Poe’s Point > Who cares if He-Man’s gay?

he-man

Running beneath the bilge water that makes up the majority of the Mattycollector Facebook comments wall is a disturbing undercurrent of homophobia.

The LGBT community has been loosely associated with He-Fans and She-Ravers for a while now, but as He-Man.org founder Val Staples wrote recently, “I don’t think He-Man.org has any more gay fans than any other community for any other ’80s cartoon and/or toy. It’s just that more gay fans feel comfortable being who they are here because they know they aren’t going to be attacked for being who they are.”

While I think Val is right that gay fans feel comfortable at He-Man.org, I do think there may be a slightly higher-than-average number of gay fans of He-Man and She-Ra, for a variety of reasons–but that’s really neither here nor there.

The homophobia that shows up on Facebook and elsewhere is primarily centered around the idea that He-Man is gay. Now, I won’t be a hypocrite and say I’ve never made a humorous allusion or two to the fact that Prince Adam wears purple tights and a pink vest and  frequently transforms into an oiled-up, half-naked muscle man with “fabulous powers” and a bouncin’ and behavin’ blond bob. The important thing is, if some canonical source revealed He-Man was gay, I wouldn’t care–he’s a hero no matter what his sexual orientation happens to be.

That said, the preponderance of the evidence does point to him being into women. While the 1980s cartoon was very, very sanitized for a pre-adolescent audience, the early comics–particularly the DC Comics miniseries–were a tad more adult in tone. In the first issue of the miniseries, we find Adam employed in that most famous of medieval pastimes: good old-fashioned wenching.

heman_wench

(Of course, that last line makes Adam sound sexist, but we’ll save that ball of wax for another time.)

And then there was all that flirting between Prince Adam and Teela on the 2002 cartoon. Or maybe he’s bisexual–maybe everyone on Eternia is bisexual and it’s no big thing.

Hold on–I just had an image of an orgy involving Fisto, Double Trouble, and Ram-Man and their respective action features. Must wash mind’s eye…

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20 Comments

  1. @Andrew – “but if He-Man were gay, I would have difficulty identifying with the character. I’m not gay,”

    I can’t say that I’ve ever identified with He-Man. I’ve always thought the entire concept was goofy, and the action figures a little odd. I love a lot of the character designs, but I can’t find anything in the setting that I would say I identify with.

  2. Jim

    @Prfkttear: LOL LOL 😀

  3. NoisyDvL5

    @Monkey boy, thanks for saying most of what I wanted to.

    He-Man can be a gay icon and not be gay. There was a thread on the .org not to long about the very topic about him being a gay icon which was instantly filled up with "He-Man is NOT gay" posts, when that has nothing to do with him being a gay icon. Judy Garland is THE gay icon (though I've never entirely figured that one out).

  4. finkrod

    Wouldn't bother me in the least if he is/isn't gay. To be fair, I have always pretty much exclusively collected the villain figures anyway. But it wouldn't make me think any less of the franchise or the heroic nature of the He-Man.

    Let's be honest, Luke Skywalker being gay hasn't hurt Star Wars at all, so why would a gay He-Man hurt MOTU?

  5. Andrew

    I hesistate to say this, because I think people will probably just try to use it make me seem homophobic . . . but if He-Man were gay, I would have difficulty identifying with the character. I'm not gay, I don't have any gay friends or family members, and if the one person I've ever met who is gay hadn't come out and said so, I would be able to say I don't know any gay people at all.

    It just . . . doesn't have any meaning for me. Like, I know the shallow surface facts, but nothing more. It's not a part of my life.

    And so it'd just be that there's this huge element to this character and stories you'd tell about him that just wouldn't have any meaning to me. They'd just be there, but they wouldn't be for me.

    It's not the same. Maybe it should be, but it isn't. It's ill-serving and ill-informed to pretend that this sort of thing doesn't add different connotations.

  6. monkey boy

    i think he-man is kind of like seized on as a gay icon in the same way spongebob is. he's never really carried on a serious on-camera relationship, he's got behavior that indicates homosexuality (spongebob's effeminate and flamboyant ways, he-man's oiliness/adam's fashion sense), but as its a kids cartoon sexuality is never really brought up beyond kiddie crushes and flirting. it's not that anyone seriously thinks the character's gay, necessarily, it's just a way of subverting the character by making you question it. i think it's sort of to get people to ask themselves "well, what if he was gay? does that change him? he's been there all along. why would he be any different if he was?"

    jk rowling really took this another step after she explicitly outed dumbledore from the harry potter books. i definitely applaud her for that. take a series of books that are almost universally beloved, and take the most righteous, respected character, and say "surprise! he's gay. it doesn't change his nobility or honor at all, and he's still just as courageous and wonderful as he was before…but gay!"

    i think a lot of the he-man gay jabs are kind of to stick it to people who look up to him as an icon of machismo. kind of like what people insist on doing with the whole batman/robin thing.

  7. The Flash III

    If you go by the Filmation cartoon, I think there is a lot of evidence; there was even a segment on one of the "I Love the 80s" on VH1. I mean, if you are gay and you want a name that is all about men, can you do better than "He-Man"? I enjoyed the cartoon, though it was definitely for little kids–I mean 15 brawny men and women fighting with swords, whips, tridents and such and no one gets even a cut? At any rate, He-Man can be homosexual–who cares?

  8. hah Mark. You can't agree with someone who can't have romantic/sexual feelings about the opposite sex? It's not really a choice.

    Oh man, I can't wait to see the can of worms I just opened up.

  9. Mark

    I kind of thought Bow was into Glimmer when I was young.

  10. Evi-lyn on She-Ra on Catra action, booyeah!

  11. He-Man the character isn't gay. The Filmation version acts gay, but not be design. Watch one or two of those old eps now and don't tell me there ain't some gay undertones.

    But overall, no He-Man isn't gay. He-Man obviously has a bigger gay fanbase than most. Which is odd, but not entirely.

    My favorite thing about Filmation's He-Man being gay is this parody video on Youtube:


  12. Replicant

    Pink was an "in" color for guys in the 80's. I think a lot of the gayness associated with He-Man goes back to the filmation cartoon. I always thought that He-Man was in to Teela. Bow's hetero stat though is definitley in question.

  13. Mark

    I tolerate gays, I have nothing against them and a friend of mines is gay, but I still do not agree with it.

  14. Mark

    Wearing pink did not make Adam gay, Bret Hart wore pink all the time is he gay? No.

  15. Mark

    He-Man is not gay!

  16. Jim

    I think this just came about because of the dumb ass filmation decisions made when the cartoon was created.

    If they made everything like the very first mini comics which made him look like a womanizer, there would be no talk at all about this. Not saying being a womanizer is right…just saying that this only began because of all the idiots at Filmation.

    I love MOTU for the minicomics not the dumbass filmation toon. Boring…corny…worst cartoon ever in my opinion.

    I mean Filmation making Adam look the way he looked? I blame ppl that have something against gays but I don't blame people for thinking Adam is gay. Ppl just have ammunition to piss ppl off on matty collector because of filmations screw up.

    What pisses me off is WHY NOT JUST HAVE THE FILMATION HEMAN SAY HE"S GAY…instead of all this is he or isn't he business? It's like Filmation was REALLY implying he was gay with Adam's outfit.

    I have gay friends as well, but I don't like the filmation toon…NOT because Adam looks gay but because the toon is HORRIBLE. lol

    You can bet ppl will have a TON more gay comments to make when or IF the Adam figure comes out (no pun intended).

    Fans bickering about this stuff should only blame Filmation for all the ruckus.

  17. Poe

    There was one troll a few weeks back who was definitely pushing the homophobia on the Facebook page. It was actually commented upon by some other readers here.

    @Paul: I haven't seen it, but I'll look it up.

    Fun fact: I originally was going to make this post a list called "5 Reasons He-Man Probably Isn't Gay," but I couldn't find five compelling reasons. As Rob of Topless Robot said when I told him about it, "I'd try an easier task, like metal teleportation or something."

  18. Scott

    I'm not saying I think it's right. I'm just saying that's what I think people are doing.

  19. Scott: I hate that people (including me sometimes, which I'm ashamed of) call something being gay meaning it is "stupid" or "dumb", because I have gay friends and relatives. Being gay should not be a negative.

    Poe: You ever see the video of He-Man singing the 4 Non-blondes song? It's one of my favorite viral videos of all time.

  20. Scott

    I don't think it's that people literally think he's gay. They just use it as a derogatory term to basically say "He-Man sucks". It's like how people use "retarded" to mean stupid.

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