Rightwingers are getting upset about comics again
Hide your kids! Hide your wife! I regret to inform you all that there is a dangerous new Disney-Pixar movie out that is intent on destroying your children’s innocence, turning your wife gay, and accelerating the already-rapid state of moral collapse in western civilization. Which is a lot for one 100-minute movie to do, I know, but the Pixar people are pretty crafty.
The movie in question is Lightyear, a spin-off of Toy Story. It’s been generating a lot of buzz because there is a brief scene in which two women in a “meaningful” relationship kiss – making it the first same-sex kiss in a Pixar feature. This scene, it should be noted, almost didn’t get included in the final cut. At one stage it was taken out because of internal pushback. Then a bunch of Pixar employees called the company out for its history of censoring “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection … regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar”. That embarrassed the top brass enough for the scene to be put back in.
It’s an understatement to say that not everyone is happy about Pixar’s attempt to be more inclusive. Several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia, have banned the film or won’t be screening it because of the gay kiss. Meanwhile conservatives in the US are having a conniption fit over the idea that kids might be exposed to an image of two cartoon women kissing. The National Review, a conservative magazine, stated: “Lightyear proves that the folks at Pixar and Disney are past masters at audience manipulation, now known as ‘grooming’.” As you have probably noticed, anything related to LGBT people is classed as “grooming” now by rightwingers: it’s their strategy du jour. A gay person breathes? Grooming! Gay teacher at school? Grooming! Hair cut by a gay stylist? Grooming!
Another favourite conservative catchphrase is the “Gay Agenda”. Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who never misses an opportunity to get outraged by something innocuous, whipped out the Gay Agenda talking point as soon as he heard the news that two cartoon characters had kissed.
“Disney works to push a ‘not-at-all-secret gay agenda’ and seeks to add ‘queerness’ to its programming,” Shapiro tweeted. “… Parents should keep that in mind before deciding whether to take their kids to see ‘Lightyear,’ which hits theaters this week.” He then added: “Children are not adults. What may be appropriate for adults is not appropriate for children. That this must be said demonstrates that our society is in a state of moral collapse.”
It’s true that children are not adults. I, for one, am very glad that Shapiro cleared that point up for us all. That said, I do wish that he’d provided a little more detail on what sort of contact between cartoon characters he thinks is appropriate for children to witness. It can’t be the kiss itself that offends him, because Disney films are full of characters who lock lips. A smattering of examples includes the following:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: man stumbles into a forest, finds an apparently dead woman and kisses her on the lips.
Sleeping Beauty: man finds woman fast asleep in bed and kisses her on the lips.
The Little Mermaid: human man kisses a fish-woman while a lobster with a Jamaican accent and a bunch of fish sing “kiss the girl”.
Beauty and the Beast: woman kisses man who is also sometimes a beast.
Princess and the Frog: woman kisses a frog, albeit not very willingly.
Lady and the Tramp: two dogs sharing spaghetti also share a smooch.
How is it that all of the above is classed as wholesome entertainment by conservatives, while two women in a committed relationship sharing a kiss is part of a dangerous “agenda”? Please Mr Shapiro, make it make sense! Of course, he can’t. Unless you are a raging bigot, there is clearly nothing inappropriate about kids being exposed to the fact that gay people exist. The fact that it is 2022 and this still needs to be said demonstrates that our society is in a state of moral collapse.
US women are heading to Mexico to get abortions
“Before, when thinking about abortion, people in Mexico would say if anyone wants an abortion it’s better to go to Texas, and people would travel to the Texan abortion clinics,” the owner of an abortion sanctuary in Mexico told Bloomberg. “And now what is so strange to me is how it has flipped. I think no one ever imagined that was going to happen in the US, and that now Mexico is the country providing that support.”
James Patterson apologizes for saying white male authors face ‘racism’
Life is very hard for white men these days, the bestselling author claimed in a recent interview with the Sunday Times. I mean, just look around! You barely see any white men in positions of power these days.
Ghislaine Maxwell reckons the justice system should go easy on her
The disgraced socialite’s attorneys argued on Wednesday that she should be sentenced to “well below” the 20 years’ imprisonment recommended.
Angola’s all-female mine-clearing squads
War in Angola left more than 1,100 active minefields across the country. NPR has a great photo essay of the all-female teams bravely clearing them and blowing up gendered expectation of “women’s work”.
The untold stories of Palestinian women behind the walls of Israeli prisons
Gaza-based journalist Wafa Aludaini reports for Jezebel on the 32 Palestinian women currently being held as political prisoners within Israeli jails.
There is a club for dull men
Which I learned about in this amazing Guardian Experience piece on the “dullest man in Britain”. The man is passionate about roundabouts and sounds brilliant.
The week in pawtriarchy
A high-profile wanted pedophile was recently captured in Mexico thanks to an alliance of international activist groups, law enforcement, and … a dog. Hidu, a black lab, had been trained to sniff out a chemical coating used in electronic devices and found the suspect’s cellphone which was full of incriminating information.
Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order
