Turning Red viewers think that there are multiple signs that Mei and Miriam have romantic feelings for each other in the film.
Turning Red fans have a theory that Mei and Miriam have romantic feelings for each other and it looks like they may be right.Last week (Mar 11), Turning Red debuted on Disney+ to rave reviews and one thing in particular that viewers are living for is the movie's queer representation. While there aren't any openly LGBTQ+ characters in the film (Pixar employees recently revealed that Disney cuts "every moment of overtly gay affection" from their work), people think that Tyler is gay and Priya is queer.
Not only that but fans think that there are multiple moments that prove that Mei and Miriam are in love with each other.
In Turning Red, Mei and Miriam are close friends. However, there are moments in the film where the way that they care about each other and look at each other appears to be romantic. They may both fancy the 4*Town boys and Devon, but Miriam is a clear tomboy, and there's nothing to suggest that they are not both queer in some way and attracted to girls as well.
On top of that, there is also a key scene in which Mei's mother Ming says: "You mean Miriam? That girl is odd", which could be a reference to parents often thinking queer children are "odd" and trying to stop their own kids from being friends with them. Mei loving Miriam would also mirror the fact that Ming fell in love with someone her mother didn't approve of.
One person tweeted: "OK BUT. mei's mom not approving of miriam and ming's mom not approving of mei's dad, is that a coincidence or?" Another added: "u gotta be a homophobe if you can't see how implied miriam/mei are in turning red like...?"
Fans have also called out people who think that Mei and Miriam are too young to be shipped together, and who claim that shipping them means they are being sexualised.
One person tweeted: "the people who say 'STOP SHIPPING MEI AND MIRIAM KIDS SHOULDN’T BE EXPOSED TO ADULT CONTENT LIKE SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS' probably didn’t bat an eye while Mei was thirsting five different guys the whole movie."
Someone also wrote: "I promise you thinking that Miriam and mei would be a cute couple is not the same as sexualizing them and the fact you made such a conclusion is very suspicious."
I promise you thinking that Miriam and mei would be a cute couple is not the same as sexualizing them and the fact you made such a conclusion is very suspicious
— bloom!pony posting! (@BloomMoonbeam) March 13, 2022
Getting sick and tired of people saying that it's weird to ship Mei and Miriam when in iCarly they were THE SAME AGE as the characters in Turning Red and they KISSED and people LOVED IT. But the moment it's two girls suddenly it's "creepy" and "pushing romance on kids" pic.twitter.com/LP98hxHbi9
—echo/roman/finn
(@ohraditsecho) March 12, 2022
We have no choice but to ship.
