Disney Gets More Progressive By The Day re: Homosexuality

Cafe Society
1

Interesting - in one of my favorite cartoon series, Disney XD’s Star vs. The Forces of Evil, a recent episode featured gay couples kissing, which is apparently a first for the company:

This comes a couple of years after another Disney XD show (and another favorite of mine) Gravity Falls featured a canonically gay couple - who hugged but who did not kiss.

Seems to me a bit of a sign of the times - if a major and reasonably conservative corporation like Disney can sees value in creating shows for (admittedly older) kids that apparently completely normalize gay relationships, normalization in society at large is pretty well a done deal, despite the existence of homophobic hold-outs. It is just another sign that the inflection point has been reached on this subject.

As an aside, the show Star vs. the Forces of Evil just had its season finale, which was awesome, and has been renewed for two more seasons.

2

Was it a male or female couple? Female homosexuality generally gets a lot more depiction in the media than male.

3

Both, apparently, although the article highlights the male couple more.

4

My reaction to this news is, that’s great. It was 60 years ago that I was 7 and that I first realized that I was one of those shameful people that no-one wants to talk about. If this change at Disney and other producers of children’s content means that other kids won’t have to feel that way, I’m all for it.

5

I thought this was going to be about reports that LeFou (Gaston’s sidekick/flunky) in the live action Beauty & the Beast remake will be overtly gay:

I guess we’ll have to see how “progressive” this really is, though. In the animated movie LeFou is, if not especially villainous himself, definitely not one of the Good Guys, and is also weak and toadying. He could all too easily be turned into one big gay joke. It may very well be that the live action remake gives the character more depth, though.

6

Given that Condon is gay and has a track record of conveying gay identity with nuance and sensitivity (Kinsey, his Oscar-winning Gods and Monsters), I’m not worried too much about that at all. May be the most interesting part of what I find a tiresome new trend from the mouse (the live action refurbishing of their cartoon canon).

7

The most obvious interpretation is that LeFou will have an explicit crush on Gaston, and that will blind him to how bad he is.

Disney, of course, is giving more dimension to their villains, so it’s possible that Gaston will be redeemed. If not, I’d expect LeFou to find someone else, as that’s how the trope usually works if it’s a hetero relationship.

8

Hmmm…have to check it out. Disney does occasionally produce good adult/kid crossover appeal cartoons. I thought Gravity Falls was pretty entertaining ( 'course I think Kristen Schaal is awesome at any and all voice work ). What would you compare it to?

9

Please. Some of us recognized Le Fou’s hopeless crush on Gaston even back in the animated film. Subtle don’t enter into it!

10

I think a blind crush on a charismatic personality is not predicated on sexual orientation. I’m uncertain if they will explicitly say LeFou is gay, and instead will likely just have an obvious man-crush.

11

So far, it seems like the remake is so scene-for-scene, momemt-for-moment similar to the original that the whole thing is profoundly, incredibly pointless to make.

12

Both.

13

They already showed a gay couple (briefly) in Frozen. The male shopkeepers partner was also male.

14

Somewhat like a cross between Gravity Falls and Rick and Morty.

At first, it appears as basically a light comedy. The first season is reasonably light, episodic, and silly. Then it gets darker. Much, much darker, and much more emphasis on the overarching plot.

It is a sort of deconstruction of “princess” and “magical girl” tropes.

The lead character is a princess from another dimension and heir to the throne of her kingdom who has been given, as is traditional there, a powerful magic wand - but she is dangerously reckless with it. So her parents exile her to Earth, so that of she does any damage, it will be to Earthlings and not her own nation. Naturally, there are some bad guys - monsters - who are out to steal her wand.

In the first couple of episodes, it appears the show will have a standard recurring plot - the monsters try to steal her wand, and with the help of her Earth friend Marco, she easily kicks their asses. The monsters appear essentially cute, ineffectual and harmless, lead by a diminutive villain who is hopelessly outclassed.

However, this is merely the background set up for the actual storyline. Nothing is as it appears. One of the central themes of the show is that appearances can be deceptive.

[spoiler] While the lead character Star appears to be an excessively cute 14 year old girl, she is in fact genuinely dangerously reckless - and has been trained to kill from a young age, and has done so, frequently. Her family turns out to be more “Game of Thrones” than “Disney”.

Moreover, they are fundamentally alien. This is highlighted when Star goes through an alien version of puberty - with horrifying results, somewhat reminiscent of the movie Alien.

The monarchy she represents appears to be the “good guys” and the monsters the “bad guys”. Star has certainly been brought up to believe that, but it proves to be mostly untrue. Her people simply moved into the monster’s lands and massacred them, colonialist-style, when they attempted to resist. Star gradually comes to understand this.

The apparent leader of the monsters is ineffective - but not all of them are. In the second season, the sufferings that Star puts that leader through are highlighted; he becomes a much more sympathetic - and terrifying - character. [/spoiler]

15

They showed a gay couple in Gravity Falls as well.

The difference in this case was that they showed gay couples engaged in public acts of affection - in that the gay couples were publicly kissing. As were a bunch of straight couples at the same time (the context was a romantic song at a concert).

Apparently, gays publicly kissing is a first for Disney.

In particular, the scene highlighted that these gays were considered no different from anyone else - just couples out enjoying a concert.

16

Heh, they are now being targeted by anti-gay groups. :smack:

https://onemillionmoms.com/current-campaigns/disney-airs-its-first-gay-kiss/

17

Not the first time. The SBC has been boycotting Disney since at least the 90s because of “Gay Days” at the parks. It hasn’t been noticeably effective.

18

Nothing can stop the Mouse from making money. Particularly after they picked up the Star Wars franchise. :wink:

19

I was going to say “I wonder what the million moms will say about this?”. I often go to their facebook page to see what they are offended by this week. The fact that there are only 89k members is particularly amusing.

20

They must be using the same headcount methods that Trump uses.

I thought the Christian right issues with Disney goes way back (further than the “gay days” at the parks) - I seem to recall than Disney was one of the earlier large companies to extend benefits to same-sex domestic partners…