An exploration of the real reason Disney's reinterpretation of Beauty and the Beast as LGBTQ inclusive should be acknowledged, not pushed aside...
Last week, Disney announced their
first openly gay character in the form of LeFou, the villainous side-kick to
Gaston in their upcoming Beauty and the
Beast re-interpretation starring Emma Watson, Ian McKellen and Emma
Thompson. While Disney is no stranger to the ‘coded-gay’ character, a phrase
which refers to a character presenting overt characteristics associated with an
LGBTQ stereotype without actually acknowledging their sexual orientation (see The Lion King’s Scar, Hercules’ Hades or High School Musical’s Ryan, for example), LeFou will be the first
character in Disney’s history to not only be LGBTQ, but openly and clearly
acknowledge so in the film.
As would be expected, this major
step in equal representation in the media for the LGBTQ community was reported
widely not just in media-centric outlets but in the traditional news outlets
too. It was strange to me, then, when reading through the comments sections of
these various articles that the majority of the straight, public response to
this announcement was not even one of homophobia but of apathy. Countless
comments read “why does it matter?”, “why should we care?” and “what’s the big
deal”, their indifferent voices interwoven throughout the scattered cheers of
joy from people rejoicing being finally represented in a mainstream, Disney
blockbuster. It’s time, then, to unravel why
we should all care about this
particular news, and to comment on the culture of indifference that is brewing
between the privileged and those less fortunate.
The most obvious reason (at
least, to me) that LeFou being explicitly presented as gay in Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful
thing is that, finally, millions of young LGBTQ folk will see a character on
screen like them. This isn’t a
concept hard to understand for people of colour, with black, native American
and Asian characters all vastly underrepresented in the Hollywood space, but
for those of you with the privilege of being relentlessly promoted by the
media, imagine this: You grow up in a world where every romantic movie stars a gay couple. Every good book is about LGBTQ love. Every advert, billboard and
wedding card revolves around gay people and you have to go out of your way to
even find a valentine’s gift that reflects the heterosexuality of your
strangely uncommon form of relationship, which you must hide from everyone you
love for fear of being disowned, abused or kicked-out.
For many LGBTQ teens, growing up
in such a world is the absolute norm, so imagine their surprise when they walk
into the cinema to one of the most anticipated films of the decade and see themselves. It’s magical, and can make
suicidal or depressed LGBTQ teenagers feel accepted, validated and normalised
in a society that so often tells them they are abnormal.
This same idea applies whenever a
celebrity comes out of the closet. When Tom Daley came out everyone asked why we
should care, and hoped for a time when it wouldn’t have to be news. The
flipside of its reporting, though, is that Tom Daley’s openness tells LGBTQ
young people that they do have a
space in sports, just as Laverne Cox shines as a hopeful beacon for aspiring
black, trans talent hoping to get into acting. The impact that these
announcements have on straight people might be non-existent, but to actively
push back at the steps forward that we are finally taking as a society simply
because you cannot relate is wrong.
The LGBTQ community needs allies to cheer on their victories, not act as if it
doesn’t matter to them in an attempt to prove their lack of homophobia to their
Facebook friends.
On the topic of Disney's first openly gay character being a villain, it is worth, again, remembering what drives movie studios above everything else: money. To introduce the first LGBTQ character as a villain would only cement the long tradition in Disney history of the coded-gay villain. Confused? Allow me to explain. The Lion King, Disney's most successful animation, featured Scar as it's villain, a character based on many homosexual stereotypes including but not limited to his effeminate voice. Hades from Hercules was quite obviously coded-gay, and Ursula, the antagonist of Disney's arguably most culturally impactful fairy tale The Little Mermaid was heavily inspired by the famous drag queen 'Divine'.
Disney knows that gay villains work, and despite the problematic nature of this representation it allows them to comfortably take what is undoubtedly a financial risk in including an explicitly gay villain in Beauty and the Beast. If the studio sees LeFou's homosexuality doesn't affect the box office you can bet they will follow the money trail and start to include more heroic LGBTQ characters in both reinterpretations and original fairy tales down the line. This can be seen with the groundwork put into the character of Elsa in Frozen, who was rumoured to have been coded-gay through her song 'Let It Go' and it's allusions to coming out.
The final thing is to understand
the history of the film Beauty and the
Beast, and while slightly off-topic, it is helpful to understand the
heart-break behind the cameras before you make such judgements about what lies
before them. Let me introduce you to Howard Ashman. Ashman was one of Disney’s
greatest songwriters, and contributed his magic to many films during the Disney
renaissance of the 1980s, including Aladdin,
The Little Mermaid and, of course, Beauty and the Beast. Tragically, Ashman
was one of the first to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, and, as one of many openly gay
men in Hollywood, he suffered horrendously from the illness which left him
physically scarred. At that time it was almost completely medically
untreatable.
Ashman, though, was revealed to
have seen the character of the Beast as a metaphor for his illness. Bill
Condon, the director of Perks of Being a
Wallflower and 2017’s Beauty and the
Beast told Variety magazine that “specifically for
him, it was a metaphor for AIDS. He was cursed, and this curse had brought
sorrow on all those people who loved him, and maybe there was a chance for a
miracle—and a way for the curse to be lifted. It was a very concrete thing that
he was doing.”
Ashman wrote the lyrics
to the fairy tale’s theme ‘Beauty and the Beast’ while dying at his home,
tended to by a nurse paid for by the Disney company. He died in 1991, before he
could ever see the film released in theatres.
You see, LeFou being an
openly gay character in Beauty and the
Beast isn’t just a message of support for the LGBTQ community from Disney.
It isn’t even just about acknowledging the millions of LGBTQ fans that Disney
has garnered through their magical movie creations, although their impact here
should not be underestimated. To include this in their film is a major risk, with many cinemas in Middle America being ambushed as a result of LeFou's sexuality and the entirety of Russia considering banning the film entirely due to it's "gay propaganda".
No. LeFou being gay is a heart-breaking, touching and
beautiful tribute to the gay man who crafted almost all of our childhoods,
wrote almost all of our favourite Disney themes and died creating a film that
deeply touched his soul as he faded from our world.
So, next time you ask
“why is this news?” to an article congratulating someone coming out,
transitioning, or the inclusion of an LGBTQ character in a mainstream
blockbuster, wonder instead: “why shouldn’t it be?”.
Written by James Green
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