People Are Arguing About This Riverdale Character’s Sexuality and It’s Getting Messy

SPOILERS FOR RIVERDALE

Riverdale has been quite messy when it comes to giving their LGBT characters things to actually do on their show.

Kevin has rarely gotten anything to do other than being the token gay friend—we see more of his dad than we do Kevin. Jughead’s asexuality was erased because the CW doesn’t know how to handle that. Not to mention the ultra-tacky Betty and Veronica kiss from the pilot episode, which is only funny in retrospect because it was Cheryl who called out their queerbaiting (she knew™). Toni has, thankfully, been dealt a better hand, and now we have Cheryl, who has been one of the core cast since day one.

After much fan speculation and fan wishing, Cheryl Blossom, the gothic heroine of CW’s Riverdale, shared the story of her sexuality with Toni Topaz, who is bisexual both in the comics and on the show.

In the most recent episode of Riverdale, Cheryl confesses to Toni that she was in love with a girl once named Heather until one day Cheryl’s mother found them in bed together and called Cheryl a “deviant.”

cheryl really broke down, this is so relatable you can tell she’s never told anyone ever and she’s been holding it in forever pic.twitter.com/xTbo2TybTU

— choni supremacist cat (@lgbtfIozmin) March 8, 2018

It’s an amazing scene, and Madelaine Petsch has been killing this role since day one. Cheryl is a hard character to play, as she goes from being a vulnerable ingenue to a femme fatale destroying the lives of others. That is what makes her so interesting to watch and shows Petsch’s skill as an actress.

Madelaine Petsch, who places Cheryl, did a Q&A on her Youtube channel about Cheryl and when the question of her sexuality came up Petsch responded: “Cheryl is definitely interested in both women and men, so I would say she is bisexual. I think you’re going to see a lot more of her figuring out who she is.”

However, some people are still arguing about if Cheryl is a lesbian or bisexual. Despite “word of god”—the actress who plays her—saying she is into both men and women, I’ve seen people on forums argue that Cheryl’s only real romantic relationship we’ve seen Cheryl talk about is another woman, and her interest in Archie and Nick were not genuine. Therefore it can be implied that she is only into girls.

I understand why these debates happen. I think ever since Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer there has been a debate about how many romantic and/or sexual partners it takes for someone to be bisexual or gay and there are so many different ways people come to terms with their queerness that it is unfair to say that someone can not be a lesbian just because they have dated or even loved men. It can make sense, especially because Cheryl did experience a trauma concerning her sexuality, that she would try to play into compulsatory heterosexuality.

That being said, bisexuality is valid and shouldn’t be treated as though being bisexual is in competition with being a lesbian. As a bisexual person, these arguments just seem to pit lesbians and bisexual women against each other, when the real issue is that sometimes straight writers don’t understand how to write these issues.

Alex from Supergirl is a lesbian, even though they were definitely pushing that boring Alex/Max Lord storyline in season one. Cheryl is, as far as what I’ve seen on the show, bisexual even though the men she’s been attached to are boring as hell.

Also, to anyone who would say that Cheryl falls into the “deranged bisexual” trope, she is not deranged because she’s bisexual, she’s deranged because she’s Cheryl, and the Riverdale queen of being extra. If anything, I’m glad that we get to have a character as complex as Cheryl in the Riverdale family because she’s not a perfect person, as her cruel treatment of Josie and others has shown. It’s important to show queer characters as flawed and nuanced as we are in real life.

What did you think of the Cheryl’s coming out on Riverdale?

(image: The CW)

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