With the new live action "Beauty and the Beast," thanks to this interview with director Bill Condon, we have Disney's first official gay character. Many members of the LGBT community are thrilled about this, while others find the representation minuscule and with some negative troupes.
Last week I wrote my own thoughts on the matter. I found that LeFou could have had a longer "gay moment," but there weren't really all those negative troupes people feared before having seen the film. We do have to keep in mind it was a children's movie, and with Beast and Belle (and a few reunited couples) only having one brief kiss on screen, we shouldn't be expecting too much from a subplot.
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On the other hand...
The interview was like a footnote to look for Josh Gad's ever-so-slightly-flamboyant performance of a crush on Gaston. Without the interview would we have missed that? Maybe not. Maybe the "gay moment" our director mentioned wasn't the gayest thing to be looking for. Maybe Disney really wanted us to follow this rabbit hole of subtleties.
This clever Buzzfeed article from 2015, (long before we had any news of the live action film having a gay character) made a pretty convincing argument that LeFou and Gaston were lovers.
Does this translate to the live action?
Well sure! There's already arguments from the plot alone. For example, Gaston has many women in his village that adore him, and yet he courts the only one who won't like him back? "He wanted a sexless trophy marriage to appease his followers," the article states.
You might argue that Gaston went way far out of his way though if he didn't really like Belle... I mean in the live action he attempts murder for Belle's hand in marriage.
Point taken. Though what our Buzzfeed article didn't account for was that Gaston could totally have been bisexual. With or without actually wanting to marry Belle, however there's "something there that wasn't there before" with LeFou and Gaston.
Because listen, maybe Gaston gets it. Maybe Gaston realizes LeFou is into him (even if our director implied LeFou isn't even completely sure of this himself). He does seem to really use this for manipulation.
You could argue that Gaston is keeping LeFou around for an ego boost. Yet he's not doing that with the women who lose their minds whenever he's close to them. Really, Gaston could constantly have a woman on each arm if he wanted to. Look who's on his arm instead.
"You've got us," is one of the first things LeFou says to Gaston. If you follow Disney's subtlety train then yeah, there is definitely an "us" to begin with. Maybe Gaston just has too much internalized homophobia to really commit to their relationship and seeks Belle as an escape.
Can't you see it in Gaston's eyes? He's picturing their entire future together. Then there's the hint of fear that it won't be enough to keep people from talking.
As LeFou sings, "Well, there's no one as easy to bolster as you," he turns the bro-handclasp into a lovers embrace with Gaston. LeFou asks, "Too much?"
Gaston says, "yep."
Some of those who were afraid LeFou's crush could be a joke might be cringing a little. But consider this: LeFou is really asking "Too much in public?" and Gaston's answer is, "yeah, dude you're going to give us away."
I mean, can you really explain the "wrestling-match" bite in a completely hetero way? It's on his stomach!
And why is the one thing that cheers Gaston up a tavern full of men singing about how great he is?
LeFou sings, "You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley/And they'll tell you whose team they'd prefer to be on."
What team? Has anything in the film up to this point had anything to do with teams? It must have to do with orientation. LeFou literally winks during this line so finding even more hidden meaning is not a stretch.
It's a big tavern, so let's assume some of the men there are straight. If men would "prefer" to be on a certain "team" because Gaston is so fantastic it implies the team Gaston belongs to is one that likes men.
Then Gaston sings about hunting. "First, I carefully aim for the liver/Then I shoot from behind." I won't be only one to tell you that sounds a bit suggestive, and LeFou crawling up on the table doesn't help.
Not to mention, "My, what a guy, that Gaston," sure sounds an awful lot like, "I want a guy like Gaston," before you look up the lyrics. No? Just to me?
Finally we have the moment LeFou opens up to Mrs. Potts. Gaston left when LeFou needed him, brokenhearted and under a harpsichord. LeFou sees it; reciprocated feelings or not, Gaston is bad news. He tells Mrs. Potts he used to be on Gaston's side but they're in "such a bad place right now."
We're supposed to think LeFou is delusional here, that he thinks they are dating when the audience knows they aren't. Or maybe he knows they aren't but made it sound like they were to explain why this is such a big deal.
But if Disney is telling us to pay attention to the whole "LeFou is subtly gay" thing then maybe we're supposed to take every word adding to this subplot seriously. They're in a bad place relationship wise? Okay, maybe they actually are.
Maybe they've talked about each other in the "us" sense, or flirted with the idea of it. Maybe they've done all sorts of things couples do when they were away at war together. Perhaps the "bad place" is also the lack of commitment with the whole I-want-to-marry-someone-else thing.
Either way, Gaston keeps sliding into LeFou's DMs "just in case." What a jerk!
Shout out to Mrs. Potts for telling him he deserves better.
Also shout out to Stanley who, fingers crossed, is better.
