Tag Archives: Riverdale

Vanessa Morgan Discusses Riverdale’s New Queer Character

Vanessa Morgan is set to play openly bisexual character Toni Topaz on the second season of The CW series

For those unfamiliar with the world of Archie Comics, Toni Topaz is a relatively minor character. In comics, she becomes friends with Jughead Jones because of their shared love of hamburgers. She also has distinctive pink hair and is bisexual in the comics.

Morgan, who previously played a lesbian character on The Shannara Chronicles, says that Topaz will be getting a lot of screen time in Riverdale‘s upcoming second season and is glad that she is able to bring the bisexual character to life.

In an interview with Popsugar, Morgan said that there is a progressive reason behind her character and storyline.

It’s showing that there are a lot of people who don’t see gender, and they actually love whoever is a nice person. I love that.”

Morgan also says she has already seen her fair share of Internet shippers, aka people who want Toni to get together with one character or another.

Right now, I’m seeing a lot of me and Cheryl. Then, I’m seeing me and Betty. People are shipping hard for different storylines.”

Riverdale returns for a second season on Oct. 11.

Shannon Purser Addresses Riverdale’s Queer Baiting Backlash

Shannon Purser addressed some of the issues that Riverdale caused within the LGBT community – namely the queerbaiting that the show has been called out for, particularly in its first episode.

The problems began with a kiss between Riverdale‘s two female leads, Betty and Veronica, but the kiss itself wasn’t the issue. The real mistake was how the CW and Riverdale‘s creators handled it, promoting the kiss in trailers while stating outright that Betty and Veronica would never be an item.

It was a definitive example of queerbaiting.

They used a performance of girl-on-girl action to sell the show, while fans hoped for a sincere representation of queer sexuality.

Archie Comics built an empire on the Betty/Archie/Veronica love triangle, and while Riverdale focuses on other pairings, the show’s fandom still revolves around shipping.

The rivalry between ships is so intense, that Purser inspired backlash by tweeting this mild criticism of shipping culture.

https://twitter.com/shannonpurser/status/854476496299335680

After a few hours of backlash, Purser posted an apology where she came out as bisexual, explaining that she was “very very new to the LGBT community,” and had never heard the term “queerbaiting” before.

https://twitter.com/shannonpurser/status/854538329546780678

Addressing the fact that shows like Riverdale have very passionate fans that ‘ship’ particular characters together, Purser apologized to fans who felt that she and the show were marginalizing them by hinting at relationships which are very unlikely to happen.

Although this was the first explicit statement about her sexual orientation, the star hasn’t been shy about the topic of sexuality in the past.

Earlier this month, she took to Twitter to talk about the anxiety she experienced over her sexuality.

https://twitter.com/shannonpurser/status/851934358516748289