Queer Villains at Disney?
Let’s get this out of the way first: besides families animated Disney features and the theme parks always have had a notable amount of gay fans. But while some minorities regularly raise a ruckus about their underrepresentation or any supposed to be “inacceptable” representation there has been but a peep from the GLBT corner - and when was it that you saw a character in an animated Disney feature that would be a member of the GLBT team?
[Keep reading after the break ... especially if you want to find one of the best spoofs ever of a scene from Aladdin!!]
That’s actually part of a question that Brent Hartinger answered in the March 4, 2008 edition of his weekly column Ask the Flying Monkey! covering the world of gay male entertainment. His answer? What he said? Here is an excerpt - actually the part that got a really hot discussion in the comment section going:
Sure enough, there is a long history of coded or “vaguely gay” characters in animated movies. Unfortunately, those characters are almost always the villains: Jafar in Aladdin, Scar in The Lion King. But those movies never specifically come out and say they’re gay, you say? Maybe not, but the characters tend to be cultured, preening, prissy, fearful of females, and very, very effeminate.
Hmmm “cultured” yes in the case of Jafar, but Scar? He pretends to be, asking Zazu to entertain him, but I can’t find any real culture type in there. Preening? Yes to both of them. Prissy?? Oh YES. Fearful of females? Hmmm … Jafar actually wants to use Jasmine to gain the throne and goes to some length to get her under his control. So this does not really count as being “scared” by her. Scar? Well, the female lion is strong and is the hunter in the wild, so his carefully treating of Nala makes sense but ultimately he still goes to some length to control her. So again the “fearful of females” description does not fit in my mind - and I am not even going to discuss whether gay male stereotype include this character trait in the first place at all. On the the finale trait of the characters: effeminate. I’d agree with that, both characters are effeminate in some of the ways they present themselves.
BUT both characters to me never really give the impression of being gay. Instead I am wondering whether such conclusion might not be more of a case of “anticipated obedience”. There have been so many villains in other (non-Disney, non-animated live action) movies that were depicted as gay (or who were hinted at being gay) that there might be a certain willingness to expect that a villain was supposed to be depicted as gay the moment he moves beyond the brutal, street-gang type of villain to a more sophisticated villain (as Scar and Jafar are).
Could it be that the writers and animators just created very elaborate, sophisticated villains and some part of the audience just anticipate them to be gay therefore? So not because of any gay traits hinted at in the movie (which I in these cases can’t see) but just because of the way villains in other movies were depicted? What do you think??
Ups … I nearly forgot the treat I promised you … the spoof on a scene from Disney’s Aladdin … certainly it is a spoof connected to the topic of this post … and I got it from Michael Jensen’s weekly column Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (March 7, 2008), who posted it in connection with above mentioned discussion on the Ask the Flying Monkey discussion … but enough of the words … get ready to hear Jafar and Aladdin tell the whole truth of their relationship to Jasmine … and all in a song …
…. I can’t get enough of this spoof! It’s not only really entertaining and a great new interpretation of the scene from the movie but also features some great vocals. Hope you enjoy it too!