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Swipe Left When Marginalized TV Characters Consider Dating Apps

Swipe Left When Marginalized TV Characters Consider Dating Apps

Kevin Keller as Casey Cott on Riverdale

I happened to be only a little astonished (and, to be truthful, excited) whenever i acquired a Bumble notification showcasing a competition to win a night out together with Riverdale star K.J. Apa. It appeared like benign promotion: One fan that is lucky invest your day volunteering with Archie Andrews. But we began to concern the news partnership whenever alleged feminist relationship app Bumble began popping up when you look at the CW adaption for the Archie comic guide show. Unlike the majority of these real-life peers, Archie (K.J. Apa) and buddies (all played by 20-somethings) rarely cope with the adolescent battles of human body modifications and discovery that is romantic. Riverdale’s steamy moments that are intimate just like impractical as the show’s convoluted plots.

The sole teen who is depicted fumbling through relationship is Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), Betty’s (Lili Reinhart) closest friend therefore the first-ever homosexual character within the Archie world. As Jackson McHenry had written in Vulture, Kevin is not able to find connection “amid Riverdale’s heteronormative embrace of high-school love triangles, dances, and periodic S&M fugue states.” However when he turns to cruising, the concern his buddies express for his well-being—a serial killer with fundamentalist Christian values is terrorizing the city, after all—comes across like daddy sugar scolding. Riverdale’s straight teenagers date without fear, because of the outcome that, as Kevin reminds Betty, “You behave like we’ve got the exact same collection of opportunities [for romance], but we don’t.”

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