There seems to be one demographic that Agatha Harkness cannot cast a spell over: right-wing talking heads.
While speaking about Agatha All Along during a Tuesday segment, panelists on the talk show Chris Plante: The Right Squad, which airs on conservative news network Newsmax, lambasted the the Disney+ program for its LGBTQ+ characters and content, according to a transcript published by Media Matters.
Host Chris Plante began the segment by calling Disney+ “a channel for children” and bemoaning the fact that many creatives tied to the series have touted it as Marvel’s gayest Marvel series ever.
“Joe Locke says that the show is proof that the Marvel Universe isn't just for straight men anymore. I hadn't really been concerned about that myself,” the host said, before repeating the tired right-wing “gays are recruiting children” myth. “Again, it’s the kids, it’s ‘we’re targeting the kids,’ and ‘it’s the gayest thing,’ and it’s, you know, it’s a recruiting video, I think.”
In response, co-host Jason Nichols initially seemed to go to bat for the series and even suggested that Locke’s statement was “in jest.”
“Gay people do exist,” Nichols said. “You don't have to act like they don’t exist in film.”
But Nichols added that if the show is not meant for kids, “they should make sure that people know that it’s inappropriate for children.” The suggestion that Agatha All Along may be inappropriate — despite Nichols himself admitting that he hasn’t seen it — falls in line with a frequent right-wing talking point, commonly used to ban books, that conflates the mere presence of LGBTQ+ characters with inappropriate sexuality.
Plante went on to invoke such rhetoric regarding books intended for children. “We’ve seen it in the schools and the books and the libraries and the gender queer and the graphic novels, and it’s always the children,” he said. “Nobody cares, you know, gay people have been in film, everybody knows it, and television for decades and generations, but it's always the kids.”
Co-host Mercedes Schlapp, whose husband is the political activist Matt Schlapp, continued to hammer home the misleading point that all Disney+ content is intended for children, despite Disney itself marketing the streaming platform as having a mix of content aimed at children and adults, including an “adult animation” collection.
“It's shocking to me that Disney, this obsession with sexuality and sex,” she said. “Go back to storytelling, go back to the innocence of children. That's really where they should focus on,” Schlapp said.
In the weeks leading up to Agatha’s premiere, several stars of the witchy series have touted its queer bonafides. Locke, who plays the gay character “Teen” in the series (and is gay himself), said that the show represents progress in depictions of queer characters. “There’s no part of this series that hides his queerness,” he told SFX Magazine, in comments reprinted by Pink News. “There are lots of scenes and it’s a big part of him, but also it’s not the main part of him.”
When asked directly about the series being touted as Marvel’s gayest project yet on the red carpet, bicon Aubrey Plaza, who plays witch Rio Vidal, said, “It better be, cuz that’s what I signed up for.” She also told Variety, “It will be a gay explosion by the end of it.”
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Even prior to the series’ recent debut, right-wing media outlets seized upon the budding narrative around the show’s queerness in an attempt to generate controversy. In reporting about Agatha, conservative outlet The Daily Wire pointed out that The Acolyte, the Disney+ series set in the Star Wars universe that featured a lesbian space coven, was quickly canceled after its premiere
Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg said on social media in August that the cancellation was “not a huge shock” given that the cast received a “rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol” shortly after its premiere. The Acloyte was also subject to a review-bombing campaign that tanked its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
With Plante’s segment, we’re yet to see if other right-wing pundits pick up on the show and sic the “anti-woke” mob on the show. Currently, Agatha All Along has not yet been the subject of a review-bombing campaign, with an audience score sitting at 75%. In other words: witch, please.
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