This queer coding, however, had its disadvantages, with networks not wanting to show overt representation. Jonathan Freeman, Jafar's voice actor, says that his voice was inspired by Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, two actors famous for their villainous roles. The fact that Deja had also worked on Scar in The Lion King and the titular character in Hercules, for example, has been discussed as an influence on the development of some Disney characters. Gaston and LeFou in the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast and Jafar from the 1992 film Aladdin were created by an openly gay animator named Andreas Deja, and sang music by Howard Ashman, who was also openly gay. Critics have noted the Walt Disney Company's attribution of queer characteristics and behaviors to villainous or antagonistic characters. However, queer coding may have a negative impact on perceptions of queerness in media villains are often queer-coded, leading to the pejorative perception of queer traits. Queer coding is similar to queerbaiting, but the queer coding of a character is neutral and intrinsic to the work, unlike queerbaiting, which often invokes queerness in order to draw viewership. The character Him in The Powerpuff Girls, who dresses in a tutu and heels, is another example.
Disney characters have attracted attention because their films are popular among children. Thus, villains became noted in particular to have effeminate characteristics, behaviors or gestures that could be perceived as LGBTI. īecause of the Hays Code, positive portrayals of homosexual characters were barred, and the only characters in fiction that could be perceived as homosexuals had evil roles and were punished throughout the work. Ursula's character in The Little Mermaid was inspired by the drag queen Divine. Even so, Hamill described Larry 3000 as "fierce" and "flamboyant." In 2019, Klaudia Amenábar, writing for The Mary Sue, argued that Cassandra in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure was a gay coded character who had feelings for the show's protagonist, Rapunzel. However, the show never directly stated his sexuality. In 2012, the voice actor of Larry 3000, Mark Hamill, implied that Larry could easily have been interpreted as gay, due to his femininity and presentation as the "gay best friend" to Cleopatra in "Shop like an Egyptian", even though Larry has stated on multiple occasions he dislikes humans in general. Time Squad which aired from 2001 to 2003 on Cartoon Network, arguably had a LGBTQ character. Commentary on the treatment of LGBT+ characters in film is made in the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, and is one of the first instances in which the idea of queer coding is presented to the public. Gruber noted, before 1970, almost no gay characters were on television, and they remained relatively absent "until the 1990s." Continuing from the late 1980s, villains in Disney films which were queer coded appeared in this decade. Despite the queer coding in "Bugs Bunny" and "Tom & Jerry" cartoons, as scholars Deborah A.
He argued that Tom and Jerry "subverts normalized gender and sexuality structures" through theatrical play and performance, transgressing the normal construction of gender.
Olmstead, an interdisciplinary philosophy scholar, built upon Johnson's work. She argued that the episode's ending could be read as a "prophetic depiction of Gay Pride." Cade M. Johnson pointed to the 1966 short " Jerry-Go-Round", by Chuck Jones, as having a coded same-sex relationship between Jerry, who was gendered by Jones as female, and a female elephant who wears a pink tutu. One scholar, Jo Johnson, argued that Jerry in the Tom & Jerry cartoons had an androgynous design, even if feminized, and noted a possible homoerotic subtext between Jerry and Tom, especially when there is cross-dressing. The trend of the inclusivity of queer characters in a subtextual way likely bled into modern portrayals of queer characters. According to the code, films were not allowed to portray "perverse" subjects such as homosexuality, which inevitably led to the portrayal of non-explicit queer characters.
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In 1930, The Hays Code was established as a standard for what was allowed to be shown on the big screen. The idea of non-explicit queer coding likely stems from the strict regulations of how queer characters were able to be portrayed in the early days of film-making.