Jenna Barbee showed Disney’s Strange World in her fifth grade Florida classroom last Spring and is now “under investigation” and set to resign. The angry parents from Hernando County School District ignore the heterosexual kiss but convey an incidental same sex crush is apparent grounds for dismissal of a teaching professional. It feels almost natural to assume LGBT depiction equates to sexual permissiveness. Gender expression, sexual orientation, and physical sex appear to be intertwined. But this conundrum has the potential to reveal a forest of red flags even we don’t want to see.
Make no mistake, there is no sexual touch or even talk between young Ethan and Diazo, yet it’s referred to as a same sex “romance.” And, not for nothing, if just seeing someone who is gay in this age is a new experience for a person, they really need to ask themselves why that is. The fact is that a lack of exposure to anything different cloaks truth from both sides. And I’d say that’s been pretty well tried when it comes down to a gay/straight dichotomy. However, I t’s just not natural. We emerge even amongst animals and while I can’t speak for all of us, my parents were straight.
But believe it or not I get this objection to the term “Woke” these days. My go-to conscious state at the end of almost any day once the kids get the remote is “un[conscious] I work for a living, raise a family and care for my mother-in-law. There’s only so much energy I have left for the same ol’ same ol’ animation.
But, last Christmas the kids put on Strange World - a show that just seemed to appear on Disney+ for me. It wasn’t a remake. I didn’t know the story already. I predicted zonking was about 10 minutes away. I snuggled in and got comfortable with my family on our living room couch.
9.5 minutes in I got the shock of my life. The adorable little main character was gay!
The movie goes on to tackle some very familiar difficulties via interesting and innovative dialogue between several very dynamic characters, but never that one! The gay thing is nothing here nor there. The same is true in The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Just plain-ol’ not-crucified gay folk living their best life amidst a mysterious magical underworld or battling AI topside. (You know, like real life).
Why is this such a shock? I’ve been to Disney - open mindedness seems almost like a prerequisite to work there. I have my own interpretation of the subtext in Little Mermaid. And I saw Frozen II! I mean did anybody else find the ice island was so obvious it was almost cringe?
But why is it cringe? I mean I am gay. I literally feel attracted almost exclusively to other women. Why should I sometimes be so homophobic?
Not too many people know or contemplate the significance of the 1934 Hays Code for motion pictures only finally outlawed as late as 1968, but this bothered me so much when I learned of it in college. Showing healthy or happy LGBT characters was literally forbidden along with mixed race couples, and white (yes only white male) slavery. As an Gen Xer I’ve always known I was heavily influenced by the media. By now, it seems everyone can see that sometimes the media is our main window to the world. But what still isn’t questioned nearly enough is who really influences that view.
We think it’s all too permissible now, I get it. The other day I stumbled over some kind of blatant porn scrolling Facebook and thought about what my kids might be glimpsing now and then that I can’t always stop. The porn honestly bothers me less than the violence, but both can seem just too much too soon these days. My only recourse is to lean on the ratings PG, PG13, R, etc. Did you know there are only 2 modern PG rated movies with LGBT main protagonists? Does this bother anyone else who has asked themselves exactly when Snow White legally consented? Or how coerced Cinderella was through abject poverty? Parental ratings are determined by the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA), via a board comprised of an independent group of parents. They can be followed @FilmRatings on Twitter. I question the representation of these “independent” parents however. On what basis should specific LGBT sexuality be so vehemently policed?
And why not? Who’s to say whose opinion is right or wrong? When it applies to kids, parents have the right to filter what children see - but not everyone’s children unless you’re making a value judgment over everyone. (And if you are, don’t you owe it to your cause to altruistically engage in the discussion and exploration with due diligence and transparency?) It’s a teacher’s goal is to initiate critical thought. But teachers rarely make it into politics when they can be fired for showing a PG rated movie the loudest detractors couldn’t even understand. It’s a bigger job than people realize.
