Beauty and the Beast is going to be Disney's first movie with a gay character. Russia and some movies theaters are less than pleased.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/03/04/russia-beauty-and-beast-ban-due-over-gay-character-lefoux/98743116/
What sucks about this is that the gay character is the comic relief and so the gay part is probably going to be played as a joke and I'm definitely mad about that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this was one concern I had as well - I've read that he's going to be portrayed as lusting after Gaston who is the epitome of machismo / manliness. It will be interesting to see how Disney deals with it
DeleteThanks for sharing this, Abby -- I hadn't heard about it yet. This article was the first time I had heard of that Russian law about "gay propaganda" and minors, so I did a little more reading about it -- so awful. But a reminder that even as I learn more about US queer history in this class, and feel pretty informed about current debates and policies within the US, there are other countries that look very, very different with respect to rights and attitudes (but also reflecting many of the same themes we have seen in US history, like these fears of "recruiting").
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw this piece of news I found it particularly interesting because I wrote my thesis on the on-screen underrepresentation of minority characters/actors in the film industry. More specifically, my thesis investigated how foreign audience (racial, in particular) preferences affect how U.S. producers cast their films, and this can be observed through box office revenue. To sum up my findings, U.S. producers very heavily consider the preferences of international audiences because the majority of revenue for U.S. studios comes from abroad. Seeing as though this is a very high budget and high profile film, these producers are likely depending on foreign revenue. I will be very interested to see how the film performs in foreign territories in comparison to the U.S, and whether there is any international backlash against having an on-screen gay character!!! It would be cool to disaggregate foreign box office and see if there is a correlation between a country's political treatment of gays and lower box offices.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the news. I heard about a minion of Gaston being gay in the movie, but did not know there is such strong opposition. The news about the first gay character in Disney movie actually reminded me of the animation movie "how to train your dragon." A character, Gobber the Belch, had a subtle line "'This is why I never got married", which hinted his homosexuality in the sequel, causing worldwide attention.(Here is the link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2633953/How-To-Train-Your-Dragon-character-Gobber-Belch-reveals-gay-animations-sequel.html) Interestingly, Josh Gad, the actor of Lefou, also emphasized that "Beauty and the Beast" script didn't say "LeFou is gay." I am not sure whether the gay character is a propaganda technique, but I am shocked by people's negative reaction. LGBT people are part of the society, but they are seldom positively portrayed in the movies. I mean, LeFou is a clown like character and I didn't like him at all when I was a kid.
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