Gay characters in children's cartoons

[Farseer Lolotea]

I have trouble believing it's not a choice... Just me... Because if it's not a choice it's a defect...

So what's your justification for thinking that it has to be either a choice or a "defect," as opposed to being something akin to laterality?

 

[Bags159]

Pretty sure he is trolling.

I'm not. Any sex in kids shows, imo, is not okay. Sure, have a flamboyant character, but that just plays on stereotypes. I feel the same about macho men and helpless princeses. Plus, whats the big diffrence between homosexuality and hetrosexuality? The sex. So, when my future kid walks up to me and asks me why spongebob and patrick can't get married but spongebob and sandy can, what do I say? Imo, best to educate them about this seperatley.

Tell your child that in your state marriage is not legally allowed between people of the same gender. Do the characters even need to get married? Can't it just be a grade school crush like every other relationship between a protagonist and a side character in cartoons that has ever existed. By the time they are old enough to actually bother watching the cartoon on a regular basis or care about the characters your kids will already have a sexual orientation. They may not know what it is yet but your kids will either be gay or straight or bi by the time they are five and Rainbow Dash isn't going to change that especially seeing as how the relationship would only be shown as an emotional one.

I dont think you have much experience with kids. THEY ARE FUCKING CURIOUS. Just seeing a man and a man together will spark 15 questions. Besides playing on sterotypes or putting a man with another man, there isnt a easy way to represent this in a kids show.

If you are too afraid to answer your childrens questions then I hope your aren't afraid of them finding those answers elsewhere. Would you rather you be in control of what your children learn or would you rather they stumble onto gay porn at the age of six?

Again, not the issue. The issue is with the media exposing my kids to stuff i dont want to show them yet. Also, how the hell is a kid going to learn the word gay from a kids show. Thats just devious of the show...

But you're okay with them being "exposed" to hetero relationships in the same medium? Or not? I'm just wondering for reference.

 

[Tsaba]

Are they also not ready for straight relationships at this age?

Absolutely not ready for any kind of understanding of "intimate" relationships, besides playing with their friends, theirs no point to them needing to know or understand such a thing.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

In a TV show for adults?

Fine

For teenagers?

Sure, why not

For young children?

Ehhhh, no.

I don?t think children at that age need to be thinking those sorts of things (Adult things). Let children be children, and you can tell them at an older age.

Fair enough, except would you also deny heterosexual interactions? Things like the crush Doug had on Patty Mayonnaise, or Charlie Brown on the red-haired girl? If not, then I fail to see why homosexual crushes are any worse, unless you are implying that gay is somehow obscene and therefore not fit for children. Which I quite disagree with.

I don't feel as though those things developed the character any more, so no, I do not support them. For either side.

EDIT: I also feel at if this topic goes nowhere. Views on gay rights are not things that will be changed easily, and some people will hold their views, no matter what anyone says.

 

[shedra]

In Doctor Who, (Which is a show I could consider a family/kids show) there have been two homosexual characters that I know of. And it doesn't matter that they are. It hardly ever comes up. Only in passing conversation.

As far as exposing homosexuality to smaller children.
Well,

(both girls)
They don't form a lack of acceptance for alternative lifestyles until later.

 

[Bambi Puce]

As a kid I knew Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street were gay, yet I never had a problem with it

Wow... Ernie and Bert were brothers. Not gay, just brothers. Word of God, Jim Henson said so himself.

 

[mr_rubino]

My mistake. I thought you were a native speaker and took your vocab the wrong way.

Trolling is so cute now a days, your not adding to the conversation, instead your just demeaning the opposite side and not adding any value to the conversation of GAY CARTOON CHARACTERS.

So, let me just post my opinion which is ON TOPIC and my opinion on this matter:
I think a gay character in teenager level material is fine, I do not how ever, think that small children as a WHOLE are ready for such a thing, I do believe parents should be responsible for replying to the child's answer on THEIR OWN TIME, it should not be FORCE FED to all children.

It's not televisions responsibility just like it is not the VIDEO GAME MAKERS responsibility to care for children.

END OF STORY.

EDIT: grammatical errors.

It's as if your post was the condensed form of the single argument always used (and has been used so far), usually stretched out to several paragraphs, by your side in these threads. Were you working from a checklist? I've heard that's bad form.

In a TV show for adults?

Fine

For teenagers?

Sure, why not

For young children?

Ehhhh, no.

I don?t think children at that age need to be thinking those sorts of things (Adult things). Let children be children, and you can tell them at an older age.

Fair enough, except would you also deny heterosexual interactions? Things like the crush Doug had on Patty Mayonnaise, or Charlie Brown on the red-haired girl? If not, then I fail to see why homosexual crushes are any worse, unless you are implying that gay is somehow obscene and therefore not fit for children. Which I quite disagree with.

I don't feel as though those things developed the character any more, so no, I do not support them. For either side.

Hahahahaha. Oh come on now.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

Call me whatever you want, you have no proof to back up your opinion....

I have to jump in the "gay is normal" bandwagon to not be considered a troll? Gimme a break...

Well, you did jump into the thread insisting that sexuality is a choice and strongly
implying that being gay is doing it wrong.

I couldn't call it wrong... since anyone can do whatever the hell they want to as long as they're not harming others. But I definitely can't call it right, because it wouldnt make any sense doing so.

So...how does saying that it's not "a valid choice" (hell, that it's a choice at all) make any more sense? There's more evidence in favor of sexuality being innate than there is in favor of laterality being innate.

I have trouble believing it's not a choice... Just me... Because if it's not a choice it's a defect...

It has been scientifically agreed that it is caused by a hormonal balance that we have or something. Looking back to when I was younger I can tell I was always gay, even when I told myself I wasn't, so I wouldn't say it's a choice.
As I said in a previous post, I don't feel this is a defect or something wrong with homosexuals, we are still the same in every way as a straight person, just we like the same gender.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Absolutely not ready for any kind of understanding of "intimate" relationships, besides playing with their friends, theirs no point to them needing to know or understand such a thing.

But the fact still remains that characters in kids' cartoons still get opposite-sex crushes. Do you consider that going too far? (It appears some people do; even so, just curious.)

 

[shedra]

As a kid I knew Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street were gay, yet I never had a problem with it

Wow... Ernie and Bert were brothers. Not gay, just brothers. Word of God, Jim Henson said so himself.

I like that Jim Henson speaks the Word of God.

 

[Xanadu84]

However...there are flamboyent, feminine male homosexualy, and butch female homosexuals, and the percentage of flamboyant or butch individuals amongst the gay population is much higher tehn among the straight. There is a behavioral difference besides sexual partner amongst the entire population. I didn't want to believe it myself, but I couldn't ignore the observable facts. And since this phenomena exists, it seems that we should accept it, and aknowledge that it may be real, but it is fundamentally irrelevant.

Ignoring whether that actually is true or not (I doubt it), why would there be any reason to actually enforce stereotypes? Of course certain stereotypes are more obvious than others but if you actively enforce them on children, they might not view these stereotypes as mere coincidental observations but as actual boxes that people need to fit in.

That is the trick in a children's cartoon, isn't it? Actual sexuality isn't going to come up, so how can you address sexuality in a cartoon?

I don't want you to get me wrong here, Ive known plenty of gay individuals whose personality is indistinguishable from there straight associates. It's not a straightjacket, and even if it were, that would be no reason to treat a person any differently. But there most assuredly is some correlation of some traits. The question of if a kids show should acknowledge the trend or bury it is an interesting one, and I think its a very complicated discussion. Maybe a cartoon should just portray the traits associated with homosexuality incidentally, so without acknowledging sexuality, kids learn to accept people for different traits, including ones that come along with Homosexuality at times, and that may naturally lead into a decrease in homophobia.

 

[proctorninja2]

Isn't Spongebob gay?

damn ninjas just about to say that, yeah i think he is i mean i remember reading about the Catholic Church trying to get him banned because of the episode about him and patrick raising a clam

 

[deckai]

Your pectus exavatum is both uncommon (infrequent) and abnormal (a flaw in your design). However, that does not mean that uncommon and abnormal are the same thing - just that your condition happens to be both.

And no, your heart problem IS NOT natural - it is a flaw in your body. Your heart was born damaged.

Thus your simile and your analogy were both incorrect.

I am a gay woman. I was not born wrong. There is nothing faulty with my equipment.

Well.. don't really sure if I should write this or not..

While I don't think being homosexual is wrong or anything, in todays society, the sexual orientation should not matter, the same as the gender, skin color or "race".

BUT... from the Nature point of view, a homosexual being would be considered a failure, if it would live his sexual orientation out. A homosexual could not reproduce which is the measurement for how successful a being is, Nature-wise.

BUT(another but)... these measurements are obsolete for us, we don't need to judge success by the number of ones offspring. Being homosexual is as crucial as a receding hairline, while people may still handle you different for it.. in the end it doesn't matter(at least where I live).

I don't want to offend anyone with this.. so, sorry in advance if I should.



OT: Kids shows, should be asexual, sexuality is something people need to discover for themselves. Confronting young children with sexuality could alter their behavior in a unhealthy way, at least in a long run.

 

[numbersix1979]

I dunno. I'm all for children being able to see anyone as a positive role model, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, skin color, or any other such descriptors. But I think it's a better ideal to work personally towards changing the cultural identity of homosexuality and the way it's perceived, rather than cramming homosexual characters into children's television shows. You're not going to win anyone over that way.

 

[Worgen]

really the only problem with gay chars in kids shows is that it requires you to address sexuality in kids shows which is something that society as a whole doesn't like anyway, in the states we get all paranoid about sexuality at all, really if you want to look at this stuff from a more mature stand point you have to look to japan since they tend to be a bit more grown up about it

 

[Condor219]

I have trouble believing it's not a choice... Just me... Because if it's not a choice it's a defect...

It has to do with how a person's raised, and along the lines of their genetics, both things that the person cannot control. Do you call being short "not a valid choice"? Do you accuse short people of being defective? How about blacks? It makes no more sense to do so with someone who's gay.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

In Doctor Who, (Which is a show I could consider a family/kids show) there have been two homosexual characters that I know of. And it doesn't matter that they are. It hardly ever comes up. Only in passing conversation.

As far as exposing homosexuality to smaller children.
Well,

(both girls)
They don't form a lack of acceptance for alternative lifestyles until later.

Magenta's a boy. It's stated numerous times in the show. Not many people realize this, but it's true. I guess the creators wanted to subvert gender roles- nifty.