‘The Batman’ and ‘Lu’ Prove Studs Have a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Problem – IndieWire

Contents:

• FROM ‘THE BATMAN’ TO ‘LU’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST,’ STUDS ALREADY HAVE A MAJOR ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PROBLEM
• BATMAN IS PRETTY GAY: QUEER REPRENTATN COMICS & THE DARK KNIGHT
• FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: IS HE GAY?IS BATMAN GAY?

FROM ‘THE BATMAN’ TO ‘LU’ AND ‘BETY AND THE BEAST,’ STUDS ALREADY HAVE A MAJOR ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PROBLEM

We might five the transgrsn of subtextual queerns (there if you want to see , but easily whewashed if you're a homophobe) if there was anythg else to make up for the film, but there isn't. Warner not only is Sela's one bisexual relatnship not explicly nfirmed on-screen, even if we extend the latu to The Batman of takg subtext as fact then The Batman falls firmly the trap of buryg your gays. Over the last few weeks, one of Hollywood’s biggt money-makers — The Walt Disney Company and s many related enti — has had to face backlash om angry shareholrs, employe, and fans over s actn regards to Florida’s planned “Don’t Say Gay” bill; walkouts by LGBTQ employe and alli prott of said dranian bill; and the publitn of a letter om Pixar employe that revealed that the stud already has s own “Don’t Say Gay” policy behd closed doors.

BATMAN IS PRETTY GAY: QUEER REPRENTATN COMICS & THE DARK KNIGHT

Acrdg to an open letter om Pixar’s LGBTQ employe and alli, Disney executiv have mand cuts of “nearly every moment of overtly gay affectn” Pixar movi.

In 2017, the Bill Condon-directed live-actn “Bety and the Beast” promised an “exclively gay moment, ” which sentially boiled down to Josh Gad’s character, LeFou, dancg a crowd wh Gaston (Le Evans), which prumably implied LeFou was love wh his boss.

Jt last month, Gad exprsed his regret over the entire cint, tellg The Inpennt, “My regret what happened is that beme ‘Disney’s first explicly gay moment’ and was never tend to be that. It was never tend to be a moment that we should ld ourselv for, bee ankly, I don’t thk we did jtice to what a real gay character a Disney film should be.

FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: IS HE GAY?IS BATMAN GAY?

Most recently, look to Pixar’s 2021 release “Lu, ” which was sentially marketed as “Call Me by Your Name” for kids, all sunny Italian clim and charmg meet-cut, but clud nothg that uld be classified as “overtly gay. While most crics picked up on the movie’s obv gay allegory, director Enri Casarosa was tough to p down, though he did adm to nsirg makg the film more overtly queer.

(Last year’s “Eternals, ” which clud a gay superhero, at least hted at real forward momentum, even if remaed relatively chaste the ntext of Chloe Zhao’s film.

Wh the recent passg of Kev Conroy, the voice of the ped csar Batman: The Animated Seri and gay in, felt like a good time to discs LGBTQIA+ reprentatn ic books, specifilly Superhero ics. Lookg past the tastels jok about Bce spendg all of his time wh an old Brish man and a speedo-clad boy he kept a ve, there has always been a homoerotic subtext to Batman.