Wednesday Addams is a queer icon, but is she queer?

‘Wednesday’ spoilers ahead

The Addams Family has always been mysterious and creepy, not to mention wacky, but what’s also not overlooked is how campy, unintentionally or not, these characters are, too. When they first appeared on television in 1964, and even earlier in the Charles Addams comic strip, these bizarre characters resonated with queer fans who felt they didn’t fit in, and that legacy lives on even now, all these years later.

When the recent Addams Family animated film was released in 2019, there was an uproar among homophobes after the trailer featured queer parents in what they described as “an average American family.” And now, with the release of ‘Wednesday’, that tradition will continue, right?

To celebrate the launch of the series, Netflix held an event dubbed “WednesGay” in Los Angeles, where the Drag Race icons took the stage dressed in Wednesday Addams-inspired gothic outfits. Gottmik revealed that “Wednesday Addams was a huge inspiration to me growing up” (via Out.com), and Crystal Methyd went so far as to say that “Wednesday Addams is a queer icon”.

In essence, Wednesday delights in being an outsider. As part of the Addamses, she lives apart from the mainstream culture. Instead of being embarrassed by the differences between her family’s way of life and that of society in general, she accepts what makes her different. She stands up for marginalized groups and stands up to bullies with an unwavering calm any queer would be proud to emulate.

For all of these reasons and more, fans expected ‘Wednesday’ to lean more towards the collective than ever by turning her into a queer icon who is actually queer too. Even before the series was released, a new ship was formed as soon as we saw the first trailer. While there are plenty of teens to pair her up with on the series, it was the glimpses of Wednesday’s relationship with her werewolf roommate Enid that sent the fas into a lunar frenzy.

#Wenclair, as they were quickly dubbed, became the subject of fanfiction on AO3 along with much fan art, to the point where it seemed a given that Wednesday and Enid would end up in love. But then the series came along and suddenly it became clear that the writers had no interest in making #Wenclair canon. Not beyond the subtext, at least.

To be fair, there’s a creepy amount of subtext, if that’s your thing. The fandom page is jam-packed with every interaction the couple shares across the eight episodes, including moments of affection that speak to something else below the surface.

There’s a hug near the end of the season that has people going crazy. Notice how Enid’s hands stay open when she’s around Wednesday, which is the opposite of what happens to her every time she’s intimate with Ajax. Even Thing could see the sapphic vibes going on, and she could probably see how forced Enid’s relationship with Ajax feels, too. The same goes for Wednesday and her hetero love triangle, that she is more lifeless than any of her toys in the morgue.

Given all of this hype and the disappointment that followed, several LGTBIQ+ fans claimed that ‘Wednesday’ had been queer-baiting, which is tricky, because technically, the show never promised anything queer outright, not in the way that fans of # Wenclair waited.

However, there’s a queer legacy to be reckoned with here, and scenes like the one where Enid is faced with the prospect of “devouring” conversion therapy certainly suggests that the writers had at least some LGTBIQ+ themes in mind. And if so, why not go further? Even now, in 2022, queer relationships are still relegated to mere subtext more often than not. The Witcher, Stranger Things and ‘House of the Dragon’ are just a few of the big-name shows that have recently played with queerness only to backtrack and cut key moments or feign ignorance at the last minute.

That’s particularly disappointing given that platforms like Netflix and HBO should, in theory, be given more freedom to explore these topics without fear of backlash or controversy. During a recent conversation with Elite DailyEmma Myers addressed #Wenclair directly, joking, “You know what I always say…they were roommates.”

“Jenna and I used to say that to each other all the time,” Myers added, referring to the popular gay shipping meme. “And that’s all there is to say, I think she gets the message across.”

But no, that’s not enough to get “the message” across. How many times are we supposed to be thankful that actors think their characters are queer without there being any real acknowledgment of that in the text? It’s an article we’re tired of writing and you’re probably tired of reading too.

In fairness to Myers, she’s not in the writers’ room, so it’s not up to her what happens, but knowing that the actors think something else is going on with their characters isn’t enough. With ‘Wednesday,’ there was a real opportunity to capture the essence of ‘The Addams Family’ while updating it for modern audiences who clearly yearn to see queerness finally take center stage in this tale of misfits and outcasts. Instead, they’ve given us a series that wouldn’t feel out of place alongside the original ‘The Addams Family’ in 1964.

The first season of ‘Wednesday’ is now available on Netflix.