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Australian groups up in arms over dancing Cinderfellas
A production of Cinderella On Ice is causing an uproar in Australia, where it's making its debut before embarking on a world tour. What's causing the commotion is a "gay love sequence" in the production by two of the peripheral characters, played by dancers Yuri Salimanov and Andrei Benikov. It isn't explained what a "gay love sequence" is, but obviously it's enough to draw the ire of the usual "family" groups, who rant about "protecting children", and "compromising the role of parents", yadda-yadda-yadda (and if you get a chance, read the comments after the article for some down under looniness). All of this got us thinking about other fairy tales, and how much better they would be with the inclusion of openly gay characters. Here are a couple of wishful examples. Gaston
Oh baby. Yes, it's shallow and superficial, but the first name I thought of was Gaston. After all, there's no one as burly and brawny, as you see he's got biceps to spare. Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny, and ev'ry last inch of him's covered with hair! He's the perfect bear! Hansel & Hansel
Surely you've already heard of the classic fairy tale Hansel & Hansel, by Hans Christian Luckerhueven? It's very popular in St. Olaf. What classic fairy tales would you like to see updated with a gay sensibility? Submitted by on Mon, 2008-08-11 07:53. |
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Well, the obvious one...
...would be Goldilocks & the Three Bears.
"The one is too large."
"This one is too small"
"This one is juuust right!"
I think my inner 14-year-old just took over when I wrote that.
Faerie Tales
I have been "up-dating" folk tales for the last 3 years. So, pretty much any of the motifs are up for grabs. But of the popularized stories, Cinderella comes to mind. I don't know why I haven't gotten around to that one.
I would go like this: His ugly step sisters tease him because he's gay and feminine and when he ties a scrap of silk around his hair to admire himself in the mirror, they make him polish the silver with it. And then the drag queen fairy godfather. He goes to the ball in a royal suit of gold and silk where no one can discern his gender. Is he a woman dressed as a man or the finest dandy?
You know the rest of the story.
Kids don't care
It always surprises me that so many parents don't seem to realize the effect their attitudes have on their kids. Chances are the kids think, "Oh look, two men dancing. Oh, look at the girl in the shiny dress. Oh, look, that boy two rows down is punching his sister." In other words, it's just part of the scenery, until a parent gets upset. Then the child panics and gets upset, and the parent trots out their trauma as support for their argument without acknowledging that it's a reaction to the parent and not the thing they're bitching about.
I worked in a toy store for a couple years, and I had one notable customer who screamed bloody murder at me for not refunding her money for an open pack of trading cards, and then shoved her weeping child at me as proof that I was in the wrong. Having had one of those screaming, attention-demanding, embarrassaing parents myself, I felt so bad for that kid.
On the upside, a lot of the more recent comments on that article seem to balance out the hysterical ones.
Therein lay the problem
A lot of the parents who object to any public displays of homosexuality are generally concerned because their kids won't be perturbed by it. They want to raise their children to believe that homosexuality is something dirty and disgusting, that people should be ashamed of. It's hard to do that if people show same-sex affection in public venues.
This is often why so many people start enforcing strict gender roles at young ages, for example discouraging boys from being affectionate with people (especially fathers, brothers and other males), while still encouraging that for girls. After all, if boys think it's okay to hug each other, then next thing you know they'll think it's okay to kiss each other. Of course from kissing it's a short hop to total damnation so...