I couldn’t begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw the first trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of the classic Beauty and the Beast. I lived and breathed that movie when I was a kid, and now not only are we getting a remake, we’re getting a remake starring Emma Watson.
Then I started seeing the announcements: Beauty and the Beast would have Disney’s first canonically gay character. I was on cloud nine for about two seconds as visions of Lumiere going gay for Cogsworth danced in my head. Those dreams were quickly snuffed out as I saw who the actual gay character was going to be.
LeFou.
For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, IMDb says that “LeFou is Gaston’s lackey, groveling, praising, and serving his needs.”
All in all, a wonderful role model for the young LGBT+ community.
There are a lot of problems with this, so let’s break it down.
However much we young adults love our Disney remakes, this film is primarily geared toward children. What are children who fall under the LGBT+ spectrum going to see when they watch LeFou?
They’re going to see a character who is in love with Gaston — a character that is heterosexual, hypermasculine, and ultimately unattainable.
They’re going to see a character who is only there in the first place for comedic relief. He’s the adoring sidekick who won’t be given a happy ending, and that’s not the kind of gay character that we ever need in mainstream media, much less as the first gay character in the Disney empire.
They’re going to see a character whose name literally translates to The Fool, and if that’s not pandering to a straight audience I can’t say what is.
I’m disappointed in Disney because they had a completely unique opportunity. They could have used their prestige and steadfast influence to normalize gay characters for young audiences, and yet this is the best that they could do. The generation of children who grow up watching this movie will remember the first gay character they ever encountered as a groveling servant. This isn’t a character with positive attributes that they can see in themselves, which in the end is what they really need.
Since LeFou’s subplot is mostly being kept under wraps until the movie is released on Mar.17, one can only hope that Disney will do justice to their LGBT+ audience. It’s going to take a complete character overhaul to do it, but one can always hope.
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