Gay Icon - Fictional Examples

Fictional Examples

Various fictional characters have been regarded as gay icons, including cartoon figures. Bugs Bunny, a fictional anthropomorphic rabbit appearing in animation by Warner Bros. Cartoons during the Golden Age of American animation—dubbed the greatest cartoon character of all time by TV Guide—has been declared a "queer cultural icon parodic diva" due to his "cross-dressing antics" and camp appeal. Cartoon characters SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star have additionally become gay icons, due to their sometimes double entendre dialogues in their TV cartoon show. Winnie the Pooh has affinity in the gay atmosphere and it has gained admiration as well as SpongeBob SquarePants, since it has been mentioned some reasons of this affiliation; the most common is that almost complete exclusion of female characters (the only female character Kanga is a kind, motherly figure on the story) and the male friendships are kind, caring, emotionally deep, tolerant, supportive, and inclusive.

The term has also extended to comic book characters. Homosexual interpretations of Batman and the original Robin, Dick Grayson, have been an interest in cultural and academic study, due primarily to psychologist Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent (1954). In the mid-1950s, Werthman led a national campaign against comic books, convincing Americans that they were responsible for corrupting children and encouraging them to engage in acts of sex and violence. In relation to Batman and Robin, Wertham asserted "the Batman type of story helps to fixate homoerotic tendencies by suggesting the form of an adolescent-with-adult or Ganymede-Zeus type of love-relationship". In Containing America: Cultural Production and Consumption in Fifties America, authors Nathan Abrams and Julie Hughes point out that homosexual interpretations of Batman and Robin existed prior to Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham claimed his book was, in fact, prompted by the earlier research of a Californian psychiatrist. The relationship between Batman and arch villain the Joker has also been interpreted by many as homoerotic. Frank Miller, author of The Dark Knight Returns, has described the relationship between Batman and the Joker as a "homophobic nightmare," and views the character as sublimating his sexual urges into crime fighting, concluding, "He'd be much healthier if he were gay."

One of the TV series that appeals most to LGBT culture is the 1960s sitcom Bewitched. Aside from the campy characterizations, it contained three gay cast members (Dick Sargent, Paul Lynde and – allegedly – Agnes Morehead). Star Elizabeth Montgomery and Sargent were grand marshals of a Los Angeles gay pride parade in the early 1990s. Other examples are the supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in which Willow Rosenberg came out and began a lesbian relationship) and All My Children's Bianca Montgomery.