# Peter Pan Gay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573 "2001-03-11T20:31:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Delila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Delila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delila)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/1 "2001-03-11T20:31:22Z")
Is Peter Pan supposed to be asexual? Why have they only cast women to portray him in plays and musicals? Why are little girls praised for interest in “boyish” activities, but boys who do the opposite are seldom tolerated? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/2 "2001-03-11T20:39:19Z")
In “Hook”, Peter Pan was played by Robin Williams, who is not a woman. Although there was that Mrs. Doubtfire movie… ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/3 "2001-03-11T22:00:16Z")
From a [review](http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/peterpan.q.html) of Disney’s _Peter Pan_: > [@](#): > > An entertaining jaunt, Peter Pan is suitable for kids of all ages, although a few grown-ups (like this writer) may experience an odd case of the creeps after sitting through the story about an asexual, pointy-eared flying young boy who refuses to grow up, despite being pursed by several attractive young ladies – human, mermaid, and faeire alike – who incessantly try to plant a smooch on the little guy’s lips. [Here](http://www.darksites.com/souls/goth/pinkfaerie/peter.htm)’s another writer’s view: > [@](#): > > The horned god Pan embodies masculinity and sexuality, while Peter Pan is forever childlike and asexual, he never understands the strange behaviour of his many female companions, when they are obviously in love with him. And I ran across many more who describe the character as asexual. Of course perception is as per the beholder. The _White Crane Journal_ had this to say in an [Editor’s Note on Fairies](http://www.whitecranejournal.com/wc01018.htm) in their Fall 1997 issue, which seems to be devoted to the Radical Faerie Movement: > [@](#): > > For many in the “first generation of gay men” – those who came out as they were entering young adulthood at the time of the rise of gay liberation in 1969 – the same generation that years later was struck hardest by AIDS, fairy was a reference to Peter Pan, the creation of the 19th Century homosexual English writer J. M. Barrie, revivified by Walt Disney in the 1950s as that obviously “cute young gay guy” with the pixie friend who saved middle-class children from normalcy with the “good news” that if you just believe (i.e., if you’re not fooled by the socially accepted conventions about how things should be) you can fly. The only time I’ve seen the stage version Mary Martin played Peter Pan and I don’t recall giving Peter Pan’s gender a second thought. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/4 "2001-03-11T22:01:32Z")
Peter Pan is a man that never grew up from a boy. Therefore it is hard to find a man with these boyish traits. But if you look at the sexes there isn’t much difference between boys and girls till puberty. In facts in terms of strength, endurance and even throwing a ball ablility boys and girls are equal overall in terms of physical ability. Then puberty strikes and girls start throwing like girls. Breasts develope and slow them down. Testostrosne(sp?) gives boys more muscle and the physical equation changes. Little girls are praised to be boyish as it is OK for them to do that. No one would think twice of any women in jeans but a man in a dress is a sissy. Even homophobic males don’t seem to mind the idea of two women together. Women can go to most dance clubs and dance with each other and no one thinks any of it. (except maybe they are too ugly to get a man so they HAVE to dance with each other 🙂 ) Society has said it is OK for women to be mannish but not for men to be femminine. Even most gay guys detest fems. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/5 "2001-03-12T01:52:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Delila \* > Why have they only cast women to portray him in plays and musicals? It might be hard to find a pre-adolescent boy who can sing and act well enough to do the part justice. The boys who come close would naturally be older, and they would be growing faster and would outgrow the part quickly. This would make re-casting necessary, and that not easy in the first place. I’m not an expert, but I don’t know of any professional productions that cast a pre-adolescent girl, for that matter. Did Shirley Temple ever do a Peter Pan on stage? (Not the Mary Martin musical, that was written in 1954.) Andrea McArdle did “Annie”, why not “Peter Pan”? Maybe the growth problem applies to girls as well. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/6 "2001-03-12T02:05:12Z")
Didn’t Sandy Duncan play Peter Pan? We could always e-mail that Peter Pan guy…hmmmm… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/7 "2001-03-12T02:32:33Z")
Peter Pan has been traditionally played by a woman on stage (the musical versions have have Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby). I believe this goes back to the first production. Why? **zgystardst** is essentially correct. Peter Pan is a boy (I believe he’s supposed to be younger than 10), but if a man played him, the voice would be too low, and the feeling was that it would look like a man, not a boy, and ruin the effect. So women have always played the part. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/8 "2001-03-12T03:12:31Z")
The best deconstruction I’ve seen of the Peter Pan story’s deeper meaning is _The Peter Pan Syndrome_, by Dan Kiley. The author argues that the story is an allegory of males who due to deep-seated feelings of worthlessness and rejection fail to psychologically mature. Among the author’s insights: -The rivalry between Wendy and Tinkerbell is the conflict between women who will “mother” the immature male, thus serving as an enabler, and the women who want the male to grow up and assume responsibility. -Captain Hook is Peter Pan’s evil alter ego, the former boy terrified of growing old (the crocodile that swallowed the clock) and plunderer of relationships -The Lost Boys, Peters in training, who were cast off by their families. [What exactly is Peter Pan Syndrome (PPS)?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=53107) [Advanced Peter Pan Syndrome](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50276) ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/9 "2001-03-12T06:36:43Z")
I never seen him hang out with the Pink Panther. ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/10 "2001-03-12T08:24:18Z")
You forgot to mention Pixie Dust. A substance that - with happy thoughts - could make you “fly?” Hmmmmmmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/11 "2001-03-12T14:36:48Z")
In the English Pantomime tradition, the ‘Principal Boy’ is always played by a woman, and the Dame always by a man. I wonder if this tradition of Principal Boy was taken up for the stage version of Peter Pan. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-pan-gay/57573/12 "2001-03-12T15:18:53Z")
Pjen is right—and there is also a long history of getting actresses into tights so the audience could gape at their gams. Maude Adams played the first Peter Pan in, I believe 1905, though she was hardly the bodacious Lillian Russell type (Maude Adams would be considered prettier today than she was then—a little scrawny). As far as the gay theory . . . Well, I did read to a gay friend of mine a line from the book Peter Pan—“I don’t want to grow and and have a job! I want to move to the Park and live with the fairies!” My friend couldn’t have agreed more.