Gay characters in children's cartoons

[Nimcha]

I can't believe this is still going!

 

[AWAR]

[..]it should be about as controversial and political as heterosexuality.[..]

Well it isn't, it may be for you but that's not the case for the majority of people.

And sexuality is already shown. Or are you for removing all crushes, married pairs etc?

The sexuality shown is the most common in a kid's life, a mother and a father - heterosexual couple. And yeah sexuality wasn't always shown, remember that Donald Duck's nephews never had parents, it was all uncas and nephews in that universe. In fact there is a quite interesting analysis (among others) in How to read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I went to a school where at least a few of the kids had two mothers or two fathers, far as I know most of us turned out alright despite the exposure to such. =p

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I can't believe this is still going!

Anytime the OP is about homosexuality you can expect 14 pages at the least. It is (for some reason) still a very touchy subject.

 

[HalfTangible]

I can't believe this is still going!

Anytime the OP is about homosexuality you can expect 14 pages at the least. It is (for some reason) still a very touchy subject.

In my experience, this is largely because even including the phrase homosexual in a post will insult everybody of whatever sexuality, often for incredibly convoluted and senseless reasons.

My personal favorite was once when i asked why people thought (read: why they were so sure) a certain character was a lesbian, and i was told that homosexuality was not a disease.

I'd never even THOUGHT the word 'disease' up until that point. What the f***?

 

[EuZic]

*snip*
Violence against each other, while excusable between animals and the "survival of the fittest" concept, is very blamable. It keeps us from moving forward.

Caught this bit and made me laugh, you do know that the last world war gave us computers (Breaking the Engima code), space travel(V2 rockets)and a host of other technologies?

Yeah well, it gave us nuclear technology as well didn't end up as peachy. Not at first. Nice work at taking my sentences out of context btw.

I'm not denying that violence may spawn good results, I'm just saying that the conscious act of physically hurting another human being is fundamentally wrong, now that we consider ourselves civilized. Violence just isn't one of those morally gray areas, because the simple idea of violence means someone gets hurt. And while that might "man" one up, it might also traumatize the shit out of one.

And I can't believe I just explained why violence is wrong.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

-Does the idea of including more or any gay characters in a show targeted at younger audiences bother you? Reasons for why or why not?

YES. Because I know it's going to be a flamboyantly gay character meant to make toddlers laugh rather than a step in the direction of being open-minded.

Pretty much the opposite of what we're going for here... did you even read the first post? i mean i can understand not reading all 26 fking pages....

I did read the first post, sorry if my elaboration was lacking.

When I think cartoons, I think Spongebob, and no way could a good gay character exist in that. Maybe I just don't see the good cartoons, but I just don't see them as being educational or promoting positive role-models. We can hope for things and ask for them but getting them is a different matter entirely.

On the other hand, in anime it's a possibility, and I always support open-mindedness.

And I can't believe I just explained why violence is wrong.

As odd as it may sound, there are beliefs that violence stimulates human instincts and causes us to reach greater heights. Maybe not just beating people with a blunt object, but competitively speaking.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

When I think cartoons, I think Spongebob, and no way could a good gay character exist in that. Maybe I just don't see the good cartoons, but I just don't see them as being educational or promoting positive role-models. We can hope for things and ask for them but getting them is a different matter entirely.

On the other hand, in anime it's a possibility, and I always support open-mindedness.

I can agree with that. Spongebob is a comedy cartoon, an extremely silly one at that. None of the characters are capable of being taken seriously.

In anime, I'd say it's more than just a possibility. I believe it's already happened. Azumangah Daioh and Card Captor Sakura feature sympathetic and relatable lesbian characters. Lucky Star and K-On! toy with the idea of girl-on-girl crushes and make them look acceptable to the viewer.

Many cartoons these days take a lot of pointers from anime. Many claim that this is a bad thing, but the first animes were originally inspired by western cartoons so I see no reason why merging the two styles again is such a bad idea.

How would you feel about featuring same sex relationships in cartoons which combine these two forms of animation and story building? Examples include Teen Titans, Friendship is Magic, Batman Beyond... etc

I don't know what friendship is magic is, but I know cartoons like Batman (especially the '90s one) were no strangers to mature themes and it's definitely possible for cartoons like thus.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Isn't Spongebob gay?

Squidward definitley, Spongebob just has ADHD.

 

[MaxwellMurder]

All we know is if a Children's Cartoon takes on the Subject matter of sexuality it will have first a large backlash from the christian right but then a large backing of the gay community for the brave foot forward in this medium. Then they will win all the Emmys because that's how Hollywood works.

Now the first person to do it could be anyone. A show on The Hub Channel is the best bet because there owned by Discovery. Time Warner (Owner of Cartoon Network) and MTV (Owner of Nickelodeon) are also forward thinking so it could be one of those many channels they own. there is no way in hell Disney will bring up anything gay unless its a negative stereotype to poke fun at.

 

[Janktrio]

I'd say kids cartoons should include a character that is gay. Not obviously gay but sort of hinted at, so kids can get the message that it is okay but without having to involve sexuality (which is a pretty touchy subjects for kids) or stereotypes. Things like mild crushes on other characters of the same sex could work quite well. Of course being gay shouldn't be that character's only defining characteristic, they should be an actual person with a personality and such. As for Rainbow Dash well... I never really thought she was gay. To me it seems more like a fan joke that's gotten a bit out of hand. Really she's just a tomboy.

 

[Janktrio]

When I think cartoons, I think Spongebob, and no way could a good gay character exist in that. Maybe I just don't see the good cartoons, but I just don't see them as being educational or promoting positive role-models. We can hope for things and ask for them but getting them is a different matter entirely.

On the other hand, in anime it's a possibility, and I always support open-mindedness.

I can agree with that. Spongebob is a comedy cartoon, an extremely silly one at that. None of the characters are capable of being taken seriously.

In anime, I'd say it's more than just a possibility. I believe it's already happened. Azumangah Daioh and Card Captor Sakura feature sympathetic and relatable lesbian characters. Lucky Star and K-On! toy with the idea of girl-on-girl crushes and make them look acceptable to the viewer.

Many cartoons these days take a lot of pointers from anime. Many claim that this is a bad thing, but the first animes were originally inspired by western cartoons so I see no reason why merging the two styles again is such a bad idea.

How would you feel about featuring same sex relationships in cartoons which combine these two forms of animation and story building? Examples include Teen Titans, Friendship is Magic, Batman Beyond... etc

I don't know what friendship is magic is, but I know cartoons like Batman (especially the '90s one) were no strangers to mature themes and it's definitely possible for cartoons like thus.

Friendship is Magic is the new My Little Pony show that is quite popular with some people on the Escapist and the rest of the internet (including me).

 

[AWAR]

Well it isn't, it may be for you but that's not the case for the majority of people.

True, true. But, I have only two words to say about those people; fuck 'em!

Bigoted pricks should be whipped, metaphorically speaking, not bowed down to. Bigotry against homosexuals is a wrong that needs to be righted, and it sure as hell will be, whether some people want it or not.

So are you saying that people who don't believe that homosexuality is as controversial or/and political as heterosexuality are automatically bigoted? That's a very biased opinion my friend and it is very arrogant of you to call the majority of people bigots just because they happen to have a different opinion than yours.