Should Disney have a same sex couple?

[EveOnline2016]

Just getting views.

This is something I feel like Disney movies should have.

Being in a same sex couple is nothing to hide from children.

I couldn't agree more. Get with the programme Disney. It's completely awful.

Why would I be joking?

Im perfectly entitled to have a different view to the LBGT brigade.

Diversity IS important (race, religion, cultural backgrounds) but I just dont think children need to see same sex couples in their cartoons...

Yes I absolutely agree. It's something I've pondered in the past.

My DCs love movies and cartoons, not just Disney but loads of different stuff, and nothing they've watched has a gay couple. So it still seemed 'odd' to them when my SIL married her GF. Not in a bad way at all, we have always been really positive about it (because why wouldn't we be?!), it just wasn't on their radar IYSWIM.

Agree about disabled characters too.

I was part of a judging panel thing a couple of years ago for a children's book award, and one of the nominees had a character with a disability, I remember lots of us agreeing that it was brilliant how it just was what it was, it wasn't a tool to tell the story unlike other books I've read who have had disabled characters to make a point IYSWIM.

EveOnline2016 that really made me lol

You know they're not having sex in the cartoons, don't you Afro? They'd just be characters who happened to be gay.

Err...yes unsullied

Then how exactly would a character being gay force honosexuality down children's throats?

*homosexuality

Silly fingers.

So, Afro, why does it matter if the couples featured are gay or straight? Romance is a big theme in Disney.

It's not about 'need'

It's about reflecting the reality of the human relationship amongst the unicorns and the fairy tales

Having no BME characters in a film or TV programme - I tend to think that's indirect racism now whereas I wouldn't have 20 years ago. Particularly if it's a film set in a city which has a diverse population.

How could it not?? That would be the aim wouldnt it?

Thinking about I can't believe that there are no gay characters in Disney. But I can't think of any, but there MUST be fgs. There were some objects in Beauty and the Beast were any of them couples, like the candlestick and the clock? Racking my brain massively.

Afro, why should they include heterosexual couples but not homosexual? What difference does it make?

No afro the aim wouldn't be to ram it down their throats.

Have I stepped back in time?!

Afro
When they have a heterosexual couple on screen is that forcing it down kids throats?

When 15 yr old Jasmine does her sexy eyes at Aladdin with her bust bobbing about, is that less ramming it down kids throats than two people of the same gender doing anything suggesting they're a couple? Really?

I just think theres a later time for those things lulu. Im by no means a prude and being mixed race Im all for diverse programming, I just dont feel we should be pushing certain things into young childrens minds. My child sees same sex people and does ask, which is fine...we talk about it, but I dont need it in Jungle Book or whatever

Lemony - Yes! I love the idea of Elsa being a strong, single woman.

As for same sex couples, when I was small, I always thought that Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street were married (and Morcambe and Wise for that matter). I'm not entirely sure children put the same emphasis of "being in a relationship" as adults tend to do. Love is what's important, be it romantic or not.

Why not, it is part of life.

But Disney is hardly all about life, is it? You do tend to suspend reality with it, don't you? I mean they have a track record for including the following in movies:

• large number of people who could converse with animals, sometimes through song
• dancing pink elephants
• singing snowmen
• magic flying carpets

I think there's a time and a place to introduce concepts to children, and not everything needs to be Disney-fied

Couples, not could

I know it's not Disney, but are the women who adopt Tabby McTatt (in the Julia Donaldson book of that name) a couple? Prunella and Pat? I always assumed they were, but then dh vaguely disappointed me by suggesting they were mother and daughter.
I agree it would be good to have more examples of same sex couples popping up in children's fiction. Not necessarily as a focal point. Just as, you know, normal!

Jasmine's bust bobbing about...really? Yes see this is the problem..already these things are sexualised. Then lets chuck in a lesbian/gay couple...those characters will be sexualised too of course. I understand the need to normalise these things in society but our children need to be children to be honest. We push all these things and we are damaging and confusing them in my view. Nobody else has to agree with me of course

Love, romance, marriage - these are the basis for the majority of Disney films. Of course same sex couples should feature.

Saying it's fantasy and not real life is irrelevant. We're not talking about mortgage payments or the state of the National Health Service - we're discussing a key Disney theme.