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 would like to see a same sex couple on something where it's not done for shock value or as a ratings grabber.

Disney own the company that's does 'once upon a time' there are many same sex couples and relationships on there. The ways it's done is very good. It's not a big deal.

Don't understand why people are saying things like 'it's up to you to educate your children, not Disney'.

I would love Disney to feature a same sex couple (I would love it 100x over if they gave Elsa a girlfriend, but I do accept that's no t going to happen!). Not because I haven't managed to teach my own child about different types of relationship - with a lesbian mother and many many family friends in same sex couples, that would be frankly rather hard to avoid - but because I would like that for him in addition to his lived reality, the infrequent conversations we have about these things, and the carefully cherry-picked books which help normalise it. And because of what a pp said about it fitting in as part of a general 'more agency for female characters' thing. And for all the children in other families who don't grow up with actual real-life LGB people in their lives, who haven't already had And Tango Makes Three forces down their throats, but who may well grow up to be gay themselves or, you know, meet a gay person and need to not be a confused and awkward bigot.

Seriously, either romances - which is what most of the Disney princess films are - are appropriate for your child, or they're not. I can't understand the argument that it's ok to expose a child to girl+boy but not girl+girl. What exactly is the difference? The princess and her suitor Elsa and Megara would dance, kiss chastely on strictly one occasion, and get married. Where's the hyper sexualised gay in all this?

So according to people like afro these turns are fine for kids:

Murder, revenge and jealousy (Lion King)
Historical inaccuracy (Pocahontas)
Extreme body images (megara in Hercules)
Kissing without consent ( sleeping beauty)
A man with money will make you happy (Cinderella)
Ugliness is evil (any witch) or is destined to remain alone (hunchback)
Kidnapping children (Mr Tumnus inviting Lucy back to his house and enchanting her to sleep
Racial stereotypes ( The Crows in Dumbo)
Make a deal with the "Devil"? (Little Mermaid)
Imprisonment and Stockholm syndrome ( beauty and the beast)
You can't be friends with some one from a different race (fox and hound)

But NOOOOOO what will really be bad for kids is seeing two guys hold hands in a Disney film that will be a lesson that they're to young to be exposed to.
We rather our kids learn about murder, lies and kidnapping than love and acceptance.

This is an interesting thread!

I suspect the actual answer to the OPs originial question is a cynical one ...money.

The majority of money made from films is from the merchandising. Disney would not look at this from a diversity perspective but would instead consider this a risk to business given that some religious countries would probably ban the cartoon and they'd lose the revenue. Also consider Russia's attitude to homosexuality

Sadly I think that's the answer.

There is a gay couple in frozen, when the shopkeeper shows his family in the sauna it's a male with a bunch of kids, obviously it's not obvious they are a couple to small children but still

Maybe those who aren't keen on this idea are picturing it being portrayed as the main point of the film - in the exact way that the (hetero) romantic story line and conclusion IS really the main thrust of the story in so many older disney films; Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella ect.

I'd like to see more disney films without a romantic story line, there's been enough now. I'm picturing same sex couples featuring within disney films which arent romance based, and that would be just fine.

snorings right though. Sadly.

Of course Prunella and Pat from Tabby McTat are a gay couple. I love that book!

I think all kinds of diversity in Disney films should be welcomed. I also think these characters should be introduced with no fanfare as they are normal. It annoys me when they make a big thing about 'the first this and that' which is followed by the inevitable 'Twitter storm' i.e about 3 tweets from some loons. As an aside I applaud the way 'How to train your dragon' dealt with disability.

Children's perceptions about what is normal, pretty etc are heavily influenced by kids media and Disney is one of the biggest. I remember feeling very left out of the whole princess thing when I was a child as I was mixed race and it was clear that to be considered a beautiful princess you had to be white and preferably blond.

It's crazy that singing knives and forks, talking frogs and dragons are seen as normal in a kids movie but a properly racially and sexually diverse film (where the 'diverse' characters have prominent roles) would be seen as shocking.

I have a 5 and 10 year old and both fully understand what gay means.

We have friends whose son has transitioned from female to male, both DCs asked why, I explained he felt he was happier being a male, both went "alright then" and nobody grew up too fast or was damaged by it. Both have a cousin who feels happier being called a female name and by the looks of it will transition to female once he's old enough, again, neither gives a toss except that the 5 year old dresses up as Queen Elsa with him when they visit. My youngest sister is gay, both DCs spend time with her girlfriend and adore them.

Children are only damaged by these things when adults show them it's bad, or wrong, or somehow less important or valuable. I've spent 10 years telling them that love is love no matter who you are and how you love. I hope to goodness they will always be this unconcerned with other people's gender and sex lives. And yep, Disney absolutely should have same-sex couples. I know when Frozen was released there was uproar because it was deemed to have lesbian connotations by some utter lunatics. Frozen is the most fucking awesome film; it teaches girls that you can absolutely rule the world without a man by your side, and that true love comes in every shape and size. I vote for more stuff like that.

To all those people who think seeing/having to explain homosexuality is wrong, can you please tell me what you do in RL?
Because if I shouldn't "ram it down DS's throat", how do I explain Nanny's partner to him? Or the many friends in same sex relationships??

I am proud of my mum, and love all my friends, and I am bi sexual myself, DS has grown up seeing people in love, not seeing the differences, why do you object to this?

Should I ask my mum to refrain from holding hands in front of DS ffs?

I really don't like Disney anyway, but they really need to do more diverse things, and I agrees with a pp above who said non- romance based storylines would be a nice bloody change too!

Binary I love your post.

I think it is something that should be included, not as the main storyline but just something that is in there without a big deal. So the hero happens to be going on his adventure with his boyfriend by his side. Not boy meets boy and falls in love rubbish that we usually have.

thedropbear that's not a reason not to do it though.

Dr Who is a HUGE worldwide success, and that has gay characters in it as par for the course and it is a kids show.

Companies like Disney should be standing up and saying "It's OK to be gay/black/boy/girl" because they have such an influence on people and children.

Screw the small minded people that wont buy a toy because of it. There will be plenty of others that will!

It's the narrow minded people that go "boo hiss rah" when they see diversity that need to be exposed to these things more and more, which normalises it. If kids grow up watching Disney/BBC/Dreamworks/Whatever and they normalise these things, then they will grow into accepting adults.

If we listened to all the people who "didn't like dem gays" it would still be outlawed! Fuck the narrow minded pricks, the problem is theirs alone.

afro is perfectly entitled to think and say that being gay is abnormal and including it in a cartoon is damaging to children (presumably because it teaches them to be gay, which is the only way gayers would ever find out about it)

I am perfectly entitled to say that's a ridiculous, and potentially damaging view.

My homophobic parents managed to raise a self harming teenage daughter with an eating disorder because I was so disgusted with myself for not being straight.

If you want cartoons that show a more balanced view, get your kids watching Anime, and sack off Disney altogether.

Never was I prouder than when DD age 5 announced that she didn't like Disney films cause they all had the same boring plot about people getting married! :-)

I want to say I don't support this view in any way and I agree with you 001 but in answer to your point:

Screw the small minded people that wont buy a toy because of it. There will be plenty of others that will!

The commercial risk versus the fiscal reward is a gamble I bet Disney will not take. It's all about brand power with Disney. They will not want to risk a ban in any country (think middle east which does represent a large demographic segment for them).

The hypocrisy is they are happy to use gay actors to make money (Ellen Degeneres in Finding Nemo for example) but not include them in the story line. Maybe the Actors Guild should take a stance and get its members to refuse to take big paychecks until it's addressed. I bet they won't though.

The older I get the more I think cash is king sadly.

Cash is king, indeed. But I suppose what I' saying is, if a franchise like Dr Who can be a worldwide success with gay characters, then so can Disney :)

I think Dr Who is much more edgy and probably something that pre-schoolers wouldn't watch.

God forbid we teach our young 'uns about love and accepting ourselves and others as we really are. Won't somebody please think of the children!!! clutches pearls

'I remember not long ago there was an uproar because a TV programme killed off a lesbian character? Well why the hell not? So just because someone is gay/lesbian they shouldn't be killed off?'

Athough the bbc does kill off literally every lesbian character in any of its shows. It's become a bit of a standing joke in our house now that we know if a programme starts up on the bbc that happens to have a lesbian character in it their lives will be ruined in some way (usually by the death of their partner).

Children don't need to be aware of anything 'sexual'. I am from the days when Morecambe and Wise were regularly shown getting into bed together. It meant nothing to me then, thankfully. But now it's tainted. Not implying anything about Morecambe and Wise, of course. Peoples sex lives should be private.

Actually, no one is entitled to say homosexuality is abnormal.

sexual orientation is protected under the equality act as one of the 9 protected characteristics meaning you can be prosecuted for discrimination.

And very rightly so.

Luckily, abnormal nowadays seems to be people who are anti-gay and they are not protected by the equality act so we can call them whatever we like.

Twats.

How did I miss that the shopkeeper's OH was a man? How?

Considering all 'Disney Princesses' are sexed up, even figurines of Tinker-bell, there isn't going to be true diversity, look what they did to Merida, she became a standard sex goddess.

I feel sorry for a lot of the film makers that try to make their films with positive messages and representation, only to have the marketing departments completely fuck things up, because they have such rigid ideas of selling to each gender. The lack of Rey toys in Star Wars merch, lack of Black Widow and Gamora in Marvel merch, DC telling the show runners on Justice League to reduce the visibility of the female characters because even if the show becomes popular with girls, "girls don't buy action figures", Merida's toys undergoing serious alterations from the movie, etc. Bah.

As for same sex romances in stuff aimed at kids - why not? If you're OK with kids seeing Ariel/Cinderella/Aurora kissing the Princes, why would a same sex kiss be any more objectionable - unless you're prejudiced against gay people?

This will never happen, sadly. I saw some comments on FB under an article written on an American site. There are certain parts which are far less progressive than us. Disney won't risk it.