are The Gays inappropriate for children?

[25%Cotton]

so i started rewatching avatar: the last airbender and the legend of korra recently. as a gay man, it's always fun to have someone vaguely gay to root for in shows (though generally there is no openly gay character, so it's pretty much just my imagination as i pretend character without love-lines are actually gay since there is no proof on the contrary)... however, i couldn't remember if there was one in either avatar series. it seemed unlikely because they're animated and aimed at children, but then again the series is really progressive and also features female characters as interchangeable in strength, ability, and value with male characters.

 

so i did a google search and came up with this tumblr post on the issue.

excerpt:

 

 

Just as I sat down to penning this post I turned to my brother, who gave me a bit of a curious look regarding the fan-drawn gif of Iroh II and Bolin tongue kissing, and told him I felt obligated to make this post about the singular and restrictive treatment of sexuality in the Avatar World. Quite expectedly when the argument deepened, he shot back at me, “Dude, it’s a kids’ show.†Right, of course, and that is, when it comes right down to it, the only real reason we don’t see any gay characters on Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. Because two men smooching, or two women swapping spit is so much more sexual, so much more provocative, scandalized, and inappropriate. Sure we can have five or so different examples of blatant, overt, active heterosexuality, but homosexuality? No. Unimaginable in a show aimed at young folks, or teenagers for that matter. That’s mature material, an entirely different breed of sexuality.

 

This is the reality of our society. Homosexuality is sexualized, stigmatized, censored. Yet any form of heterosexual affection or attraction, ranging from innocent childhood crushes, to tender love or even outright teenage lust, is totally permissible and certainly scripted on the official societal list of things that are almost mandatorily indoctrinated into the youth of this age.

 

and so i wonder if you can really say LGBT issues and gay characters should really be considered more mature. 

 

my thoughts:

 

heterosexual characters in children's media have crushes, dates, holding hands, and even kisses. young characters and old characters; there isn't much discrimination in age. i wonder how is it any more sexual for LGBT characters to have these sorts of plotlines? how is it any more inappropriate?

 

i don't think that "it's not something kids should have to think about yet" is a good excuse. kids don't get married and yet there are plenty of marriages in children's media. similar to storylines featuring bullying and things like that, wouldn't it help kids learn to be okay with themselves before they start to become self-conscious and scared?

 

 

what are your opinions?

[dinolover]

of course not

but parents in this age are still mostly conservative.

[Hero Kim Jaejoong]

The Gays..LOL

[Guest Kami_removed]

When i think about it, it possibly can be, shows can be extremely bias and show children a false light of what LGBT people really are.

Alot of shows are bias, I'd rather have my mom teach me what they are.

 

It's consider a social issue even a political issue, would you want your children being taught opinions about abortion and religion on TV?

Wouldnt your rather them do it themselves? 

[mistakesweremade]

No teach your kid the right thing before someone else does.

[soshi.mp3]

NOT

 

it is your job to educate your children into accepting all kings of people

[Jack Dawson]

When I was a kid and I saw two men kissing it made me feel scared....so maybe they have a point...

[25%Cotton]

When I was a kid and I saw two men kissing it made me feel scared....so maybe they have a point...

i was scared of telling the waiter my order at restaurants.

 

and that there were great white sharks in the neighborhood pool.

[Jeffrey Jung]

no

 

as long as they didn't do inappropriate things like crime and being offensive to other people it's okay (not the other way around you know)

[cowgirlbebop]

No more than "The Straights" are. Homosexuality is no more or no less "kid friendly" than heterosexuality is. Shielding children from the reality of homosexuality while having no problems with heterosexuality only teaches them that the former is somehow "weird" or "not okay".

[____shawnee]

Too much controvery. They want to avoid it. It's simple. 

[amber oppa]

When I was a kid and I saw two men kissing it made me feel scared....so maybe they have a point...

 

[Brooke]

parents just complain about that because they're too lazy to sit down and talk to their ugly little kids about things

[soshi.mp3]

When I was a kid and I saw two men kissing it made me feel scared....so maybe they have a point...

that's because everyone arund you makes it look like being a gay is not ok

 

or they actually never talk about it so you don't know shit about it

[Grape Soda]

Lol do you know how much trouble a television network would get in for showing that? The question isn't is it appropriate for children to see but will the child's parents find it acceptable? The answer is more than likely no. If you yourself teach a child(your own, if you adopt since most would have a problem with you teaching someone else's child this) that is ok for a man and a man or vise versa to love each other then why not

[Perfect Chaos]

 not. i think parents and family should be the ones to teach children about what things are like, not television.

 

plus there's tons of LFBT in television shows now. as the kids mature, they can watch those shows, but i don't believe they should be incorporated explicitly into kids shows

[Knee]

I don't think so but parents would probably disagree. Which sucks because media has such a huge impact on kids and it could help a lot with LGBT issues.

Also, about homosexuality in Avatar, I'm still hoping Iroh II is gay~ but i kind of ship him with Asami fml

[25%Cotton]

Lol do you know how much trouble a television network would get in for showing that? The question isn't is it appropriate for children to see but will the child's parents find it acceptable? The answer is more than likely no. If you yourself teach a child(your own, if you adopt since most would have a problem with you teaching someone else's child this) that is ok for a man and a man or vise versa to love each other then why not

no it isn't. that's the question for the broadcasting stations.

 

i'm not talking about from their perspective but from our perspective as consumers and [potential] parents.

[hess]

Interesting. Is there something more sexual/arousing about same sex couples? If not, what is it with guys and lesbian action? Same could probably be said for girls and gay action.

[25%Cotton]

Interesting. Is there something more sexual/arousing about same sex couples? If not, what is it with guys and lesbian action? Same could probably be said for girls and gay action.

i think people too-quickly leap from "gay" to "gay sex" when thinking about the issue.

 

but most prepubescent kids probably don't even have a firm concept of what sex even is, so i don't think they would think much at all about "how do two men have sex," probably thinking more: "well, they love each other very much." the apex of childhood romance is pretty much just kissing, which... i mean, it's not really much different between two boys or two girls than it is between a boy and a girl.

 

the sexual undertones of "LGBT" issues seem to stem mostly from adult confusion/curiosity.

[Hero Kim Jaejoong]

People should be allowed to raise their children the way they want them to be raised. If they want to teach them about homosexuality let them do on their own without the media forcing it on them.

[____shawnee]

I'd rather there not be any kissing in cartoons, but maybe that's because I'd like my children to be pure as possible. Cartoons are becoming more and more inappropriate, but thankfully it's only with jokes kids dont understand. I think homosexuality in cartoons is fine, as long as it's modest. Kids probably won't realize it anyway unless they actually kiss, which isn't necessary to show homosexuality.

[hess]

i think people too-quickly leap from "gay" to "gay sex" when thinking about the issue.

 

but most prepubescent kids probably don't even have a firm concept of what sex even is, so i don't think they would think much at all about "how do two men have sex," probably thinking more: "well, they love each other very much"

 

the sexual undertones of "LGBT" issues seem to stem mostly from adult confusion/curiosity.

You said to think about this as potential parents, right? So if it's the adults who get turned on by same sex pda, then they would certainly be uncomfortable to exposing their kids to that stuff, even if the kids don't feel anything.

 

Not just the sex part of same sex couples. A kiss between 2 good looking girls in public will arouse more attention than a good looking heterosexual couple. Yeah, a lot is probably to do with curiosity. But the arousal part means that people find it more sexual and therefore probably inappropriate for children. 

[25%Cotton]

You said to think about this as potential parents, right? So if it's the adults who get turned on by same sex pda, then they would certainly be uncomfortable to exposing their kids to that stuff, even if the kids don't feel anything.

 

Not just the sex part of same sex couples. A kiss between 2 good looking girls in public will arouse more attention than a good looking heterosexual couple. Yeah, a lot is probably to do with curiosity. But the arousal part means that people find it more sexual and therefore probably inappropriate for children. 

i didn't mean they get "turned on." 

 

i mean that when an adult with little exposure to homosexual issues is seeing two men holding hands, one of the first things they'll probably think is "wait, how do they even get it on? penis goes with vagina" and thus consider homosexual relationships as relying heavily on sexual issues (when, just like with heterosexual couples, there is much much more to a romantic relationship than just the mechanics of sex). kids on the other hand don't have much knowledge at all on the mechanics of sex (and many probably don't even know the word or even vaguely what it refers to), so there wouldn't be anything sexual about seeing two men holding hands.

[h0neanias]

There is no instristic difference. The only obstacle is the idiocy of parents and the fear of the companies. Heterosexuality is "safe", "normal", even "cute"; homosexuality is "perverted" and "dangerous". How many parents would prefer their kid to be straight, even if they never say it aloud? We still have to swim upstream in this society, where we are conditioned from an early age that we are substandard. But there's nothing in being gay itself that would force it to be so. Only human stupidity.