Writingbolt's Creation

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If you were wondering…is the “Risk” in the title in reference to the old board game? Yes. Yes, it is…but there’s usually more to my titles than meets the eye.

If you are familiar with the game, players compete to take over the world, one piece and one battle over borders at a time, moving and amassing armies from one nation to another, provided their plays/battles are successful. And, that seems to be what is happening with the LGBTQ movement and characters that have become special to me, as well as countless other fans. The LGBTQ is taking away those treasures of my youth, piece by piece, and loving every minute of it because they feel less lonely in the world.

I’ve said this before; what is stopping anyone from coming up with new characters and new stories that honor, respect, glorify and whatever else you feel the need to do with yourself and your choices? Nothing, anymore. You might face some opposition, but the battle is essentially won. So, you don’t need to take what was and what should remain cherished figures from anyone else. Just as you would not want me to turn a well-known gay character into a womanizing or otherwise sexually abusive jerk.

Today, it’s Velma, from Scooby-Doo finally being “cemented” as a lesbian. I heard she sort of had a relationship with Shaggy; and that made sense, considering Fred has Daphne. They are two young couples traveling the USA (and other places, when they finally get out of that van) together. Sure, rumors start flying…and Velma COULD be a lesbian. But, does she have to be?

Does She-Ra or Korra (from their own cartoons) have to be a lesbian?

[At least Korra was an original story, not an alteration of a previous incarnation…who had strong feelings for a STRAIGHT (not flamboyantly gay) pirate named Seahawk. When Korra showed interest in another female character, it was less of a shock/upset…but still a bit annoying and apparent (considering what’s in current events). Years from now, fans of the Korra story will look back on that relationship, just as I look back on the relationships in cartoons of MY youth. But, no one will have to dig up two versions of the story to get the “straight” and the “gay” sides, which will likely just create an undying divide, anyway, like the whole stupid advertised quarrel over which half of a candy bar is better. No one should have to get upset if someone puts out a “straight” Korra reincarnation, a story in which Korra pairs up with the young fire-bending rebel/cop…but they will.]

Do Bert and Ernie have to be gay to make the LGBTQ feel better? [Sure. There were those rumors, again. And, sure, the LGBTQ need their own Muppets/puppets, like everyone else. But, do we have to change or cement the sexuality of beloved characters who previously existed without a label?]

Who’s next? Kermit the Frog? He resists Miss Piggy (unless you count the one movie in which they get married). Maybe HE is in denial of being gay or a she-frog in a male frog body. Wanna label him, too?

If someone starts labeling Transformers characters as gay or transgender (because…why not…they have “trans” in the title), I’m going to riot! ‘Plain and simple. Anyone dares to slap some gay nightclub attire on Optimus Prime or Bumblebee, and I will go to war over this. I was content to include the occasional gay character in some new projects (not remakes of old projects); but if you continue to alter happy childhood history just to put your already troubled minds at ease, I will turn on your cause and omit all LGBTQ from my creations. I will scrap all of my lesbian and bisexual character designs. [I’d have other types, but I don’t feel comfortable drawing/writing about them.]

Don’t you see? You could have earned and maintained my support by creating new and loveable LGBTQ characters. Instead, you turn what I and others have grown to admire into…your kind. You would feel just as bad if it went the other way, if an LGBTQ was twisted into a typical hazardous “straight” type. Even Sesame Street has made SOME effort by introducing new characters to represent various…conditions of humanity. There’s an autistic girl, now. They didn’t grab one of the other already visible characters and peg her or him as autistic.

[On that note, readers, which is better? To acknowledge someone already known is of a particular nature/condition? Or, to create a new character with a particular and not-so-commonly-known nature/condition? Does the upheaval from the change of the former outweigh the awkwardness or shock of having to create new faces pegged with a particular label? Is making a new “gay” character the equivalent of the “token black character?”]

So, part of me is thinking anyone who dresses or looks like Velma is now going to be stereotyped as lesbian. And, it’s going to form a long crack in psychological states around the world. Kids will poke fingers and throw around inappropriate names/labels at girls who look like Velma (and “Coco” or however the new girl’s name is spelled).

So what? So who cares about Velma? She’s just one character from an outdated but undying cartoon concept.

But, keep adding up all of these characters being “flipped” to represent the LGBTQ, and, soon…well, you’ve pretty much made me want to throw my whole childhood-crush collection in the toilet. I cannot love a lesbian. She doesn’t want my kind. So, for me to still cherish or fawn over a character that is no longer a logical partner option is even more silly than me getting upset over any of this (as I am sure some “mature” people will be saying as they read this).

It’s just a cartoon. Get over it.

Clearly, those responsible for the copyright protection of all of these characters have given up their claims and concerns. [You want to make Scrooge McDuck a transgender woman who likes to shower with money? Have at ’em. You want Eddie and Jake, from Filmation’s Ghostbusters, to be a gay couple, because they couldn’t make things work with the lovely Jessica and Futura? Why not; get on that. Who cares if a boy thought of himself as Jake and thought he could win the heart of Futura. Slash those dreams. Get rid of them.]

Fine. And, before long, all the cartoons, whatever is left, will be LGBTQ-pride-fest messes no non-LGBTQ person will want to touch. The entertainment industry will be full-on “gay,” and all of us “straight” people will be reduced to stern laborers void of emotion like some Vulcan from Star Trek. We will have lost all interest in anything remotely imaginative.

You know what makes cartoons and childhood blissful? Not having to give them so much detail that they lose their innocent charms. Part of what helps a kid foster a healthy imagination is leaving room to decide for him or herself, how elements of a story should exist and proceed. The less we know about a character, sometimes, the easier we can like them and craft our own fan art.

[Of course, if a character is too vague, having no clear relationships with any other characters, they become mindless pictures. But, I’d like to think there is a safe area between “no relationships” and “everyone has a sexual identity.”]

Hey. Did you know Fisto, from He-Man, was an alcoholic? Yeah. He’s called Fisto because he likes to chug beers with both fists and then punch women in their private areas while drunk. [Did you really need that information? No way.]

When I was a kid, watching the original She-Ra cartoons, I was a bit uncomfortable seeing Adora discussing relationships with her female friends and Seahawk. I wanted Adora for myself. [Who wouldn’t? She was delightful.] I didn’t question her “sexual identity.” It wasn’t so obvious. And, that was okay, in a show where women were not disregarded as weak or stupid, even though Adora’s brother existed in a whole other branch of the universe where over-sized men were considered “normal” and no one seemed to discuss interest in female characters beyond the roles of a sister, friend, mentor or parent. [Well, except, maybe Orko, when he took an interest in that odd vain cousin and Dree-Elle. I think Orko was the most openly romantic character in the series, a little floating blue elf-creature, not a human.]

[I suppose you could say the same for the “reincarnations” of the old cartoons; the lesbian factor isn’t advertised or noted in every episode. Yet, once you DO know, it alters your feelings about certain characters. In the “new” She-Ra series, Adora doesn’t seem to have any male characters to favor in a romantic way; so why WOULDN’T she feel…gay? She’s got Bow as a “friend” who (seems a tad gay and) favors Glimmer. Seahawk, her “old flame,” is just wacky without any particular interest in her. What other male characters are there in the story? Bad guys? Could she have paired up with Leech or Hordak? Wait; was Leech even in the new series? I forget.]

Of course, I’m potentially blowing all of this out of proportion, as it is in my astrological nature. But, I am seriously concerned. And, like I said, it’s like the game of Risk. Piece by piece, the treasures get taken away, instead of creating something new and just as valued.

Turn one “classic” Disney princess into a lesbian, and you pretty much ruin countless daydreams, not to mention form cracks in the whole prince-and-princess dynamic that runs through the whole history of fairy tales. How many “straight” girls who would just love to be Cinderella now have to forfeit their ball gowns because Cindy is gay or transgender? Who would Cinderella be without her Prince Charming?

[I’m not saying she’s “nobody;” she’s a struggling orphan and slave to her stepmother until she miraculously is visited by some magical figure who helps her hook up with the prince. But, the original story would be lost if the prince didn’t come looking for her with the shoe. Sure, things don’t work out with the prince, so Cindy pairs up with a lesbian or transgender woman-man-woman. Why not. No. It just isn’t right to twist these stories just to please all of these emotionally, identity-starved people.]

Cripes. Let’s just change history while we are at it. Julius Caesar was gay. Da Vinci was gay. [Well, there may be some truth to that one, if rumors are true.] Abe Lincoln was gay and had the hots for a black man. John F. Kennedy was gay; he had no interest in Jackie Onassis, and that’s why a straight rebel shot him. Who else do you want to turn?

You know what this whole LGBTQ business is becoming? An on-going war on cooties. The age-old struggle of my own youth, in which you could be labeled for life if you touched something, dressed a certain way or spoke in favor of someone else already given a bad reputation…is now the front-lines battle over sexual identity. I don’t want to be labeled as gay or “not quite a man,” but I DO face those scenes. I HAVE been pegged as gay and an assortment of names I’d rather not have (because I’m none of those). [And, like I said, it’s Risk. It’s a game of Risk, and the “straight” forces are losing ground.]

E-NOUGH! Kapeesh?

I want my childhood favorites preserved. I also don’t want more “token” characters forced into new forms of entertainment like some psychological band-aids. Are you a band-aid or token character in your world? Write YOUR story. If you are the only LGBTQ person in your neighborhood, write that solo adventure. If you live among a group of LGBTQ people, write about them. You don’t have to have a gay or non-New-York-based Peter Parker to love Spiderman. You just create another, new Spider-person. [There seems to be an endless supply of those, now.]

[If someone COULD make historical alterations, I would gladly go back to the 1950s-1970s and give characters like Jeanie (from I Dream of Jeanie) and Wonder Woman less stereotypical relationships with other characters. Despite what some say about that old Wonder-Woman show being a force for the feminist movement, it had plenty of awkward male-dominating moments to plaster it in a past era of that behavior. It’s a dated show. And, that one doesn’t need to be…because Wonder Woman lives on. She existed before and after that TV series. I’m not saying you take away Steve Trevor or turn Diana into a lesbian or transgender person. But, we could make the cast of characters less…er…unsettling. And, what better place than Diana’s home island to include a variety of nationalities, because there’s a seemingly endless array of “amazons” on that island. They could look and act like just about anyone ever known. It’s like My-Little-Pony land; there’s no end to the possibilities (“in the name of merchandising”).]

You want more LGBTQ characters? You’ll have to use your own damn colorful imaginations and craft some. No one is stopping you from using your own damn minds. Stop trying to change straight or un-determined characters into people they don’t need to be. [And, how is that so easy to do instead of creating an LGBTQ entertainment industry/company that would permit countless new characters and stories to be produced? Are there no legal guardians, anymore, to protect the identities of past creations?]