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Forums - General Discussion - The LGBT thread (Revisited)

Jaicee said:

Anyway, let me just take a minute to recap the key point for our purposes here: this is an American cartoon...not broadcast on Adult Swim...that includes a lesbian couple kissing on the lips. That is something new.

If you have not watch is yet Dragon Prince on Netflix also has a lesbian couple kissing on the lips and there a strong hint at the end of season 3 that we likely to see a relationship between 2 of the female characters in season 4.  I also think they did a very good job of establishing the connecting between those 2 characters in the first 3 seasons.  

They not the main characters like in She-Ra but I would argue it one of the coolest characters in the show and defiantly my favorite actions scenes was her combat scenes.



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Speaking of representation in media, I just thought I'd share something I found amusing today.

Apparently, even before the coronavirus pandemic began to properly sweep the globe and close down movie theaters, the Pixar cartoon movie Onward was banned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait for including one whole line that implies a random secondary character to be in a lesbian relationship. The line, from a female character named Specter, goes: "It's not easy being a new parent. My girlfriend's daughter got me pulling my hair out." Talk about incendiary!! Also, the line was censored in Russia; the word 'girlfriend' was replaced with the ambiguous term 'partner'. (The case of Kuwait stands out here for the fact that, unlike in the other countries I just mentioned, lesbian relationships (and "propaganda!" ) are legal in Kuwait. In theory.)

Here in the good ol' U.S. of A, my favorite homophobes the One Million Moms offered the kind of well-reasoned take you'd expect from them, explaining in a statement on their web site that "There have been numerous attempts by Disney to indoctrinate children with the LGBTQ agenda discretely and now more overtly. These scenes are subtle in order to desensitize children. But now Disney has traded its subtlety for intentionality. Disney has decided to be politically correct instead of providing family friendly programming. Disney should stick to entertaining, not pushing an agenda. Please share this with your friends and family to make sure they are aware of the gay character in ‘Onward’ and not blindsided by it. As moms, we all want to know when Disney is attempting to desensitize our children by normalizing the LGBTQ lifestyle." (Reference in link above.)

I watched the movie recently since it had been released on video and I'm just the kind winner who watches Pixar cartoons as a grown adult without the justification of having children to view them with. (I found it passable, but not one of Pixar's finest works; while it has a genuinely satisfying conclusion that puts the whole adventure in a better and much-needed new perspective, the 'cute' underlying premise makes the film frequently as awkward and uncomfortable as you'd suspect it would.) The line in question was so fleeting and narratively insignificant that I didn't even notice it until I read the linked article afterward, drawing my attention to it. As much has been the pattern for Disney. For some four years now, Disney films have thrown in the occasional "gay reference" or gay background character, most often in simply a fleeting, forgettable way like this. It gets slightly annoying to me because, after a certain point, it feels cheap and canned, like they're just throwing you a bone so you'll stop complaining that they only depict heterosexual relationships on the big screen where millions of people will see, and I mean in the very, very laziest, most pitiful and begrudging way humanly possible. After a while these two-second blips start to feel almost like they're being included in bad faith that way. So yeah, I have to admit finding it hilarious that one of them, just a single line from a secondary character, somehow managed to provoke reactions this strong about the entire movie. The line feels like nothing to me. I was not "blindsided" by it. It's apparently way more meaningful to homophobes than it is to actual lesbians.

Last edited by Jaicee - on 23 May 2020

Cyran said:

If you have not watch is yet Dragon Prince on Netflix also has a lesbian couple kissing on the lips and there a strong hint at the end of season 3 that we likely to see a relationship between 2 of the female characters in season 4.  I also think they did a very good job of establishing the connecting between those 2 characters in the first 3 seasons.  

They not the main characters like in She-Ra but I would argue it one of the coolest characters in the show and defiantly my favorite actions scenes was her combat scenes.

I've heard The Dragon Prince was good (including that way), but haven't gotten to it yet. May have to give it a shot!



Cyran said:
Jaicee said:

Anyway, let me just take a minute to recap the key point for our purposes here: this is an American cartoon...not broadcast on Adult Swim...that includes a lesbian couple kissing on the lips. That is something new.

If you have not watch is yet Dragon Prince on Netflix also has a lesbian couple kissing on the lips and there a strong hint at the end of season 3 that we likely to see a relationship between 2 of the female characters in season 4.  I also think they did a very good job of establishing the connecting between those 2 characters in the first 3 seasons.  

They not the main characters like in She-Ra but I would argue it one of the coolest characters in the show and defiantly my favorite actions scenes was her combat scenes.

Speaking of Netflix shows with representation I recently watched the second season of "The Hollow" and it had a mention of one of the main characters being gay, though the overall story didn't really focus on romanticism so it didn't come up much beyond "you're not my type......I'm gay" and a rainbow flag being seen in his bedroom. Reminded me of Paranorman where a character comes out just as a matter of course. Though I think Paranorman was better simply because I like the obtuseness of the guy responding to a girl asking him to a movie with "oh yeah that's great, my boyfriend will love to go". 



...

I just noticed a Pixar short was added to Disney+ called "Out". It is about a relationship between two men, and I've never seen anything that blatant from Disney before. It was really well done, and I hope gay relationships can one day be normalized in cartoons.



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Ahhhh yeah One Million Moms, the group the should be renamed "a couple of thousand moms". Disney has been an ally for a long time, the song Reflection from Mulan (1998) can totally be interpreted as a song about a gay person trying to blend in, wanting to come out:

Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you'll never know me
Every day
It's as if I play my part
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart

[...]

I am now
In a world where I
Have to hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
What's inside my heart
And be loved for who I am

[...]

There's a heart that must be
Free to fly
That burns with a need to know
The reason why

Why must we all conceal
What we think, how we feel?
Must there be a secret me
I'm forced to hide?
I won't pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?



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It's old, and fairly niche, but any fans of The Kids In The Hall here? I love them, and Scott Thompson is my my favorite member. He did a LOT of very charged skits, and although it was a collaborative effort, and no individual skit credits were given, I could always tell who wrote what. Especially the Scott skits.

This was ground breaking stuff to air on public TV in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe less so in Canada, because in the US, it was only aired unedited on HBO. CBS had the last 2 seasons as well, but only aired it at around midnight and routinely butchered it with censoring.

So, I'd really like a take on here by a member of this community on this skit. It's from 1992. Oh! And I haven't even mentioned that Scott is gay. An important distinction. The show dealt with comedic takes on gay culture, and Scott was invariably part of the skits that did this, most famously with his Buddy Cole character.

Anyway, here it is. I'm so sorry for the awful quality. When it's this bad, some of what's put into the performance is lost. Most of the fan uploads on YT are better.

 



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

COKTOE said:

It's old, and fairly niche, but any fans of The Kids In The Hall here? I love them, and Scott Thompson is my my favorite member. He did a LOT of very charged skits, and although it was a collaborative effort, and no individual skit credits were given, I could always tell who wrote what. Especially the Scott skits.

This was ground breaking stuff to air on public TV in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe less so in Canada, because in the US, it was only aired unedited on HBO. CBS had the last 2 seasons as well, but only aired it at around midnight and routinely butchered it with censoring.

So, I'd really like a take on here by a member of this community on this skit. It's from 1992. Oh! And I haven't even mentioned that Scott is gay. An important distinction. The show dealt with comedic takes on gay culture, and Scott was invariably part of the skits that did this, most famously with his Buddy Cole character.

Anyway, here it is. I'm so sorry for the awful quality. When it's this bad, some of what's put into the performance is lost. Most of the fan uploads on YT are better.

I thought it was funny. The canned laughs is a bit cringy but they didn't know better at the time.



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TruckOSaurus said:
COKTOE said:

It's old, and fairly niche, but any fans of The Kids In The Hall here? I love them, and Scott Thompson is my my favorite member. He did a LOT of very charged skits, and although it was a collaborative effort, and no individual skit credits were given, I could always tell who wrote what. Especially the Scott skits.

This was ground breaking stuff to air on public TV in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe less so in Canada, because in the US, it was only aired unedited on HBO. CBS had the last 2 seasons as well, but only aired it at around midnight and routinely butchered it with censoring.

So, I'd really like a take on here by a member of this community on this skit. It's from 1992. Oh! And I haven't even mentioned that Scott is gay. An important distinction. The show dealt with comedic takes on gay culture, and Scott was invariably part of the skits that did this, most famously with his Buddy Cole character.

Anyway, here it is. I'm so sorry for the awful quality. When it's this bad, some of what's put into the performance is lost. Most of the fan uploads on YT are better.

I thought it was funny. The canned laughs is a bit cringy but they didn't know better at the time.

The show was made and presented in a similar way to Mr. Show With Bob And David, with usually, a fairly even split of live skits being performed I'm from of an audience, as well as off set, pre-filmed sketches also being shown to the same audience. Anyway, glad someone got something out of it.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

TopCat8 said:
I just noticed a Pixar short was added to Disney+ called "Out". It is about a relationship between two men, and I've never seen anything that blatant from Disney before. It was really well done, and I hope gay relationships can one day be normalized in cartoons.

Just got a chance to watch it myself. Out was adorable! I was charmed right off when the first thing that happens is a sparkle dog and sparkle cat arrive on the scene via rainbow in a case of tastefully subtle foreshadowing, haha! The painterly animation style was gorgeous and I thought the fantastical elements did the needed work of differentiating an otherwise straightforward coming out story enough to keep it from feeling cliched...and also just made it feel Pixar; accessible to kids and adults alike.

Also helping to keep Out from feeling cliched was the Disney/Pixar happy ending, which remains the exception and not the rule for gay representation in major media. I mean I think there's room and necessity for having all kinds of different endings to these stories in our media because they don't always end happily in real life, but at the same time, we as a community and society need to be able to imagine acceptance and there seems to be a bit of a shortage of such capacity as yet in our media landscape.