Daniel Craig's Queer Character Slammed as 'Rainbow Capitalism'
newsweek.comKnives Out character Benoit Blanc is "obviously" queer.Rian Johnson, the director of the 2019 whodunnit and its follow-up Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, confirmed the detail in a press conference ahead of Glass Onion's screening at the London Film Festival on Sunday.The news has sparked debate across social media, with some praising the decision as progressive while others have accused Johnson, Craig and the films' producers of "queer-baiting."Ian Kinane, a senior lecturer in popular literature and culture at the University of Roehampton in London, compared the remark about Blanc to J.K.
Rowling's retrospective announcement that Albus Dumbledore was gay. She made the comment in 2007, after the publication of her final Harry Potter novel."The retcon-ing of fictional characters' sexualities is part of the often cynical efforts of rainbow capitalism, the practice whereby large brands/franchises attempt to queer-bait fans in the hopes that the cultural product they are trying to sell will have greater reach or appeal," Kinane told Newsweek.He added: "What matters is context, not whether Daniel Craig's character Benoit Blanc is gay.
It matters how the film chooses to frame the character's sexuality, or whether it chooses to do so at all in a way that is appropriate to the narrative."Otherwise, a character's sexuality is incidental, completely irrelevant to the text, and a sure-fire sign of queer-baiting."Kinane is also editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies.
