The Progression of Queer Representation from The Owl House for Disney
Originally Written December 9, 2022
What is a queer Disney character? The animated television show The Owl House answers this, thanks to its bisexual creator Dana Terrace. It's main protagonist, Luz Noceda, is the first openly bisexual character in Disney media, and the first protagonist of a Disney project to be queer. In the show, Luz forms a romance with a girl named Amity Blight, who is confirmed to be the first openly lesbian character in Disney media. The show also features a character named Raine Whispers, who is the first Disney character to be identified as non-binary with they/them pronouns. These forms of representation received praise from fans, the majority of the general public, and helped the show win a Peabody award. Despite this progress for the Disney company, The Owl House got its third and final season reduced to three 44-minute specials rather than a full season. With the queer studies of Michel Foucault, the purpose of this paper it to argue how The Owl House features definitive queer Disney characters, and how the show should be a reminder to Disney that they shouldn't back down from potential backlash by strengthening the queer roles in future Disney projects.
Key Words: Queer Theory, Michel Foucault, LGBTQ+, Bisexual, Lesbian, Non-Binary, "Parental Rights in Education" Bill, "Don't Say Gay" Bill
Since its creation in 1923, the Walt Disney Company has had few characters that have properly represented the growing LGBTQ+ community. There have been characters that have been hinted at possibly being queer as far back as the animated films from the Disney Renaissance era from the 1990s, such as The Lion King where Simba is adopted by Timon and Pumbaa. This is further fueled by Timon's original voice actor Nathan Lane coming out as gay, continued by Timon's voice actor in the 2019 remake, Billy Eichner, declaring how happy that the film "kept the tradition of Timon being played by a gay actor, with a certain type of comedic sensibility, alive" (Dommu). By the 2010s, Disney began further representation of LGBTQ+ characters in their films and television shows. Many of these examples were relegated to either minor characters or characters that were in the background. One of the most infamous examples is Josh Gad's portrayal of LeFou in the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Years later, Josh Gad would regret how it was handled to be Disney's "first" gay character, stating that "I don't think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be" (Sharf). His opinion probably attributes to the fact that Disney emphasized how LeFou is now openly gay rather than focusing on the character first, making it come across as a marketing ploy. This begs the question: what is a queer Disney character?
It wouldn't be until January 2020 with the premiere of the animated television show The Owl House that we would get this definition. Created by Dana Terrace, the show features a multitude of characters that are "unambiguously" part of the LGBTQ+ community, as it not only features the first queer Disney protagonist who is bisexual, but also the first lesbian and non-binary Disney characters respectively. The reason these were added was because Terrace herself is bisexual and wanted to create queer characters for Disney. Despite the show's success, its third and final season is being cut down to a few 44-minute specials instead of the usual 20 episodes per season. While Disney has reported that the show was cut down due to not fitting the target demographic of 6-11 year-olds, Terrace suspects that homophobia played a role due to Disney's behavior towards Florida's controversial "Parental Rights in Education" bill aka "Don't Say Gay" bill. Despite the setback, the first episode of Season 3 was got so many hits on Disney's official YouTube page that they realized what a mistake they made. As the show's queer themes can draw similarities to the theoretical studies of Michel Foucault, The Owl House should be recognized by Disney that they mustn't worry about wokeness based on backlash, and that they should continue to create queer main characters for future Disney projects to promote healthy diversity towards others.
To begin, it's best to talk about the characters that represent the LGBTQ+ community. The show revolves around average human teenage girl, Luz Noceda, finding another world known as the Demon Realm. She befriends a witch lady named Eda Clawthorne and stays for a while to learn how to become a witch and use magic. Luz is notable for being the first Disney protagonist in any of their media to be queer, with her sexuality revealed to be bisexual not only by Terrace, but also throughout significant moments in the show. In the second episode of the first season "Witches Before Wizards", she shows attraction to a minor male character named Nevareth, whose presence is literally used by a shapeshifter to trick Luz into a trap that feeds on her desire of wanting to go on a magical quest to prove her worth. Many of Nevareth's scenes are clichés of handsome male characters from fantasy quests, such as his introduction being rising out a fountain and dramatically slicking his hair back ("Witches Before Wizards" 13:00-13:16), and going shirtless so that Luz can use his shirt as a cape ("Witches Before Wizards" 14:37-14:45). Of course, Luz spends the moments around him eating the eye candy. By the end of the episode, this is revealed to be a monster that uses Luz's belief of going on a fantasy quest as a "chosen one" against her and is destroyed.
As for the moment when Luz is revealed to have an attraction towards females, this role is relegated to another important character for the LGBTQ+ community in the show: Amity Blight. Amity is confirmed to be the first lesbian Disney character, and her relationship with Luz throughout the show is one of the most progressive for any queer Disney character. At first, the two don't see eye-to-eye as Luz sees Amity as a snobby upper-classman whilst Amity sees Luz as a nuisance that causes trouble when she first shows up. By the first season's seventh episode "Lost in Language", Amity begins to see that there's more to Luz than their first impressions of each other. Here, Luz meets Amity's brother and sister who both have moments where they wink at Luz and even call her cute, causing Luz to blush both times ("Lost in Language" 5:37-5:40, 15:18-15:22). This is an early indication that Luz is also attracted to females as well. Luz also spends most of the episode trying to find common ground with Amity in an attempt to befriend her. Though this causes more trouble for them, the two stop this trouble together. At the end of the episode, Amity admits to Luz that "Maybe you aren't a bully. I haven't exactly been the friendliest witch either. I'll think on that," indicating that she's warming up to Luz ("Lost in Language" 19:34-20:00).
Midway through Season 1, Amity would be shown to be on good terms with Luz, such as welcoming her to her first day at magic school ("The First Day" 3:45-3:55). However, another interesting plot thread was also being hinted at: Amity being attracted to Luz. This started also in the same episode where Luz began her first school day, where a scene shows Amity talking to herself about how Luz being at the same school doesn't change anything ("The First Day" 11:45-11:50). It was later hinted at in the fifteen episode of the first season "Understanding Willow", where during the conflict of restoring the memory of Luz's current friend and Amity's former friend Willow Park, the two evade a monster and Luz celebrates by hugging Amity, to which Amity responds by blushing ("Understanding Willow" 15:33-15:36). This would culminate in one of the most important episodes for the LGBTQ+ community, "Enchanting Grom Fright". The sixteenth episode of the first season, Luz takes Amity's place to participate in the Demon Realm's version of prom, which is actually fighting a monster that manifests your worst nightmare. It's revealed by the end of the episode that Amity's greatest fear was asking Luz out to prom. There are many hints towards Amity's affection for Luz sprinkled throughout the episode, such as her complimenting Luz's prom outfit ("Enchanting Grom Fright" 11:50-12:17), protecting Luz from the monster when she can't handle it ("Enchanting Grom Fright" 16:37-16:42), and the two sharing a dance after Luz finds out Amity's fear of being rejected ("Enchanting Grom Fright" 17:39-18:31).
"Enchanting Grom Fright" became a fan-favorite episode, as it was recognized by many as being a major step towards Disney's representation of the LGBTQ+ community. It even helped the show winning a Peabody Award for "building a wildly inventive other world that makes room for everyone and giving queer kids a welcome template alongside which to explore their own budding creative energies" (Rude). After the episode premiered, Terrace posted on Twitter about how difficult include queer characters in the show, stating "I'm bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit! Luckily my stubbornness paid off and now I am VERY supported by current Disney leadership" (Shafer). Although Luz doesn't realize that Amity has a crush on her, this doesn't stop Amity from acting completely flustered around Luz for the reason of the season. When Season 2 rolls around, that's when Luz puts together that Amity likes her.
In the second episode of Season 2, "Escaping Expulsion", we get to meet Amity's parents. Her father Alador focuses on his inventions for work and doesn't spend much time with his children, while her mother Odalia is a saleswoman that does everything she can to control her daughter's life. When Amity causes a scene at her parents' invention expo because her prom photo of her and Luz almost got destroyed, Odalia decides that Amity has had too much freedom and decides to get Luz and her friends expelled for "being a threat" to the school. Luz understands that Amity couldn't stand up to her mother and tries to make a deal with Odalia to get her friends back into school. In exchange, Luz plays the role of helping demonstrate weapons at the Blights' next invention expo. When Amity finds out, she finally stands up to her mother, telling her to "stay away from my Luz" ("Escaping Expulsion" 17:02-17:10), causing Luz to realize how much Amity likes her ("Escaping Expulsion" 17:57-18:34). The way that Amity confronts her mother because she wants to become a better person after meeting Luz can correlate to a practice of homosexual freedom that Foucault proposed, "the liberty of self-intervention, with which qualitative changes could be produced and different power relations established that are based on desubjugation" (Crespo 128). By the end of this episode, Luz and her friends are allowed to go back to school and Amity begins her first steps in not being controlled by Odalia. However, it wouldn't be until a few episodes later that Luz and Amity's feelings would be further explored.
Although their conflict is only the subplot, the fifth episode of season 2, "Through The Looking Glass Ruins", is the beginning of Luz and Amity confronting how they feel about each other. While searching for a specific book in the library, Luz and Amity's body language of acting flustered when interacting with each other ("Through The Looking Glass Ruins" 6:10-7:47) and looking through restricted areas despite possible danger ("Through The Looking Glass Ruins" 9:07-9:55) displays what these two would do for one another through a queer lens without having to come off as cheap or pandering for the sake of marketing. Near the end of the episode, Amity contemplates her own feelings towards Luz, saying about how she's "thinking things she hasn't before" and "feelings things she hasn't felt before" ("Through The Looking Glass Ruins" 19:06-20:12). This culminates in the final minute of the episode, in which Amity gives Luz a kiss on the cheek and Luz's body language indicating that she's happy in what Amity just did ("Through The Looking Glass Ruins" 21:26-21:48). This can tie into Foucault's argument of sexuality being "a cultural product that cannot be regarded as a simple extension of a biological process" (Spargo 45). Luz and Amity's romantic feelings proves that true love doesn't need to be restricted to heterosexuality.
Their relationship would finally receive an upgrade in the eighth episode of the second season, "Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door". Divided into three stories, Luz's segment revolves around her and Amity being forced in a tunnel of love to show how Luz feels for Amity. Luz tries to get rid of the tunnel's love messages as she thinks Amity will find her lame, saying that "she's gonna get made fun of again" ("Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door" 14:58-17:35). This line of dialogue from Luz indicates that any possibility back in the human world has resulted in humiliation. Luz trying to get rid of these messages causes Amity to feel that them being a couple is a pointless idea. What's clever in this episode is that it doesn't blatantly feel like Terrace or Disney forced queer for the sake of commentary, but rather focused on how these two characters are struggling with their feelings for each other and not wanting to possibly destroy it. Luz and Amity are a great example of putting the personalities of the characters firsthand to make them feel like fully three-dimensional characters rather than simply marketing how diverse they are, as Disney is seemingly learning from their mistake with LeFou in the Beauty and the Beast remake. Fortunately, the episode ends with Luz asking Amity to go out with her, making them an official couple ("Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door" 19:10-20:41). This moment of Luz and Amity becoming girlfriends was also recognized by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), who tweeted "We absolutely loved this week's episode of #TheOwlHouse! We're excited to see the series continue to explore Luz and Amity's relationship and for younger LGBTQ viewers to see this wonderful and affirming message in their favorite show" (GLAAD). The two remain a couple for the rest of the season, with one episode having Luz sick and Amity doing everything to prove she's "an awesome girlfriend" ("Eclipse Lake" 3:30-4:20), and another giving each other pet names like "Sweet Potato" ("The Follies at the Coven Day Parade" 2:17-3:08). Amity even brings up to her father that "he probably didn't even know that she was dating Luz" as an example to how he doesn't pay attention to his children ("Reaching Out" 21:28-21:32), much to Alador's genuine surprise.
By the twentieth episode of the second season, "Clouds On The Horizon", Amity is kept at home because of her mother believing she's caused further disobedience. Luz comes to her house to save her, and the two promise that someday they'll go on a normal date, followed by their first kiss on the lips ("Clouds On The Horizon" 10:13-11:53), being the first instance of a same-sex kiss in a Disney property (Fox). Later on in the same episode, when Amity mentions to her mother that Luz is her girlfriend, Odalia doesn't approve of Luz, telling Amity that "she'll find her another girlfriend, one that's not on wanted posters" ("Clouds On The Horizon" 17:56-18:06). This is a good example of character before parading commentary as Odalia is fine with Amity dating girls, but doesn't want her to date a supposed criminal. At the end of episode, Alador stands up to Odalia's controlling ways, cuts ties with her in favor of wanting to spend time with his own children, and telling Luz that "he's sorry for Odalia's behavior" and "she's always welcome in their house" ("Clouds On The Horizon" 22:12-22:17). These brief moments can show how accepting parents can truly be towards their children's sexual preferences, even if they come out as being queer. The same also occurs for Luz's mother, who in the third season's premiere "Thanks To Them" immediately accepts Luz's relationship upgrade when she shows her a video she made telling about her being bisexual ("Thanks To Them" 3:52-4:10). However, it's not only Luz and Amity's romantic relationship that's significant for the LGBTQ+ community.
The Owl House also received recognition by introducing Disney's first non-binary character: Raine Whispers (Lovejoy). For the unaware, non-binary is a queer term that means the person identifies as neither solely male nor female, rather being identified with they/them pronouns. As such, Raine referred to with they/them pronouns and is also voiced by non-binary actor Avi Roque. Roque posted on Twitter that getting the opportunity to voice the first non-binary Disney character was a "DREAM COME TRUE" (Roque). Introduced in the seventh episode of the second season, Raine is a head of the covens that help Emperor Belos, the main antagonist of the show, but they also form a group of rebels to overthrow the Emperor. Raine also used to be Eda's childhood friend ("Them's the Breaks, Kid" 10:16-11:42) and romantic interest, but the two had to part ways due to Eda suffering from a curse and Raine joining the Emperor's coven ("Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door" 9:40-10:13). Just like how the show respected Luz and Amity's relationship with how they felt for each other as characters and how the majority of people responded positively to what they identified as, Raine is given the same amount of respect as a character. Thus, it "allows them to be seen as more than simply a character defined by their gender or as a shallow representation inclusion" (Fox). They're always referred to with they/them pronouns by all of the characters that interact with them, and in the fifteenth episode of the second season, Raine as a child is voice by non-binary actor Blu del Barrio, showing the dedication that Terrace and Disney went through to represent this group.
Their relationship with Eda is also an important aspect of the show as she was the one that inspired them to rebel against the Emperor. In their introductory episode, Raine reminisces with Eda about how they went on a date when they were younger, and how she told them about "getting the jump" on their fears and "give them a whack right in the face," ("Eda's Requiem" 6:47-8:29), which Raine later on interpreted as going behind the Emperor's back after learning that he forces magic users into specific covens. Despite neither of the two having seen each other in a long time, Eda and Raine do share immediate chemistry when interacting, judging by their copious amounts of blushing and how the one would do anything for the other, even if it means having to make an important sacrifice along the way. Their romance goes beyond a basic sexual desire and truly revolves around how much these two care about each other. Raine as a non-binary character had to be told in this manner within the narrative, relationships, and even casting, as similar to how Foucault theorized that "Homosexuality should be expressed by a homosexual. Homosexuals should speak, which constitutes a counter-discourse of true knowledge with the subject and not anonymous knowledge without the subject. Only in this way, can the freedom of another person be understood and accepted because it is of his or her own being, constitutes itself and is constituted by others as a subject who emits a truthful discourse" (Crespo 124).
There are other instances where The Owl House feature some characters part of the LGBTQ+ community. One of the supporting characters Willow is revealed to have two fathers in the first season's fifteenth episode ("Understanding Willow" 3:05-3:07), and another supporting character named Vee appears to have a crush on a non-binary character, as indicated by blushing towards them in the season three premiere ("Thanks to Them" 20:09-20:40). Despite the success of the show's representation, the third and final season got reduced to only three 44-minutes instead of the usual 10-20 episodes that Terrace hoped for. According to a Reddit post by Terrace, the official given reason that the show's final season got cut short wasn't due to the LGBTQ+ representation, nor was due to COVID, budget restraints, or low ratings. It was because "there are a few business people who oversee what fits into the Disney brand and one day one of those guys decided TOH didn't fit that "brand". The story is serialized (BARELY compared to any average anime lmao), our audience skews older" (AntagonistDana). At first, this may seem a bit unorthodox to shorten a show's run because it didn't fit the brand on the Disney Channel, which has featured other animated TV-Y7 shows that either happened to feature blood dripping from mounted animal heads ("Northwest Mansion Mystery" 6:16-6:22) or a teenage girl being stabbed in the upper torso by a flame sword from behind ("True Colors" 23:50-24:04). However, as Terrace did mention how The Owl House has a serialized narrative, it is possible that Disney preferred broadcasting animated shows that emphasized comedy first, followed by a serialized narrative. Even previous shows that Terrace had a hand in working on for Disney like Gravity Falls and Amphibia had an emphasis on comedy as the primary focus while slowly but surely featuring a narrative that would reoccur from time to time in particular episodes. Compared to The Owl House, these other shows could be watched at any time by new viewers and there wouldn't be as big of a worry of losing focus due to an overarching story. There's also factoring in that the show seems to have capture more of an older audience compared to other Disney Channel's shows that usually target the 6 to 11-year-old demographic. It also didn't help that The Owl House was pitched before Disney launched its streaming app Disney+, which could've possibly salvaged the show's final season for the older-audience it garnered and was initially intended for. However, in between the time that Terrace initially posted why the show's third season got shortened on Reddit and the premiere of Season 3, political controversy for the LGBTQ+ community was beginning to stir amongst Florida and Disney.
On March 28, 2022, Florida passed the "Parental Rights in Education" Bill. Signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, this bill prohibited the classroom teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools that ranged from kindergarten to 3rd graders. After being commenced on July 1, 2022, many members of the LGBTQ+ community criticized the bill for prohibiting education about their community's history and rights, and referred to the bill as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill. As for Disney's involvement, many criticized the company for not trying to take stance. After it passed, Disney spoke out against the bill and demanded for its repeal, also referring to it as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill. In response, DeSantis fired back at Disney for their opposition by bringing up their hypocrisy, stating in an interview that "Corporate executives do not run this state… If we would've put in the bill that you are not allowed to discuss the oppression of the Uyghurs in China, Disney would've endorsed that in a second" (Schorr). DeSantis also threatened to repeal a 1967 act that allowed the area that surrounded the Walt Disney World Resort to be its own governmental authority with the same rights and responsibility as any county government. He wasn't the only one that spoke out on Disney's hypocrisy. Terrace also brought up how frustrated she was about Disney's response to the bill, stating that "It's honestly hard to talk about this stuff. I am someone who honestly had a hard time coming to terms with my queerness till my mid-20s, because of stuff like this. Man, I know I have bills to pay, but working for this company has got me so distraught. And I hate, hate moral quandaries about how I feed myself and how I support my loved ones" (Radulovic), making her start to think that homophobia may have played a bit of a part in the show being cut short. Luckily, Disney would realize how successful The Owl House became based on how many hits the Season 3 premiere got on their official YouTube page, and despite it being too late to restore the third season, Terrace reassured the fans by saying "At first, [the executives] would see the show trending every other day on Twitter and be like, 'Oh, anyone can trend on Twitter, that doesn't actually mean anything,' but seeing the views on YouTube and seeing the people who came to New York Comic Con [gave them] a much better idea that, 'Oh no,' the show is actually successful. For the crew, it's extremely validating because we work our asses off" (Tucci), indicating that the quality of the final season will be on par with the first two. On top of all this, as far as the research of this paper has gone, there has yet to be any major news articles regarding any backlash towards The Owl House because of its LGBTQ+ representation. The only major backlash towards the show that prominently surfaced was around when it first premiered with the conservative website One Million Moms, that wanted to petition the show to be banned because as a "demonic series", it makes "light of hell and the dangers of the demonic realm", therefore being "dangerous to children" (Gramuglia).
With The Owl House defining what queer Disney characters as characters that are part of the LGBTQ+ community, but allows their unique character traits and personalities who they are rather than being queer as their only defining trait for the sake of commentary, this does beg another question: how well is Disney at representing the LGBTQ+ community after the show premiered? Well, despite some believing that Disney is really behind the times with representation, The Owl House can possibly be seen as their stepping stone in proper representation. After the show's premiere in 2020, Disney has been featuring further representation in their television shows and films. The Disney animated show Amphibia, which premiered a year prior in 2019, featured queer representation in its third and final season, which premiered in 2021. This included featuring two I.T. Gals that are "Just two Girlfriends who REALLY Love Robots!" (Moviefan12), followed by a secret government agent played by RuPaul, whose known for being the host of RuPaul's Drag Race (Ng), and finally a scene in the series finale where one of the main characters Sasha has a bisexual sticker, and Amphibia creator Matt Braly confirming that "and oh yeah Sasha Waybright is bi" (Braly). Pixar also got onboard supporting the queer community in the 2022 film Lightyear by restoring an initially cut on-screen same-sex kiss between two women (one of which is a main character) that got restored in response to the "Don't Say Gay" Bill, with the director of the film Angus Maclane stating that he's "glad there's been much support" for the scene but says he "didn't realize how significant" the moment would be (Romano). Disney would eventually join with their own in-house movies with the release of the 2022 film Strange World featuring the first gay Disney protagonist in one of their films, Ethan, who seems to have a crush on his male friend Diazo, and is even asked by his grandfather about his crush "Who is it?" rather than "What's her name?" (Puchko). Although Disney has audiences who consider their representation for the LGBTQ+ as "woke" or trying to "virtue signal", it's at least valiant to see that they are attempting to evolve and progress with society people of any sexual preferences and gender identity. It's also important not to forget that it all started with The Owl House, of which its first two seasons are available to watch now on the Disney+ streaming app. With its TV-Y7 rating, the show would be a great way for parents to teach their children about the LGBTQ+ community so that they either see if they identify with queerness or can learn to love and tolerate the community as most viewers of the show have. Perhaps it's for the best that the first representation of unambiguous LGBTQ+ representation was from an animated television show, as animation is more accessible to a younger demographic. As such, watching this show can leave a positive impact on the new generation of children to be more accepting of the queer community. With shows like The Owl House, "kids can grow up knowing that sexuality and gender aren't just 'straight' and 'cis' and they can help them discover themselves if it applies" (LeVeque). Although it's hard to say for sure if the relationship between Disney and Terrace has been soured, it does look like that Disney will at least continue exploring new ways to define queer Disney characters.
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"The Follies at the Coven Day Parade." The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, season 2, episode 11, Disney, 19 March 2022.
"Them's the Breaks, Kid." The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, season 2, episode 15, Disney, 16 April 2022.
"Through The Looking Glass Ruins." The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, season 2, episode 5, Disney, 10 July 2021.
"True Colors." Amphibia, created by Matt Braly, season 2, episode 20, Disney, 22 May 2021.
Tucci, Joseph. "Disney's 'The Owl House' creator, a CT native, talks final season, local ties." CT Insider, 20 October 2022, . .
"Understanding Willow." The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, season 1, episode 15, Disney, 1 August 2020.
"Witches Before Wizards." The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, season 1, episode 2, Disney, 17 January 2020.