Social Parallels on In the Flesh: Homophobia

In the Flesh uses its undead characters to draw allegories on many kinds of discrimination.  I don’t know if the anti-PDS sentiment in the show most resembles homophobia, but it’s the most acute comparison for me.  (Some spoilers, especially for Rick’s plot in series 1.)

The return of Rick, a soldier killed overseas, really cements this parallel for me.  His dad Bill leads the zombie-killing HVF, and by the time Rick comes home, Bill has already shot a woman with PDS (medicated) in the street.  It’s easy to assume Rick’s homecoming won’t be comfortable.  However, before Rick arrives, Bill makes it clear that he won’t abide intolerance of his son.  A new leaf?  Far from it – rather than becoming a PDS ally through Rick, Bill is willfully blind to the fact that Rick even has PDS.  To him, Rick never died at all, let alone ate anyone’s brain, and with Bill’s clout in the village, everyone uneasily plays along.  This greatly resembles a man who can’t come out to a father refusing to see the evidence before his eyes – if no one mentions it, it needn’t be true.  And more than just keeping quiet, Rick actively indulges the fantasy.  When Bill takes him to the pub, Rick drains glass after glass even though eating and drinking makes his undead body physically ill.  Like those whose internalized homophobia runs so deep that they force themselves into sexual encounters they don’t want, Rick damages his own well-being, goes against his own nature, for the façade.  Furthermore, he condones Bill’s hatred for people with PDS and even goes on patrol with Bill to find/kill untreated rabids in the woods.

Rick is the series’ strongest example of PDS folk making themselves more palatable to the living.  Flesh-colored makeup and colored contacts are standard-issue, no one should speak of their time as a rabid, and Kieren mimes knife-and-fork motions at each family meal; unlike Rick, he doesn’t eat anything, but the illusion, however flimsy, is important to his parents.  All this reminds me of those who profess LGBTQ tolerance provided they “don’t have to see it.”  You can be queer, but don’t look or act queer – no one wants to see that.  When Kieren comes home, his relationship with his family is shaky, yet things don’t really go south until he discusses his untreated experiences and removes his makeup/contacts in series 2.  Suddenly, they “don’t know who he is” anymore.  Plus, though Bill’s strong-arming gains Rick acceptance when Kieren is openly hated, this idea of being but not looking queer touches on effeminophobia.    Kieren isn’t effeminate, but he’s no macho ideal, and it’s striking to see muscular, gun-toting Rick get a seat at the table while soft-spoken, artistic Kieren is segregated.  Rick is acceptable in a way that Kieren isn’t, and there’s a sense that Rick is like Kieren but not like Kieren.  To crib from Animal Farm, if all gay men are marginalized, some are less marginalized than others.

Lastly, I love that the show doesn’t stick with metaphor alone.  Lots of supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi stories discuss diversity allegorically but sidestep the actual diversity they discuss.  In the Flesh, though, offers several LGBTQ characters, including Kieren.  Since he’s both queer and undead in a post-zombie-apocalypse society, the main focus in on the prejudice he faces as an undead person, but non-metaphorical homophobia comes up as well.  There’s the odd pejorative remark, he admits to being barred from the local pub even before dying (he’s “not like them,”) and it’s implied that Rick joined the army – and subsequently died – after a bout of gay panic from Bill.  However, with Kieren’s PDS doing most of the discrimination heavy lifting, his sexuality is largely allowed to just be, and even when others don’t like him falling in love with boys, he fully owns and accepts that part of himself – fully-realized LGBTQ characters for the win!