Saudi Arabia gets “banning Doctor Strange 2 for having a gay character” out of the way nice and early
The Gulf country reportedly banned the film over the presence of Xochitl Gomez's America Chavez
Aux News Doctor Strange 2
We’re still nearly two weeks out from the release of Marvel’s latest cinematic offering, the Sam Raimi-directed Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Still, you know what they say: The early bird gets to continue to run a stridently anti-LGBTQ+ regime, and so it’s not wholly surprising to learn that Saudi Arabia has already gone ahead and gotten banning the film from arriving on its shores out of the way.
This is per THR, which notes that this is just the latest major film release that’s been banned from the country (and several others in the Gulf region) for the heinous (and depressingly literal) crime of including a gay character amongst its roster. (In this case, Xochitl Gomez’s America Chavez, a dimension-hopping hero who’s gay in Raimi’s film, just as she has been in the comics ever since being introduced back in 2011.) Homosexuality is illegal in a number of Gulf counties, leading Doctor Strange to just be the latest film banned for including even Disney-friendly amounts of LGBTQ+ content within its reels—see also Eternals, and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which was blocked from release across the Gulf due to the presence of a trans character.
At the risk of giving Disney—currently embroiled in its own home-grown issues with the Florida state government over its sometimes less than enthusiastic push against anti-gay representation legislation in the state—too much credit, it’s so far refused to back down when confronted with foreign governments calling for LGBTQ+ content to be removed from films, despite losing access to a number of lucrative foreign markets in the process. (Contrast with Warner Bros., which gave in to Chinese demands to cut six seconds of content confirming that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers in the recent Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore.)
China, as always, will be the biggest test of the company’s willingness to stick to its guns; Disney has skipped the nation for several recent releases, including last year’s Marvel movies Black Widow, Eternals, Shang-Chi, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
43 Comments
They’ve got a point; every other culture that’s acknowledged the existence of gay people has collapsed and no longer exists.
That’s why the the nation’s collective uncles will live forever.
You mean Uncle Vanya fro Leningrad?
Now imagine my gay ass, in the non existent US, reading this comment and laughing my ass off.
True and it’s a proven fact that if you outlaw being gay that no one ever will be gay. Saudi Arabia is full of manly men who insist almost all activity is separate from women because they are doing manly things like jerking each other off, in a very manly way. It’s as manly and non-gay as an all boys catholic school.
I’m not gay; that guy was sucking MY cock!
You joke but in places where homosexual sex is illegal that is often a defense in court. “I’m not gay! That evil homosexual seduced me and sucked my dick”. Another gross defense that has been known to be thrown out by married men is that it’s their wives fault for not satisfying their needs.
https://www.theonion.com/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock-1819583529
Keeping the always-lustful women away from the always-horny men is the KSA’s biggest hypocritical bullshit.
Your comment made my day lol
I know this is a serious issue, but I was REALLY hoping when I clicked on this article to find out that the gay character in question was Shuma-Gorath.
Maybe if they made the Dark Dr. Strange gay, the Saudis would allow it. He’s evil, and gay, and evilly gay!
Given Disney’s prior, successful history of gay-coded villains, yeah, I’m betting they’d be cool with it.
Hey, that interdimensional tentacle monster is more than just his sexuality!
Also, it occurred to me that some people might bitch that Shuma-Gorath’s appearance in this is a ripoff of Starro’s appearance in The Suicide Squad. Historically, Starro first appeared in 1960 and S-G in 1973, but of course the notion is silly; S-G is a core Strange villain and Marvel almost certainly planned for him to appear in the movie long before they knew that Starro was in TSS.
Also, that’s not Shuma-Gorath, it’s Gargantos! First appearance 1969.
Shuma-Gorath with the serial numbers filed off!Okay, okay, I know it’s a whole rights issue and such, I just wanted to say “Shuma-Gorath with the serial numbers filed off”
Plus, Starro is a pretty standard Silver Age science fiction alien, while Shuma is a Bronze Age literary allusion. They don’t really even share DNA.
Shuma-Gorath isn’t in the movie, his rights are tied up with whoever is running the Robert E Howard estate these days. That lookalike monster is Gargantos, a sea monster from Sub-Mariner comics in the late 60s.
Pretty sure they’re calling him Gargantos, but that he’ll be Shuma-Gorath in all but name, it. a transdimensional threat as opposed to a sea monster.
It’s only the name of Shuma-Gorath that has rights issues. Everything else about the character is owned by Marvel. Shuma-Gorath’s name first cropped up in a list of demons or elder gods rattled off by a character in formerly unpublished Howard work finished by another author and published in the 1960s. He was never described or depicted in that work. It seems that this rights issue only seems to relate to films as the character is still called Shuma-Gorath in the comics and has shown up by that name in non-comics media such as the Marvel vs. Capcom video games.
Everybody knows it’s Gargantos AND Gargantos is gender fluid. That’s cannon.
I just assume Goofy blew Donald in the title screen
I’m amazed how little attention West Side Story got for having a scene where a transgender character kicks the asses of like four or five cops.
Not enough people saw the movie for there to be an outrage over it lol
Harsh, but fair. And accurate.
That’s what makes it “fantasy”?
I would assume the crossover of people who hate the gay/trans community enough to complain about a movie and the people who watch musicals are 2 very separate circles.
It’s so strange (ha!) to me that if this film didn’t have a gay character in it, like, Saudi Arabia would justbe cool with it. It’s a dude in a cape distorting literal time and space, fighting off giant Lovecraftian tentacle monsters with magic, and this draconic society in the desert is like “we are totally fine with all of that”. But if a lady kisses another lady, watch out – gotta keep that stuff hidden from the kiddos.
Religion is a tool to hold the (poor) masses in check.
Yeah it’s real funny to me that they’re not particularly concerned about the sorcery or polytheism…
In other news, water is wet.
Saudi Arabia 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Super petty correction, but I think she was only revealed to be a lesbian in 2014, under Kieron Gillen, shortly before he revealed that basically everyone else in his run of Young Avengers was LGB… Aside from maybe one token straight character, who could still textually be bi.I feel like in her first 2011 appearance the character was sort of aggressively straight?
Is Eli bi?
Yup. When she first appeared in Vengeance she was in a romantic relationship with a guy named “Ultimate Nullifier.”
What about Doctor Rosenpenis?
Homosexuality is illegal in a number of Gulf counties, leading Doctor Strange to just be the latest film banned for including even Disney-friendly amounts of LGBTQ+ content within its reels—see also Eternals, and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which was blocked from release across the Gulf due to the presence of a trans character.Know what else is illegal in Saudi Arabia? Practicing witchcraft/sorcery, which is punishable by death.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Saudi_Arabia#WitchcraftBut apparently the Saudis were willing to overlook that.
It’s because the “sorcery” is obviously not real. If the red hot lesbian action in this movie was all CG then they’d be OK with it.One supposes.
It is so embarrassing that we are still somewhat beholden to the medieval theocracy of Saudi Arabia. It is decades past the time for a Marshall Plan/Moonshot/total mobilization to rid us of the petroleum economy and build a true renewable and hydrogen based energy economy.Let the Saudis eat sand until they can act like decent human beings.
Also, as Saudi Arabia’s embrace of Russia during this current crisis shows, the alliance only goes one way.
Agreed in principle, but Marshall Plan-esque ain’t going to work there. Totally agreed with cutting them off at the knees via “new” energy. The country will still take considerable time to die, and the least deserving will be among the first to suffer, and there will be a backlash among fundies, but hey. Still worth it.
And remember kiddos this is the republican parties goal. They want us to be like that