Everyone Is Gay
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | EIG |
| Related tropes/genres | Pair the Spare |
| See also | Woke Up Gay, OBHWF, Everyone Is Related |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Everyone Is Gay (or EIG) is a term for the slash trope where, literally, all the main characters are gay (and paired up with each other in romantic relationships) by the end of the story.[1]
For instance, in a Sentinel story where Jim/Blair was the main pairing, by the end of the story, Simon/Rafe, Henri/Joel, and Megan/Naomi would also get together.
Fandoms where this trope is the most common
- Sailor Moon, or at least "all the Senshi are lesbians." Rei/Minako and Ami/Makoto are highly popular pairings, but some authors will pair Rei with Usagi while pushing Mamoru in the path of a speeding truck or into the arms of another male character. Setsuna is paired with whoever is left over.
- Fire Emblem. The 7th game makes it possible to pair all same-sex friends together, most couples being male-male plus the yuri pairs of Lyn/Florina and Rebecca/Nino. Awakening and Fates even created hacks with gay S supports that still make the future children with this trope in mind.
- Gundam Wing. The pilots being slashed with each other was the fandom's bread and butter, and those who liked or tolerated Relena paired her with female characters such as Dorothy, Hilde, or Noin.
- South Park, where all the boys are paired off with each other and the female students are either bashed, ignored, or shipped together as well. Stan/Kyle was the juggernaut for quite some time, with Stan's canon girlfriend being paired with her best friend Bebe.
Pet peeve
'Everyone is gay' is often cited as a pet peeve[2][3] by readers who find it unrealistic or cliche:
I usually hate in stories when everyone and their mother is gay. Like, especially in band fiction. Okay, fine, Frank and Gerard are gay. But Mikey? Now we are pushing it. And Ray and Bob to? Woah, now this is overkill. And then Bert, and Quinn and Jepha, and Pete Wentz, and the guy at the store, and Britney Spears. I usually will stop readng a story if everyone is gay, unless it is woven in the story where it is believable.[4]
As such, it is generally not a term writers use to label their own stories, nor is it usually a formal category or a search term on fanfiction archives. However, EIG stories obviously have an appeal for many writers and readers, for varying reasons.[5] In anime or manga fandoms, ensemble casts which lean heavily towards one gender can lend themselves well to this trope.[6]
"Straightlandia"
Occasionally het stories fall into the same pattern of matching everyone up into OTPs in the fashion of Harlequin romances and other mundane romance novels. This trope in fannish het doesn't have its own name, although one fan describing it suggested 'Straightlandia'.[7] In Harry Potter fandom, these types of stories are often built on the One Big Happy Weasley Family trope, starting with the canon pairings of Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione and proceeding until all Weasleys are happily paired off, generally in heterosexual pairings. Another example is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney author JordanPhoenix, whose stories make sure every character has an opposite-sex love interest from the "obvious" couples like Phoenix/Maya to the completely random such as Simon/Adrian.
These stories are generally not perceived as stretching plausibility as far as 'everyone is gay' stories do, although the end result-- every single member of an ensemble show being matched up with another member of the cast[8] can still be quite unrealistic, depending on the fandom's setting.
Examples
- New York Makes You Gay, a Boy Meets World fic by Prosperina (pairings: Topanga/Angela, Corey/Shawn, and Jack/Eric.) Recced by Arduinna as follows: It's an everyone-is-gay story that actually works for me, because strangely, everyone is in character and believable, and all the relationships make sense. Go figure![9]
- The Mandy Thing, a High School Musical fic by bribitribbit. (pairings: Ryan/Chad, Kelsi/Martha.) Sorry to say, I love the EVERYONE IS GAY cliche. :( I know a lot of people hate it but, you know what, it's not like anything else at East High is plausible.[10]
- In This Very Ring, a Professional Wrestling fic by Penumbren. The author commented: I'm almost disappointed that ITVR isn't in there under the "Everyone is Gay" trope. *snort* (Like I said in my post a few days ago -- I love that story, but it makes me giggle and cringe... a LOT... reading it now.[11]
Resources
References
- ^ Tehomet, fannish glossary Stories of this type are somewhat unrealistic, like writing a story in which every character is straight. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ jynx, HP Shipping I agree with Scully, I don't like fics where everyone is gay unless it's crack fic. Posted October 17, 2006. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ lucrezia, Harry & Draco Slash Thread, Two Sides of the Same Coin There are some clichés in the H/D fandom, like Mintzs said in some Harry/Draco fanfics almost everyone is gay, and Seamus and Blaise are often the more experienced gay boys in Gryffindor and Slytherin. Posted March 15, 2009. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ Sardonic Grin, Things You Hate to See in Stories. Part deux. Posted February 15th, 2009. Last accessed October 10, 2010
- ^ schemingreader, Single-sex societies in science fiction and slash Perhaps it's sexism fatigue that produces fantasies of the egalitarian single-sex society, and to some degree, perhaps, the "everyone is gay, so what" slash stories. Posted June 19, 2007 on LiveJournal (accessed October 10, 2010). Last accessed on Dreamwidth May 11, 2020.
- ^ Tvtropes entry Everyone Is Gay Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ elspethdixon, second part of tl;dr response .... a lot of het tends to be set in Straightlandia, where everyone gets paired off with an opposite gender love interest (to be fair, a lot of slash is set in an opposite-land version of this world, where everyone is gay and gets randomly paired off with a same-gender love interest, and that can sometimes be equally annoying). Posted July 16, 2010. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ Although if there aren't enough female characters, OFCs may be introduced. (For instance, in Gargoyles fandom, a story ending up with the following pairings: Goliath/Elisa, Broadway/Angela, Brooklyn/OFC and Lex/OFC; the important part is that, by the end of the story, everyone is in a pairing.
- ^ Arduinna, Arduinna's Fic Recs Posted June 15, 2005. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ bribitribbit,The Mandy Thing Posted January 02, 2009. Last accessed October 10, 2010.
- ^ A comment by Penumbren, Untitled, posted July 30, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2011.