“That’s how you dealt with all that trauma? By creating an entirely different reality and becoming someone else?”
“Isn’t that what you did, agent Moore? Escaping your prison by becoming someone else? Lying to yourself and everybody else about who you really are? Retreating into the arms of that yummy boyscout?”
#i don’t usually reblog myself but i wanted to add some commentary to this – i felt uncomfortable posting this gifset uncritically #but so what i’ve been seeing from a lot of fans (not just in this case) #is echoing this sentiment that closeted people are in a cage of their own making #and i just wanna say no – this is not a cage of sophie’s own making #homophobia is a cage that’s built by society – by institutions by peers by employers by family #and of course depending on circumstances we have leeway in how we deal with that reality #and yes there is danger… of that prison becoming comfortable as a safe space #and in that sense it resonated with me personally because i feel like i kept myself closeted for too long & it further damaged me #but that makes it perhaps partly a cage of our own staying – not making #and again – i stayed in that closet because homophobia damages us & our self-image & our worldview & everyone around us #homophobia built that cage and keeps enforcing that cage – to dismiss it as a personal choice is to dismiss the force of homophobia imo #the closet as a homophobic cage is a societally built panopticon of both external as well as internal surveillance #(excuse me for the very snobbish sounding yet simplistic stealing from foucault lmfao but you get my point) #but like we all know that the closet is BOTH an oppressive prison AND a tool of survival in a homophobic world #and so it’s never that simple – never merely a self-inflicted prison – a cage of fear or cowardice #tldr i just hate the narrative that the only thing keeping people closeted is themselves #even in cases where there is ‘technical’ freedom #and while it’s easy to root for sophie to ‘free’ herself from the closet – it’s not fair to place the onus solely on her #so no it’s not a cage of her own making and i think people should at least stop guilting her or shaming her so much for this #this narrative begs for sympathy not for judgment #and on the one hand i’m glad it’s a villain saying these lines – making them sound less righteous – more unsympathetic & unfair #creating contrast with heroes and protagonists who often carry out the same rhetoric #(tho it’s frustrating that hollywood equates bigotry with villainy so often – bc bigotry is the most ‘normal’ ‘regular’ behavior there is) #(as in: non-villains – regular flawed people – are casually bigoted all the time and therefore contribute to these ‘cages’) #on the other hand this is obviously meant to come across as a reality check or a truth bomb for sophie – and that’s what i disagree with #especially considering we know she grew up in a homophobic time with a homophobic family #and the episode itself proved – despite the outcry of support – how much homophobia is still active in society #given the reaction against batwoman #and even if it wasn’t! homophobia still built that cage in her head in the first place! was the point of my diatribe (via lesbianelsas)