Perspectives: “The Same Thing We Do Every Night”: Signifying Same-Sex Desire in Television Cartoons

Abstract

The author analyzes animated television programs from the 1950s Ruf and Reddy to the present for codes suggesting same-sex desire, identity, and relationships. Animated sitcoms such as The Simpsons and Daria tend to acknowledge gay and lesbian identities, while presenting same-sex desire as ludicrous or beyond the realm of possibility. Conversely, surreal cartoons such as Rocko's Modern Life and Spongebob Squarepants tend to ignore gay and lesbian identities but present same-sex desire as ordinary and even vital and worthwhile. One explanation for the disjunction may be found in the heterosexualization of the cultural texts.

The Boy Who Would Be Queen: Hints and Closets on Children's Television

“…Several scholars have analyzed the potential of children's television, particularly the animated cartoon, to both maintain and disrupt dominant ideologies (Davies, 1995;Dennis, 2003;Dines, 1995), but few have commented on apparent paradox of staunch heteronormativity (Warner, 1993) coexisting with winking asides; indeed, most fail to acknowledge the existence of LGBT people at all (e.g., Bryant, 2006;Buckingham, 1996;Gunther, 1997;Lemish, 2006). This study will investigate the disruptions of heteronormativity in a sample of current television programs aimed at children and adolescents, and argue that they are used by LGBT viewers to actively resist the ideological attempt to erase their desires and practices from conscious thought.…”

Queer Resistances in the Adult Animated Sitcom

“…In accordance with queer media theory’s critique of popular culture’s reiterations of heteronormativity, the representation of queer themes or characters does not per se defy the heterosexual norm. Jeffery P. Dennis (2003, 137) stresses that contemporary animated series only portray tolerance toward a queer identity while the context often remains that of hegemonic heterosexual desire. Yet Stuart Hall (2005, 71) argues that popular culture cannot be regarded as only reiterating hegemonic discourses.…”

The Politics of Powerpuff: Putting the ‘Girl’ into ‘Girl Power’

“…A villain so evil he has no name -merely referred to as Him -is a strange super natural transvestite figure, who speaks with an eerie high-pitched voice and wears high heels and fishnet stockings. Him represents recent trends in animation, according to Dennis (2003), which depict homosexuality as 'either silly or creepy ' (p. 138). If the politics of The Powerpuff Girls requires the sisters to triumph over older masculine adults, frequently shown as ridiculous or pathetic, this has negative consequences for characters differing from the girls in terms of class, race and sexuality.…”