6/17/2023 0 Comments Bugs bunny![]() And these queer acts have continued through Bugs’ decades-long spotlight in the media. So when asking for his autograph, the “bobby soxer” puts a bomb in his hands. He dressed as a bobby soxer (a 1940s enthusiastic teenager, often a fan of Frank Sinatra) to get back at opera singer Giovanni Jones (yes named after Chuck Jones), who had grown frustrated by Bugs interrupting his rehearsal. But while live action stuck to these “family-friendly” standards, animation became a field for increased experimentation.Ī History of Bugs Bunny in Drag, From the Chuck Jones Museum in Santa Fe © Tory FinkĪs Melanie Kohnen, an associate professor of rhetoric and media studies, told Insider, “People actually found ways of inserting queerness into cartoons and stretched the boundaries of the Production Code because animation in itself is a medium that already lends itself to surrealness or strange situations.”Ĭrucially, Bugs was aware of the fact that as a woman, he would be underestimated, and no one would expect his conniving plans. Interestingly enough, Bugs became sexually liberated during an era when the 1930 Hays Code banned “sex perversion or any inference to it” and self-censorship abounded after the establishment of the Federal Communications Commission and the first set of commercial TV regulations. These characters - from a mermaid to a cancan dancer to a Viking - were not making fun of femininity, but in fact, showing how it could be a source of power to get what you wanted. Often the seductress in outfits worthy of a magazine pinup (and always with bright red lipstick), Bugs successfully charmed his archenemy and could live another day. Most often, the costumes were a tool in the constant game of cat and mouse (or rabbit) between Bugs and Elmer Fudd, the hunter always on his tail. Most importantly, pretending to be a woman was never just the butt of a joke. While wearing women’s clothing was often a way for Bugs to get out of a sticky situation, his unabashed gender-bending also became part of his personality. In fact, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, he’s the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world. With his signature catchphrase “Eh…What’s up, doc?” he became the mascot for Warner Bros. The character dates back to the 1930s, starring in Looney Tunes as a mischievous, wise-cracking rabbit with an innocuous Brooklyn accent. With all this talk about what is and what isn’t appropriate for children to see, now is an opportune time for a brief compendium of Bugs Bunny in drag.Ĭhuck Jones, one of the creators of the “Wascally Wabbit” admitted in the ‘90s that he always imagined Bugs as a “transexual” (a word that we of course don’t use anymore, but was the language he had for trans folks back then). Cartoon character not only experimented with gender presentation but also married a man in at least three cartoons, in the 1950s. Celebrities from Judy Garland to Madonna to Lady Gaga have been granted the title “gay icon,” but there’s one often-forgotten figure who deserves a spot on this list: Bugs Bunny.
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