On March 17, Disney will be premiering a new version of “Beauty and the Beast”, which is fascinating enough because that classic fairytale was created over 26 years ago. But, some people (or even countries, for that matter) are causing major uproar because Disney has introduced their first gay character, which happens to be LeFou, Gaston’s sidekick.
The director and cast members definitely did not think it would be a big deal, especially in the world that we live in today. Director, Bill Condon, talked about this character in his interview with Attitude magazine by stating, “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. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.” He certainly did not try and make a big deal out of this character when he was creating him, but it was enough to have some countries or states ban it from their local theatres.
Disney recently pulled this film from Malaysia because of the problems they were causing, in terms of wanting to have the few minutes of LeFou cut out from the film. Since praise of homosexuality in Malaysia is illegal and Disney refused to cut out those scenes, it was simply removed from any showings. The Henager Drive-In-Theatre in Alabama made an announcement on their social media platforms that they will not be showing the movie because of the appearance of a gay character. Even Russia has put an age restriction of 16+ to see the movie because of their law on showing homosexual scenes, or praise, to minors.
All in all, this is very shocking because not only of the time we live in, but at the fact that this is a movie intended for children. Disney would never add any provocative or offensive scenes in their movies, but people are still causing an up roar based on a gay character. It’s not only upsetting for the people who took time and dedication to get this movie out in theatres, but also for the LGBT community. There are so many little girls and boys who still haven’t figured out who they are, or who they like, in the world and seeing Disney characters that can somehow relate to them might just make their transition a little easier. It’s hard when you are part of this community to only see the typical beautiful Disney princess fall in love with the handsome Disney prince, especially if you cannot relate. Disney needs to be commended for even making this small of a step in their movies by including a gay character and refusing to cut this scene out for countries like Malaysia who refuse to show it.
I remember sitting in my Fairytale class with my professor and he truly went into detail on how the original Beauty and the Beast was wrong on so many levels. There are so many hidden innuendos of domestic violence between Belle and the Beast, especially when she is in constant fear of what he will do next. Although he never touches her, he does a fair amount of yelling and she just waits around until he is ready or is in a good mood to talk to her.
Yet, somehow that is right to show our little girls, but showing love between two characters (whatever gender they may be) is wrong and outright disrespectful to parents and young children.
