From enraged conservatives to Russia’s considerations to ban the screening of Beauty And The Beast (2017), there seems to be much overreaction to a brief few seconds of LGBT representation in the movie.
What exactly is this “gay agenda” being spoken of all over the Internet? At the Singapore movie premiere on 4 March, we learned that it is essentially only scenes of cross-dressing and same-sex ballroom dancing, both fleeting scenes that could be easily missed.
Perhaps this comes on the heels of Beauty And The Beast (2017) director Bill Condon, who is openly gay, announcing that Walt Disney Studios will feature their first exclusively gay character in this movie.
LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. – Bill Condon, Director, Beauty And The Beast
It is telling of how Beauty And The Beast is only rated PG in Singapore, yet the Oscars 2017 Best Picture movie Moonlight (2016) does not have the license to be screened here.
The only difference between both movies in light of “gay agenda” is that the narrative of Moonlight is centralised around a outright gay black man, while that of Beauty And The Beast is still based off the concept of Prince Charming and his princess.
In the name of equal representation, it is thus a smart move for Disney to explicitly represent LGBT in a movie where it will probably pass off without initial censorship in most if not all countries, including Singapore.
Disney’s decision to be ready for LGBT representation is a bold move that may eventually influence politics around the world. The allowance of LGBT representation into family-friendly, childhood-defining Disney narratives will shape the understanding that in 2017, it is outdated to consider love and gender in only one way, that is, one that necessarily fits into the framework comprising one man and one woman.
It is telling how the issue that conservatives are picking on is that of a two second moment involving two men dancing, not the fact that a teenage girl falls in love with an animal, or even falling for her captor similar to the phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome.
imagine boycotting beauty & the beast because of a gay character while being totally cool with a teenage girl falling in love with a buffalo
— tyler oakley (@tyleroakley) March 5, 2017
Christians call the gay character in Beauty and the Beast "unnatural", yet are totally fine with Satanic talking candles and teapots.
— retroCRUSH (@retrocrush) March 5, 2017
Henagar Drive-In Theater in Alabama have refused to screen Beauty and the Beast since it contains a gay character. “If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it,” wrote the theatre owners on Facebook.
Honestly, if Jesus found it in Himself to eat with the sinners, He probably would not have minded watching any kind of movie with you.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRPflc5AsfJ/?taken-by=popspoken_sg
The live-action adaptation of Disney’s original 1991 animation will show in Singapore theatres starting next Thursday, 16 March 2017.
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