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“Which also underscores for me the need for even more obvious and outright positive LGBTQ representation in what’s available for tweens and teens to read, watch, and listen to.” The animated movie was expected to feature a genderfluid shapeshifting lead, and, even more exciting, a same-sex kiss. In a piece for her blog, Watchful Mother, Jenny Bullough writes that Nimona helped her develop a closer relationship with her queer children: “The fact that I didn’t read as a gay couple and our queer kid did, reinforces for me that she’s so eager to see her identity reflected and represented in popular culture that she will read into the most obliquely coded references and claim them as legitimate LGBTQ canon,” she writes. Stevenson helmed Netflix’s recent She-Ra and the Princesses of Power reboot, and her book drew a cult following with its embrace of LGBTQ culture and efforts to bridge the gap between generations of queer people.
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Adapted from Noelle Stevenson’s graphic novel about a villain named Ballister who hires the titular young shapeshifter as a sidekick, Nimona was set to be adapted by Blue Sky Studios, an animation studio acquired by Disney in 2019. Disney added insult to injury by scrapping Nimona, its first legitimately queer film, in March 2021. “But heterosexuals are never defined as evil or irrelevant simply because of their sexuality.” Following this line of logic, Disney has done the perfect job pretending to be progressive while actually falling three steps behind. “Granted there are absurd and sinister gay men and lesbians in real life, just as there are evil heterosexuals,” Weir writes. As John Weir notes in a 1992 article for the New York Times, this sort of queercoding inherently equates queerness with evil, becoming a form of gay bashing. Though Disney has created queer-coded villains such as Jafar, Scar, and Ursula to help the company manage its pseudo-progressive agenda, this approached has contributed to homophobic discourse. Disney touted Officer Spector as its first openly gay character, but it also censored the film in Russia, changing Spector’s line about her “girlfriend” to a line about her “partner.” Beyond Onward, queer representation has largely consisted of internet speculation about Finding Dory’s “presumed lesbian couple” and a “ canonically queer Lefou” praised for his “subtle queerness” in Beauty and the Beast. Though the studio’s alleged gay agenda has inched forward recently, with Lena Waithe’s role as Officer Spector in Onward, the character quickly faded to the background after five minutes of screen time. His lace, satin, and silk ensembles were first praised by queer viewers craving representation and subsequently criticized by conservatives for peddling a “gay agenda.” That’s par for the course for Disney productions: In recent years, each new effort is at some point hailed for introducing the corporation’s “first” queer character because without any fleshed-out queer narrative or canon to rely on, LGBTQ viewers grasp at narrative straws, desperate to be seen by the industry that shaped their upbringings. The film is set in the world of fashion, so it makes sense for Artie to be well-versed in industry trends.
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One example of the latter is Artie (John McCrea), a thinly veiled henchman who dresses in genderfluid clothing. When Cruella hit theaters on May 28, some praised the Emma Stone–led production as “ camp, queer, and honest,” while others slammed it for unnecessary queerbaiting. “To any creative at Disney TV, feature, publishing, or streaming: Please mercilessly spam your execs with ‘there’s room for everyone under the rainbow’ next time they tell you to ‘please revise’ your LGBTQ+ character for ‘not being Disney appropriate,’” Hirsch added, a request that was retweeted more than 7,000 times. Yet behind the scenes, Disney tells another story-one that, as Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch recently noted on Twitter, treats LGBTQ-focused content as unsuitable for their audiences. One Lilo and Stitch–themed t-shirt reads “Ohana means family,” while another depicts the Pixar lab in rainbow colors. (Photo credit: Twitter/Disney)ĭisney is once again attempting to edge its way to the forefront of Pride Month: This month, the company has unveiled new Pride-focused merchandise in a feeble effort to appear inclusive. On June 1, Disney tweeted this illustration in support of Pride Month.