Masculinities in a “Strange World” - Disney and the positive representation of non-heterosexual black men

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the experiences and interactions between masculinities using as a reference point a non-heterosexual black adolescent, the character Ethan Clade from the Disney animation "Strange World". Given the social markers he carries, we find an opportunity to discuss the plurality of masculinities present in the social body, grounding ourselves in discussions about gender, as well as a discussion about the impacts of media on the formation of black and non-heterosexual men, using the fields of Cultural Studies and Visual Culture Studies. As a methodological approach, we employ the set of analytical procedures that guide visual investigations PROVOKE. To organize the text, we initially discuss identity construction, followed by the presentation of the object of analysis and a deepening into issues of gender, masculinities, race, and sexuality, to subsequently analyze two scenes from the film. We conclude the writing by considering the potentiality of the positive representation of a body seen as a dissident.