So I saw a post about why someone didn’t like Alec. And all their reasons are what make me like him.
They say they hated that he didn’t express himself more, and that he doesn’t “embrace his sexuality.” Let me just say, this alone, right here, is why Alec is my favorite character. He’s realistic. He’s a very real portrayal of how many, many homosexual teenagers are. They’re afraid of being themselves, and with good reason. Feeling so scared and different, it makes you keep to yourself and mind yourself. You can’t have experiences that other teenagers do, because you’ll be called out for it, and that makes you feel like even more of a freak, because you’re so far behind in your age group. Everyone else is moving on in their lives and moving on and learning things, and you’re stuck in one place, because you can’t be you. And that’s Alec. Obviously he’s grown some since the first novel though. He’s not afraid to be himself, because he knows he has his friends. He was tired of living a miserable life, and he did something about it. Now he’s able to learn who he is exactly, and is now going on to experience all the things he couldn’t before now. It’s called development, and it’s a particular story that many people this age need to hear.
If Alec started out exactly as he is now, it wouldn’t be interesting. It wouldn’t make you feel closer to the character, and you wouldn’t ever bond with that character over their struggles and personal conflict. He doesn’t “embrace his sexuality”? I can’t even. Not every gay man is as flamboyant as Magnus, or the fucking stereotypes on Glee. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being stereotypical, and I applaud those people for being brave enough to be themselves, but people forget that not every gay man is into wearing pink pants and bow ties. Alec obviously isn’t stereotypical; that’s just his personality. That’s how he was born, liking his same sex, and liking all the other things he does — not consisting of wearing sparkly suspenders. The public is to naive to gays, it’s ridiculous. Liking your same sex doesn’t automatically make you feminine, or masculine. It’s just a single thing you happen to like, and it doesn’t define you. The gays who can’t really hide the fact that they’re gay are the ones that are usually portrayed in media, because just that: they’re the only ones who are really in the spotlight and known and can’t help that, while other, more ‘normal’ gays can just go along pretending and being silent. Alec is the later, again, obviously. And it’s so nice to see a decent portrayal of someone of this persona. It’s refreshing. Stereotypical portrayals that are done well are great and welcomed, but people forget that there’s other people who need representation.
If someone can’t appreciation the brilliance that Alec is, I have to assume it’s because they’ve never been in his position, and are too uninformed at the moment to open their mind up. Cassie has done a fantastic job in writing homosexual characters, and it’s really just something that blows my mind. To see that there’s someone out there who gets it, yet hasn’t exactly gone through it personally. It gives me hope that one day the entire population can be as flawless.
