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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBert and Ernie snuggle on the cover of the New Yorker while watching the Supreme Court
All the Win.
riqster
(13,986 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)Its amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime, said Jack Hunter, the artist behind next weeks cover, Moment of Joy. Hunter, who originally submitted his image, unsolicited, to a Tumblr, continued, This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)Sesame Workshops Facebook responds with this statement:
Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics
they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/11/quote-sesame-street-responds-to-gay-marriage-petition/
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)"They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves."
Apparently is escapes them that marriage equality is a step in that very direction regarding our LGBT friends.
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)nt
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)nt
Deep13
(39,154 posts)I've always thought the satirical depictions of them as gay were funny. Still, I kind of assumed they were brothers. The simple fact is that most love is not erotic.
Johonny
(20,945 posts)Bertha Venation
(21,484 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)"Oh, Kermieeeeeeeee!"
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)solara
(3,836 posts)against puppet characters attributing them (Tinky Winky and Bert & Ernie) with a base sexuality that could only come from their own sick minds.
In 1990, the Reverend Joseph Chambers, a Pentecostal minister from Charlotte, North Carolina, decided that Bert & Ernie were a gay couple. Jerry Falwell took up the banner and called for a boycott of Sesame Street and people actually took them seriously!
I thought it was horrifying and disgusting for well known "christian' leaders to rail against these innocent and sweet characters that were created for young children. These 'paragons' of christianity used their self-mandated and self-righteous spiritual "authority", which obviously sprang from their own twisted, repressed sexual fantasies in an attempt to paint these fictional and innocent characters as the "poster puppets" for any relationship that was considered by them as "out of the norm" and a terrible, terrible sin.
I have to say that I am somewhat disturbed to see that whole debacle immortalized and validated by the New Yorker cover. I really don't think it is all that cute.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Chambers, Falwell and all the rest of them hooted and hollered and raised a fuss at a bunch of puppets as a way to steal rights from actual people.
The end result of their efforts: two puppets sharing a happy moment together in freedom and peace.
In other words, the puppets win.
solara
(3,836 posts)I just have a problem with giving any credence to such hatefulness. But I get what you are saying.
DOMA is the kind of thing that should never have been created in the first place IMO.. Human rights are just that.. rights. Yesterday's decision by SCOTUS was definitely a step in the right direction. But we all have a very very long way to go.
Sorry, I guess I am just pissed off in general because we are still dealing with this hatefulness on every level. We are definitely dancin' the two-step - two steps forward and one step back.
Why are these poisonous cretins still in charge?
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Because 50% of the country doesn't vote, but the assholes always do.
Simple truth.
mountain grammy
(26,666 posts)Just two sweet puppets my kids and I grew up with sharing a moment of joy with the black and white supreme court, a rare moment these days.
Rozlee
(2,529 posts)They claim cartoons were never like that when they were growing up; that gender roles were strictly defined. I guess they never saw Popeye in drag, posing as a nurse, or Bugs Bunny decked out like Scarlet O'Hara. And wasn't Bugs always distracting his pursuers by giving them big smacking kisses on the lips? They'd like to think that today's world is Sodom and that it's steeped in evil. But, today's cartoons are actually more sensitive to culture, gender and race than cartoons in the past. I never really stopped to think that what Bluto was doing to Olive Oyl when he dragged her by the hair and forced her to kiss him while she screamed for him to stop was sexual assault. I mean, it was a formula that was repeated in the cartoon over and over and as a kid, I never gave it another thought. And as a minority, I often got upset at the way old cartoons portrayed people of color. I enjoy the old cartoons I grew up with. But, I consider the humor in some of them inappropriate for my younger grandchildren that aren't in school yet. Nowadays, I'd much rather have my grandkids watch Phineas and Ferb and Dexter's Laboratory rather than Popeye. I really feel that my favorite childhood cartoon is more appropriate for tweens and up.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)I think it would just be so beautiful...
William769
(55,150 posts)Ter
(4,281 posts)I thought they denied this when it was a rumor in the late 90's.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)They're based on the real life partnership/friendship of their performers, Jim Henson and Frank Oz.
jeffrey_pdx
(222 posts)I forget who was who, but they were the cop and cabbie.
ismnotwasm
(42,023 posts)SpartanDem
(4,533 posts)In the past they said the characters are not gay.
eggplant
(3,919 posts)...not only are they not gay, they don't have genitals, or even lower torsos. They're puppets.
So despite my great joy at the SCOTUS rulings (well, not for the VRA) the cover depends on the misappropriation of the two characters for this fight, which disappoints me. CTW gets enough crap from the right-wing already. They don't need this.
That having been said, yay for the rulings!
Phentex
(16,334 posts)I don't find this funny/amusing/helpful at all.
SCALA13
(69 posts)OnionPatch
(6,169 posts)BrainMann1
(460 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)typeviic
(61 posts)The gap-toothes will be dirtying their collective diapers over this.
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)He bathes with a rubber ducky, he's scared of the dark, he acts on impulse, he needs to be told that snowmen aren't alive, so on and so forth. He's a little kid.
I'm all about the equality but the Ernie & Bert are gay thing bugs me. Bert is the adult figure and Ernie is a child. It's fucked up. I know Bert is evil but is he that evil?
http://www.bertisevil.tv/
mountain grammy
(26,666 posts)My first son was born in 1968. We grew up with Bert and Ernie. I loved seeing them together watching our supreme court, in black and white, do something for the good for a change. Five justices agreed that a law against equality is unconstitutional, what a concept.
Bringing in Bert and Ernie just shows people are people and puppets are puppets and some days are just "sunny days, chasing the clouds away."
Phlem
(6,323 posts)brotha!
-p
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Rod Walker
(187 posts)jazzimov
(1,456 posts)PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)never showed the parents.
so right now still hard seeing them snuggle in front of a tv. know it's not promoting incest but they were brothers back in the day.
tavernier
(12,415 posts)Doesn't it sometimes seem that our whole society has waaaay too much time on its hands? Go to a war torn country where a family is grateful for the next meal. I bet they don't have long conversations as to whether or not their baby's home made rag doll is gay or straight.
Up2Late
(17,797 posts)I mean, at most, they are two male roommates who share an apartment in New York or any town, USA, but even to think they are any more than two boys who hang out and play together, not "adult men in a relationship," is pushing it for me.
Behind the Aegis
(54,052 posts)...is the number of self-professed "liberals/progressives" shitting themselves over this. "Muppets aren't gay!!' "They're just roommates!!" and the list goes on and on; but, it isn't from right-wing nut jobs, oh no, it is from so-called allies to the cause. What's even more interesting is...well, I spy with my little eye, at least two people who think this is "wrong" but had no problem "pretending" Romney and Ryan were a "homo" couple or making cracks about Lindsey Graham. (There may be a few others, but I am tired of looking.)
Today's lesson is brought to you by the letter "H" (as in hypocrisy).
(This is not directed at the OP(oster).)
FreeState
(10,588 posts)You expressed what I was thinking exactly.
Besides, why assume two men leaning on each other are gay? They could be brothers, friends, lovers, etc.