We all had a good laugh a few years ago when Jerry Falwell alerted Christian parents to the dangers posed by Tinky Winky the Teletubby. Falwell wanted families to know that the purple, triangle-headed one might be part of the “homosexual agenda.”
But that was 1999. Surely, the religious right has given up on warning parents about popular children’s entertainment, right? Well, no.
The Traditional Values Coalition, one of the nuttiest groups in an already nutty movement, published a “parents beware” warning about Shrek 2, which the TVC believes is part of a DreamWorks effort to help the “transgender agenda…by promoting cross dressing and transgenderism in this animated film.”
I’m fairly certain the group isn’t kidding.
The DreamWorks’ animated film, “Shrek 2,” is billed as harmless entertainment but contains subtle sexual messages. Parents who are thinking about taking their children to see “Shrek 2,” may wish to consider the following: The movie features a male-to-female transgender (in transition) as an evil bartender. The character has five o’clock shadow, wears a dress and has female breasts. It is clear that he is a she-male. His voice is that of talk show host Larry King.
During a dance scene at the end of the movie, this transgendered man expresses sexual desire for Prince Charming, jumps on him, and both tumble to the floor.
In another scene in the movie, Shrek and Donkey need to be rescued from a dungeon where they are chained against the wall. The rescue is conducted by Pinocchio who is asked to lie so his nose will grow long enough for one of the smaller cartoon characters to use it as a bridge to reach Shrek and Donkey. Donkey encourages him to lie about something and suggests he lie about wearing women’s underwear. When he denies wearing women’s underwear, his nose begins to grow.
An earlier scene in the movie features a wolf dressed in grandma’s clothing and reading a book when Prince Charming encounters him. Later, one of the characters refers to the wolf’s gender confusion.
I don’t plan on seeing the movie, but are these parental warnings really necessary? Does the TVC really believe children will see Shrek 2 and become cross-dressers?
A Carpetbagger regular I fondly call Morbo, who alerted me to this story, wondered why the TVC didn’t go even further.
Despite this strong warning, the TVC ultimately failed the Religious Right by neglecting several other examples of depraved “entertainment” aimed at children, such as Bugs Bunny’s constant cross-dressing efforts to confuse Elmer Fudd and the infamous episode of “The Flintstones” where Barney Rubble poses as Fred Flintstone’s son and actually wears a diaper! The unnaturally close relationship between Batman and Robin (two men in masks and tights – you do the math) was also ignored. And the purple Teletubby? Don’t even go there.
Stay tuned next week when TVC’s the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon explains why Winnie the Pooh’s refusal to wear pants is definitely unbiblical.
You know, it’s gotten to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually happened.