identity was largely made up crass jokes and innuendo. Seriously: In 2014, The ToastIt was praiseworthy How I Met Your MotherFor its depiction of Lily. (A character who does not identify herself as bi or date a woman. She mostly expresses her sapphism by comments about how she wants to have sex with friends and to attend strip clubs.

And as depictions of bi women have become richer and more nuanced — not just the tough as nails Rosa Diaz or chaotic Harley Quinn, but Owl House’s nerdy teen witch Luz, To Me, Dead’s “casually queer” Judy, and even Miranda Hobbes in the Sex and the City Reboot Just like that — it’s opened doors for a variety of new storylines and new avenues for these shows to explore, creating richer, more thoughtful TV and movies. Similar opportunities would open up for bi men to express themselves onscreen. Hopefully, it’s one that more showrunners will actually start to take.