#lefou is gay

[deepredness]

You know what’s nice?

Loving movies when you’re younger for simple, normal reasons

Then rewatching those again and realising “huh? They’re actually really gay”

And enjoying it for a whole new set of reasons

[tounezz]

So nice to get back to my comfort ship

[lordedlady]

gafou = gæ

im willing to start learning necromancy to bring this back 🧎

[nerdynanny]

"For in town there's only she, who is beautiful as me. So I'm making plans to woo and marry Belle."

Oh sure, go after the woman who doesn't want you instead of the man who does. Why does your stupidity make you more attractive? God I hate you.

[jewishraypalmer]

Imagine, the year is 2017. You are seeing Beauty and the Beast live action in the theaters. Every time LeFou comes on screen you think to yourself, "was THAT the gay scene?"

[sunny-clover]

Just randomly remembering how increadibly queer coded live action Le Fou was

and how I had like a month-long phase really in love with his character and trying to redeem Gaston so my bbg could have a happy ending

This one part of that scene is amazing btw

I couldn’t find the gif for it and was too lazy to go searching for too long lol

[coffeelovinggayidiot]

I wrote a short essay about my favourite gay villain ships for my whatsapp status (don’t ask) and I decided to post it here. Enjoy!

So… as I’m sure you all already know, Disney villains (at least used to be) queercoded. Now, obviously there was a lot of problems with this, and I do want to make an essay about that, but I’m sick right now so I’m instead gonna pick my favourite “they aren’t gay he’s just his evil sidekick” gay villain ships and talk about them. So, without further ado, let us begin. 

Number one: Honest John and Gideon

So… why is this number one? Well it’s for a few reasons. First of all, I haven’t seen Pinocchio in YEARS so I have less to say about it. It’s also the first to come out from the four pairings I wanna talk about. Finally, it’s the only one where neither character is the ”main baddy” (although Honest John is the “leader” of the two) which means they have less time on screen (since there are other villains to see). Despite their shorter run time, they do leave an impact as a conniving duo, one sneaky and one goofy. In fact, as the first duo of villains to ever appear in a Disney movie (at least as far as my very little research has led me to believe), they set the tone of every villain duo to follow. They both do follow a few homophobic streotyps in their relationships, such as the way they try to mislead a young boy (and as shown by their relationship with the coachman they did the same to a lot of other young boys), and that should be acknowledged, but they also show a deap “friendship” towards one another and seem to always be working on a new evil scheme side by side. 

Number two: Captain Hook and Smee

This pairing. THIS pairing. This pairing is one of the most iconic in Disney history, possibly all of cinematic history in general. Let’s start by talking about each of them individually. Captain Hook is a man chasing after a young boy (homophobic streotype), he smokes a long cigar (phallic imagery) and he has a lavender handkerchief (if you’re familiar with queer history you’d know why that’s… interesting). Now Smee is an effeminate man, who’s a bit of a mother hen towards Captain Hook. They’re relationship is in fact similar to the one between Honest John and Gideon, in the sense that they both have a “leader” and a “follower”. They also have a "sneaky villain" and a "not really that bad but on the wrong side" villain. However, there are some differences, such as their amount of screen time, the fact that Captain Hook isn't a minion to a bigger villain, and the fact that Smee… talks. If Honest John and Gideon are the beginning of this trend then Captain hook and Smee are what made it so popular. 

Number three: Shere khan and Kaa

A little bit of a not-so-fun fact for y’all, while the movie The Jungle Book was being made Walt Disney was rumoured to have been working with the FBI on some films designed to warn young boys of "the homosexual pedo". This is why there's a sudden shift with Shere khan and Kaa of male villains going from buffoons to be made fun of, to a genuine threat (female villains were always shown as threatening as they were middle aged, single women, and thus a threat to the "norm" Walt Disney believed in. They were supposed to both scare young girls into getting married and to be straight, as they were also portrayed as "chasing" after young girls). Kaa is portrayed as a predator who feeds on young boys (more homophobia!!). Meanwhile Shere khan is shown to also be a predator (one chasing after the same boy as Kaa) but is also shown as a threat, unlike Kaa who is still treated as a joke villain. Why are villains suddenly scary? Well it's because (at least in my theory) Walt wanted young children to fear queer peope, as well as queerness itself. This is honestly my least favourite duo (not saying that I don't think they aren't deliciously witty and evil, just that the homophobia leaves too much of a bad taste in my mouth) but they deserved a spot here because they DO make a fantastically wicked team.

Number four: Gaston and Lefou

This one is my favourite. I LIVE for this one. It's probably the most obviously queer coded one (or at least tied with Hook and Smee) and in fact it's so queer coded that the live action movie made Lefou openly queer (sorta) and pretty clearly in love with Gaston. However I'm here to argue that this love is reciprocated and that this is the best romance in all of classic Disney (not including Timon and Pumba). My proof comes in five parts.

Part one: the similarities

Let's go back to an earlier pairing, Hook and Smee and talk about just how similar Gaston and Lefou are to them. Both feature tall, dark haired men in red outfits, who have themselves a short, overweight (lover) sidekick. Said sidekick has the vibe of someone who wouldn't have been evil if it wasn't for them being "friends" with the taller of the two. Why am I bringing all this up? Because Hook and Smee were the ultimate lovers in Peter Pan, and if THEY were such a close duo, then so are Gaston and Lefou.

Part two: Belle

"But Gaston is in love with Belle," I hear you saying. "He even prepared a wedding for the two of them!" A very good point you raise there, and one which I had to think about for a while (which is hard to do when you're sick). BUT if you watch the film carefully you'll realise something quite obvious. Gaston ISN'T in love with Belle, heck he doesn't even like her. He only wants to marry her because of her beauty, and he really doesn't care for her as a person. You know who he DOES care for as a person? Lefou.

Part three: Gaston's design

Fun fact, while Gaston comes off as a straight dude all the way, he was in fact designed after gay man Greg Drollete, and the animator that designed him, Andreas Deja, was also gay. He was also supposed to look like the ultra masculine gay man which was popular at the time. 

Part four: the aids allegory

So this has less to do with Gaston and Lefou, and more to do with the story of Beauty and the Beast at large, but as a film made during the aids epidemic, and made by gay writers and animators, it's not hard to see the allegory to aids in the story. A young man is "cursed" with something that weakens him and will (in a way) kill him if he doesn't find a cure in the short time he has left. The "curse" causes fear in the town people who are unfamiliar with it, and who instead of helping try to "get rid" of those who have it.

Obviously I don't know that much about the aids epidemic, and if you're interested in a more indepth look into the subject here’s a link for a video on that.

Part five: Gaston- the song

This is pretty simple to explain. Lefou sings gay poetry about the man he loves to cheer him up. 

So what have we learned? I spend WAY too much time thinking about Disney villains, and I should take a chill pill. Also, Disney villains and queer icons, but they are also build of homophobic streotypes, and while we can marvel at how fun these characters are, we do need to think critically about them. Also I ship Gaston and Lefou so hard.

[ikusayu-no-hana]

now why was the homosexual lefou subplot in beauty and the beast more intriguing than the main het romance

[riddlerosehearts]

just saw a review of strange world saying ethan's gay crush was only mentioned at the beginning of the movie and never again so foreign markets could cut it out and idk what movie they were watching because the one i saw had him discuss his crush with and get romantic advice from his family members several times, with it being very clear that his crush was on another boy. this movie is literally just not being shown at all in many foreign countries because ethan is too gay for them to cut it out. like tbh yeah it would've been nice if he and his crush, diazo, got to spend more time on screen together and be more physically affectionate, especially since we saw ethan's parents kiss multiple times. i honestly really miss disney romances and although the focus of strange world is on the clade family and i wouldn't wanna change that, i think it would've been super neat if the movie had been a little longer (and/or if maybe less important scenes could've been cut or shortened) and diazo could've somehow ended up on the adventure with them and then we got to see a few scenes of them growing closer and being flirty during it. they had a sweet little scene together at the end but it was very brief and i would've definitely preferred to see more of them together. but what we did get is a huge step up from something like live action lefou and the guy he danced with for half a second lmao.

[tounezz]

Big Words Gaston/Lefou fanfiction

Chapters 3 and 4 of "Big Words", in which Gaston is trying to talk about his girlfriends with Lefou, are now out. 

“See, I’m altruistic!”

“Ooh, such a big word! Has Belle installed that vocabulary-building app on your phone?” Lefou rolled onto his back and stretched. His t-shirt rode up, exposing his soft tan belly.

Gaston lost concentration for a moment and instead of chips, grabbed a carrot stick from Lefou’s bowl. 

[disneysactualfirstgaycharacter]

Li Shang & Fa Mulan/Ping from Mulan (1998)

Gay as an Umbrella Term: The character arc of Mulan/Ping and how they relate to their gender roles has been considered relatable to transgender fans.

It’s a Secret: Throughout the film, Mulan/Ping attempts to pass as male despite being born female, in a way that mirrors the experiences of transgender individuals at many instances.

Do Not Separate: While Mulan/Ping is considered queer on their own, Shang is often read as bisexual due to the way he exhibits interest in Mulan/Ping regardless of how they present.

VS

LeFou from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

It’s Canon: As of the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast in 2017, LeFou made headlines as “Disney’s First Gay Character!”.

Obsession: LeFou, in both the original animated film and the live action remake, is the lackey to the antagonist Gaston, and is characterized by his devotion and loyalty to him.

VS

Shere Khan from The Jungle Book (1967)

It’s Fanon: Shere Khan exhibits what is considered to be campy behavior throughout the source material, leading him to be considered among the many queer-coded villains within Disney animated canon.

[yasyassie]

im sorry but why did no one tell me that we literally have (had) a masc lesbian disney princess???? did no one think it was important?

or rather, did disney believe that promoting their insignificant gay cameo in onward and making lefou gay for 2 seconds of the beauty and the beast's live action was more important than this? did they think that 1 scene and 1 character that could easily be removed would matter most than a real sapphic storyline?

it's a pattern at this point, and not only with disney

bc if they had actually promoted this show, or any other decent show/movie featuring lgbtq main characters, our community would truly love it and support it!!

queering clichés or literary tropes is easy and it's very fun! name me someone who doesn't want to see a good masc princess x masc knight lesbian pairing?? so sick of princesses and knights unless they're queer at this point

let's be for real, a movie like bottoms could've done so much better if it had been more promoted, because who doesn't love a dumb ass teen comedy with a bunch of horny lesbians?? it feels like i've been waiting for that kind of story for ages

they don't promote, don't fund, don't support their actually queer stories and then wonder why they flop... the audacity

[dreamspelunker]

A Case for Disney’s “Strange World”

No one seems to know anything about this movie. I didn’t before I saw it yesterday. I went to the movies on a whim and chose this one because the pickings were a bit slim and this one looked like the best out of the bunch.

Guys. This movie is good.

Disney has done this film real dirty by not marketing it properly. I mean, it probably won’t ever take over the world by storm like Encanto did, but it deserves better than what it’s getting. As I said on my Twitter, it is 100% a stunningly beautiful solarpunk film and everyone needs to go see it.

Here’s a brief synopsis since the trailer was garbage and no one saw it anyway:

***The Spoiler-Free Zone***

The story mostly focuses on Searcher, the son of famous explorer Jaeger Clade whose mission in life is to find a passage over the impassable mountains that surrounds their community of Avalonia. While on an expedition to try and scale the peaks, Searcher finds Pando, a mysterious plant that generates a renewable source of electricity. Searcher, tired of exploring and wanting to quit the life, takes the Pando back to Avalonia. Jaeger, still determined to find a way through the mountains, keeps going alone, never to return.

25 years later, Pando has transformed Avalonia into a bustling sci-fi uptopia. Searcher is renowned for having discovered Pando, and now lives a quiet life growing Pando crops with his wife and teenage son. One day, however, the Pando starts dying. In search of a cure, one of Jaeger’s former crew comes to Searcher asking for his help to lead an expedition down underground to figure out what’s killing it and save the society they’ve built with it.

If that sounds like a movie you’d like to see, stop reading now and go see it. Because from here, I’ll be busting out spoilers to talk about themes and why this movie is solarpunk. So I’ll be writing as if you, dear reader, have seen the film.

***The Spoiler Zone***

First of all, this movie is goddamn gorgeous. I really liked the opening comic-panel sequence and all, but I fell in love with the visuals once the story opened up and began showing us Searcher’s farm and Avalonia. Aesthetically, this is about as solarpunk as you can get. Art nouveau-inspired stained glass windows, visible mending on clothes, and really cool-looking tech that’s not at all in conflict with its environment.

That’s not even touching on the world inside Avalonia. I loved the shades of pinks and purples. And the creature design! Absolute chef’s kiss. That whole part of the movie reminded me of this one book I’ve read called ‘Expedition’ by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, which is just about exploring the ecosystem of alien life-forms on a planet called Darwin IV. It’s mostly a collection of really detailed sci-fi paintings of alien creatures. Fantastic stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if someone at the Disney studio had a copy and passed it around for inspiration during production.

In terms of the characters, i thought everyone was engaging and all the voice actors gave really good performances. I really liked Jaeger in particular (yes, he comes back, of course), but all three of the main characters were really well developed.

But, of course, there is The Gay Character. We all know about HIM.

I kid, I kid, I capitalize with irony. They did a good job with him, actually.

I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter respond to the idea of Ethan Clade with a very cynical shrug without having seen the movie. I have to say, I think people would be genuinely pleased with his portrayal if they gave the movie a chance. There’s no goofy wink-wink LeFou-ing about here. He’s a main character throughout the movie, his love interest is presented upfront with sincerity, and everyone within the world accepts it as normal. He’s not fighting anyone to be gay or trying to hide it, nor is it his one defining trait. He just has a crush on a dude and his dad embarrasses him a bit in front of him. Normal teenage stuff. His character arc is about sorting out his identify in relation to his family, especially his dad. Being gay literally has nothing to do with his character any more than his mom and dad being straight. Which is how it should be.

The story is a fun ride. It’s really well-paced. I was never bored, personally. There are some really great action scenes, some cute comedy with a three-legged dog and a goo creature called Splat, and the emotional beats all made sense with the characters and moved the story forward. It has a lot of qualities that reminded me of Up! and some parts of The Incredibles without directly being a rip-off of either of those. It’s its own thing, and I look forward to being able to watch it again on DVD/streaming.

***I know some of you kept reading anyway so for real, this is where I’m about to get into True Spoilers so save yourselves now y’allllllll***

Ultimately, this is a movie about legacy. Specifically, the legacy we want to leave our children (i.e. those who will come after us). I love the way this movie manages to take the existential crisis we face now in our blessed, beautiful world and condense it into a story where that issue of legacy, of our priorities, and of who we want to be is made clear.

Jaeger Clade is the society that brought us to where we are now. He’s a loud, brash, bush-whacking old man who’s driven to overcome obstacles. Searcher Clade is us now. Not looking to conquer for conquering’s sake, but complacent and only interested in continuing the status quo. He’s proud of what he’s made and sees no reason to change. Ethan Clade is who we should want to be. Someone looking for a third option, who wants to co-exist with the world around them, and be curious without being destructive.

These three outlooks correlate directly to the reveal that Avalonia is actually a living creature, and Pando is a disease that is literally wrapped around the living, beating heart of their world and slowly killing it. It was Jaeger’s drive to explore that led to the discovery of Pando. Searcher was unintentionally making the problem worse by growing more and more Pando to fuel their society. And throughout the movie, everyone is working together to save Pando, and it’s Ethan alone who tries to get them to stop and think more about what they’re looking at, and that things might not be as simple and straight-forward as they appear.

And this is why I think this movie is solarpunk, and not just aesthetically. Obviously, there are direct parallels to our use of fossil fuels, but I think it’s important that in the universe of Strange World, Pando is not an obvious poison or something they have to destructively mine to get. It’s a plant. Something that appears so innocuous at first, but under the surface, grows into a huge, overwhelming problem. No one is an evil bad guy looking to make profit off Pando or keep on destroying the world because it makes them money to do so. Everyone in the movie does what they do because they think they’re doing the right thing. What is the right and wrong answer isn’t always clear, and rather than being a result of them being outright evil, it’s just because they don’t fully understand the consequences.

While I was in the theater watching this, I thought about the Himalayan blackberries that have taken over the Pacific Northwest. It was introduced in the late 1800s by a botanist named Luther Burbank. He prized it for how much produce one blackberry bush could make in a single season, as opposed to the native blackberries that made smaller berries in smaller quantities. His intent was genuinely for the good. He wanted to propagate a crop that could accessibly feed the growing urban areas of the PNW. Create a food forest, in a sense. He sold the seeds because it was easy to grow and would feed people.

Obviously, it’s not bad to want to feed people. But now the damn plant has invested everything, and while the berries are still very much edible (and people do still eat them), it’s also created impenetrable thickets that kill everything around them and interfere with the ability of wildlife to get around. It got out of control. Even though the intent was meant well, the outcome created a problem that is now essentially impossible to overcome. People try anyway, because we have to, but the odds are not in our favor.

Solarpunk isn’t about growing more plants or having more trees in our cities or building solar panels and wind farms everywhere. Well, it’s not JUST that. Of course those things are good things, but every solution offered needs the proper context to work. And that’s the real nature of the movement, right? It’s finding solutions that lead to the best outcomes for everyone. Being invested in our world, learning about it, falling in love with it, discovering the intricacies of how everything is interconnected and how we fit into that. Everything we do will have inevitable impacts on everything around us, but what those impacts are can change radically depending on how carefully we consider our actions. We know we have to change. The question is, how do we change? How do we change for everyone?

And that is the ending message of the film. The heroes choose to save Avalonia. They destroy the Pando, knowing that it means they can’t have their society the way it was anymore. They choose that, because it is right to do. And the movie ends with the resilience of humanity as they come together and try to find a different solution to build their society on, the third solution of people like Ethan Clade who bring together the bravery and curiosity of Jaeger with the steadfastness and dedication of Searcher, and create a world that’s built on understanding and co-existence. In a world that constantly feels like it could teeter over at any minute, that’s a beautiful message to see in a goddamn Disney film.

P.S. I just want to say before I go that I really really really want Ethan’s boyfriend’s sweater. When you see it, you’ll understand, but I NEED the sweater in my life more than air.

[the-gay-disney-games]

Round 1B: Encanto (2021) vs. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Propaganda:

Encanto:

“Theres like a lot behind the characters, but i feel like the fandom would agree camilo is the most”

“As a lesbian I very much relate to Isabella and Luisa. Isabella being forced to marry a man and Luisa is just a masc icon”

“Isabela gives me very queer vibes. Like not only does her song What Else Can I Do have all this bisexual lighting in the movie, the messaging of the song, letting down your front and just letting yourself be…idk kinda sounds like a closeted queer anthem. Especially since in the context of the movie she’s singing the song right after she tells Mirabel that she never wanted to marry that one guy, who canonically is like the most eligible bachelor in town or something”

“IMO, it's easy to see it as an allegory for being ace in a world where almost everyone else is allo and overcoming acephobia, Mirabel being a stand in for an ace person (having no powers in the movie) and the rest of her family for allos (they have powers).”

“Mirabel is SO bi, Bruno is even more aroace and Isabella is such a lesbian.”

Beauty and the Beast:

“Cogsworth and Lumière are the definition of old married couple”

“Howard Ashman”

“Lumiere and Cogsworth kinda had that weird rivals to lovers thing going on. You could also make an argument for Gaston and LeFou (he’s canonically gay in the live action).”

“First first gay Disney character”

Mod note: as you may be able to tell, I’m a big fan of BatB and it was what inspired this tournament in the first place after I played Cogsworth in a production of it last year. Through that I also found out that both the actor that played him in the original movie and the live action remake are gay so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but yeah this is gonna be the only time make my own propaganda for the tournament just cuz it’s the inspiration

[honeynclove]

It’s your turn pookie 🫵 tell me about your favorite ships for each character 😍😍😍😍

IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED TEEHEHEHEHEH (ships underneath the read more bc lord can i blabber) also the formatting of this one turned out odd for some reason random letters r bold n I am too lazy to fix it so

heartslabyul riddle - azurid‼️‼️‼️ GUYS THEYRE SO CUTE IDK their moments in book 6 were everything to me n also this fic sold me on them they’re so cutie rahhh. special shout out to the oc I ship him with ace - adeuce r my annoying little brothers however I want the best for them n think their relationship is funny deuce - ^^^^ and also epeldeuce bc ain’t no way they went on a beach side date and thought I wouldn’t call their gay asses out 🙄🙄🙄 trey - auhmm. hhhrmmmm. well. I do like riddle cater n trey as poly but I wldnt say it’s my favorite 🥱 cater - IDEKEI 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 chronically introvert online discord mod x chronically online extrovert instagram user ITS SO GOOD GUYS (for fic recs strongly recommend anything Adverb_Slut on ao3 writes) special shout out to the oc I ship him with savanaclaw leona - malleona is funny to me but like. I don’t ship it idk. same w/ leovil they’re just comedic to me. LEONA X ROOK THO IDK I REALLY LIKE IT IDK WHY ruggie - rugs too busy getting cash to be in love /j 🙄🙄 idk I do find kalim x ruggie and ruggie x silver to both be cute jack - epeljack is rlly cute to me but other then that I’m not a fan of any other jack ships. I LOVE LOVE LOVE him and vil PLATONICALLY tho <333 oh and ig someones yuusona w him is cool or whateverzzzzz octavinelle azul - besides azurid, which I adore, I alsoooo love love love idiazul smth about those two LOSERRRSSS in love makes me happy 💕💕💕 I also enjoy him with rielle but like… my very specific interpretation of rielle that’s basically an oc 😭 jade - will y’all kill me if I just say myself bc that’s the truth. like I’m sorry guys me n Jade r so madly in love it’s actually wildly insane and crazy and we will have joint tombstones 😁💕💕😍😍😍🏳️‍🌈🙄🏳️‍🌈 we r madly in love and also both on the spectrum (which one? all) I also like siljade bc I think it’s silly floyd - FLOJAMIIIIIIIIIII 💞💞💞💞 GOD. that ship is so silly I wanna shake it like a snow globe rhhhhahahahahha. i also love FLONEI bc it’s SILLY N IDK 😭😭😭 I just like it guys. also myself sorry I’m sorry scarabia jamil - ^^^^ n I also enjoy azujami in a comedic sense but outside of that I lowkey dislike it lmao. WAIT AS IM WRITING THIS I AN REMINDED OF JAMIL X RUGGIE WHICH I HIGHKEY ENJOY TBH kalim - Again don’t have any specific ships for him, but Silver x Kalim is v v cute I would squish them my cuties pomefiore vil - alr mentioned leovil but I am also casual rookvil enjoyer I just think they’re silly. shout out to the oc I ship w him tho rook - mentioning rookvil n rook x leona again just bc they’re silly ‼️‼️ honestly love rooks lil freak self epel - epeldeuce epeljack and uhhhh SEBEPEL ignihyde idia - I think I’m running out of idia ships to mention tbh. I DO LOVE IDIASIL AUGHHH. Idk his chronically online ass is so good w so many different ppl it’s crazy diasomnia malleus - I ship him w myself duh 🙄🙄🙄 malleyuu specifically I love seeing everyone w him it’s so cute. ALSO I find mallerollo rlly funny n interesting tbh silver - silidia n siljade &lt;3 sebek - just sebepel rlly tbh lilia - LILIBAUL😍😍😍😍🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈‼️‼️ I LOVE OLD MAN YAOI GUYS /j n I also rlly enjoy him x levan n meleanor the angst is crazy and insane and I love it RAHHH. I also ship him w my oc Fleur who’s based on Flora from sleeping beauty. Also most ppl who make Lilia a bf get my support I love that old man staff trein - him x his wife ig crowley - him x meleanor x lilia only in the crowley = levan theory vargas - I ship him w an oc based on lefou from beauty and the beast ‼️‼️ sam, crewel - no ships for them :(( other neige - FLONEI ‼️‼️‼️ I just wanted to mention them again tbh. I’ve also seen cheneige which is v cute chenya - kinda fond of him poly w/ Trey n Riddle ☹️☹️ I think it’s cute rollo - ROLLO X AUGUST (vice president npc) FOR THE WIN GUYS I COULD TALK AB THEM FOR DAYS. YEARS EVEN. fellow honest - more weird silly ships I’m the second fellow x aces big brother shipper literally ever

OKKK I think that’s everyone 😍😍 feel free to leave opinions on my opinions idk