Does In a Heartbeat sexualize children? - Topic Tuesday
In a Heartbeat is an animated short film by Beth David and Esteban Bravo. In less time than it takes for me to make a cup of coffee, this film depicts a love story between Sherwin and Jonathan. It shows Sherwin pining away for Jonathon so much that his literal heart jumps from his chest and takes off toward Jonathon, causing Sherwin to get some bumps and bruises trying to get it back. At one point, the heart is holding on to both Sherwin and Jonathon's hands, trying it's best to pull them together, but instead ends up broken in two. The film ends with Jonathon returning to Sherwin half of his broken heart and you see Jonathon's heart swell up indicating that he too has a crush on Sherwin.
Let me just say, I have never felt so many emotions in such a short amount of time in my life. I fell in love with these characters almost as fast as they fell in love with each other. It's a beautiful story, amazing animation, and so simple and pure. After I watched it about 5 more times, I finally wiped the goofy grin off my face, and did what I suggest no person ever do, went to the comment section.
This short film was released on July 31 and was all over my Facebook feed. In mom groups people shared it with captions like "What is your opinion on this? Personally, I feel it's wrong, we shouldn't sexualize children like this, let them be kids" or something extremely similar. When you looked at the comment section, it was all the same.
"Stop sexualizing children."
"Children can't be gay."
"Kids shouldn't be thinking about sex and falling in love."
I started to wonder if I had watched a different video then almost all of these people. The boys in the short film don't so much as kiss let alone have sex. To me it felt like they were the ones sexualizing the school aged boys, not the film, and I wasn't wrong.
Walk into any store that carries baby or children's clothing and I guarantee that you will find at least one piece of clothing that says something along the lines of Daddy says I can't date until I'm 30 for little girls and Parental Advisory: Lock up your daughters/wives for boys. I have seen these exact sayings on onesies for babies as young as newborns. Scroll through your Facebook feed for a while and I bet at some point a friend of a friend of yours has posted a picture of their darling little baby girl not much older than 8 months sitting next an equally darling baby boy of the same age with a caption that reads something like "Little Susie and her first boyfriend! We are already planning the wedding!" Of course, little Susie has no idea what a boyfriend or a wedding is and the only reason she reached out to touch the little boy was because he was holding the toy she wanted, but everyone in the room still squealed like it was the most important thing little Susie has ever done in her short 8 months of life.
From the day they are born children are sexualized by the very same people in the comment section on Facebook who are complaining about two little boys in an animated short film having a crush on each other. In A Heartbeat was just about the most pure and realistic depiction of having a crush I have ever seen, and the fact that it was between two boys makes it even better. The truth is, school aged children can and are sometimes gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or even transgender. They have crush's, they fall in love, and they get their heart's broken. It's all about growing up and learning. This is important for all kids, not just the heterosexual ones. In fact, it's especially important for young gay kids to see wonderfully made things like this. It's imperative for them to know that what they are feeling and experiencing is just as wonderful and real as it is for their classmates who happens to feel that same way for someone of the opposite sex.
I don't think it needs to be said that sexuality and how we experience attraction isn't something a person chooses. I didn't choose to be bisexual just as much as you didn't choose to be whatever you are. I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who were open and honest and would love me regardless of who I loved. It made it that much easier when I had my first crush on a girl. I can remember it like it was yesterday. My mom simply said, "Do you like this girl, like do you have a crush on her?" and without hesitation, I said "Yes." When that same girl I had a crush on became my girlfriend, my parents welcomed her into our home like it was the most normal thing to do, because it was. In fact, my mom liked her so much that even after we broke up, some two years later after we graduated, she still kept up with her and how she was doing in college and such. I was an extremely lucky teenager.
It isn't like this for everyone. I know people my age who still have never told their parents the truth about them, because they know it wouldn't be something that is accepted. That's why films like this are so important and why it's not enough to tell our children that we will love them no matter what, we need to be more specific. Whenever someone says my son is going to grow up to break all the girls hearts I correct them first by saying, "No, he will break no hearts" and also by adding "And if he does, those hearts could belong to a boy or a girl or whoever."
Heteronormative sexualization of babies and children are damaging. A short film about a little boy having a crush on another little boy isn't. The amount of people who saw this film and whose first thought was that the children depicted in it were being sexualized, is the reason those of is who fight for LGBT+ rights know we still have a long way to go. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, or anything that isn't heterosexual is still seen as something that's dirty by a large population of the world. What those people didn't see in the movie is that, those boys weren't having sex or even kissing, they were falling in love and love and sex are two different things. This is how homophobic people rationalize their hate, by dehumanizing LGBT+ people. To them, a gay person doesn't experience love, only sexual attraction, and that's dirty and wrong outside of the marriage bed, according to them and them alone.
Overall, the short film received way more good reviews then it did bad. On YouTube it has over 20 million views and the ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down is staggering. Even on Facebook, in those dreaded comment section, for every bad comment, there was at least three people defending the film and raving about it. That gives me hope.
I don't know about you, but I'm over here holding out for a sequel to In a Heartbeat, and until it happens I'm just going to continue watching it over and over again.
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Hope you enjoyed this week's Topic Tuesday! What were your thoughts on the short film?
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Thanks for reading!
- Fallon xo
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