• buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Also true. But we must consider the fact that when the show was airing, though I’m sure non-binary people certainly must have existed at the time, non-binary was not something that was part of the mainstream consciousness. So would not have been acceptable in a kids show. And though I’m not sure it would even be acceptable in today’s day and age by most mainstream standards, it’s more acceptable now than it was 30 years ago.

      On top of that it’s very likely that most real people at that time who would likely identify as non-binary would not have identified themselves as such and would have chosen a he/she pronoun of some sort to identify themselves in order to conform to the social standard of that time.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Still, we should celebrate the characters who are designed to be nonbinary, to represent that community, not try to decide for that character 30 years later.

        • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          Nah. Abed in Community is the best example of how you can have great representation for a group (autistic people) even if the character wasn’t initially written with that trait in mind. He was initially just written as a character, not an autistic character. Animaniacs had plenty of gender fuckery going on that kids like me noticed in the 90s

          • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I did notice it that too. All of them wore clothes opposite of their perceived gender at one point. But it’s a cartoon. They are genderless. And not in a nonbinary way. They are whatever the script tells them to be.

              • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                In the script it’s also making fun of people who claim they don’t have an agenda, but they really do. It’s subtle, but this is a right-leaning comic.