# data[].attributes.headline
How are female directors underrepresented in the film industry?

# data[].attributes.subject
How are female directors underrepresented in the film industry?

# data[].attributes.body
-https://www.varsity.co.uk/film-and-tv/18562
-https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/awards/jane-campion-becomes-third-woman-win-best-director-oscar-rcna18904
-https://www.jstor.org/stable/156652

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Oscar nominations were announced last week, and the announcer at the ceremony congratulated 'the men' who had received a nomination for Best Director. By doing this she stressed the fact that, once again, no women have been nominated for this award.

In fact, since the Academy Awards first aired in 1929, only five women have been nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards: Lina Wertmuller ( Seven Beauties), Jane Campion ( The Piano), Sofia Coppola ( Lost in Translation), Kathryn Bigelow ( The Hurt Locker), and Greta Gerwig ( Ladybird). Only one of them won.

This is, however, a problem larger simply than award boards failing to recognise female talent. What it demonstrates is a resistance towards granting women access to decision-making roles like that of director. According to the 5050x2020 initiative, 96% of Hollywood film directors are male.

While the film industry has no problem hiring actresses, it is much more complicated for female creatives to obtain a leadership role behind the camera.

Those women that manage to become directors then fail to be recognised for their work

The Chair of Time's Up UK, Dame Heather Rabbats, gave the BBC two reasons for the lack of women in directing roles. First, 'people tend to recruit in their own image': the majority of directors are men, and they hire men. Secondly, '[directing] has not been a role where women have seen many other women role models'.

In the 2015 documentary Half the Picture, Amy Adrion called out deeply-ingrained sexism in the entertainment industry. 'You realise what a loss it is that [women] haven't been able to contribute to our culture as much as they should.'

In that documentary, Catherine Hardwicke shares the experience of directing Twilight, and how she was told that she'd never make more than the popular The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, which made $29 million. Even after the movie grossed $393.6 million, Hardwicke was paid half as much for her next film and was not offered the three-picture deal to direct the rest of the franchise that is so often offered to men.

Even those women that manage to become directors then fail to be recognised for their work. There was certainly not a lack of female candidates for this year's Best Director Academy Award. Lulu Wang ( The Farewell), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Marielle Heller (A beautiful day in the Neighborhood), Olivia Wilde (Booksmart), and Greta Gerwig ( Little Women) could all have been nominated - none of them were.

The Academy is not the only award committee that has excluded female directors from its list of nominations. Barbra Streisand still remains the only woman ever to win a Best Director Golden Globe, and only four women have ever been nominated for it. Last year, once again, no female directors were nominated in this category. Rebecca Goldman, chief operating officer at the Time's Up, responded by saying that 'who directs feature films matters. It affects what stories are told - and how - with far-reaching implications for women across the film industry and our broader society.' Despite more women-led features and more films by female directors, women - especially women of colour - continue to be sidelined. 'It is an industry-wide crisis.'

There is hope, however, as the industry begins to react to challenges.

The Cannes Film Festival is one festival trying to better recognise females behind the camera. Their 2019 selection included four films by women filmmakers among its 19-strong lineup: Mati Diop's Atlantique, Jessica Hausner's Little Joe, Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and Justine Triet's Sibyl. Overall, 13 female directors are represented in the 47-film official selection. This list of female nominations follows the festival's 2018 commitment to the 5050x2020 gender parity initiative.

But this change has been created only by pressure and protest. The commitment came as a response to the 2018 red carpet protest of 82 of the film industry's biggest names. The Cannes jury president Cate Blanchett read their statement: 'we stand together on these stairs today as a symbol of our determination and commitment to progress.'

More festivals are committing themselves to the 5050x2020 initiative, such as Berlin, Locarno, Venice, TIFF, DOC NYC, and London. Even smaller festivals like the Hamptons, Mill Valley, Annecy, Oxford, Rome, Stockholm, and Goteborg have signed the pledge. Some festivals have even managed to achieve near-gender equality: women directed 46% of the competition films at last year's Sundance Film Festival, and 40% of the ones at the Berlin Film Festival.

The change the 2018 protest sparked, and the potential for change that it heralds, leaves us room to be hopeful about future prospects for the recognition of female directors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Oscar nominations were announced last week, and the announcer at the ceremony congratulated 'the men' who had received a nomination for Best Director. By doing this she stressed the fact that, once again, no women have been nominated for this award.

# data[].attributes.headline
How do french directors portray lesbian characters in the film, in the last 10 years?

# data[].attributes.subject
How do french directors portray lesbian characters in the film, in the last 10 years?

# data[].attributes.body
I was able to get my lead questions after the teacher's and peers' feedback. I was able to come to a conclusion on what  type of route to take with this question and what I wanted to write about.

# data[].attributes.headline
How have lgbtq+ animated characters been portrayed in American tv for the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How have lgbtq+ animated characters been portrayed in American tv for the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXeG-LGx25Y

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Queer Characters Have Evolved In Children's Animation | Movies Insider

# data[].attributes.headline
How do french directors portray lesbian characters in the film, in the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How do french directors portray lesbian characters in the film, in the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.body
-https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/10/oral-sex-and-no-scissoring-how-the-lesbian-gaze-changed-cinema
-https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704654?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiJhYmU5MDRlNS1jMDM2LTRiZjMtOTA2OC03MDFlZjc4ZGVlZWUiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbklkcyI6WyJlMmU3MGZjOS1jNTg4LTQzZWQtODk4Mi1jMzAxMmI0MjA3MTQiXX0&seq=4
-https://stacker.com/stories/4331/history-lgbtq-representation-film
-https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411548.2015.1115696

# data[].attributes.body
In the end, I changed my mind on the question I wanted to do originally, this is because as I started the research and I wasn't feeling motivated and passionate about that question. The question I decided to go with is 'How have lgbtq+ animated characters been portrayed in American tv for the last 10 years?' this question really resonated with me and I'm enjoying researching and finding, things I never knew or even acknowledge at the time.

# data[].attributes.headline
How have lgbtq+ animated characters been portrayed in American tv for the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How have lgbtq+ animated characters been portrayed in American tv for the last 10 years? 

# data[].attributes.body
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1123&context=honorstheses

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348078142_The_Queer_Animated_Revolution_Content_Analysis_of_Sexual_Diversity_Representation_in_Children%27s_Animated_Television_Series

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Although 2020 has been a tough year, it has brought us plenty of content focused on sexual diversity in children's animated series. Here I honorably present my final undergraduate project: "The Queer Animated Revolution: Content analysis of the representation of sexual diversity in animated television series for children". It aimed to understand how sexual diversity was depicted in these shows - to see what kind of characters were animated and how they were animated in terms of blush, displays of physical affection, use of queer themes as humorous, and incidents of support from other people. Likewise, this project examined how homo-romances were found compared to what academics had said about the description of hetero-romances; and how gender conformity concerning gender presentation had been questioned. Lastly, I would like to mention that this study had only used broadcasted episodes until May 15, so this project's continuation would be expected soon.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
(PDF) The Queer Animated Revolution: Content Analysis of Sexual Diversity Representation in Children's Animated Television Series

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although 2020 has been a tough year, it has brought us plenty of content focused on sexual diversity in children's animated series. Here I honorably present my final undergraduate project: "The Queer Animated Revolution: Content analysis of the representation of sexual diversity in animated television series for children".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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YOU SAY ANIMATION I SAY ANIMATION

Kratovil, John.
Metro : Media & Education Magazine Iss. 131/132,  (2002): 196-203,5.

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[There was a video here]

Today, DreamWorks' terrific How To Train Your Dragon 2 glides into theaters. Of the film's several rare creatures is a particularly important one: a matter-of-fact gay character. In a blink-and-miss aside, viking character Gobber comments on a husband and wife's reunion after several years of estrangement by saying, "This is why I never married...that, and one other reason."

Craig Ferguson, who voices Gobber, ad-libbed the line, which he meant as a coming out. The movie's openly gay director, Dean DeBlois, kept it in, explaining to Fox 411, "I think it's nice. It's progressive, it's honest, and it feels good, so we wanted to keep it."

That Gobber is butch and otherwise not identifiably gay makes his coming out that much more powerful. He's just gay, that's just part of him. For those who'd make the argument that sexuality has no place in a kid's movie, recognize how this film's plot hinges on reigniting a love between a man and a woman. Watch how Kristen Wiig's Ruffnut Thorston lusts after Kit Herington's Eret. Realize that the protagonist here, Jay Baruchel's Hiccup, is also matter-of-fact about his sexuality-he just happens to have a girlfriend (America Ferrera's Astrid).

This is just a recent example of a growing relaxation with gay characters in cartoons. At the end of ParaNorman, a jock named Mitch rebuffs a female peer's advances by explaining that he has a boyfriend. Much has been written about the perceived queerness of Frozen's Elsa, a societal reject who implores herself to "let it go" and be herself, but there's even a less ambiguously gay moment in that blockbuster: Oaken, the proprietor of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna, calls out to his family across the room in the sauna and a grown man surrounded by four children wave back.

Introducing gay characters to children in such relaxed ways refutes decades of homophobic conventional wisdom: gays will confuse children, or worse, they'll make children turn gay themselves. "Protecting" children from gays is just shorthand for bigotry. Homophobia has long been justified by painting gays, particularly gay men, as child predators-it's the rationale for Uganda's recent and virulently homophobic legislation, for example.

Ugandan Newspaper Publishes Identities of "200 Top Homos"

If you were curious about the practical implications of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act,...

Animation has a long history of flirting with queerness, if at arm's length, mostly through sissy characters and otherwise effeminate men. For decades, it was implicit as it was in movies in general. As Vito Russo wrote in his history of queer cinema, The Celluloid Closet, "Although at first there was no equation between sissyhood and actual homosexuality, the danger of gayness as the consequence of such behavior lurked always in the background."

While the sissy has a long, complicated history in cinema that doesn't always necessarily associate queerness with wrongdoing, repeatedly queer-coded characters in animation are dangerous, evil, or at the very least, frivolous. In Ub Iwerks' 1935 short, Sinbad the Sailor, a sissy's camping warrants a deluge of knives that nearby pirates throw at him. Disney's Cinderella, 1950, features a moment of gay panic and wary regarding when two male mice get cozy and one likes it a little too much. The antagonist of Powerpuff Girls in the late '90s is basically Satan (referred to as "Him") and utterly queer, with sculpted eyebrows, made-up cheeks, and a candy-coated voice he uses when he isn't utterly deranged.

Those examples and many more are included in the video above (note: it focuses on portrayals of male queerness/sissyhood, as depictions of female queerness are far rarer and more benign-see Peanuts' Peppermint Patty and Scooby Doo's Velma). You can see what is more or less a progression: gay-seeming characters are the butts of jokes, and then they're nuisances, and then they're evil, and then they're normal. There are weird blips along the way: Bambi's Flower was allowed to openly flirt with Bambi in 1942, batting his eyelashes and all, with no consequence. Conversely, 2012's Wreck-It Ralph contains the most explicitly homophobic sentiment that I've ever seen in a cartoon: Ralph ridicules the lisping and flamboyant antagonist King Candy by calling him a "nelly wafer." (That blow to progress is reminiscent of the increased gay bashings in New York in the wake of marriage equality. Some feel the need to step back as culture moves forward.)

Representation of minorities in pop culture continues to be a fraught issue. I don't really need the validation of seeing people like me on a screen-that's not what I use pop culture for (if anything, it's to make brief entries into worlds that I'd never otherwise enter the orbit of). But it seems to me that having positive, openly gay characters in children's culture could make a difference to impressionable minds. If nothing else, it shows kids that being gay is no big deal. It's not anything to be ashamed of. Other people's sexuality is no threat. Given the alternatives of stereotyping, maligning, and all-out bashing, I think animation is in a good place now, and it's getting better.
Note, the video above was partially sourced from Jess DePaul and Zach Barnard's YouTube video/college project Gay Characters in Disney/Pixar Movies, which also contains examples not covered by the montage I put together above:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Here's a Brief History of Queer Children's Cartoon Characters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leland G. Spencer (PhD, University of Georgia, 2013) is professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Communication Studies at Miami University in Hamilton, OH and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program... Read more

Leland G. Spencer (PhD, University of Georgia, 2013) is professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Communication Studies at Miami University in Hamilton, OH and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film. Leland holds a graduate certificate in Women's Studies from UGA (2011), an MA in Communication from the University of Cincinnati (2009), and a BA in Communication Studies from Mount Union College (now known as University of Mount Union, 2007). Leland's research interests are in feminist rhetoric, gender, sexuality, and gender identity, and religious communication. Leland is the coauthor (with Theresa Kulbaga) of Campuses of Consent (University of Massachusetts, 2019), author of Women Bishops and Rhetorics of Shalom: A Whole Peace (Lexington, 2017), and coeditor (with Jamie Capuzza) of Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories (Lexington, 2015). He has published more than thirty peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Text and Performance Quarterly, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Women &amp; Language, and others. Leland's scholarship has received local and national recognition. Leland holds the Randy Majors Award from the Caucus on LGBTQ Concerns of the National Communication Association (NCA), the Janice Hocker Rushing Award from the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA), and the Gender Scholar of the Year Award from the Gender Studies Division of SSCA. Leland has won several awards for conference presentations and publications from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender as well as different divisions of NCA. Leland has also been honored with awards for research and academic advising from Miami University. Show less

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Leland G. Spencer (PhD, University of Georgia, 2013) is professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Communication Studies at Miami University in Hamilton, OH and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program... Read more Leland G.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
[There was a video here]

Today, DreamWorks' terrific How To Train Your Dragon 2 glides into theaters. Of the film's several rare creatures is a particularly important one: a matter-of-fact gay character. In a blink-and-miss aside, viking character Gobber comments on a husband and wife's reunion after several years of estrangement by saying, "This is why I never married...that, and one other reason."

Craig Ferguson, who voices Gobber, ad-libbed the line, which he meant as a coming out. The movie's openly gay director, Dean DeBlois, kept it in, explaining to Fox 411, "I think it's nice. It's progressive, it's honest, and it feels good, so we wanted to keep it."

That Gobber is butch and otherwise not identifiably gay makes his coming out that much more powerful. He's just gay, that's just part of him. For those who'd make the argument that sexuality has no place in a kid's movie, recognize how this film's plot hinges on reigniting a love between a man and a woman. Watch how Kristen Wiig's Ruffnut Thorston lusts after Kit Herington's Eret. Realize that the protagonist here, Jay Baruchel's Hiccup, is also matter-of-fact about his sexuality-he just happens to have a girlfriend (America Ferrera's Astrid).

This is just a recent example of a growing relaxation with gay characters in cartoons. At the end of ParaNorman, a jock named Mitch rebuffs a female peer's advances by explaining that he has a boyfriend. Much has been written about the perceived queerness of Frozen's Elsa, a societal reject who implores herself to "let it go" and be herself, but there's even a less ambiguously gay moment in that blockbuster: Oaken, the proprietor of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna, calls out to his family across the room in the sauna and a grown man surrounded by four children wave back.

Introducing gay characters to children in such relaxed ways refutes decades of homophobic conventional wisdom: gays will confuse children, or worse, they'll make children turn gay themselves. "Protecting" children from gays is just shorthand for bigotry. Homophobia has long been justified by painting gays, particularly gay men, as child predators-it's the rationale for Uganda's recent and virulently homophobic legislation, for example.

Ugandan Newspaper Publishes Identities of "200 Top Homos"

If you were curious about the practical implications of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act,...

Animation has a long history of flirting with queerness, if at arm's length, mostly through sissy characters and otherwise effeminate men. For decades, it was implicit as it was in movies in general. As Vito Russo wrote in his history of queer cinema, The Celluloid Closet, "Although at first there was no equation between sissyhood and actual homosexuality, the danger of gayness as the consequence of such behavior lurked always in the background."

While the sissy has a long, complicated history in cinema that doesn't always necessarily associate queerness with wrongdoing, repeatedly queer-coded characters in animation are dangerous, evil, or at the very least, frivolous. In Ub Iwerks' 1935 short, Sinbad the Sailor, a sissy's camping warrants a deluge of knives that nearby pirates throw at him. Disney's Cinderella, 1950, features a moment of gay panic and wary regarding when two male mice get cozy and one likes it a little too much. The antagonist of Powerpuff Girls in the late '90s is basically Satan (referred to as "Him") and utterly queer, with sculpted eyebrows, made-up cheeks, and a candy-coated voice he uses when he isn't utterly deranged.

Those examples and many more are included in the video above (note: it focuses on portrayals of male queerness/sissyhood, as depictions of female queerness are far rarer and more benign-see Peanuts' Peppermint Patty and Scooby Doo's Velma). You can see what is more or less a progression: gay-seeming characters are the butts of jokes, and then they're nuisances, and then they're evil, and then they're normal. There are weird blips along the way: Bambi's Flower was allowed to openly flirt with Bambi in 1942, batting his eyelashes and all, with no consequence. Conversely, 2012's Wreck-It Ralph contains the most explicitly homophobic sentiment that I've ever seen in a cartoon: Ralph ridicules the lisping and flamboyant antagonist King Candy by calling him a "nelly wafer." (That blow to progress is reminiscent of the increased gay bashings in New York in the wake of marriage equality. Some feel the need to step back as culture moves forward.)

Representation of minorities in pop culture continues to be a fraught issue. I don't really need the validation of seeing people like me on a screen-that's not what I use pop culture for (if anything, it's to make brief entries into worlds that I'd never otherwise enter the orbit of). But it seems to me that having positive, openly gay characters in children's culture could make a difference to impressionable minds. If nothing else, it shows kids that being gay is no big deal. It's not anything to be ashamed of. Other people's sexuality is no threat. Given the alternatives of stereotyping, maligning, and all-out bashing, I think animation is in a good place now, and it's getting better.
Note, the video above was partially sourced from Jess DePaul and Zach Barnard's YouTube video/college project Gay Characters in Disney/Pixar Movies, which also contains examples not covered by the montage I put together above:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Here's a Brief History of Queer Children's Cartoon Characters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today, DreamWorks' terrific How To Train Your Dragon 2 glides into theaters. Of the film's several rare creatures is a particularly important one: a matter-of-fact gay character. In a blink-and-miss aside, viking character Gobber comments on a husband and wife's reunion after several years of estrangement by saying, "This is why I never married...that, and one other reason."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
has amassed a database of every LGBTQ+ animated character on television in the US, showing the history of queer characters in representation in children's programing.

The database tracks "the historical presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, and other sexual- and gender-minority characters with confirmation in animated children's television in the US." According to the report, there are exactly 259 LGBTQ+ animated characters in children's programming.

The first animated show to feature an LGBTQ+ character was SuperTed, which aired on the Disney Channel in 1983, followed by Gargoyles in 1994.

While we're certainly making progress, many of the biggest pushes forward happened in the last ten years. Insider walks us through the queer-coded characters of the 1900s, the Hays Code, the villainization of queer stereotypes, persistent LGBTQ+ tropes, and more.

The video takes a deep dive into a few LGBTQ+ shows of the last decade. 39 out of the 259 LGBTQ+ characters noted belong to Cartoon Network's groundbreaking 2013 series Steven Universe alone. She-Ra and the Princess of Power also boasts 23. In 2020, Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts was the first cartoon where a character actually said "I'm gay" out loud.

Insider does acknowledge that the database "doesn't tell the whole story of LGBTQ representation in US kids' animation - just that of the characters who met a threshold. Still, it helps paint a clearer picture of how sexual and gender minorities have historically existed on screen." It's also tough to categorize the implicit idioms of characters over the decades.

There are a few mistakes on the list. According to , "Perfuma, a bisexual character from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, is labeled as a cis woman, despite being confirmed as trans by the creators of the character and show. Additionally, Rogelio and Kyle, two characters who were said by Stevenson to be in a polyamorous relationship with a female character, Lonnie, in the same show, are both labeled as 'gay' instead of 'bisexual' or 'pansexual.'"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This History of LGBTQ+ Cartoon Characters Shows How Far We've Come

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
has amassed a database of every LGBTQ+ animated character on television in the US, showing the history of queer characters in representation in children's programing. The database tracks "the historical presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, and other sexual- and gender-minority characters with confirmation in animated children's television in the US."

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Disney's Gay Agenda: How Disney Is Helping To Normalize The Gay Character

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Disney's Gay Agenda: How Disney Is Helping To Normalize The Gay Character

May 08, 2017

Recently, Disney has gotten a lot of attention for its most recent production, Beauty and the Beast. The live-action remake was said to feature Disney’s first openly gay character – LeFou, Gaston’s sidekick. “LeFou is somebody who one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” mentioned the director, Bill Condon, in an interview with Attitude magazine. This revelation sent the whole internet into a frenzy, with many rejoicing at the possibility of representation and some complaining about Disney’s “gay agenda.”

Disney has had a long, sometimes complicated history with using gay or effeminate characters in their movies. For a long time, “gayness” was a stereotype that they pushed onto villains to make them seem “eviler,” or used as comic relief, as was the case with the original 1991 version of LeFou. But recent movies, like Frozen and Zootopia, have shown that they’re moving away from their poor track record of fairly representing the LGBT community. And while it may have been a somewhat cautious step in the right direction, the progression of LeFou’s character from the original comic relief trope to the newer, more humanized version is important in the fight for fair representation of the LGBT community in the media, and shows that Disney is helping to repair their own broken track record with this issue.

When Disney was first starting out, they played around a lot with gender stereotypes, especially with the more effeminate male character. Animated shorts like Ferdinand the Bull and The Reluctant Dragon both featured male characters who didn’t act in accordance with the typical “masculine” gender norm. But these characters were treated in a positive light. In the early days of film, even outside of animated movies, “queer” characters – those who were ambiguously portrayed as homosexual or living outside gender norms – were seen as comedic. However, with the introduction of the Hays Code in 1930, these same characters were portrayed in a different light.

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, or the Hays Code, established guidelines that movies needed to follow. These rules were made with the intent to make sure that movies adhered to moral guidelines, many of these dealing with sexual activity. “Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.” “Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.” Until it was replaced with the MPAA ratings system in 1968, this code governed the production of film and drastically changed the way that “queer” characters were presented. What was once portrayed as silly and funny was now cast in a more nefarious light.

In the 1950s, PSAs were shown in schools warning young boys of the “homosexual predator.” Boys Beware, intended to be an educational film, claimed that gay men preyed on young boys in public restrooms and public parks. “He may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill,” declares the PSA. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness, and the public’s view of gay men was that of a villain or a monster; films followed that pattern by making their villains more effeminate and “queer."

Disney, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, was one of those films. In Peter Pan, the main antagonist, Captain Hook, was modeled to reflect the “homosexual predators” in Boys Beware. Hook dons bright pink trousers and a matching hat topped with a large, over-exaggerated feather. He speaks with a lilting English accent, not to mention he is constantly yelling for his right-hand man, “Smee!” And his character literally preys on young boys. Towards the end of the movie, Hook tries to force the Darlings and the Lost Boys to join his crew in the song “The Elegant Captain Hook.” “There isn’t a boy / Who won’t enjoy / A-workin’ for Captain Hook,” sings the crew to the prisoners. Hook adds his offer: “All those who sign without delay / Will get a free tattoo.” “C’mon, join up, and I’ll be frank / Unless you do, you’ll walk the plank!" During the song, the crew dances and twirls with each other around the ship. The men could have easily been portrayed as brutish, masculine pirates, but Disney’s direction choice to have them flamboyantly twirl and waltz on the deck is a more than obvious hint towards homosexual undertones. With the public’s attitude toward homosexuals at the time, and considering the Boys Beware PSA shown to young boys, this song – and Hook’s character – can have little other meaning. Disney portrays Hook as a homosexual pedophile trying to enlist the young boys in his “crew.”

Captain Hook was not the first, nor last, Disney villain to be portrayed as both evil and “gay.” Even Ursula, the sea witch from The Little Mermaid, was based off of the real-life drag queen Divine. In many of its early male villains, Disney made use of the “fop” stereotype. Merriam-Webster defines a fop as “a man who is devoted to or vain about his appearance or dress; a dandy.” There were many characteristics subconsciously associated with gay men that Disney was able to sneak in. Captain Hook, Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective, Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas, Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Jafar from Aladdin were all donned in varying shades of pink or violet. We can add in Sher Kahn from The Jungle Book, Prince John from Robin Hood, Hades from Hercules, and Scar from The Lion King into this group of “crypto-homo” villains, as they all shared similar characteristics in their speech and personalities. David Thorpe, the director of the documentary Do I Sound Gay?, examines the “gay voice” and different characteristics that make these villains a little off-putting and antagonistic.

“For decades, Disney films have reinforced the stereotype that gay men are bad because not only do they scheme and enact mischief upon the good characters, but they are also bad because they don’t conform to cultural norms of gender. The men are flamboyant. They use flowery language. They have a very snobbish way of speaking. They’re often very fastidious and pay a lot of attention to how they dress. They are a cartoon, both literally and metaphorically, of what gay men are.” With this in mind, it’s easy to see a pattern in Disney’s early villains. Nearly all of them conformed to this stereotype, and whether or not it was Disney’s intent to use “gay” traits to “villainize” their villains, it worked. In the time period in which these movies came out, those who differentiated themselves from the gender norm were considered queer and off-putting, and the homosexual man was the villain in real life. Putting homosexual traits in subtext only helped to make their villains more “evil.”

Even in more modern films, slick, debonair, violet-clad villains like Dr. Facilier from Princess and the Frog still make an appearance. King Candy from Wreck-It-Ralph was the last such instance of the effeminate villain, and Disney pulled out all the stops with his character. He bore a striking resemblance to the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, sporting an oversized red bowtie, puffy gold-striped pants, rosy cheeks, purple, pointy-toed slippers that jingle as he walks, and a tall lacy collar resembling a doily. His squat stature is supported by a candy “cane” that he holds with a dainty wrist, and his flowery, overly effeminate, and mildly childish personality top it all off. When someone called the inside of his castle pink, he hastily corrected them by claiming it to be “obviously salmon.” At one point in the movie, our protagonist Ralph even refers to him as a “nelly wafer." “Nelly” is an outdated slang term used negatively to describe effeminate homosexual men. Clearly, Disney got away with a lot in the making of his character, and still used the old tactic of injecting a villain with a little homosexual flair; or in King Candy’s case, dousing him with the whole bottle before throwing it away.

While some might argue that Disney’s newest animation, Moana, also made use of the “foppish” villain through the glittery, egocentric crab Tamatoa, it turns out that there is a reason behind Tamatoa’s queer attributes. Tamatoa’s obsession with all things shiny, as well as his tribute to them in his eerily eccentric, glam-rock song “Shiny,” is actually a tribute to the late David Bowie. This movie was written at a time when the world was still grieving for the legendary Bowie, and Tamatoa’s character was to be voiced by Jemaine Clement, who was “a man known for his spot-on Bowie impression.” Tamatoa might appear at first to be nothing more than another villain who was given effeminate features to make him scarier, but all of the glitter and graceful sashaying during his musical number was actually a reference to David Bowie – who was, regardless of his sexuality, very prominent in LGBT culture.

Disney also used some gay stereotyping in its comedic relief characters. Genie from Aladdin and Pleakley from Lilo and Stitch both frequently dress in drag throughout the course of their respective movies. Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King also play with homosexual subtext with references to same-sex parenting and drag (“What do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?”) while providing the movie’s jokes and most memorable song, “Hakuna Matata." Hugo the gargoyle, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starred as the main comedic relief to a much more dark and serious movie. While the other gargoyles seemed to be focused on Esmeralda when talking about Quasimodo’s love interest, Hugo focused his affections towards Esmeralda’s male goat, Djali. In the substantially less popular sequel, Djali appears to reciprocate Hugo’s affections – meaning that Disney’s first gay “relationship” would have been between a gargoyle and a goat. Not to mention that goats are typically viewed as demonic or Satanic in nature – having a gay “relationship” involving a goat could be Disney’s way of demonizing gay relationships.

Many of these characters were the right-hand henchmen to their foppish antagonists, such as Smee in Peter Pan and Wiggins in Pocahontas, who, ironically, was voiced by David Ogden Stiers, the voice of Governor Ratcliffe. They were generally portrayed as obediently and unconditionally serving their superiors, with little to no character development of their own. Their whole purpose in the movie was to attend to their respective villain hand and foot, without complaint or moral qualms, and to provide comic relief: often by being the preferred outlet for their villain’s anger with the protagonist.

The most famous example of such a character is LeFou, Gaston’s fawning sidekick in Beauty and the Beast. Besides his constant, unconditional attention given only to Gaston, LeFou flamboyantly prances and twirls around while singing a jaunty tavern number extolling Gaston’s virtues. This song was filled with thinly veiled homosexual references. “For there’s no man in town half as manly / Perfect, a pure paragon!” LeFou acclaims. “You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley / And they’ll tell you whose team they’d prefer to be on!” ‘Team’ is often used to reference one’s sexual orientation, therefore, LeFou is suggesting that Gaston’s manliness is strong enough to attract any guy. Further, the majority of LeFou’s lines in the song refer to Gaston’s physical appearance, while the other men in the tavern sing only about his wit or his skills. LeFou’s attention to Gaston’s physique is joined only by the accompanying women in the tavern. “No one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Gaston’s!” “Not a bit of him’s scraggly or scrawny,” “No one’s got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston!” LeFou even tickles his chin during this line, and is very touchy-feely with Gaston throughout the song, holding on to his arm and even swinging from his neck by a leather belt. At the end of the reprise, LeFou waltzes out of the tavern arm-in-arm with Gaston.

LeFou’s character is meant only for comic relief, as he often bears the brunt of Gaston’s temper tantrums by getting banged on the head or thrown into mud puddles. At one point in the original movie, Gaston actually leaves LeFou in a snowbank to wait for Belle to return. LeFou still worships Gaston throughout the movie despite his physical abuse, which doesn’t paint a pretty image for his character. He is less of a human character than a humorous footstool who willingly serves Gaston – in fact, his name in French literally means, “the fool.”

It turns out, however, that the 1991 making of Beauty and the Beast was involved with more LGBT issues than the homosexual allusions in “Gaston.” Howard Ashman, who was involved in writing the lyrics for the movie along with Alan Menken, was suffering from AIDS during the time. However, due to the public’s wary view of the disease, and of gay men, at the time, Ashman ended up suffering in silence. He used the character of the Beast as a way to portray his pain as he dealt with HIV. Before his involvement, the story had mostly focused on Belle – however, he brought the Beast into the spotlight as another central character. Ashman used the Beast’s self-hatred towards the curse placed upon him as parallel to what he was dealing with personally at the time with AIDS. Songs like “The Mob Song,” which featured the angry villagers venturing off to “kill the beast,” showcased the public’s view towards the disease and homosexuality in general. “We don’t like what we don’t understand / In fact it scares us / And this monster is mysterious at least,” they chant, wielding torches and pitchforks.

Bill Condon, the director for the live-action remake of the movie, talked more about Ashman in an interview. “Specifically for him, it was a metaphor for AIDS. He was cursed, and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him, and maybe there was a chance for a miracle – and a way for the curse to be lifted.”

Despite its criticisms, and perhaps with Ashman’s huge influence still in mind, the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast was revolutionary for the LGBT community in many ways. Bill Condon is gay, as are Luke Evans, who plays the character Gaston, and Ian McKellen, the voice of Cogsworth. Belle is played by Emma Watson, a revolutionary, progressive figure for feminists as well as a supporter of the LGBT community. And within months of the movie’s first debut, Bill Condon announced that the movie would feature Disney’s first “exclusively gay moment,” with LeFou being Disney’s first openly gay character.

Public backlash commenced, but was drowned out by the overwhelming support of those who were anxious to see Disney finally make a leap in the right direction in supporting the LGBT community. Disney had been including small hints towards supporting the LGBT community in its more recent animated films: in Zootopia, Officer Judy Hopp’s neighbors are a gay antelope couple – this fact was only revealed in the credits, where their names appeared with the surname “Oryx-Antlerson." Finding Dory gave viewers a brief second of what appeared to be a lesbian couple, not to mention having its main character, Dory, voiced by none other than Ellen DeGeneres, one of the most prominent LGBT icons in the world. The movie Frozen also included a gay “Easter-egg” in the movie: when the owner of Oaken’s Trading Post waves to his family in the shop’s sauna, a man and four children wave back. Frozen’s Elsa also provided the movie with small hints towards the LGBT community, with no male love interest in sight and her feature song “Let It Go,” which presented themes of being who you are and letting go of what other people want you to be – which could have been a friendly nod towards the LGBT community. Until the release of Beauty and the Beast almost four years later, Frozen was seen as Disney’s most LGBT-friendly film.

The character of LeFou in the live-action Beauty and the Beast made huge improvements upon his predecessor. For starters, his appearance and personality wasn’t overly comedic, although his role as comedic relief was still in place. We see a return of the “pink villain,” as LeFou now dresses in a bright shade of hot pink. However, LeFou is no longer portrayed as the subservient, fawning henchman. Instead, he appears to be Gaston’s close friend, riding alongside him as an equal and supporting him in his endeavors. But while the old LeFou had no moral dilemmas when helping out his idol, the new LeFou seems to hesitate as Gaston grows increasingly persistent in his attempts to win Belle in marriage. When Gaston ties up Maurice, Belle’s father, in the woods, leaving him to the wolves, we see LeFou’s unwillingness to comply as he tries to reason with Gaston – and as they drive off, he looks back regretfully at Maurice. When Gaston later claims that he had no part in trying to kill Maurice, LeFou agrees with him only after a long period of tripping over his sentences and obviously arguing with himself as he begins to face a serious moral dilemma. In “The Mob Song,” LeFou watches Gaston worriedly as he sings, “There’s a beast running wild, there’s no question / But I fear the wrong monster’s released.” During the final battle at the castle, LeFou ends up having a grand piano fall on him. But while he yells for Gaston to help him, Gaston simply ignores him as he goes off to find the Beast. LeFou ends up saving Mrs. Potts, explaining that “Well, I used to be on Gaston’s side, but we are so in a bad place right now.” Mrs. Potts responds by saying “You’re too good for him, anyway,” to which LeFou nods in agreement, and joins the castle’s inhabitants in fighting off the villagers. And in the very last scene of the movie, where all of the characters are dancing happily, we get to see a man waltz into the arms of a slightly surprised LeFou – the same man who, in the battle against the castle’s inhabitants, had been dressed in a female costume by Madame Garderobe and smiled at his reflection, sashaying away while his two companions, dressed in similar clothes, screamed in terror and fled.

Even with all of LeFou’s improvements, there was still critics who claimed that the new Beauty and the Beast did little, if anything, to improve Disney’s relations with the LGBT community. Many were severely disappointed with the minute amount of attention given to the “exclusively gay moment” – which turned out to be the three seconds of screen time given to LeFou and his male dancing companion. It’s true that this might have been an overcautious gesture, and it definitely didn’t live up to all of the hype it had been given. But what these critics fail to consider is the significance of all of the changes given to LeFou’s character. He now has character development. He has a conscience. He might have been comic relief, but his attributes weren’t ridiculed as they were in the original story. He wasn’t the next “gay villain.” He was a complex character who was Gaston’s comrade, not his footstool. And when he realized that Gaston was only using him for an ego boost, he did the right thing and left, instead of staying in what was ultimately a toxic, one-sided friendship. In fact, he wasn’t even portrayed as being “madly in love” with Gaston. Their time on screen resembled more of a brotherly relationship than anything – save for a scene that was nothing more than a comment towards LeFou and Gaston’s closeness during a scene in the song Gaston, in which LeFou wraps Gaston’s arms around him (“Too much? Yep.”). He might have been the first openly gay Disney character, but his sexuality had nothing to do with his story or his part in the movie, which is an important milestone not only for Disney, but for films in general in their depiction of LGBT characters.

LeFou’s character was by no means the perfect representation of gay men. However, his significance lies in the changes that were made in his character, and what the presence of such changes means for the future of Disney and their approach to gay characters. Considering that Disney has a wide fanbase made up of both progressive outlets calling for more rapid change, and conservative outlets complaining about the pace of change, Disney made a gamble when they went public with LeFou’s sexual orientation. The fear of losing loyal fans and, therefore, losing money, is what has kept the animation monolith from being too out in the open with their new, LGBT-friendly decisions. The move could have lost them a considerable profit margin if too many were opposed to a new, more progressive Disney. But the considerable success of Beauty and the Beast will certainly pave the way for much bolder action on their part. Worldwide, the movie has claimed over $1 billion dollars in box office sales, as well as the number one rank domestically for the first two weekends it premiered. Clearly, the world is ready for such change.

The new Beauty and the Beast might have been a cautious step towards fairly representing LGBT characters, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. Considering all of Disney’s past history with LGBT characters, and seeing how their more modern movies are starting to include small hints of a friendlier outlook towards the LGBT community, Beauty and the Beast was a landmark decision that will certainly pave the way for increasingly bold and progressive decisions by the animation monolith. Gone are the days of using “gayness” as a way to portray villains or provide comic relief. Instead, in LeFou we see a fully fleshed-out, human character who develops throughout the course of the story. LeFou’s character shows that Disney is willing to progress, and we can only hope that in the future, Disney will lead the way in continuing to include LGBT characters that are just as human as the rest of us.

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Disney’s Gay Agenda: How Disney Is Helping To Normalize The Gay Character

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Disney’s been using gay and effeminate characters for a long time, but they’re finally starting to do it right.

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The feedback that I got from the teacher helped me understand the main points that I should be analysing on my question. I found myself kinda lost but very interested on this topic which is why I changed it last minute. This topic is somehing that i never thought of doing or even taking a look at it, but since i started my research I have made so much progress on what route to take this study.

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Illustration by Morgen Dutil, Montserrat College of Art

Although TV programming aimed at kids is becoming more inclusive, it still has a long way to go.

Children's TV shows have come a long way throughout the years. However, while they are intended to entertain and educate, they have failed to provide adequate information about LGBT communities. The debate on whether these programs are beneficial for children has been a topic of discussion for several years. Children, however, clearly benefit from representation in TV shows. In recent years, companies such as Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon have increasingly aired inclusive episodes for their shows. It has been shown that these shows allow children to grow up with a better perception of what constitutes a normal family - a vision that includes LGBT families. These children's TV shows allow them to learn acceptance and feel accepted as well.

Nickelodeon Children's TV shows

In December 2014, " The Legend of Korra," the spinoff of "Avatar the Last Airbender," aired its series finale with the main characters, Korra and Asami, holding hands as they enter the spirit world, cementing their new relationship. They plan on going away together to wherever Asami chooses after Korra apologizes for being gone for so long. When they approach the beam of light, they grab each other's hands and head off to start their new journey together. The ending is similar to the ending of "Avatar the Last Airbender," where Aang and Katara kiss and begin their new relationship. Although some were disappointed by the absent kiss, the creators confirmed that the ending did in fact solidify the beginning of Korrasami's relationship.

"The Loud House" features LGBT representation in several ways. The show centers around Lincoln Loud and his 10 sisters. Lincoln has a best friend named Clyde who was adopted by his two fathers, Howard and Harold, who are an interracial couple. They are depicted as overprotective parents that care deeply for their son's safety. Although they are only shown in one episode, they are mentioned numerous times throughout the show. They are not the only LGBT characters portrayed in the series, however. At the end of an episode titled, "L is for Love," one of Lincoln's sisters, Luna, is implied to be bisexual when it's revealed that she has a crush on a woman named Sam. Sam and Luna begin dating and appear in numerous episodes as a couple.

In May 2021, Nickelodeon posted a video to its " Blue's Clues " YouTube page in celebration of Pride Month. It involved drag queen Nina West singing about the different families of critters that were in the animated parade. It also involved many pride flags along with different representations of lesbian, gay, nonbinary, transgender, asexual, pansexual, bisexual and many more types of families. Although it aired as an online short and did not appear on TV, it helps children to acknowledge the myriad families and see that they all essentially share the same love.

Cartoon Network Children's TV shows

In " Adventure Time," it was heavily implied throughout the series that the vampire queen, Marceline, and Princess Bubblegum have always had a different type of friendship - maybe even more than just being close friends. Fans had started calling them "Bubbline" in hopes they would get together. It was revealed that they had a relationship at some point in their lives, but it was not shown in the series. During the show's ending, they share a kiss after Marceline slays the GOLB. In the series-limited spinoff, "Adventure Time: Distant Lands," Marceline and Bubblegum are shown living together as a couple while looking back on their past.

"Steven Universe" is another children's TV show that has an overwhelming amount of LGBT representation in its episodes. The story consists of the Crystal Gems and a young Steven, who is half-human, half-Gem. All of the Crystal Gems are portrayed as women or feminine and go by she/her pronouns. There are several displays of LGBT representation among the Gems. Pearl was in love with Steven's mother, Rose Quartz, who had fallen for Steven's dad and is now encased within the crystal inside of Steven. Throughout the series, Pearl feels grief over the loss of Rose Quartz as well as jealousy toward Greg, Steven's father. One of the Crystal Gems, Garnet, is an infusion of Ruby and Sapphire, who are in a relationship with each other. They have appeared separately a few times where they danced together to fuse into Garnet. All Gems can fuse together, and soon Steven realizes that he can also fuse with humans when he fuses with his girlfriend, Connie.

Disney Children's TV shows

In Disney Channel's "Good Luck Charlie," Charlie's parents, Amy and Bob, set up a playdate for Charlie and her friend Taylor. Throughout the episode, Bob and Amy argue over what Taylor's mother's name is, one believing it's Susan, and the other Cheryl. When they open the door, they find both Susan and Cheryl, Taylor's moms, on the other side. This was Disney's first openly gay couple to appear on the channel, especially impressive for a children's TV show. There were many mixed reviews, but overall, people were excited for the new turn Disney was taking in its children's programming.

Another Disney Channel show, "Andi Mack," features Disney's first gay main character. The show centers around Andi Mack and her two best friends after learning that her sister is actually her mother who had her at a young age, leading Andi to be raised by her grandparents instead. Cyrus Goodman, one of Andi's best friends, comes out as gay to his friend Buffy and is the first character in Disney to say the words, "I'm gay." In the series finale, Cyrus and TJ share a moment together, cementing Disney's first real gay relationship between the two main characters. Although the moment was short, fans were delighted with the important message and felt it was needed.

Paving the Way Toward Acceptance

Children's TV shows have definitely grown more accepting over the years, moving from waiting until the series finale to make the reveal, to main characters openly representing the LGBT communities. It's important for children to be exposed to a variety of families and people because in reality, they are all essentially the same. Although some people believe it to be inappropriate for children, the added inclusivity shows acceptance of all people. Hopefully, there will be more representation from all shows in the future.

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Children's TV Shows Are Gradually Getting Better at LGBT Representation

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Illustration by Morgen Dutil, Montserrat College of Art Although TV programming aimed at kids is becoming more inclusive, it still has a long way to go. Children's TV shows have come a long way throughout the years. However, while they are intended to entertain and educate, they have failed to provide adequate information about LGBT communities.

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An exploration of the history of the American LGBTQ movement through the lens of TV; archival footage is combined with new interviews, for a look at homophobia, the evolution of LGBTQ characters, and coming out in the TV world.

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This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy -- which initially defined homosexuality -- as well as the demonization of the homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.