Thursday, August 11, 2011

Over analysis

Most folks have seen the movement on facebook to get the producers of Sesame Street to marry off Bert and Ernie to each other. Their reasoning is that Bert and Ernie are living together and are besties, so they must also have a romantic relationship, too.

Frankly, as much as I believe that our secular government shouldn't be in the business of granting one civil right to a group of people they deny to others, I think that perhaps this movement to foist muppets into the political debate is wrong.

First of all, you can easily add married or unmarried same-gendered couples to the show through the human actors. Secondly, I think that perhaps we should encourage more female gendered characters in main spots before we start hitting up less common configurations. Think about it, how many commercially popular sesame street characters are female characters? The only ones I think of are Snuffy's baby sister (who rarely appears) and Prairie Dawn, who is a bit character at best and humanoid in form. Elmo, Snuffy, Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie, Grover, The Count, the two-headed monster . . . all of them are male.

Lastly, I'm thinking that making assumptions about the sex lives of muppets is as bad as the wing nuts who tried to label Tinky Winky "gay" because he's purple and carries a magic bag.

For Sesame Street's response, check out this article.

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