Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY 25

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 25 March 2017
Are ‘gay moments’ in ‘Beauty’

and ‘Power Rangers’ progress?

LINDSEY BAHR report by the University of joyed speculating about
AP Film Writer Southern California found which Disney characters
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A that 82 of the 100 top mov- were secretly gay — from
hug. A wink. A dance. A ies of 2015 did not de- “The Lion King’s” isolated
non-answer. These are the pict one LGBT speaking bachelor Scar to the mar-
so-called gay moments in or named character. In a riage-averse Merida from
a handful of recent high- study by the gay advoca- “Brave.” But none have
profile studio movies that cy group GLAAD of major ever been outwardly con-
have sparked both raptur- studio releases in 2015, 17.5 firmed as such.
ous celebration and star- percent contained char- It’s also noteworthy that all
This image released by Disney, Josh Gad, left, and Luke Evans tling backlash. acters identified as lesbian, three recent gay-moment
appear in a scene from, “Beauty and the Beast. From Sulu in “Star Trek Be- gay, bisexual, or transgen- examples can be justified
Associated Press
yond” to LeFou in “Beauty der — a percentage that as tributes to the unsung
and the Beast” and now Tri- was unchanged from 2014. gay history behind many
ni in “Power Rangers,” the But even “Beauty and the of these stories. LGBT activ-
latest Hollywood fascina- Beast” director Bill Condon ist George Takei originated
tion is the subtle nod that a and many of his cast quick- the character of Sulu. The
once straight or undefined ly retreated from previous late lyricist Howard Ashman
character is now or has al- comments about the film’s wrote much of “Beauty
ways been gay. “gay moment,” saying the and the Beast” while dying
But it’s often so subtle that response had been “over- of AIDS and passed away
if it wasn’t first discussed by blown.” before the film even came
filmmakers or actors, it’s a Hollywood might not be out. And, in the case of
wonder whether anyone to blame for the dozens “Power Rangers,” the origi-
would notice at all. Sulu of articles that help to am- nal Blue Ranger David Yost
can be seen hugging a plify small moments that left the series after being
man. LeFou winks at Gas- are also socially significant harassed for his sexual ori-
ton and later dances with firsts (“first gay superhero” entation.
a man. And Trini fails to an- and “first gay Disney char- “There have been in the
swer a flirty question about acter”). They’re eminently past these coded mo-
whether she’s having “boy- clickable and part of the ments threaded through
friend problems”... or “girl- modern business model of stories that we’ve seen on
friend problems?” internet news, especially as the big screen, but no stu-
What are we to make of the public, actors and film- dio has been big enough or
these “blink and you’ll miss makers weigh in. bold enough to own those
them” moments in a year For GLAAD President and moments,” Ellis said. “If you
when “Moonlight,” with CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, how- were part of the LGBT com-
its explicit exploration of ever, the minor moments munity or ultra-observant,
gay themes, can rise to are “incredibly important,” you might pick up on it.
become the best picture especially in major stu- But having the studio own
winner at the Academy dio films with significant it and not back down from
Awards? Is this progress? youth audiences. A film like it was a big move forward
For some, it is. For others, it’s “Moonlight,” she noted, is for us.”
too much acclaim for too an adult film that came out From a business perspec-
little action. from an independent dis- tive, there was speculation
Buzzfeed film critic Alison tributor and producer. that perhaps there could
Willmore wrote an article “LGBT youth have a right to be a downside when re-
on Wednesday exploring see their happily ever after, ports emerged that a the-
the “outsized credit” that too,” Ellis said. ater in Alabama was not
Hollywood is getting for the A recent exhaustive GLAAD going to show “Beauty and
recent “seriously small mo- study found that 20 percent the Beast,” and a few pre-
ments of LGBT inclusivity.” of millennials identify as dominantly Muslim coun-
“While, to be sure, even in- LGBT — a statistic she thinks tries had pulled the film
cremental progress should might have contributed to for review because of the
be celebrated — any for- social media movements gay moment. Then the film
ward movement is bet- like the #GiveElsaaGirl- opened to a whopping
ter than none — this is an friend and #GiveCaptai- $357.1 million globally.
incredibly unsatisfactory nAmericaaBoyfriend cam- “I don’t think it impacted
beat to go on to be widely paigns. Disney’s bottom line one
disseminated as a break- Ellis knows the “moments” bit,” said Paul Dergarabe-
through for inclusivity,” Will- are just a first step — she dian, a senior media ana-
more wrote of the ambigu- would like to eventually lyst for comScore. In fact,
ous “Power Rangers” mo- see LGBT protagonists in all- he said the spotlight on
ment. ages films — but for her, it LeFou likely benefited the
Not so ambiguous is how shows that major studios, movie in the end, creat-
the film industry is lagging often too risk averse to ing buzz, awareness and a
in LGBT representation, es- change, are making an ef- conversation.
pecially compared with fort to test the waters. Ellis has observed that in
strides that have been For years, writers, fans and just a few weeks, the tides
made in television. A 2016 LGBT scholars have en- have turned significantly.q