Finding Dory will be released on June 17, and fans are already eagerly watching the trailers. However, one trailer has some fans asking questions. Does Finding Dory contain Pixar’s first openly Lesbian couple?
Newsday reported speculation that a scene with two women and a toddler in a stroller could be Pixar’s first openly gay couple. In the trailer, the scene is a brief one.
“The latest preview for the follow-up to 2003’s Finding Nemo includes a scene where a toddler is knocked over by a stroller and drops her sippy cup. The scene then turns to two women walking in front of the child. ‘Poor baby, let me get that for you,’ one of the women says as she picks up the cup. The seconds-long scene caused social media users to speculate that the two women were a couple and perhaps the child’s parents.”
Finding Dory trailer raises hopes film could include lesbian couple https://t.co/25ZouyaBgA
— The Guardian (@guardian) May 28, 2016
Many fans have been urging Disney to include more openly LGBT characters in their films. Specifically, fans have requested that Queen Elsa from Frozen and Captain America from the Marvel Cinematic Universe be made homosexual or bisexual. #GiveElsaAGirlfriend and #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend are hashtags on Twitter, urging that Queen Elsa be given a girlfriend in the sequel to Frozen ,and that Captain America and the Winter Soldier be allowed to be more than just friends. Disney and Pixar could be testing the waters by having LGBT supporting characters before allowing such a major step for any of their films’ heroes. Could a pair of Lesbian mothers in Finding Dory be that test?
In 2014, Disney Channel’s Good Luck, Charlie had one of Charlie’s friends have Lesbian parents. One Million Moms protested vociferously, as reported by the Christian Post, considering it unnecessary and controversial. Mia Talerico, who was 5-years-old at the time, received death threats from people who found it unconscionable that a TV show would have guest stars in one episode portraying gay characters and thought swearing at a girl in kindergarten and threatening her was a reasonable response to such an offense.
Some fans debated whether or not Frozen showed a LGBT family in the sauna scene. Oaken, owner of Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna, waves to his family in the sauna, several children and a man. Arts.Mic says, “the adult in the sauna is clearly implied to be his husband .” Other fans thought that the man in the sauna could be the eldest son, a brother, or merely another customer. Saunas in Scandinavia are often communal affairs.
That new #FindingDory trailer released this morning? I think that’s the first lesbian couple in a @DisneyPixar film. pic.twitter.com/S1wwJEOeWT
— Matthew Gottula (Unver?f?ed) (@DLthings) May 24, 2016
It seems premature to assume that two women with a small child are a Lesbian couple and the child’s co-mothers. It could easily be the mother and the aunt or the mother and a friend. Some fans have suggested that Pixar is being deliberately ambiguous, to create interest and controversy. Salon pointed out that that the pair are probably just “ glorified extras ,”a small and token step toward inclusion.
“It would be great to have a lesbian Elsa or a ‘Captain America’ sequel where Steve Rogers and his Winter Soldier, Bucky, get cozy by the fireplace. But in the meantime, treating LGBT characters just like everyone else is so incredibly simple that the embrace of ‘Finding Dory’ should show every failing studio a way forward. Whether it’s kids or adults, queer people look to Hollywood to see people like ourselves reflected in any way we can, even if it’s just a brief glimpse of a loving lesbian couple. LGBT folks want our own protagonists, sure, but more than anything, we just want to be seen as human.”
Other fans are offended and outraged at the idea of a Lesbian couple in Finding Dory , even if they are nothing but glorified extras. They consider it inappropriate to have any mention of homosexuality in a children’s cartoon like Finding Dory.
https://www.facebook.com/casey.nasby/posts/862365983896219
Are the two women in Finding Dory Pixar’s first openly LGBT couple? If so, is it a step forward for diversity and inclusion, or political correctness gone overboard? Tell us your opinion in the comments section below.
Pixar’s first lesbian couple? Finding Dory trailer sparks rumours https://t.co/1EHoMXiECd pic.twitter.com/pSSpkloe43
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 25, 2016
[Image via Disney/Pixar]
