Before I delve into the importance of animation in queer cinema, a little conversation starter (if you will)– Lillian Violet Cooper was buried with Mary Josephine Bedford. In 1778, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby put on ‘men’s clothing’ and ran away to live together.
Several historians have described them as ‘great friends’. There are arguments about assuming the sexuality of people who have passed long before us but queer researchers often question why the default assumption remains heterosexual.
Even if we give historians the benefit of the doubt, things haven’t changed a lot. After the release of director Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I saw a headline that read: ''Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ explores a fascinating friendship’. Then there’s the countless scenes in films that show two women trying to find a flat together with another person, often a realtor, assuming they’re both looking for a place to live in with their “husbands”.
Queer erasure is frustrating, disheartening, and sometimes even comical. But while queer relationships are often disregarded, the stories are important to tell and animation might be one of the best mediums– as content like Euros Lyn’s Heartstopper, Sammi Cohen’s Crush, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, and Abhishek Verma's The Fish Curry will show.
Leaves and Sparks are Tough to Ignore
Netflix’s Heartstopper is set in a school– a setting notorious for rampant homophobia (added of course with ample support). A school gives the audience the opportunity to see the variety of reactions people have to queer relationships– some accept it, some celebrate it, some mock it, and some don’t believe it exists.This reflects the real world brilliantly and so, when comic sparks fly when Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) touch, it’s hard to ignore that they’re not just ‘pals’. Then there’s the sketched out leaves and flowers that fly around every time there’s flirtation or romance with ANY couple on the show.
(If you search for ‘Heartstopper’ on Google, those comic flowers will fly across your screen, you’re welcome)
In Crush, every time Paige Evans (Rowan Blanchard) realises (or knows) she has a crush on a girl, literal bursts of colour appear behind them. Paige and her love interest also express their feelings through sketches and art, right up till the end.
Queer Art: Conformity and Anonymity
A huge reason for queer characters being so far and few between on screen is that they have often been systematically erased from the screens. With production guidelines like the Hays Code and rising censorship, creators had to find other ways to introduce queer characters in cinema without facing flak from the powers that be.Many creators turned to animation since the medium itself doesn’t have to conform to things the way we see them in the real world.
Many times, the popular cartoon character Bugs Bunny, would opt for dresses and makeup for his disguises. While it was used for comic effect, drag superstar RuPaul had said to The Hollywood Reporter, “Bugs Bunny was my first introduction to drag!"
Several people theorise that the concept of queercoding began in the Hays days but the problem soon became evident– queercoding relied on harmful stereotypes.
Queer characters seemed to be grappling with the choice of existing as objects of horror or comedy or not existing at all– a dangerous precedent that can also be seen today.
But, new age animators are attempting to challenge that. Animation as a whole is a medium which can go from realism to surrealism and nobody would bat an eye. Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar created Ruby and Sapphire, who got married on the show making it the first queer wedding in a children’s animated show.
Shows like The Legend of Korra and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power have also explored openly queer romances and even gender nonconforming characters through animation.
Coming to the realism in animation, there are films like Flee and The Fish Curry. In conversation with Out Magazine, the director of Flee, Jonah Poher Rasmussen goes into the details of using animation. Flee tells the true story of a gay Afghan refugee and with animation, Rasmussen could maintain the subject’s anonymity aiding his comfort, and above all, his safety.
“With the animation, we could be a lot more expressive than we could have been with a camera. At times when there were things Amin had a hard time talking about or couldn’t really remember properly, the animation changes and turns more surreal and dreamy, focusing more on his emotion than being realistic to how things actually looked like.”
A fantasy sequence was also used to explore the lead, Amin’s, crush on Jean-Claude Van Damme. Similarly, Sugar’s sequences featuring Ruby and Sapphire borrow from heteronormative Disney films, she told Insider.
Abhishek Verma’s The Fish Curry focuses on a son’s attempt to come out to his father by using the device of a ‘fish curry’. While the short film’s reliance on animation to show the protagonist’s nervousness is commendable, it also uses the art to clearly show his relationship with his partner.
Animation is a vast and malleable medium and with attitudes towards queer stories being inconsistent across the world, content creators rely on the medium to tell their stories. With queer erasure so rampant, the audience can rely on clear markers of romantic attraction, like that of Heartstopper, to see the stories they want to see on their screens.
