Happy Never After: The Lasting Impact of Established Heteronormative Constructs in Media [Character Locomotion - Academic Writing Assignment - Blog Post 1]

Happy Never After
The Lasting Impact of Established Heteronormative Constructs in Media

The depiction of the ‘happy ever after’ (HEA) is common concept in children’s fairy tales that glamorises the life’s goal to be a heterosexual marriage (Seifert, 2015b). This is the plot of Sleeping Beauty (1959), which reinforces the idea that a princess should marry a prince to achieve happiness. This may seem harmless, however, Martin and Kazyak (2009) explore how these heteronormative constructs are in abundance in media targeted towards children and are often contribute to children’s understanding of ‘normality’. Therefore, children are understanding ‘normal’ from the perspective of heteronormality and thus, position contrasting ideas, such as LBGTQIA+ (queer) relationships, as the opposite ‘not normal’.

This societal definition of ‘normality’ means that as children have a point of comparison to understand whether their identity is ‘normal’ or not. Walters (2023) explores the challenges faced by queer children in schools and emphasises the fundamental truth of their existence. These challenges position queer identities as different to the heteronormative constructs that media like Sleeping Beauty (1959) have helped establish. Furthermore, the range of identities within queer people is vast as Peters (2007) highlights in their study. Therefore, this further highlights the absurdity of frequent representation of heterosexual constructs in media due to the range of diversity that exists within the world.

The comedian Wanda Sykes (2010) highlighted the challenges queer people face compared to other minorities and joked that she didn’t need to ‘come out black.’ This highlights that people are assumed to be heterosexual until they tell you otherwise, which introduces a challenge for those who don’t identify with heterosexual norms. Parents often unconsciously teach their children heteronormative concepts, which influences their understanding of the world, such as heterosexual marriage as the goal for achieving a HEA (Robinson, Davies, C. and Davies, B., 2012). This shows that these heteronormative ideas are well engrained in our society and therefore position queer identities as ‘abnormal’.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) engrains a range of heteronormative constructs such as ‘true love’s kiss’. This is presented where Princess Aurora is placed into an eternal slumber which can only be broken by ‘true love’s kiss’. Aurora’s ‘true love’ has been established as Prince Philip and they are destined to marry, which reinforces heteronormative marriage as life’s goal (Robinson, C. Davies and B. Davies, 2012). Furthermore, a spell puts the whole kingdom to sleep until Aurora and Phillip’s love can be fulfilled, which further glorifies heteronormative fairytale destinies by prioritising its fulfillment before everyday life can resume.

Figure 1. Screenshot from Sleeping Beauty (1959, 1:11:30) showing ‘true love’s kiss’.

Modern animation is beginning to challenge these societal norms within children’s animation series, like Steven Universe (2013), which explores range of characters and non-heterosexual marriage. In an interview with Insider (2021) Steven Universe (2013) creator Rebecca Sugar discusses the challenges she faced throughout her career from studio executives when wanting to represent openly queer characters on screen and how restrictive this was. Hollis (2020) explores that gender cannot be predefined and is a multi-faceted concept whilst also recognising that animation is great medium to disrupt preconceived ideas of heteronormative reality. This aligns with Rebecca Sugar’s goals when creating Steven Universe (2013) as discussed with Insider (2013).

The portrayal of Steven in Steven Universe (2013) is a gender non-conforming, assigned male at birth (AMAB). In ‘Made of Honor’ (2018), Steven shares his ‘wedding planner’ full of a range of ideas he has for the dream wedding. This is a more typically feminine trait that has been associated with an AMAB character. This helps diversify the gender and breaks away from non-normative gender behavior, which supports queer character representation. However, this supports further identification with non-normative heterosexual individuals who don’t conform to traditional heteronormative gender constructs. This is reflected by Seifert, (2015a, p.16) who theorises that diversification of characters breaks down traditional gender constructs for non-normative heterosexual identities. This further demonstrates that the diverse representation of characters does not only support queer identities but helps destroy established gender stereotypes and evolves society’s understanding of gender.

‘The Answer’ (2016) explores the fusion (by choice) between Ruby and Sapphire, two sexless ‘gem’ characters who use she/her pronouns. This episode celebrates common aspects of love such as joy but also apprehension, which makes this queer relationship feel real. It also draws visual parallels with the romantic dance scene in Sleeping Beauty (1959, 31:50) which positions a queer relationship within a fairytale scenario. This helps destabilise heterosexual norms (Seifert, 2015a) and validifies queer relationship for all audiences. Furthermore, within the show’s worldbuilding, fusion between gems is not allowed, which mirrors reality by reflecting the challenges of queer relationships being the opposition heterosexual relationships. However, the characters show that love prevails and positively represents their valid love.

Figure 2. Screenshot from Insider (2021, 8:20) comparing ‘Reunited’ (2018) with Sleeping Beauty (1959).

‘Reunited’ (2018) features the marriage between Ruby and Sapphire and is the first queer wedding in an animated children’s show (Insider, 2021). This breaks down the construct that the HEA destiny exists outside of heterosexual relationships that previous media, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), have defined as a norm (Martin and Kazyak, 2009). Cheu (2013) explores that Timone and Pumba from The Lion King (1994) were considered gay and the song ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ was initially intended for them as a romantic parody before the directors decided to use it with heteronormative characters instead. This demonstrates that queer love on screen is often only valid within a comical scenario and highlights how import media like ‘The Answer’ (2016) and ‘Reunited’ (2018) are for championing diverse representation and validifying queer love to change societal norms.

Figure 3. Screenshot from ‘Reunited’ (2018, 15:45) showing the marriage between Ruby and Sapphire.

In conclusion, ‘normal’ within society often means ‘hetero-normal’ (Martin and Kazyak, 2009), which impacts children’s perception of whether their identity is ‘normal’ or not. Children’s media, like Sleeping Beauty (1959) has contributed to defining heteronormative constructs and expectations of destiny. Robinson, C. Davies and B. Davies (2012) state “…it is critical that children have access to, or ‘inherit,’ a broad range of knowledge that includes alternative subjective possibilities in their lives…” (p.128). Shows like Steven Universe (2013) are ‘normalising’ and validating queer relationships and identities, alongside breaking down gender stereotypes to positively represent all identities (Seifert, 2015a, p.16). Furthermore, Batkins (2017, p.110) highlights how the rise of female animation directors is attributing to the diversification of gender representation in the industry, which is mirrored by Rebecca Sugar (Insider, 2021) for queer character representation. Therefore, this shows how a diverse workforce leads to diverse characters that provide children with a diverse depiction of reality and challenges heteronormative constructs, to facilitate the envisagement of a happily ever after for all identities.

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Reference List

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3. Hollis, M. (2020) ‘Non-Centered Centers: Queering Animation’, Synoptique, 9(1), pp. 85–181.
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5. ‘Made of Honour’ (2018) Steven Universe, Season 5, Episode 22, 5 July. Cartoon Network Studios. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 9 November 2024)
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17. Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me (2010) Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. [Feature film] Los Angeles, CA : Sykes Entertainment. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44benvAx1wI (Accessed: 9 November 2024)