The honest answer to this question about the upcoming Pixar sequel to “Finding Nemo” is: I don’t know.
The trailer does feature a brief scene with two women, a toddler and a stroller. Since one of the women has short hair and is wearing a peacoat, some have assumed it’s a lesbian couple raising a child. It might be, or it might be sisters or cousins or neighbors or roommates or co-workers or two women who ran into each other at the park.
Unless, of course, you believe that all women with short hair and/or peacoats are lesbians, or that any woman standing next to a woman dressed like that means that both of them are lesbians. They might indeed be, but it seems like a leap powered entirely by stereotypes.
Judge for yourself:
But, this momentary flicker in a movie trailer seems to have made some people extremely happy.
The seconds-long segment almost immediately caused social media users to speculate that the two women were a lesbian couple. One user wrote, “If the rumors are true and the first lesbian couple in a disney movie ever is in #FindingDory YAY for a big important step to acceptance!!!!” while another added, “People are boycotting Disney because they show a lesbian couple in the Finding Dory trailer…Do they not know who voices Dory?!?”
The culture warriors have decided: Disney’s Frozen is queer. Elsa hiding her ice-powers could be read as a metaphor for the closet, the Oscar-winning “Let it Go” plays like a coming-out anthem, and a character in the film evokes the question of whether homosexuality is a choice by inquiring of Elsa’s powers, “born with it or cursed?” Some liberals have praised the film for its subtext; some conservatives have denounced it.
But the most remarkable thing about queer readings of the film may be how unremarkable they really are. Through both its corporate practices and the content of its films, Disney for decades has implemented the so-called “gay agenda”—which is to say, helping make the world a more accepting place.
To start in the most obvious place: As a business, Disney has long held a progressive attitude toward LGBT people. Gay pride events have been hosted at Disney World since 1991, and the company started offered its gay employees health insurance benefits for their partners since 1995, a decision that wasn’t entirely popular back then.
Nevertheless, millions of Catholics continue to pour millions of dollars into Disney’s coffers, and those of its subsidiary, ABC. It’s not beyond imagining that Pixar may have finally yielded to pressure from its corporate parent. No doubt millions of Catholics will shrug and trot off to see “Finding Dory” on the first weekend, without waiting to see whether or not what some people think they see is actually what they think it is — because these people trust a movie studio.
Word to the wise — NEVER trust a movie studio.
Or, as the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:5:
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
But, you do whatever you think is right. It’s your money, and your salvation.
Image: Courtesy Pixar
Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page; also like the Patheos Catholic FB page to see what my colleagues have to say.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In