La Ron S. Readus
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The Queer Yearning of Clawhauser (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2022-11-16 21:00:04 +0000 UTCI’m gonna be 100 with you, Readers. I was starting to get a bit worried that we were never gonna get this Zootopia+ show
Don’t get me wrong; I was there for the initial announcement for it during D23
But at the rate of Disney+’s release slate for the year 2022 and all the marketing and the hype being produced for those shows as a result, I noticed that Zootopia+ wasn’t being pushed as much
But, we eventually got it and learned that just like Baymax, the Disney+ follow-up to Big Hero 6, all of the episodes would be available to stream Netflix-style upon the day of its release.
And that was because all of the episodes of Zootopia+ were pretty much 10 to 15 minute shorts, taking place during the timeline of the original movie
Now, hearing this kinda put me at ease a bit
Because I have no problem admitting that seeing THIS promo image of Chief Bogo holding a stanned out Clawhauser was what peaked my interest the most, and knowing that I could just immediately skip to the episode where this is featured made me INCREDIBLY happy
Don’t worry, I went back and watched the remaining episodes
Now the reason why I pointed that out is because, even when the original movie dropped, peeps have been shipping Clawhauser with Bogo.
And that’s despite them only having pretty much one interaction with each other, even if its something the two of them ended up having in common
Yet despite this, the Zootopia+ promo featured them together basking in what looks to be Bogo’s guilty pleasure, and Clawhauser’s not-so guilty pleasure
And when I saw that, I pretty much reacted like every other queer furry craving positive mlm representation in mainstream media.
/I even tweeted about it, for crying out loud/
So when I saw the Zootopia+ short in question “So You Think You Can Prance,” I realized that while it wasn’t quite exactly that confirmation...
The short’s overall story and how it played into the narrative of the Zootopia movie, instead provided a great way of informing its audience -- especially its queer audience -- of both the highs, lows, and important takeaways I wanna highlight for you all in today’s lesson
/And what I want to highlight is how Clawhauser’s short paints an apt picture of the inevitable heartbreak of queer yearning. Let’s begin./
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Hey, Readers. La’Ron here. Offering you analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media
If it wasn’t obvious from the intro, this video will in fact contain spoilers for both Disney’s Zootopia, and its anthology series Zootopia+. They’re both currently available to stream on Disney Plus, so give them a watch before continuing here if you haven’t seen them yet and don’t want me to spoil pivotal points of them for you in this video.
Other than that, if you end up liking what I’m putting down after this video is done, there’s multiple ways you can show some love
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That’s the syllabus. Now onto the lesson.
So What is Queer Yearning?
Well, the easiest way of breaking it down is to take the meaning of the root word and apply it through a queer lens.
In this case, the root word is “Yearning,” which is a feeling of intense longing for something.
So to paraphrase Tyra Banks from the only season of America’s Next Top Model I religiously watched from beginning to end, “Longing...but make it queer.”
As you can imagine, there are multiple ways having an intense longing for something can affect a queer person.
Safety, acceptance, the right to exist, everyday experiences that lots of straight, straight-leaning and straight-passing individuals regularly take for granted due to heteronormativity.
However, when it comes to queer yearning in fiction, all of these aspects tend to be placed under the umbrella of obtaining love, romance and affection; most of the time the queer character in question desiring said love, romance and affection in the form of another individual that better displays their queerness.
When it comes to queer yearning, making the character in question’s intense longing another individual who may or may not be queer themselves does a good job at showing the desires of safety, acceptance and belonging over the course of it if presented right.
It shows the audience the difficulty and struggle that the character in question goes through as they pine for this love that may or may not be difficult for them to achieve, due to the blockades that society has had in place regarding heteronormativity, masculinity, and the threat of emasculation when it comes to stories involving cis males.
Do I risk my safety by admitting my feelings to this man I’m head over heels for? I shouldn’t have to worry about putting myself in danger like this just because I don’t wanna be lonely when others I know don’t have to worry about these problems. I just wanna be able to hold his hand while we’re in the mall or walking down the street just like my straight friends Becky and Jonah, or my bi-slash-pan friend Trevor and his girlfriend
Chai, a full-time grad student and part-time blogger and book reviewer, said it best in their interview for the website Inverse:
/“When you’re queer, the stakes aren’t just ‘Does this person like me or return my feelings?’ It’s not just a romantic context. The stakes are your safety. The stakes are your existence. The stakes are the possibility of rejection. Your love is already transgressive.”/
This, among others I’m sure, is one of the main reasons why a lot of queer writers for film and television back in the day -- male ones specifically -- chose to write their queer yearning pieces not with a male lead, but with a female one instead.
Not only did it allow their work to be accepted by the heteronormative mainstream, but doing so allowed them a sense of catharsis said works usually allow, in a time where homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and the only way it was allowed on the silver screen was to make it a perverted villainous trait.
Then these gay male characters who were retrofitted to be straight women were played by the likes of Bette Midler, Judy Garland and other starletts from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the idolatry of queer Diva Worship took off from there.
Nowadays, queer stories where we are the focus without the need of switching the main character’s gender to appeal to straight audiences thanks to heteronormative pacification is...I don’t wanna say “No longer necessary” because I feel like that’s a bit of a lie, so I’ll say “isn’t as necessary as it was before” instead.
Now this isn’t the first time a property owned by Disney in one form or the other originally started off as a queer yearning piece, let alone one that was initially gender-flipped for the queer male writer to be replaced by a female character -- I’ll be talking about THAT one in a separate video...
I will say however, that thanks to the episode’s story supervisor and co-writer Michael Herrera being queer himself, Clawhauser’s experience in the original movie being expanded upon in ways that allows the audience to see his wants and desires explored in the short he shares with chief Bogo in Zootopia+, puts his character right at the threshold of peak queer yearning
And Here’s How It’s Done.
Now I don’t know if some of you are aware of this or not. But for those of you who aren’t, let me be the one to rip off the bandage.
Clawhauser...is queer-coded. (Pauses) I know, right? I was just as surprised to find that out as you were.
Now before I continue, I feel compelled to address two things related to this.
One. Just because his behavior and personality resembles that of male queer characters that are traditionally stereotyped as such, doesn’t make his queerness any less valid
As I stated in my video essay about heteronormativity, part of the reason why society depicts flamboyancy and femininity via men as a caricature of queer representation to the point of it being stereotyped, is because of the natural patriarchal dismissal of femininity over masculinity.
There’s also the fact that the heteronormative highlighting of femme and flamboyancy in men this way -- whether straight or queer -- perpetuates a specific fear of emasculation.
And using said fear as a form of propaganda -- even for the sake of comedy -- can steer men in a direction of proving their manhood in ways that capitalism can constantly exploit from them until they’re nothing but battered and broken husks of themselves via hegemonic masculinity.
I was gonna do a “Too Long Didn’t Read” simplification summary of what I just said. But honestly, trying to come up with a SIMPLE way of saying what I just said, is proving to be a bit more challenging than just saying it the way I did. So if anyone is capable of breaking what I said down in TLDR-speech in the comments, please feel free to do so.
So unless the representation is intentionally made with malicious intent that gives bigots more fuel for their fires of the likes of “grooming” or insatiable perversion and whatnot -- I’m looking at you Puri Puri Prisoner from One Punch Man...
The femme and flamboyant is just as important to display and celebrate, regardless of the level one displays it, and the extent that Clawhauser displays in both the Zootopia movie and the short with both his personality and basically his Diva Worship of Shakira’s fursona is no exception.
And Two. For every straight dude who is preparing to type something along the lines of “Well I’m straight and also love female pop stars like Lady Gaga in a way that’s healthier than how Clawhauser hams up being a fan of Gazelle, so it’s kinda insulting to us,” in the comment section, even though through this explanation I’m CLEARLY not talking about you, just...
/Shut the fuck up. PLEASE shut the fuck up./
In the case of Zootopia and Zootopia Plus, Clawhauser represents this form of queer-coding. Now it’s only queer coding because never is it said in either Zootopia or Zootopia+ that he’s queer or only likes men, because Disney.
And you would think that thanks to Zootopia+ being exclusive content on a streaming service like Disney+, more leeway in declaration of representation would be provided since they don’t have to worry about appeasing overseas audiences to get the highest box office numbers possible.
But that’s put to bed when you explore their catalogue and see that their kid-friendly remake of the reality show The Quest, also a Disney+ exclusive, features a real-life queer teen in it that -- thanks to editing -- only hints at his sexuality whenever he’s sharing his experiences being out and proud at school before the show with the other contestants.
So while it’s never explicitly said that Clawhauser is queer, those of us who are fans of the Zootopia franchise and experience this kind of censorship in the past to the point where we only have context clues to work with, kinda KNOW he’s queer.
And this goes double for the co-writer and story supervisor for the Zootopia+ episode “So You Think You Can Prance” Michael Herrera -- once again, who is queer himself -- who clearly wanted to celebrate Clawhauser’s queerness in the series after blatantly seeing it in the movie in the form of him dreaming of being a backup dancer for his favorite pop star Gazelle
But what makes Clawhauser’s situation queer yearning however -- especially in how the short expands on his experience in the movie as a whole -- is that it solidifies his desire -- his longing -- to not only romantically be with police chief Bogo, but to see him emancipated from the universe’s version of hegemonic masculinity in order for him to do so.
As we know from the initial movie, Bogo -- the african buffalo chief of police voiced by Idris Elba -- is a bit of a hardass. And thanks to what the movie tells us about what all is demanded from him, he’s kinda forced to be.
He answers directly to the mayor of Zootopia, both Leodore Lionheart and eventually Dawn Bellwether, implying the overall stress of someone in his position constantly deals with on a bureaucratic level.
He also has an image to uphold regarding the ZPD in order to keep up that bureaucratic appeal, with the majority of the officers being large and imposing figures on both the predator and prey sides of the animal kingdom; Bogo himself factoring into the prey category considering he belongs to a species of herbivores.
As you know, these type of societal expectancies and personal ideals that branch from said expectancies build up over time when someone -- a man -- is constantly directed to equate their usefulness to society to their very masculinity
And if not realized, the way it grows can be pretty toxic if not made aware or no personal decision to change is put into place.
In Bogo’s case, this is reinforced when he fails to see Judy’s talent upon her joining the force thanks to not meeting the standards he set for his officers before her arrival, and then attempting to have her fired for disobeying his orders and undermining his authority. That is, before the same bureaucratic authority that gave it to him in the first place forces him to keep her on board thanks to her tenacity to prove herself.
And that’s not even mentioning the overall generalization he makes about foxes being sly and untrustworthy when Nick stands up for Judy in the Rainforest District
Though to be fair, if we were going with FURRY generalizations, foxes would be stereotyped for something COMPLETELY different...
Listen, if you know, you know. I’m not risking the monetization of my channel just to put y’all up on info of a fandom I belong to that you barely care about if you’re not roasting it. That joke was for me and my fellow furry Readers watching this video; lose me with that foolishness
All this to say, that when we find out in the movie that Bogo himself is ALSO a fan of Gazelle by Clawhauser stumbling upon him using the same official app that HE uses, and tries to HIDE and DENY it, the repression is tangible
Because while it’s up in the air whether or not Bogo is queer, the fact that he feels the need to hide the fact that he’s a fan of a female pop star that queer men would definitely idolize, shows how much he believes just dipping his toes into something that doesn’t immediately translate as conventionally masculine according to how he usually conveys it to the importance of his work as police chief, shows how much of a hold it has on him. Especially when it comes to his own happiness and mental health.
After all, the only time he has EVER smiled or has shown himself being happy over the course of the movie is when he’s alone, on the app without the eyes of those who would judge him or label him as something else peering over his shoulder.
If anything, thanks to where the short “So You Think You Can Prance” takes place in the film’s timeline, Clawhauser stumbling upon Bogo on the app pretty much acts as a confirmation that there’s hope in the deeply rooted message of his dream
That Bogo -- the only officer out of the entire precinct that responded to Clawhauser’s call for backup -- is capable of shedding the hold that hegemonic masculinity has had on him in multiple ways over the course of his life and career with a little help from someone that doesn’t necessarily follow the societal structure to a T. And in finally shedding that hold, will possibly allow Bogo to look at Clawhauser in a light that he always wanted Bogo to look at him in.
That, theydies and gentlethems, is true queer yearning
And I know this, because I have experienced it IRL plenty of times
I’ve felt the yearning to be with another man that I’ve developed strong feelings for through a deep friendship, notice that there’s a want to break free of the limitations society places on men within them, and want to be the one to show them that they care more about being straight than being happy, hoping that I would help solidify said happiness upon them realizing that truth.
So I get it; I completely get what Clawhauser experienced in that Zootopia+ short.
/And from what I’ve seen of the fanbase that ship Clawhauser and Bogo, and others who worked on the anthology and support said ship, I’m not the only one/
However, it’s because I both experienced it in real life and know how it plays out in fiction, I ALSO know that queer yearning -- most of the time for the side of the yearner...
Typically Ends In Tragedy
While the end credits of Zootopia shows everyone attending a Gazelle concert, and both Clawhauser and Bogo dancing together to help fuel the shippers fire now that we know the two have stanning the pop star in common, one must remember what happened in the movie BEFORE this breath of fresh air as well as the short that solidifies Clawhauser’s queer yearning in the film’s timeline.
When Clawhauser woke up from his dream, what prompted him to go to Bogo’s office to find out he’s a fan of Gazelle in the first place was Judy reporting that she found all of the missing predators.
This resulted in the arrest of Mayor Lionheart, which was immediately followed by the spreading of misinformation regarding the predators of Zootopia going savage, thanks to the press release given by Judy Hopps based on her personal beliefs and experiences that mirrors the real-life actions of white liberalism.
/And thanks to said propaganda being escalated across the city increasing the prejudice of predators, we find out that it’s even affected the Zootopia Police Department. Because while Judy is being escorted by chief Bogo to meet the now Mayor Bellwether -- the mastermind behind using drugs to revert the predators of Zootopia to a savage state -- she runs across a depressed Clawhauser, packing up his stuff because he’s being reassigned./ (They thought it would be better if a predator such as myself wasn’t the first face that you see when you walk into the ZPD)
And while we see Judy experience a proper wave of emotions when she realizes how her previous words impacted the livelihood of an innocent such as Clawhauser, we have to remember that Bogo -- the target of Clawhauser’s affections according to the now canon short that took place before this -- ALSO passed Clawhauser as he was packing his things, and no changes were made in his expression upon seeing the sadness on the cheetah’s face to show that he cared about the situation.
Almost as if what Clawhauser experienced through his dream reinforcing his queer yearning for Bogo that was reinforced as possible in reality when he saw Bogo not be restricted to societal pressures of one having to constantly prove their masculinity, was simply wishful thinking.
Now I’m not saying that it IS wishful thinking, because listen. Fairy Godmother Whitney Houston said it best: Impossible things are happening everyday
But as a queer man who has experienced the same type of queer yearning that Clawhauser has experienced in the Zootopia+ short, and has also had his heart broken when the seeds that were planted by the labor I constantly put in did not produce the expected crops -- if ANY -- let me be the one to inform those of you that may have looked at this expansion of Clawhauser’s situation in relation to your own that your time, dedication and love is wanted -- desired even -- elsewhere.
While the object of your yearning may show an inkling of possibility, they cannot truly change unless they want to.
And even IF they want to, and they want you to be the one to help them make said change, you have no idea how much of YOUR life will be wasted just holding on to the possibility that they will eventually see you in the light that you want them to see you in if you do.
Now, I can’t say say this in regards to modern-day queer literature that utilizes queer yearning in its narrative, because I haven’t read any that applies it as a positive. If you have, feel free to recommend it to me in the comment section.
But the reason why I say that queer yearning usually ends in tragedy is because the character participating in the yearning -- whether the character is properly represented as the same sex as the author or is gender-flipped to make it more applicable to heteronormativity -- usually suffers a heartache that reflects the turmoil that the author is going through, and a lot of said characters die from it.
A great example of this type of death by heartache ala queer yearning is Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake; the famous russian ballet that depicts the cursed Swan Princess -- the gender-flipped avatar of openly gay Tchaikovsky doing a queer yearning -- falling for a prince that was later seduced by another who looked exactly like her, and fell into such a state of depression that she decided to take her own life depending on the version you’ve seen.
/James Somerton actually did a very well-done video regarding the subject, and how the film Black Swan speaks to the queer interpretation of perfection as a result. I definitely recommend you give it a watch once you’re done with this/
And while I am fully aware that things get better for Clawhauser in the movie once Bellwether is brought to justice and the possibility of he and Bogo is once again restored by the end of the movie, that one truth about how queer yearning usually ends with the Zootopia+ short showing us an instant of it in the first place was pretty much impossible to avoid thanks to the very narrative of the movie.
Conclusion
Listen, Readers; well, the Readers that this applies to. I KNOW that it sounds like I’m basically using this whole video to basically say “He’s not worth it, honey.” I KNOW that’s what it sounds like. But there are so many people out there who ARE worth it, and you owe it to yourself to experience what it’s like to not allow your own story to be a tragedy.
And if your Bogo eventually gets to where they need to be in order to see you in the way you always wanted them to see you, that’s great! That’s wonderful! I’m so happy that they finally figured it out, because it’s never too late to do so! That doesn’t mean you have to put your life on pause while you wait for them to catch up
You owe it to yourself -- to your inner Clawhauser -- to not let your love or your ability to love become a tragic inevitability. Especially when there are so many people out there that CAN look at you the way Bogo looks at Clawhauser, and not be ashamed to show it
But, I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what YOUR favorite episode of Zootopia+ is if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a queer yearning story you’ve read or seen that you didn’t realize was a queer yearning story until recently.
Also, don’t worry; I WILL be making a video about THAT queer yearning story. I’m just...waiting until the release date of the live action movie gets a bit closer.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
/A HUGE shoutout to my Patrons both big and small for helping make this channel possible.
Make sure you check out the card at the end of the video to join, or click the link to it or any of my affiliates in the description box below.
But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed./
