History of LGBTQ characters in animated series: 2010s

Continuing from the 2000s, the 2010s were a decade which would change LGBTQ representation in animation going forward in a significant way, especially in Western animation, not seen before, whether in the 1990s or anytime prior. Most prominently, the show Steven Universe, created by Rebecca Sugar, began airing on Cartoon Network in 2013, building upon her work on Adventure Time in the years prior.[1][2] Apart from Steven Universe, the well-regarded Wandering Son, with an assortment of transgender characters, would air on Japanese television.[3] GLAAD highlighted LGBTQ+ characters in shows such as Archer, Allen Gregory, South Park, BoJack Horseman, DreamWorks Dragons, and Venture Bros.[4][5] in their yearly "Where We Are in TV" reports. 2018 and 2019 would be particularly significant for LGBTQ+ representation. For example, the series finale of Adventure Time featured a kiss between two female characters (Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen),[6] the premiere of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power which includes various characters which could be read as "fluidly on the gender and sexuality spectrum,[7] and the wedding between Ruby and Sapphire in Steven Universe.[8] The animated series that premiered in this decade would set the stage for those which premiered (or ended) in the 2020s.

For a list of LGBTQ+ animated characters, see List of animated series with LGBTQ characters. For history of homosexuality in U.S. film, see History of homosexuality in American film. For the history of anime, see History of anime. For media portrayals of bisexuals, see Media portrayals of bisexuality. For media portrayal of lesbians, see Media portrayal of lesbianism.
Cosplay of Opal, a fusion of Amethyst and Pearl, appearing in some episodes of Steven Universe; image by Richie S from Brooklyn, NY, United States in October 2014

For LGBTQ+ characters in the 2010s, see the Animated series with LGBTQ characters: 2010s page, which is subdivided into pages for 2010-2014 and 2015-2019. For fictional characters in other parts of the LGBTQ+ community, see the lists of lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, non-binary, pansexual, asexual, and intersex characters.

Representation in anime
Main article: History of LGBTQ characters in anime: 2010s

In the 2010s, LGBT issues became increasingly visible in Japan[9]:50 with an increased interest in LGBT issues across Japanese society, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party trying to promote Japan as "LGBT friendly."[10] This aligned with the estimated market size of 21.3 billion yen for the Boy's Love genre in 2010,[11] which is aimed at young women,[12] who are the main consumers of the content itself, even though some heterosexual men read it.[13] At the same time, the anime home video market, which peaked in 2002, dropped 46% between 2005 and 2010,[14] while total sales of anime products stood in the billions of dollars. By the end of the 2010s, Japanese popular had become a global phenomenon but fandom in Japan itself remained "insular and socially marginal" with otaku and fujoshi regarded by Japanese society as "undersocialized, immature, and even dangerous."[15] This did not stop the anime industry from growing,[16] even having five years of "record-breaking high sales" as a report in 2019 stated [17] and the billions gained from the over 300 anime programs broadcast in 2016.[18] There was also growing market for yaoi, described as "huge throughout Asia" in 2016,[19] a domestic market size of the Boy's Love genre reached over $190 million around the same time.[20] As an underground culture was growing up around anime,[21]:3 anime remained a part of Japanese media that often reinforces stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people in Japan itself, as noted in one opinion piece in The Japan Times in 2016.[22]

LGBTQ representation moves forward in Western animation
Main article: History of LGBTQ characters in animation: 2010s

While anime had a plethora of shows, some with positive representation and others with negative representation, Western animation chugged along. In some of their early reports, GLAAD highlighted LGBTQ+ characters in shows[23][24] which began in the 2000s, like American Dad, Archer, The Cleveland Show,[25] and even ones from the 1980s like The Simpsons or the 1990s like South Park.[26] with Allen Gregory as one exception to that. In later years they would follow the same pattern,[27][28] commenting in a 2014 report that "children's programming has been slow to reflect the diversity its audience is experiencing in its daily life."[29] By 2015, GLAAD would commit itself to expanding their analysis to include LGBTQ+ characters on stream services like Amazon and Netflix for the first time.[30] The following year, GLAAD reported that the highest number of LGBTQ characters they had recorded yet appeared in the 2016-2017 television season/[31] The next year, they said the same. In their annual report, GLAAD praised the increase of LGBTQ+ characters on streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu,[32] While GLAAD and others were praising the growth in the number of LGBTQ+ characters in broadcast, primetime television,[33][34][35] LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were still somewhat rare.[36][37]

In 2018, LGBTQ+ characters moved forward as never seen before. In their report from the previous year, covering shows which aired from 2017 to 2018, GLAAD noted that while Netflix was featuring more LGBTQ+ people of color,[38] CW Seed launched two shows with "queer heroes"[39] and how Bojack Horseman expanded the story of Todd, the "only asexual character on streaming originals" as they described it,[40] The following year, the amount of LGBTQ+ characters further increased, whether in primetime scripted broadcast shows, screamed programming on sites like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, especially in "daytime kids and family television." GLAAD pointed out in their annual Reports in 2018 and 2019.[41][42] In the first of these reports, for the 2018–2019 season, they highlighted characters in Voltron: Legendary Defender, BoJack Horseman, Steven Universe, Adventure Time,[6] The Loud House and Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors.[43] In their second annual report, on the 2019–2020 season, they again noted BoJack Horsesman but also pointed to She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Twelve Forever, The Bravest Knight,[44] Steven Universe, Arthur,[45] My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, and the upcoming Q-Force.[46]

Apart from these animations, Hey Duggee, a UK animated series, had gay characters which were introduced in June 2015. Mr. John Crab and his mute husband Nigel Crab first appeared in the series 1 episode "The Sandcastle Badge".[47][48] Additionally, a series on Prime Video, Pete the Cat featured Syd and Sam, who first appeared in December 2017 in the New Years' special, as Sally Squirrel's fathers.[49] They are voiced by openly gay actors Jim Parsons and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

See also

References

Citations
  1. Adegoke, Yomi (October 1, 2019). "Move over, Disney! Meet the woman leading the LGBT cartoon revolution". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 7, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  2. Steele, Amanda (December 20, 2019). "10 of The Best LGBT Shows of the Past Decade". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  3. Orsini, Lauren (December 2, 2019). "The Best Anime Of The Decade - 2010 And 2011". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  4. Maurer, Jamie (October 21, 2010). "Six Awesomely Gay Things About The Venture Brothersc". NewNowNext. Archived from the original on September 11, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  5. Burra, Kevin (July 12, 2012). "'Venture Bros.' Co-Creators From Adult Swim Talk Gay Characters, The Upcoming Season And Gay Sex". HuffPost. Archived from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  6. Fleener, S.E. (June 17, 2019). "The Awesome and Unexpected Queering of Adventure Time". Syfy. Archived from the original on March 29, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  7. Asher-Perrin, Emmet (November 16, 2018). "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is Freaking Fabulous". Tor.com. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  8. Henderson, Taylor (July 11, 2018). "Steven Universe Makes LGBT History with Same-Sex Wedding". Pride.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  9. Welker, James (2018). "From Women's Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan: Rezubian Feminizumu within and beyond the Ūman Ribu Movement in the 1970s and 1980s". In Bullock, Julia C.; Kano, Ayako; Welker, James (eds.). Rethinking Japanese Feminisms. University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 9780824866693.
  10. Baudinette, Thomas (October 2016). "Looking forward to queer utopias: Ambivalent hopes from Japan's new "LGBT boom"". Academia.edu. Monash University Japanese Studies Centre. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  11. Loo, Egan (October 10, 2010). "Yano Research Reports on Japan's 2009-10 Otaku Market". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  12. Zsila, Ágnes; Demetrovics, Zsolt (April 12, 2017). "The boys' love phenomenon: A literature review". Journal of Popular Romance Studies. 6 (Special issue). Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  13. Welker, James (May 16, 2015). "Thoughts on the Representation of Yuri Fandom in Kurata Uso's Yuri danshi". Yuricon. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  14. Loo, Egan (April 15, 2011). "America's 2009 Anime Market Pegged at US$2.741 Billion". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on May 21, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  15. Smith, Christopher (July 17, 2019). "Becoming illegible: the repatriation of Japanese fan culture in Genshiken". Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. Taylor & Francis Online. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  16. Association of Japanese Animators 2017, p. 2.
  17. Association of Japanese Animators 2019, p. 2.
  18. Association of Japanese Animators 2016, p. 5.
  19. James, Jamie (January 8, 2016). "Boys in Love". The New Yorker. Conde Nast. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  20. "James Welker, "Boys Love (BL) Media and Its Asian Transfigurations"". Center for East Asian Studies. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. March 27, 2018. Archived from the original on May 14, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  21. Correia, Ana Durão (2014). "Does it really matter one way or the other? Género e Sexualidade em Anime: O caso de Sailor Moon". Does it really matter one way or the other? Género, Sexo e Sexualidade em Anime: O caso de Sailor Moon [Does it really matter one way or the other? Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Anime: The case of Sailor Moon] (History and Gender Graduate Seminar) (in Portuguese). Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  22. Brasor, Philip (June 4, 2016). "Japan baffled by the intricacies of LGBT issues". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  23. GLAAD 2010, p. 7-11.
  24. GLAAD 2011, p. 7-11.
  25. GLAAD 2012, p. 8.
  26. GLAAD 2013, p. 8, 10.
  27. GLAAD 2012, p. 9.
  28. GLAAD 2014, p. 9, 11.
  29. GLAAD 2014, p. 23.
  30. GLAAD 2015, p. 3.
  31. Glass, Joe (November 3, 2016). "LGBT characters on TV will make up larger percentage than ever, study finds". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 3, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  32. GLAAD 2016, p. 5, 10.
  33. Mak, Philip (June 21, 2017). "In a Heartbeat: Why we need more LGBTQ animation". Toon Boom. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  34. Jusino, Teresa (June 2, 2017). "Why I'll Be Holding onto These Five Nuanced and Inspiring Bisexual Characters for Dear Life This Pride". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  35. Cook 2018, p. 7.
  36. Segal, Cynthia (June 30, 2017). "7 American Kids' Cartoons That Treat Their LGBTQ Characters With Respect". The Dot and Line. Archived from the original on March 27, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  37. Sizer, Artistaeus (June 30, 2017). "We Need To Talk About LGBT Representation, Apparently". HuffPost. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  38. GLAAD 2017, p. 10.
  39. GLAAD 2017, p. 7.
  40. Liao, Shannon (2018-10-26). "2018 saw record growth in LGBTQ roles on television". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020.
  41. GLAAD 2018, p. 5.
  42. GLAAD 2019, p. 5, 6, 12.
  43. GLAAD 2018, p. 12, 31.
  44. Perkins, Dennis (November 2019). "The Bravest Knight: Daniel Errico's quest for LGBTQ children's media". Animation from Every Angle. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  45. Fetters, Ashley; Escobar, Natalie (May 14, 2019). "How a Gay Character on Arthur Reflects Changing Norms in the U.S." The Atlantic. Archived from the original on March 8, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  46. GLAAD 2019, p. 12-13, 33.
  47. Rowles, Charlotte (February 25, 2020). "Dominic Cummings got it wrong. Hey Duggee is the kids' show we need to watch". Big Issue. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021. There is a same sex couple in Mr Crab and his partner, Nigel (below). Happy the Crocodile lives with his mum, an elephant.
  48. Jonze, Tim (August 5, 2020). "Hey Duggee: how a cult CBeebies show became the surprise TV smash of lockdown". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved January 18, 2021. Sometimes, those characters carry a message: Rochelle in The Making Friends Badge uses a wheelchair, and Mr and Mr Crab are married, although there are no gay rights badges or disability badges
  49. Rudolph, Dana (February 13, 2020). "New kids' LGBTQ-inclusive shows, books and music". Philadelphia Gay News. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021. "Pete the Cat" (Amazon), whose character Sally Squirrel has two dads

Sources
  • Anime Industry Report 2014 Summary (Report). Association of Japanese Animators. March 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  • Anime Industry Report 2015 Summary (Report). Association of Japanese Animators. January 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2020. In 1963, TV animation broadcasting began with only seven animation programs, including Astro Boy. In 2014, a total of 322 TV animation programs were broadcast (232 among them new), forty five times the number in the first year and the largest in history, breaking the record of 279 in 2005 (195 were new among them). While content industries are generally stagnating, as seen in the music industry, the field of TV animation made a miraculous recovery. Still the total production minutes in 2014 were less than the peek of 2006.
  • Anime Industry Report 2016 Summary (Report). Association of Japanese Animators. March 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2020. It can be said that Japanese animation industry is now enjoying the 4th anime boom. The market, significantly exceeding the peak in the 3rd Anime Boom (mid in 2000’s), recorded positive growth for six consecutive years and the highest revenues for three consecutive years. However, there are no representative animation works leading the boom (works such as Astro Boy, Yamato, Eva, Pocket Monster, and Princes Mononoke which led previous booms). Probably “Your Name” would be recognized as the leading work in recent years; however, the market itself already recorded record revenues even before the arrival of this work. As specified in the report, this boom is attributed to increases in market channels, including Internet distribution, Pachinko and Pachinko‐slot and Live Entertainment, over the past decade.
  • Anime Industry Report 2017 Summary (Report). Association of Japanese Animators. March 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2020. Recently, the Japanese animation industry has been covered a lot in the mass media, including newspapers and TV, and the data in this report is frequently cited in the coverage. That helps build people’s awareness of the industry in some way. In 2016, the industry, which recorded positive growth for four consecutive years, crossed the 2 trillion yen mark when they recorded sales of 2 trillion 900 million yen (109.9% on a year‐by‐year basis). Looking at each genre, 5 genres (Movie, Internet Distribution, Music, Overseas and Live Entertainment) increased while 4 genres (TV, Videogram, Merchandising and Pachinko) decreased
  • Anime Industry Report 2018 Summary (Report). Association of Japanese Animators. March 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2020. The year 2017 was the first year* that the Japanese animation market crossed the 2 trillion yen mark. The market recorded 2 trillion 152.7 billion yen in sales, growing for 8 consecutive years, with 5 consecutive years of record-breaking high sales. To break it down by genre, TV (100.9%), Internet Distribution (113%) and Live Entertainment (116%) expanded while five genres (i.e. Movie (61.7%), Videogram (97.1%), Merchandising (93.0%), Music (91.6%) and Pachinko (95.8%)) decreased. Overseas (129.6%) showed strong growth, making up for the decline of those five genres. The ebb and flow of respective genres have become clear compared to when this report was first issued 10 years ago.
  • Cook, Carson (May 2018). "A History of LGBT Representation on TV". A content analysis of LGBT representation on broadcast and streaming television streaming television (Honors). University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2010-2011 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2010. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  • "Where We Are on TV Report: 2011-2012 Characters List". GLAAD. GLAAD. 2012. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2020. See the overview page here.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2012–2013 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2013-2014 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2014-2015 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2014. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2015-2016 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. June 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2016-2017 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. November 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2017-2018 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2018-2019 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  • Where We Are on TV Report: 2019-2020 (PDF) (Report). GLAAD. 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.