【Watch Bikini Pirates (2006)】

Like most '90's kids,Watch Bikini Pirates (2006) in elementary school my friends and I often played Power Rangers.

While I wasn't a fan of either of the lady Rangers' color schemes, I was upset to constantly be delegated as the Yellow Ranger. I wanted to be the Pink Ranger. Kimberley got more screen time, and she was everything the media told me I should want to be: pretty, slim, white, and the object of male affection. She’s what I always saw on my screen, and she was what I wanted to be.

SEE ALSO: Well, what do you know: 'Power Rangers' is surprisingly OK

Fast-forward 20 years: I’m a not-so-slim queer woman who was delighted to hear that the newest incarnation of the Yellow Ranger is one I’d rush to play. As revealed by director Dean Israelite in a recent interview, Trini (played by singer Becky G), is questioning her sexuality. That would make her the first LGBTQ superhero on the big screen, something that should’ve happened long before 2017.

While the Power Rangershas always had a more diverse cast than other franchises, the new movie is taking that to the next level. Trini is Latina, and teamed up with Black Ranger Zack, played by Ludi Lin, who is Chinese. The Blue Ranger is played by the hilarious RJ Cyler, who is black, and represents another first for the genre: He’s on the autism spectrum. Good job to the filmmakers for understanding intersectionality!

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Not only am I a member of the LGBTQ community, I’m the sibling of someone on the spectrum, with close friends in both communities. Representation matters, and those two groups are woefully under-represented in media, though recently there have been major strides. Nevertheless, I was nervous going into the film this weekend.

I’d been disappointed by Disney’s recent foray into character queering -- Beauty and the Beast’s much hyped “exclusively gay moment” for LeFou turned out to be three seconds of eye contact with another queer-coded character. Not to mention that media is full of quirky characters who have clear characteristics of being on the autism spectrum, but never mention a diagnosis while turning these traits into jokes. So I was reasonably pessimistic.

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How did the Power Rangersreboot film measure up? I’ll start with the good news. Cyler’s Billy Cranston is a gift. Not only does the actor balance humor and heart, but his character is written as the lynchpin of the group. He’s shown to be smart, funny, capable and vital. In an uneven ensemble he rivals the leaders, and romantically entwined duo Jason (Dacre Montgomery) and Kimberley (Naomi Scott), for screen time.

And the film should be applauded for how it covers Billy’s diagnosis. Not long into the film and Billy’s new friendship with Jason, he stops to explain: “I’m on the spectrum.” When Jason tries to make a joke, Billy clarifies, “See, I don’t get that!” Jason rightfully responds that it doesn’t matter, but the filmmakers were smart in making this explicit.

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That is the key that Hollywood and many straight white cis viewers haven’t grasped: It has to be explicit to count as representation. We know Billy is autistic. Which means autistic fans will know, and can proudly see themselves saving the world. And everyone else can see it as well, and understand that heroes come in all shapes, sizes, and neurotypes.

That brings us to Trini. As others have pointed out, she falls more in the LeFou camp. She’s a silent character, with the least backstory or personal information of any of the Rangers. When she does open up, it is Zack who mentions the prospect of Trini having “girlfriend trouble.” She doesn’t respond, simply saying that her family is “normal” and she doesn’t fit in with them, and can’t tell them “what I’m going through.” This is meant to show that Trini is questioning and doesn’t feel comfortable coming out to her image-obsessed parents. A teenager questioning their sexuality is something that should be seen in media: It’s not only incredibly common in real life, it can help teen viewers who may be confused or scared about their own journeys.

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The problem is that, with the general lack of queer representation in mainstream film, this doesn't go far enough. Television series, which have the luxury of time to take these journeys, have made huge leaps. Alex Danvers on CW's Supergirl, and Elena on Netflix's One Day at a Timeare both examples of great storylines in which characters go from questioning to coming out to acceptance in wonderful ways. These stories are important. But films that aren't solely focused on that character's journey can’t do that in just a couple of hours.

What’s really important, at a time when it’s still dangerous to be an LGBTQ person in the world, is explicit representation. Especially in mainstream movies where the character’s sexuality has no plot significance. We need to see queer people as superheroes, so every kid watching can see themselves save the world, and for every fearful viewer who might otherwise think of queer people as alien. The Power Rangersfranchise owes that to the LGBTQ community in many ways -- original Blue Ranger David Yost quit the show because of harassment over his sexuality.

So I hope that Trini’s journey will include her coming out in one of the film's many planned sequels. Even something so small as her mentioning explicitly that she was questioning in that fireside scene, however, would’ve meant everything to a kid like me. That kid who's not so sure of who she is, looking for a fictional mentor and mirror -- maybe she would’ve jumped at the chance to play the Yellow Ranger.

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