Toy Story 3 Toys With Homophobia

I took my son to see Toy Story 3 the other day. I’ve always loved the franchise — and Pixar films in general are cleverer than the average kids’ fare. I was happy with one point about gender that the latest installment showed — but I was also disappointed that it resorted to what could be seen as old LGBT-phobic gags.

(Spoilers ahead.)

Toy Story 3 sees the familiar cast of toy heroes — cowpokes Woody and Jessie, spaceman Buzz, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, dinosaur Rex, piggy bank Hamm, Slinky Dog, and the rest — wondering what will become of them when their owner Andy leaves for college.

Fast forward to the end of the movie, and Andy finds his toys a good home with a girl named Bonnie, who has demonstrated the kind of imaginative play that Andy himself loved as a child. Andy introduces each of his toys to her — never mind that a cowboy, a spaceman, a dinosaur, and space aliens aren’t normally thought of as “girls’ toys.” It’s a wonderful message to send to children — that toys normally seen as appropriate to only one gender don’t have to be. (Whether Pixar will ever make a movie with a female lead character remains an open and important question, however, as Ms. magazine points out.)

The treatment of Ken (as in “Barbie and Ken”), however, was for me very troubling.

The movie plays Ken — depending on how you read it — either as the ultimate metrosexual, obsessed with fashion and in love with Barbie, or as a closeted gay man or transgender person.

Ken and Barbie’s romance is portrayed as genuine — a “we were meant to be together” falling in love, and funny to audiences because of the way the Ken doll was created, like Eve for Adam, to be Barbie’s companion. If Ken is gay or transgender, writer Michael Arndt has made him deeply closeted.

The question in my mind is whether Toy Story 3 is: 1) making the point that straight men can have feminine qualities; 2) trying to gently but humorously say “Why doesn’t Ken come out already?” or 3) taking cheap shots at a male character whose gender identity leans toward the feminine, regardless of sexual orientation.

There’s one scene in which Ken insists, “I’m not a girl’s toy!” In a sense, it’s a funny comment on Ken’s historical place as a male doll for girls, partaking in none of the warlike endeavors of the typical male “action figures.” Can he be metrosexual and still be a boy’s toy, though? Apparently not — and being called a “girl’s toy” seems to be an insult. Given the resolution of the movie, however, with a girl receiving toys from a boy, perhaps Arndt is trying to note the contradiction that it is okay for girls to play with boys’ toys, but not vice versa. If so, it is a subtle point that will be lost on most audiences, I fear.

In another scene, Barbie dresses up in Ken’s astronaut outfit, complete with helmet, in order to pretend to be him and dupe another character into giving her information. When she turns to leave, however, she reveals that she is still wearing her red stiletto heels. Rather than assume the astronaut is not Ken, the other character assumes it is him, and sighs. It seems the character’s reaction is more resigned than negative — perhaps he is even hoping Ken will get in touch with his inner self and come out already — but the audience laughed, and I realized once again the fine line between laughing with and laughing at.

There’s also a scene toward the end of the movie in which a character’s swirly, glittery handwriting is revealed to be not Barbie’s, but — that’s right — Ken’s. Another laugh. Men with feminine characteristics are something to laugh at, or so the message seems.

These moments tarnish what is arguably the best and most poignant movie in the franchise. As a mother, I am reminded every day of the meaning of certain toys to young children. Passing them on when transitioning to adulthood is an act of deep significance, and one that the movie handles with respect and compassion, overlaid with what is by and large wonderful humor.

I’d like to give Pixar and Arndt the benefit of the doubt and say they were trying to make us aware of our own silly assumptions about gender, rather than trying to make the point that men with feminine characteristics are inherently something to laugh at. Or maybe they’re saying that Ken’s closet has a glass door, and he might as well come out already.

Even if they had good intentions, however, I fear they will be lost on most audiences, especially the younger ones — and reinforcing homophobic or transphobic stereotypes is nothing to toy with.

Maybe in Toy Story 4 Ken will fall in love with G.I. Joe— who would be kicked out of the army under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” start civilian life with Ken in his Dream House, and adopt Raggedy Ann and Andy, two orphan dolls from down the street. Oh, and look— there’s Jessie backing up a U-Haul to Barbie’s place next door.

Photo credit: H. P. Holland