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.

If you don't like how Disney make their films or portray characters then don't let your children watch them.. It quite simple.

I think this misses the point - children who grow up in households where the lack of diverse role models is seen by parents to be a problem, and parents do their best to make use of whatever resources they can to help their DC understand the world isn't all white, beautiful, able-bodied and straight, are probably going to do OK. Children growing up in households where parents (for whatever reason) don't see the need for diverse role models can have a much tougher time. I grew up in the wasteland of the 1970s with parents who I would say were heteronormative rather than homophobic - which meant I grew up thinking that to be gay was weird and deviant, causing me a lot of problems and confusion throughout my teens and well into my 20s. There weren't any lesbian or gay characters as far as I remember in any of the TV programmes or films I watched when I was growing up, and the only 'media' I had access to which featured girls whose primary emotional attachments were to other girls were boarding school stories. I know the world and my place in it would have looked different to me as a young woman had I seen media depictions of same-sex couples living happy and productive lives.

I completely agree with Moonlightceleste that the way forward isn't films where the same-sex relationship is the focus and issue of the story - when my DDs were growing up in the 90s and 00s I searched high and low for picture books with children getting on with doing whatever it was, with occasional glimpses of their two mummies or dad's boyfriend or whatever. It was next to impossible to find any (don't know if it's improved now). So yes, I do think that Disney should have same sex couples, but not necessarily as a plot focus.

Once Upon a Time on Netflix has gay characters - Little Red Riding Hood and Dorothy Oz fall in love. Actually its a pretty good series. I'm hooked on it.

I think the point of doing it to normalise it wouldn't be to make Elsa's sexuality the focus of the storyline.

It shouldn't be about a big drama because Elsa is falling in love with a Princess and not a Prince. She should meet and fall in love with a Princess, something terrible would happen to one of them (as is the way with Disney) and one of them would rescue the other. They would get married.

The same way as they would if Elsa fell in love with a Prince.

I do think it needs to be a central or secondary charatcter for it to mean anything, although it doesn't neccessarily have to be Elsa. Maybe Mr. Snowman could ask Elsa to make another Mr. Snowman and they could adopt lots of little snowmen together.

One of Merida's brothers could have a boyfriend (assuming they've grown up)

It might be easier to do it in live action films or television series (like they are doing in Once Upon a Time) - I think it's much more difficult to pick up in cartoons if they're just background characters.

(As an aside, Timon and Pumba were a same-sex pair who raised Simba...)

The problem with doing it with princes and princesses is that you need a royal bloodline.

So Elsa would really have to marry a man to have children, that or have Anna as her successor.

I wonder whether the fairies might be a good place to start? There are loads of them so it would be easy enough.

Disney is not reality. There are many things that Disney could change to reflect society but whether they should is a different matter.

I'm not sure.

My kids are still primary age so actually they have naturally encountered several gay people/couples. They know you marry who you want to regardless of gender. Ds friend has two mums. We have grown up gay male (couple) friends who the kids know.

In fact, my dad is 70+ so the sort of age where prejudice is more common and he made a homophobic remark in front of my DC who were utterly horrified (eldest is 10). My DC asked me in the car afterwards on the way home why Grandad would say something like that etc. It's up to parents to educate, not Disney.

disney is a company that makes movies. I'm uncomfortable with forcing such an entity to produce a certain kind of movie. The company is run by the directors and it will produce what it thinks will be profitable. It just smacks of asking Cadburys to start selling carrots alongside their choc because it is right/better. Well maybe but it's up to the company.

The one thing I would say is that I wish it would be done more with lesbian relationships. The very few examples of same sex couples I've seen in resources aimed at children are almost exclusively gay men, and there seems to be a major misunderstanding around having two mothers that one should take on a more paternal role by default. There's one childrens book I can think of that centres around a lesbian character but she ends up in a Victorian asylum for it. Not quite the message I want to give to my DD once they're old enough to read it!

As for the royal bloodline, Childebert the Adopted anyone? plus examples from Anicent Rome, Egypt etc. Or like Elizabeth I the bloodline stops with Elsa in her same sex relationship and Anna takes the throne?

Yeah, I really don't see why Elsa should be obliged to have children simply because she needs an heir. She has Anna, and the overwhelming likelihood would be that Anna has child/ren, no?

Moonlight, I'm curious - which is the book with the lesbian character who ends up in an asylum?

I'm also confused by people saying "it's up to Disney" - well yes it is - I don't think anyone is saying that they should be forced to feature LGB characters just that it would be good if they did.

I'm also confused by claims that its not possible because they're based on fairytales - they're usually quite loosely based, 'Disneyfied' out of their darker aspects, and since procreation is rarely a feature of the actual tale I don't see how substantially making the prince in eg Snow White, Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel etc a princess would actually change anything at all? Other than that it might give LGB children a very rare chance to see themselves reflected on the screen. I had a bona fide earnest right-on childhood but I didn't get to see any explicitly, verifiably queer characters until I started watching adult TV (three cheers for Brookside, The Bill, and other similar low-brow but LGB-inclusive programmes!)

It's Wildthorn by Jane England. I haven't read it for a few years but briefly it's set in Victorian England and the main character is out in an asylum by her family, it's not clear at the start whether this is because she wants to be a doctor and has no desire to get married and have children or because her family are aware she's a lesbian. It's a brilliant book because her being a lesbian in Victorian England is just one of multiple issues addressed and her sexuality is never spelt out, it's written in a way that means it doesn't need to be. It's obviously aimed at a much older audience than Disney though!

I thought the shopkeeper in Frozen was gay. Was that just me thinking that?? I thought it was his husband in the sauna thing????

Oh dear. I have been watching it wrong.

Why did I think that?

Once Upon a Time on Netflix has gay characters - Little Red Riding Hood and Dorothy Oz fall in love

Really? I thought it was Dorothy and Alice that were a couple.

I think Disney shows plenty of disabilities, but as a lot of the films are based on talking animals I don't suppose many people pick up on it unless its a pirate missing a limb.

As an avid Disney fan and a woman in a same sex relationship, I'm pretty neutral on the subject of a gay couple as the main characters, but I think it would need to have a big comedy side to it to ease it on in there (no pun intended)

Yes, or be a sub-plot in a film that's as popular as Frozen.

I didn't remember Ruby being gay either (Mulan was though I think?) - mind you, I haven't watched since it moved to Netflix.

I always thought that Timone and Pumba could have been gay, they were same sex parents?

Am sure I read somewhere that Poe Dameron from Force Awakens is gay and will be addressed in some way in next film.

Soo... I always assumed that the (tongue in cheek) point of Cinderella was that the Prince is gay. And that the King & his chancellor are FREAKING OUT because there isn't going to be a Mrs Prince (and a succession etc. etc.) if he is left to his own devices hence the artificial PICK A GIRL NOW! set-up. Every version of Cinderella that I have seen has them desperately trying to get the Prince to take even a passing interest in the opposite sex.

I don't think Disney is likely to take any overt steps towards a (fulfilled) gay character plotline any time soon though.

Interesting to note though that the examples given in recent posts- Star Wars, Lion King etc are all gay male characters. Not female. My DDs accept homosexuality having grown up with it, but nowhere in children's books, movies etc are there examples of lesbian relationships for them. Their normal is presented as abnormal.

True, but I guess as the male of any species has nearly always been seen as the dominant ones it's hardy surprising they'd take the first step. Like many years ago when they brought in the law that two men couldn't be gay, they never enforced one for women because they didn't think they were capable of it.

I'd like to think that the 3 fairies in sleeping beauty could have been gay, single women raising a baby with no reference to current of previous relationships?

Unnecessary in my opinion. Disney is for young children. I'm not anything phobic but u think sexual orientation is way off the radar of 5 year olds.

I'm not anything phobic but u think sexual orientation is way off the radar of 5 year olds

It is about societal norms. I cannot see for a moment why you would be worried your 5 year old would see two men or two women in a relationship

It's depressing that so very many films and TV shows STILL fail the "Bechdel test", which is simply two female characters speaking to each other about something other than a man.

And don't show many black characters. gay characters. Or disabled people. And so on.

Also depressing that Disney still sexualise the characters in kids' films. Even Strawberry Shortcake has had a "makeover" since my youth ffs!

They should finally have a lesbian couple. I cannot read the disgusting Elsa/Anna incest fanfic anymore.

Same goes for Maleficent/Aurora. They are not related by blood, but it's just as disgusting, if not more.

Regardless of what you think about homosexuality, moral-wise, it certainly would be an improvement over all the incest desperate lesbians read into the Disney movies.