Invisible love

After seeing Disney’s recent live-action, animation blended fairy tale “Enchanted,” I felt anything but.\nDisney’s animated movies don’t always carry the most socially responsible messages for children, particularly for girls. From arguably racist depictions (a gang of hyenas with seemingly over-emphasized black and Hispanic accents in “The Lion King”), to sexist messages (the meek princess who won’t be truly happy until her prince arrives), to representations that reinforce unhealthy body images, Disney’s animated kingdom has plenty to criticize.\nGenerally I can temper the critique enough to enjoy the movie with a critical eye. But with “Enchanted,” I found myself more frustrated by the movie’s heterosexism than captivated by the movie’s magic. I realize our world still won’t accept a movie where Aladdin takes Prince Charming on a magic carpet ride or where Prince William and Prince Michael share true love’s kiss. I’m not holding my breath for Disney to be that progressive. Therefore, I tolerate animated love stories that don’t include gay or lesbian love interests.\nBut the premise behind this Disney film is that an evil queen (no, that doesn’t count as a gay theme) magically transports Princess Giselle from their animated kingdom to a faraway land – the real world of present day New York City. Giselle hopes for her prince to rescue her and take her back home, but she soon falls in love with a New Yorker and lives happily ever after in real life.\nCute idea. But here’s where the movie lost me. While the movie successfully captured much of the richness and diversity of 21st century Manhattan, nowhere did it even hint at the presence of a gay couple. In a movie about love in New York City in 2007, the directors couldn’t slip in a two second shot of a gay or lesbian couple? It’s as if we didn’t even exist.\nThe movie had an excellent opportunity to showcase a broad set of relationships. The movie’s big musical number “That’s How You Know” explains how you let someone know you love them. Princess Giselle sings and dances through Central Park with a chorus of couples including youthful newlyweds to octogenarians, Jewish couples, black couples, Asian couples, interracial couples. But not a single gay or lesbian couple joined the chorus of the love song as they sang and frolicked through the park. A tolerable omission in an animated, enchanted forest, but Central Park in 2007? And no queer folk in sight? Impossible.\nIf nothing else, it’s impossible to produce such a fabulous musical number without a few gays on the creative team. Surely the director could’ve slipped them into a frame. \nMomentary inclusion in a film seems like such a small hope that would have such a large impact. Unfortunately, the omission and erasure of gays and lesbians in movies about blind love renders our love invisible and keeps alive the attitude that our relationships are neither normal nor worthy of recognition.\nIf only this queen could magically transport those attitudes to another world.