About Ben Being Queer Coded

about Ben being queer coded

I must start saying this post won't be about ships. This is about some of the things in Ben's character arc that can be paralleled with queer experiences. Feel free to add more parallels on the comments or reblogs.

These are just some general observations that I already pointed out before and that I wanted to put in a single post.

For me, seeing queerness in Ben is not about simply putting him in a relationship with a men. For me, it always has been about Ben's identity as a person, about how his queerness could be inherent to his character.

Now talking about Ben's character during JWCC, the first thing we should mention is how his arc portraits a journey of self-discovery.

The way he changed after the monorail incident. The way he transformed himself and started doing things he hasn't done before. He clearly was trying to achieve more freedom by doing that.

When he turns into his "island boy" persona in season 2, his identity is not clear for him yet. He tries to perform some confidence, constantly trying to affirm himself as brave, but he doesn't know who he is.

In season 4, he freaks out about it and starts thinking he is not good enough for being that persona he was trying to be, and to protect camp fam.

This identity "crisis" is so common for queer people. Not just that, but the feeling of displacement he expresses in S4 when he's thinking that who he already is is not enough, really resonates with lgbtqia+ realities.

When he turned into an "Island Boy" we finally thought Ben was feeling free to do whatever he wanted. But the truth is that he kept feeling insecure about who he was and S4 shows this to us.

That's why I used the word "displacement" to describe his situation. I know he had his friends' support. But anyone in his situation would feel out of place, after all, he was questioning his own identity.

When he advises Yaz after she came out to him on season 5, it looks like he knew what he was talking about. For me, what justify he having that specifically knowledge about life is that he has been questioning himself too. And I'm not even talking about Ben questioning if he is queer himself, I'm talking, again, about him questioning his own identity in general. And this is already enough for us to make a parallel with queer experiences.

In conclusion: questioning his own identity, having a journey of self-discovery, feeling out of place, wanting to achieve more freedom to be who he is, giving advises about coming out...It all feels queer coded to me.