Barbie’s gay Ken Easter egg, explaed - Polygon

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Is very much a thg of our time s approach to gay inty and romance. Protagonist and narrator Eric "Bty" Btle, a gay llege hman, is fortable his sk a way that was impossible to image jt a few years ago. There's no big g-out scene, no "nvert the lone homophobe" drama, no storyle oked up jt to te the rear about the gay experience.

There's a quatns to Ukazu's approach, but bee this is a gay teen romance, has an edge. But bee both wrer and rear know the dark reali that — spe all recent progrs — gay kids face, Bty's story has ntext and portent.

Ukazu uld have overtly addrsed issu like the suici rate among gay teens. It's fun to watch Bty grow up om a hman to a sophomore, though you might feel a pang when he cuts his hair. While mastream media had one of s most ntent years ever when to the Bury Your Gays trope, stead of breakg s queer protagonists hearts wh ntrived tragedy, Check, Please!

(The tras that are looked down upon are those on that are rooted hate, such as homophobia or any form of tolerance. Artist Ngozi Ukazu is the creator of the popular web ic Check Please, about a gay llege hockey player who lov to bake.

She knew a Yale hockey player who remarked that none of the players on the hockey team were gay. So, she took that as a challenge and ma her ma character gay. “What if there was a kid om the South — a place I’m so faiar wh — what if he went to this totally foreign environment and we got to see what would happen if there was a gay kid on the hockey team?

Graphic novel, which chronicl Btle’s hman and sophomore years, was published September. I plan on remendg this to a iend of me who is straight, but lov hockey (you learn a lot about hockey) and another iend who is gay but is not to sports.