User talk:PanagiotisZois/Projects

He-Man as a gay icon

Hi PanagiotisZois! I saw your request about this article on the Guild of Copy Editors and took some time to look through the article. I think it's in excellent shape and has a lot of great research, citations and key points. Definitely worthy of good article status. I would love to see it Featured someday. To that end, personally, I think it could benefit from some work on the lead and a little re-structuring. I already removed some duplicate and excess links did a little copy editing.

I think the lead section is great, but doesn't get to the main subject of the article quite soon enough. I think a rearrangement of your writing could bring more emphasis sooner to the subject of the article—(1) gay iconhood of He-Man—then get into (2) what makes him a gay icon, then (3) context on the phenomenon (history of the show and responses). I did some work, and here's what I propose:

• He-Man is a fictional sword and sorcery superhero first introduced in the Masters of the Universe media franchise in 1983. Since his creation, He-Man has become a gay icon with a particular sex appeal for gay men. Critics, scholars and fans have long suggested that the character, introduced during a period of public suppression of homosexuality, contains elements of queer coding.
• Proposed references to gay culture include the character's adherence to gay stereotypes in physical appearance, such as gay clone culture. The character's double life is also viewed as reminiscent of the experience of closeted homosexuality. Queer readings have also highlighted the homoerotic elements of He-Man's relationships with other male characters such as Skeletor and Man-at-Arms.
• He-Man's first television series called He-Man and the Masters of the Universe aired for 130 episodes from 1983 to 1985. The queer reading of He-Man's character and his relationship with Skeletor have since been referenced across other media. According to representatives, Mattel is aware of and receptive to He-Man's gay icon status in the LGBT community, as well as the perception of the character as a gay man.

I also thought the article could benefit from a little restructuring. At the moment, the header names are a bit long, and it reads somewhat like one academic essay, rather than an article with broad, easily navigable headers. I think there could be a general (1) Background section, which would provide context for the whole phenomenon, not just the character. Then the broad split that I see in the article is: (2) the queerness in the show itself, (3) the cultural phenomenon outside the show, and (4) the way gay He-Man has popped up in other media. Here's what I would propose and how it would reorganize the current text:

1. Background (First paragraph of Character background and the first two paragraphs under Homosexual reading and analysis. This is background for the phenomenon, i.e. the history of the show and the context in which the show appeared)
2. Homosexual reading
   1. Appearance (just a more succinct title for Physique, appearance, and outfits)
   2. Dual identity (this deserves its own section, I think. This would be the first two paragraphs of Character and personality)
   3. Relationships (this deserves its own section too, I think, and maybe someone could expand it. For now, this would be just the last paragraph of Character and personality)
3. Gay icon status
   1. Gay fandom (first paragraph of Gay icon status and fandom)
   2. Sex appeal (as is)
   3. Response from creators (all of Response from Mattel and insiders)
4. Influence (second paragraph of Gay icon status and fandom (the one about She-Ra) plus the whole section currently titled Queer reading in other media)

I know you've put blood, sweat and tears into this page and these would be big changes, so I'm curious what you think. If you like, or mostly like, these changes, I can go ahead and implement them and see what happens from there. Thanks for all your work! Wow Mollu (talk) 01:59, 5 December 2023 (UTC)