isle-of-innisfree:

Tbh, I think my favorite part of The Shape of water was the subtle dig at white gay entitlement.

It first comes up when Elisa is flipping through the TV and sees the footage of peaceful black protesters of the Civil Rights movement. Giles says he doesn’t want to see that and insists she changes the channel. Until this point we’ve seen his character as slightly self absorbed, in the way some academics tend to be, but it’s seen as just an endearing quirk of his personality. However, in this scene he is complicit in ignoring the struggles of African American citizens in a direct parallel to the way the white queer community often ignores racism within and outside of our communities. While not being explicitly racist like some of the other characters he is still turning a blind eye on another minority community because it’s presence is “disturbing.”

This changes later, at the diner, when we see Giles come to a realization after the waiter he was crushing on refuses to serve a black family. When he shames both Giles and the family, Giles is forced to realize the oppression of others. While this obviously doesn’t make him “a great ally to the black community” just for pulling his head out of his ass, it’s important to see in a movie so focused on the struggles of minorities in a cis/white/straight/Christian/capitalist America, make a nod toward the intersections of privilege.

It’s such a clever way to tie this issue into the greater theme of the movie, that could have so easily been cut. Anyway, the Shape of Water is more than that movie about a lady wanting to bone the fish man and I recommend you give it a watch.