Gael Sweeney Response

It's no secret that The Lion King is very much a movie based on stereotypically defined gender roles. The males are seen as the macho breadwinners while the females are the tender mothers and caregivers. However, this otherwise unpresuming aspect of the movie becomes rather noteworthy with the inclusion of two key characters: Timon and Pumbaa. Many have concluded these two as being Disney's way of introducing gay characters into their movies, including Gael Sweeney, who in his essay "Timon and Pumbaa's Alternative Lifestyle Dilemma," argues that the two characters indeed represent a homosexual partnership.

The main reason cited for Timon and Pumbaa being gay is due to their flamboyancy, which Sweeney believes is highly accentuated through contrast with other characters. These two seem to walk with more character, are overly dramatic when compared to others, and express an especially high affinity for song. However, Sweeney is also keen to note a few specific scenes. For one, he mentions and re-mentions the scene where Timon wears a hula skirt to distract Scar which is one most pivotal scenes in the movie. For Sweeney, this emphasis on display by Disney on Timon represents one of the reasons he is homosexual. Additionally, when Nala returns to Simba, Sweeney cites Timon's expression of the "three becoming two" as a way of heterosexual love breaking up the homosexual domestic life.

In my own opinion, I don't consider Timon and Pumbaa to be gay. Rather I think of them as two pre-pubescent friends with no thoughts of sexuality, something which Sweeney actually alludes to in his argument. Although I don't agree with him, I do consider his argument convincing. His examples are spot on, his organization is solid, and, as mentioned above, he did provide some counterarguments. However, after reading the piece, I was left scratching my head in some sections. Most prominently was the section about Judaism and Timon. In it, Sweeney argues, quite stereotypically and bigoted even, that Timon is actually a New York Jew. Although his points have validity, the argument was weirdly out of place in an argument about homosexuality. This definitely detracted from his overall purpose.

Overall, I could see why people might consider Timon and Pumbaa as homosexual partners but judging just from The Lion King itself, it's hard to tell. I feel like if I had just seen The Lion King 1.5 and The Lion King 2, along with the TV spin-offs (all of which are mentioned in Sweeney's essay), I would have had more reference in regards to the topic.