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Description
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFJdr…

So some of you may have heard of the whole 'Nickelodeon announces Spongebob is gay' thing that's been tearing up my Instagram.

Firstly, allow me to present you with the facts;

1. Nick did NOT say that. They said 'Happy Pride Month to LGBT+ and allies'

2. Spongebob was called 'Asexual' by Stephen Hillenburg in an interview, as it's reflective of real life sea sponges that can reproduce by budding. He also said he had no intention of giving SB a romantic interest - HOWEVER, when told his show was popular with LGBT+ audiences, said that ”I do think that the attitude of the show is about tolerance. Everybody is different, and the show embraces that,” he says. ”No one is shut out.”

Essentially, Hillenburg didn't give two craps, and I doubt would have cared for all the hate and homophobia in the comments when he clearly stated his show was about TOLERANCE, he's not 'rolling in his grave' nor is disrespectful to him, as Asexual is part of the LGBT+ acronym and therefore they just reinstated what Hillenburg had already announced, get over yourselves.

On a personal note, LGBT+ representation is important in children's media. The only reason people think "everything is gay nowadays" is because you've grown up with ONLY straight and heteronormative media, so seeing a surge of lgbt+ characters feels like 'taking over' as you always registered the millions of straight couples as 'normal'. Secondly, true representation matters. A 2 second lesbian couple in Finding Dory does not count. That's 2 seconds where we don't know anything about them. Sisters? Friends? F*ck if we know? And a background character in 'Onwards' saying 'My girlfriend' without seeing them also doesn't count, because it's a cop out for homophobic countries to dub the line 'boyfriend' and keep the whole thing heterosexual again. So, why does any of this matter? It's 'a kids cartoon' right? As a queer* (reclaimed) person, allow me to explain from a personal viewpoint;

1. I had no idea there were any other relationships, even though my mom's best friend was/is a lesbian with two children. They were good friends of mine and had two moms, which I had no clue about, seriously. It was there in front of my face and I was dumb. I could have accepted this easily as a kid if someone bothered to explain it to me.

2. NO-ONE is throwing a hissy fit when shows introduce straight couples. Sure a couple loose ends might roll their eyes but you don't get hateful comments or attacks like 'burn the straights!' whereas I have already read several violent suggestions against people like me. We want to raise better, more tolerant and less hateful kids, and an early age is a good place to start.

3. Kids could very well BE LGBT+. Saying 'We should wait till they're older to decide for themselves' is fine but then ... stop showing them men and women kissing all the time? Stop selling t shirts that say 'ladies man' or 'little heartbreaker' - YOU are the ones forcing your ideas onto kids. If your kid does grow up and finds out they're gay, it's amazing for them to have someone to relate too, rather than only seeing all these couples they felt like something was wrong with.

4. Not everyone follows your lifestyle either. Saying your reasons for not wanting your kids to view lgbt content is because of 'morals' or 'religion' is crappy - not only does it make open minded religious people feel like other people are giving them a bad representation, but not everyone is religious either? Nobody cares if a church is shown in a children's show/movie, or if Hanukkah is mentioned, but not everyone is a thiest, so why adhere to only you and your views? And again, lgbt+ thiests exist, and not all religious people are raging homophobes, so that excuse is tired and too individual. (Btw, teachings about other religions is also pretty important, more rep for muslims/hindus/jews/secondary branches of Christianity etc would be pretty useful for the same reason!)

5. You can't protect your kids from the world. No matter how much you want to, with easy access to the internet and more open lgbt+ couples out and about, your kid will find out someday. Might as well teach them young and raise them right.

6. Saying showing lgbt+ characters is sexualising is straight up hypocrisy. Shows/movies will often have straight relationships kissing, marrying/ sleeping in one bed/having kids/adult jokes and innuendos/drama/cheating etc, but apparently two men holding hands is 'confusing' and 'sexualising kids'. How? We're not advocating to show your 7 year old hardcore gay p***, that would be wrong, of course. But if all these Disney characters can share a passionate smooch and 'kiss of true love' but the same things happens with two women and is 'sexual' then your issue is not with the kissing, is it? Kids ARE young and innocent (or should be) and their view of relationships is 'love, hugging and kissing' that's it. Teachings of intimacy should happen later, the same with heterosexual intimacy, but same sex couples should be shown in the same way to kids, a 5 year old brain isn't confused, it's more concerned with dinosaurs, trust me.

And finally, is it not your job to love your kids unconditionally? If you 'love your kid no matter what' 'oh wait, unless they're gay of course' then you've got some sort of twisted morals. You don't get to shape your kids into mini you's, they're individual humans with autonomy and their own lives, its your job to raise them, not control them.

So, overall, child friendly media and representation is important for teaching kids about the real world, not your little bubble of what you think is acceptable, lgbt+ people are not automatically evil or predators, and your kid may need that representation to feel secure in coming out of the closet later in life. Your kid could also very well be straight, and that's awesome too, but they'd at least have knowledge and understanding of their friends or people they meet.

In a perfect world, we'd have all relationships without drawing attention to the fact, like I aim to do in my art. I will never judge nor discriminate based on your sexuality, gender, race, religion, age, nationality etc until I know YOU as a person. I understand that depending on your circumstances, it might feel foreign or unusual to you to see this new age of exploring identities, and I would advise you to not engage with people that scream at you behind a screen merely for not understanding a new concept to them. If your fears come from a place of not being able to relate, or not being educated, please seek out calm and sensible folk to teach you before you start tumblr wars etc. I'm always happy to explain my own knowledge, and to listen to others, but I won't tolerate assumptions about my best friend's for their own beliefs/partners/sexualities/gender identities until someone has taken the time to know them. I ask for respect to go both ways, thank you.

Spongebob Squarepants (c) Nickelodeon / Stephen Hillenburg

Description
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFJdr…

So some of you may have heard of the whole 'Nickelodeon announces Spongebob is gay' thing that's been tearing up my Instagram.

Firstly, allow me to present you with the facts;

1. Nick did NOT say that. They said 'Happy Pride Month to LGBT+ and allies'

2. Spongebob was called 'Asexual' by Stephen Hillenburg in an interview, as it's reflective of real life sea sponges that can reproduce by budding. He also said he had no intention of giving SB a romantic interest - HOWEVER, when told his show was popular with LGBT+ audiences, said that ”I do think that the attitude of the show is about tolerance. Everybody is different, and the show embraces that,” he says. ”No one is shut out.”

Essentially, Hillenburg didn't give two craps, and I doubt would have cared for all the hate and homophobia in the comments when he clearly stated his show was about TOLERANCE, he's not 'rolling in his grave' nor is disrespectful to him, as Asexual is part of the LGBT+ acronym and therefore they just reinstated what Hillenburg had already announced, get over yourselves.

On a personal note, LGBT+ representation is important in children's media. The only reason people think "everything is gay nowadays" is because you've grown up with ONLY straight and heteronormative media, so seeing a surge of lgbt+ characters feels like 'taking over' as you always registered the millions of straight couples as 'normal'. Secondly, true representation matters. A 2 second lesbian couple in Finding Dory does not count. That's 2 seconds where we don't know anything about them. Sisters? Friends? F*ck if we know? And a background character in 'Onwards' saying 'My girlfriend' without seeing them also doesn't count, because it's a cop out for homophobic countries to dub the line 'boyfriend' and keep the whole thing heterosexual again. So, why does any of this matter? It's 'a kids cartoon' right? As a queer* (reclaimed) person, allow me to explain from a personal viewpoint;

1. I had no idea there were any other relationships, even though my mom's best friend was/is a lesbian with two children. They were good friends of mine and had two moms, which I had no clue about, seriously. It was there in front of my face and I was dumb. I could have accepted this easily as a kid if someone bothered to explain it to me.

2. NO-ONE is throwing a hissy fit when shows introduce straight couples. Sure a couple loose ends might roll their eyes but you don't get hateful comments or attacks like 'burn the straights!' whereas I have already read several violent suggestions against people like me. We want to raise better, more tolerant and less hateful kids, and an early age is a good place to start.

3. Kids could very well BE LGBT+. Saying 'We should wait till they're older to decide for themselves' is fine but then ... stop showing them men and women kissing all the time? Stop selling t shirts that say 'ladies man' or 'little heartbreaker' - YOU are the ones forcing your ideas onto kids. If your kid does grow up and finds out they're gay, it's amazing for them to have someone to relate too, rather than only seeing all these couples they felt like something was wrong with.

4. Not everyone follows your lifestyle either. Saying your reasons for not wanting your kids to view lgbt content is because of 'morals' or 'religion' is crappy - not only does it make open minded religious people feel like other people are giving them a bad representation, but not everyone is religious either? Nobody cares if a church is shown in a children's show/movie, or if Hanukkah is mentioned, but not everyone is a thiest, so why adhere to only you and your views? And again, lgbt+ thiests exist, and not all religious people are raging homophobes, so that excuse is tired and too individual. (Btw, teachings about other religions is also pretty important, more rep for muslims/hindus/jews/secondary branches of Christianity etc would be pretty useful for the same reason!)

5. You can't protect your kids from the world. No matter how much you want to, with easy access to the internet and more open lgbt+ couples out and about, your kid will find out someday. Might as well teach them young and raise them right.

6. Saying showing lgbt+ characters is sexualising is straight up hypocrisy. Shows/movies will often have straight relationships kissing, marrying/ sleeping in one bed/having kids/adult jokes and innuendos/drama/cheating etc, but apparently two men holding hands is 'confusing' and 'sexualising kids'. How? We're not advocating to show your 7 year old hardcore gay p***, that would be wrong, of course. But if all these Disney characters can share a passionate smooch and 'kiss of true love' but the same things happens with two women and is 'sexual' then your issue is not with the kissing, is it? Kids ARE young and innocent (or should be) and their view of relationships is 'love, hugging and kissing' that's it. Teachings of intimacy should happen later, the same with heterosexual intimacy, but same sex couples should be shown in the same way to kids, a 5 year old brain isn't confused, it's more concerned with dinosaurs, trust me.

And finally, is it not your job to love your kids unconditionally? If you 'love your kid no matter what' 'oh wait, unless they're gay of course' then you've got some sort of twisted morals. You don't get to shape your kids into mini you's, they're individual humans with autonomy and their own lives, its your job to raise them, not control them.

So, overall, child friendly media and representation is important for teaching kids about the real world, not your little bubble of what you think is acceptable, lgbt+ people are not automatically evil or predators, and your kid may need that representation to feel secure in coming out of the closet later in life. Your kid could also very well be straight, and that's awesome too, but they'd at least have knowledge and understanding of their friends or people they meet.

In a perfect world, we'd have all relationships without drawing attention to the fact, like I aim to do in my art. I will never judge nor discriminate based on your sexuality, gender, race, religion, age, nationality etc until I know YOU as a person. I understand that depending on your circumstances, it might feel foreign or unusual to you to see this new age of exploring identities, and I would advise you to not engage with people that scream at you behind a screen merely for not understanding a new concept to them. If your fears come from a place of not being able to relate, or not being educated, please seek out calm and sensible folk to teach you before you start tumblr wars etc. I'm always happy to explain my own knowledge, and to listen to others, but I won't tolerate assumptions about my best friend's for their own beliefs/partners/sexualities/gender identities until someone has taken the time to know them. I ask for respect to go both ways, thank you.

Spongebob Squarepants (c) Nickelodeon / Stephen Hillenburg