Tuesday, June 16, 2020

SpongeBob Fans Celebrate Nickelodeon’s Pride Month Post on Social Media

SpongeBob SquarePants fans are loving Nickelodeon’s latest Pride Month post on social media. The network put up a tweet on Saturday featuring three characters from the Nickelodeon roster in support of LGBTQ+ fans. SpongeBob, Schwoz Schwartz from Henry Danger, and Korra from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Now, Korra ended her series in a canon relationship with a woman, which was huge for animation fans looking for representation on screen. SpongeBob has often been argued to have been coded as gay for most of the show’s long run - even though the creator of the beloved series, Stephen Hillenberg confirmed to The Associated Press before his death that SpongeBob, along with his BFF Patrick are actually an asexual: "We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We're just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show."


He added that there are “more important issues to worry about. I really don’t pay much attention to this.”

When Hillenburg made this claim, he was under intense scrutiny from anti-LGBTQ+ lobbying groups who believed that SpongeBob in some way promoted homosexuality to children, so fans believe that Hillenburg may have called SpongeBob asexual just to avoid this controversy. In point of fact, sea sponges do reproduce asexually.

HuffPost asked the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, in 2015 about possible significant others in the little sponge’s future. He was doubtful, saying the characters were even “pre-sexual”:

"I think our take on SpongeBob and Patrick is that they’re pre-sexual characters. Like, they’re too young and naΓ―ve to have any feelings of that type, and even if they do have stirrings they don’t know how to act on them ... I guess the only way SpongeBob could maybe have a girlfriend is if he was trying to imitate, if it was imitative behavior. Like, “Wow, apparently having a girlfriend is what you’re supposed to do, I’ll go get one.” But that’s not where his mind is at. [In SpongBob’s voice] “He’s married to his job. Like Captain Kirk is married to the Enterprise. I’m married to the Krusty Krab.”

Unless Nickelodeon is going back on series creator Hillenburg’s statements, SpongeBob isn’t gay. He’s asexual, or even — in Kenny’s words — pre-sexual.

SpongeBob has become a sort of mascot for the LGBTQ+ community in its 20+ years its been on-air.

Nickelodeon’s post doesn't necessary automatically mean that SpongeBob is gay, but, being asexual, is part of the LGBTQ+ community, which is vast and diverse. However, there is still debate over whether asexuality is part of the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Fans are taking Nickelodeon's post and the fact that the replies to the tweet are turned off as a sign that SpongeBob is gay. There’s a lot of vindication on the web right now as people revisit the old questions about certain scenes in a new light. And while Nickelodeon’s post had some perhaps erroneously spreading the word that SpongeBob was “confirmed” to be gay, others were celebrating him as the asexual icon he already is:




Henry Danger actor Michael D. Cohen plays Scwartz on the Nickelodeon show. He also gave an interview to Time last year where he revealed that he had transitioned 20 years ago. Everything going on in the world at the time motivated the decision to share his story.

"I was misgendered at birth. I identify as male, and I am proud that I have had a transgender experience — a transgender journey… In my experience, I was born male,” Cohen explained. “What my body said about it was irrelevant. No matter how hard I tried, it was not up for negotiation. Believe me, it would have been so convenient if I was actually a woman.”

“This crazy backlash and oppression of rights is happening right in front of me,” he added. “I can’t stay silent. The level of — let’s be polite — misunderstanding around trans issues is so profound and so destructive. When you disempower one population, you disempower everybody… These are my people. I belong to this group.”

“People don’t understand. They think this has to do with sexuality and it doesn’t. They think this has to do with pushing an agenda on kids and it doesn’t,” he reflected. “What it does is send a message to kids that whoever they are, however they identify, that’s celebrated and valued and okay.

Today, fans of SpongeBob are feeling valued and genuinely happy because of this post. It remains to be seen what Nickelodeon will say when someone inevitably asks about it. There will be detractors, but that isn’t going to stop the Internet from having a little bit of fun along the way.

For the most part, the convseration about SpongeBob and Nickelodeon's Pride tweet was all in good fun. Many fans argued that this was not a controversial revelation, as SpongeBob has always played it fast and loose with gender norms and stereotypes. In one episode, he even wore dresses and took on a maternal role while he and Patrick Star raised a baby clam together.

Whatever SpongeBob's preferences are, fans made it clear that they love him regardless on Saturday, and the LGBTQ+ community was happy to count him among them. Here's a look at how Twitter responded to Nickelodeon's surprising Pride tweet.

Do you love SpongeBob SquarePants? Are you excited for the next movie, Sponge On The Run? Let me know in the comments! Check out the reactions below:

The clips are flying


Wild times


Calling him an icon


The stans are hype


Just logging on


A big question


The trending topic is bubbling


This quote is circulating a lot too


Well okay then


Some Observations


Defying Stereotypes


Romance


Ace Pride


More Reactions:


Update (6/16) - Russian voice actor Иван Агапов (Ivan Agapov), who voices Squidward Tentacles, Patchy, Barnacle Boy, Squilliam Fancyson and various male characters in the Russian dub of SpongeBob SquarePants, has commented on the rumors that SpongeBob is gay. According to Agapov, when working on the dubbing of the cartoon, he did not get the feeling that SpongeBob was gay.

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From CBR:

Nickelodeon Celebrates Pride Month With Legend of Korra and SpongeBob

Nickelodeon celebrated Pride Month with some of the network's LGBTQ+ characters and allies.

Happy Pride Month from Nickelodeon!

The children's TV network tweeted out three Pride Month-themed posters (from designer Ramzy Masri) of some of its most famous LGBTQ+ characters and allies. "Celebrating Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," the network tweeted along with posters of Korra from The Legend of Korra, SpongeBob and Michael D. Cohen from Henry Danger.

Korra identifies as bisexual, while Michael D. Cohen transitioned from female to male about 20 years ago. SpongeBob's sexuality has never been officially confirmed, although some are now speculating that the tweet confirms he is gay. This stands in contrast to comments made by the show's creator, Stephen Hillenburg.

"Everybody is different, and the show embraces that. The character SpongeBob is an oddball. He's kind of weird, but he's kind of special," he said in 2002. "I always think of them as being somewhat asexual."

SpongeBob SquarePants has been airing on Nickelodeon since 1999 and has aired a total of 262 episodes. The series has also spawned three films: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and the upcoming prequel The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

A sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra aired from April 2012 to December 2014 for a total of four seasons and 52 episodes. Henry Danger aired from 2014 to 2020 for a total of five seasons.

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More Nick: Nickelodeon Announces Voice Cast for 'Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years', First-Ever 'SpongeBob SquarePants' Spinoff!

Originally published: Saturday, June 13, 2020.

Original source: ComicBook; Additional sources: BroBible, Sputnik News, HotNewHipHop, Complex, Heavy, PopCulture,
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