Paranorman

Just got back. Awesome movie. Probably in my top ten and what I think is very significant about posting here is that it has a gay dude in it!

The character is a muscle-bound regular guy who loves to work on his car, is the man around the house, and has chicks falling all over him. The character is thought to be straight throughout the whole movie due to Norman's sister falling for him. In the end, he tells her he think she'll love his boyfriend.

The perfect thing about this is it breaks all the stereotypes about gay guys. It works with the audience's perception of what it means to be gay and says that stereotypes are not always the case or true.



I think, I may be wrong - but I see lots of movies, that this is the first gay character in a children's animated movie. So that alone shows leaps and bounds of progress being made.

 

Just thought some might be interested in this post I made over at IMDB. Rarely do this, but I think it says a lot... note - some homophobes have been posting there.

I'm a bisexual guy. Yeah, go ahead. Say I'm really straight or gay or chose to be this way. But, let me ask you this -- does a guy CHOOSE to fall for a guy at 7 years old while watching a children's movie? Definitely not. I had no idea why I wanted to dance with Kat and the guy who played Casper. I had no idea what was going on, how could I have CHOSEN to at that age? And when I was 15 I fell for a guy, this time I was afraid of how OTHERS would respond if they found out I like both. I also know a guy who grew up knowing he was gay and not like the other guys since he was three years old and naturally gravitated more towards barbies than race cars -- his brothers being the more macho beat a kid on the schoolyard types. He had no one to bring that out of him. He too tried to be just straight. He was just a kid when he knew.

THAT is why this film is important and powerful in it's message to children.

There are kids today, just like at any age, who know they're gay very young. To better examine this, what was the first age you fell in love with a guy or girl? Your first crush? I'm betting your thoughts weren't of sex, but how pretty or handsome they were. I knew I had mine when I was in elementary school on this really cute blonde girl in my class. Now, I haven't seen her or heard from her since she moved away after kindergarden. But, who's able to forget their first crush? And I'm betting similarly you had yours when you were young too.

Now apply that to a five year old boy who has a crush on another boy in his class. The students mock him for being gay or he sees politics on tv saying that being gay is bad and wrong. You thus create a kid who is afraid of turning to his parents because he's afraid of what they will think. You have a kid who will either become depressed, kill himself when he's older, or find a way to survive until he realizes those fears he built up are wrong. And trust me, I know very few LGBT people in my generation who were not afraid of their parents rejecting them - even if they are perfectly awesome parents who would never do such a thing.

What this movie did was reach out to that kid and say that it's alright. It tells him that all kinds of guys can sometimes be gay and that there is absolutely no problem with it. It builds up that kid's self-esteem.

I definitely know that if I saw this when I was young, it would have helped me come into my own. And I can guarantee it's done the same for a lot of kids. This IS an important lesson to teach at an early age.

Not only that, when something is normalized - the fear starts to go away - and to really do this? You have got to start young. You normalize it to kids and homophobia won't spurt up in some of them by the time they reach middle school. Why fear what you can understand?

The bottom line of these first couple of paragraphs is this - gay kids will be told that the way they feel is okay and help them better adjust, while some kids may grow up sans homophobia.

To those saying "they chose to be that way!" Well, nobody chooses to be this way. Why would they? If you think this way, think about the logistics of what you're truly saying. You're saying someone will choose to risk losing their friends who might be homophobic, risk getting kicked out of their homes by their parents who might be homophobic, risk losing their family members who might be homophobic, risk getting teased at and ridiculed in school and the workplace for being different. Who would choose that??

And for those saying, "eh, it showed them this at an early age"...

- LGBT has been brought up on the news A LOT lately. Turn on the news when your kid is in the room, they’ve heard.
- Some kids have gay fathers or gay mothers now. Friends of those kids will already know this.
- A kid may have an older sibling or relative who is gay. Well, they'll know and some friends will too.
- Some programs families watch together already have gay characters, GLEE comes to mind here. I don't even watch Glee and I know about it.
- Most kids learn things early on from the SCHOOL BUS, chances are they’ll overhear it due to something or another.
- I'm pretty sure this list goes on and on.

As said, some of these five years olds in the audience already know they’re gay. And if you ask how -- when did you have your first crush? Bingo. And you weren't thinking about getting into bed with Janey or Jimmy. You were thinking innocent thoughts. There is nothing sexual about it. Kids don't know about sex. This movie doesn't mention it. Thus a gay guy noting he has a boyfriend goes over their heads in the same way as a girl mentioning she has a boyfriend does. Children don't think about sex.

If your problem with it is that it seems like a throw-away line. While I agree that it could have been more than that. This film definitely paved the way for further progress. It was the first family film, at least that I know of, that had an openly gay character.

Why is this film's message good? It gives kids confidence and it helps to stop homophobia. Chances are your kid already knows that two guys can love each other due to the age we're living in whether gay, bi, or straight. It’s just about everywhere you look these days. This film just normalizes it and says that it's okay. Which in an age where children have gay parents and are coming out at earlier ages? That's pretty damn important.

Being bisexual, it's a gift and a curse. It’s a curse because of biphobia, yeah there is such a thing. I'm like a zombie to some people for even daring to be born liking both. A gift in that I can see what it's like being straight and I can see what it's like being gay and as THAT guy – I can tell you, it's the same exact thing. My feelings for boys came up just like and around the same time my feelings for girls came up. I wasn’t prepared for it. It took me a while to accept it and that this is the way I am. And if I saw ‘Paranorman’ when I was a kid? It would have helped.

Hope that sheds some light on things.