June is Pride Month, and I was trying to think of something to post about, whether it’s brands doing right during Pride Month (uplifting, but done already) or Target’s disappearing Pride merchandise (significant, but probably more involved than I’m personally equipped to address and also rather a bummer) and I kept coming back to Bugs Bunny.
As one does.
Bugs Bunny has been a drag icon since before such things existed, first slipping into women’s ruffly lingerie in 1942’s “The Wabbit Who Came to Supper.” And like any Shakespearean actor worth his salt, he’s been playing both hero and bewigged love interest as needed ever since. Has he been a mermaid? A southern belle? Joséphine Bonaparte? You’re damned straight he has been.
Notably, in the more than eight decades since Bugs somehow tracked down a pair of ruffled bloomers with a tail-hole, no one has accused Bugs and/or Warner Brothers of “grooming” anyone. No one banned Bugs from library story hour on account of his drag tendencies. No one declared his drag inherently sexual — even when he was actively seducing Elmer Fudd. No one ever worried that seeing Bugs in drag would encourage kids to start donning wigs and bustiers. No one was afraid that watching “Carrotblanca” would give their kids a contact gay.
Because that’s not how gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation work. Being queer is perfectly valid, and it’s inherent, not created in an instantaneous sexual 180 triggered by a kid overhearing that sometimes dudes kiss other dudes. If that were the case, it probably wouldn’t have taken 60 years for same-sex marriage to be legalized after Bugs and Elmer tied the knot. Bugs is fine and has been fine because deep down in a place some of us aren’t willing to acknowledge, we know that what he’s been doing for 85 years now has been fine.
First of all: If you’re going to get your panties in a twist about drag, at least understand what it is.
Drag, despite ongoing conflation in current media, is not the same as being transgender. In fact, the vast majority of drag queens are gay cis men when they’re out of character. Drag is a fun and funny and not inherently sexual way of playing with gender presentation whilst performing show tunes. Can it be sexualized? Sure. So can just about any form of media. But no one freaked out when Bugs wrapped his bra around Elmer’s head in “A Corny Concerto,” and no one needs to freak out about a Sunday mid-morning drag brunch (not that it stops people from trying).
And the irony is that people sexualize their own kids all the time. We’ll dress up kids in “Lock Up Your Daughters” infant onesies, and assign them boyfriends and/or girlfriends before they’re fully potty-trained, and threaten violence against tweens’ purely hypothetical future suitors, and that’s in no way sexualizing innocent children, but god forbid Cholula Lemon should read It’s Okay to Be Different wearing a sparkly, high-necked pink dress and blazer at a public library.
It’s easy to say, “Well, it’s different. Bugs Bunny is a cartoon.” But that’s still not enough to appease some people. Roy and Silo were freaking penguins, but their Alternative Lifestyle has been enough to get And Tango Makes Three banned from libraries across the country. Everywhere Babies, a board book for literal infants, has been challenged because a few of the hand-drawn babies incidentally have same-gender parents. It’s a cliche to say “you couldn’t make this today,” but come on — you know there’s no way Bugs’s yellow crop top would make it to primetime in our current cultural climate.
… Or would it?
Second of all: Instead of creating innovative new ways to be bigoted, we can just be better.
All of this is fun and funny, of course, but there’s something important, too: LGBTQ+ individuals have existed since time immemorial — sometimes being embraced by their communities, overwhelmingly forced to hide their identities, but always been there. And to be clear, mid-to-late-20th-century America was hardly an LGBTQ+ utopia of peace and acceptance — I mean, let’s not forget that Stonewall is the reason for the season. But even in the midst of that hostility, communities weren’t seeing this bizarre amassed cohort of people collectively pee-peeing their britches over the very thought of non-cis-straightness, to the extent that they’d fight — vocally, legislatively, Target-Pride-display-trashingly — against any possible representation of life outside of an extremely specific standard for gender presentation and sexual orientation, as if queerness is some sci-fi disease spread via knowing it exists.
But we’ve seen a beloved character gender-bending his way through our hearts for 85 years now. We’ve seen him evade all the tired dude-in-a-dress gags and just be a pretty anthropomorphic lady-rabbit. We’ve watched him fool an idiot hunter over and over again just by dressing up. He’s been a touchstone for generations of LGBTQ+ people watching him wear a dress and smooch a guy and fool an idiot and come out on top.
No, one cartoon character isn’t going to bring everyone together. People who are fearful and hateful and bigoted aren’t going to suddenly become accepting and embracing just because a rabbit sometimes wore a dress. But the fact remains: If the only thing we have in common is loving a rabbit who sometimes wore a dress, we have a thing in common.
And if you’re pee-peeing your britches over a Pride display in Target, I’d better not see you in a Looney Tunes t-shirt.
Most importantly of all: Happy Pride to all who celebrate.
(Oh, and third of all: Please visit Messy Nessy Chic and CBR for the most incredible, informative, comprehensive, fascinating deep-dives into Bugs Bunny’s history as a queer icon.)
So this Pride Month, here’s to Bugs Bunny — dress-wearing, dude-marrying, proud-to-be-himself, unlikely LGBTQ+ icon Bugs. But more importantly, here’s to all the real, live-action human beings walking around, proud to be themselves, and all the people who aren’t out quite yet but will be. Thanks to all who have come before us and risked everything to get us as far as we’ve come, and may all the allies out there commit to creating a world where everyone can truly feel safe to live openly and proudly as they really are.
And if that means putting on a blue dress and luring a Confederate soldier into a room to get blown up by a cannon, all the better.
Happy Pride, y’all.