vox--2020-09-04--Toward a queer Disney canon

Toward a queer Disney canon

The biggest question surrounding the live-action Mulan , now on Disney+ , is whether it ’ s done justice to the 1998 animated film .
But some fans have a much more specific question on their minds : Will 2020 ’ s Mulan still be queer ?
If you ’ ve never really thought of Mulan as a queer film , that ’ s okay .
It does , after all , feature a heterosexual romance between its crossdressing title character and the military leader whose battalion she joins after disguising herself as a boy .
But for many queer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrative — and it ’ s hardly the only Disney film to claim that honor .
Throughout the pantheon of Disney films , generations of queer Disney fans have found stories and characters that mirror themselves and their experiences .
These films and characters arguably comprise the “ queer canon ” of Disney — and among them , Mulan is arguably one of the most significant .
Mulan ’ s struggle to accept her prescribed gender , her sexual and gender confusion when she ’ s trying to fit in with all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ squad , are classic hallmarks of the identity struggles that countless queer and transgender teenagers face — especially in situations where they ’ re expected to conform to rigid gender roles .
The introspective character ballad , “ Reflection , ” with its famous query , “ When will my reflection show who I am inside ?
” can easily be read as a transgender anthem , and even includes a reference to “ passing , ” a crucial concept in trans communities .
What ’ s more , in what seems to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discourse around queer and trans identity in the ’ 90s , a character claims that if Mulan is allowed to crossdress , “ traditional values will disintegrate !
” Then there ’ s the trope of the crossdressing hero getting entangled in a sexually confusing romance , a plot that ’ s been used to inject queerness into stories since Shakespeare and beyond .
Disney , with its famous reticence toward depicting openly gay characters almost certainly didn ’ t intend to produce an overtly gay narrative in Mulan .
Until this year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Disney didn ’ t have any textually queer characters in its films .
No queer sidekicks were present , let alone a main character .
Yet Disney narratives have long been tied to the queer community , partly by design .
As Sean Griffin ’ s book Tinker Bells and Evil Queens notes , Disney has long targeted gay audiences — and partly because queer audiences are experts at co-opting ostensibly straight narratives for themselves .
“ The idea that lesbians and gay men could be watching Disney and using the texts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parks , records , etc . )
to further a definition of their sexuality is initially stunning and provocative , ” Griffin wrote .
“ Historical evidence indicates that lesbians and gay men have read Disney artifacts from a non-heterosexual viewpoint throughout the company ’ s history ... as long as evidence showed that homosexual audiences were understanding Disney through a ‘ gay sensibility , ’ then a relationship existed whether Disney approved of it or not.
” The reason queer audiences have gotten so good at this co-opting is that when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transgender stories are frequently interpreted through subtextual readings of ostensibly straight or cisgender narratives .
Often these readings are inserted or hinted at intentionally in the film ’ s margins , in a practice known as queer “ coding.
” This extrapolation of queer subtext is so commonplace that much of what we consider to be the queer cinema “ canon ” are films whose queer readings have had widespread cultural influence , even if they themselves aren ’ t textually queer .
See , for example , the widely established queer readings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the intentionally queer-coded Rebel Without a Cause .
Within the animated Disney canon , these kinds of readings can be found everywhere .
We can pick out repeated tropes and themes that allow us to describe films and characters as queer-coded .
Disney ’ s plots frequently involve characters somehow undergoing a magical transformation , outcast because of their differences , and yearning to find their place within a loving society — all themes that can easily serve as queer and trans allegories or as “ a queer-studies crash course.
” Viewers frequently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Peter Pan , Pinocchio , and Dumbo as containing queer and/or trans metaphors , and the same goes for newer films like Lilo and Stitch and Tangled , just to name a few .
Of course , most of these stories existed before Disney ’ s versions , but the Disney versions helped popularize their narratives as well as strengthen their queer subtext .
At the same time , Disney ’ s villains , in general , have nearly all been queer-coded through troubling negative queer stereotypes .
The male villains — villains @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Robin Hood ; Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective ; Aladdin ’ s Jafar ; The Lion King ’ s Scar ; Pocahontas ’ s Governor Ratcliffe ; Hercules ’ s Hades ; Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog ; the list goes on — are typically variants of campy , overly posh , effeminate men whose effeminacy is a cause for suspicion and concern , a reason to distrust them .
The one notable exception to this rule is Beauty and the Beast ’ s Gaston , a villain intentionally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becomes inherently homoerotic .
( Observe , for example , how “ the gay Gaston ” is just ... Gaston . )
Meanwhile , female Disney villains tend to fall into two general categories .
The first is full of campy drag queen variants , like Cruella De Vil , The Rescuers ’ Medusa , or The Little Mermaid ’ s Ursula ( who was modeled after actual drag icon Divine ) .
The second contains cold , frigid types — think Cinderella ’ s stepmother , the queen from Snow White , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who all fall into the negative cinema stereotype of the predatory older woman who ’ s become toxically obsessed with a beautiful young woman .
Within this rather broad and complicated range of representation , queer Disney fans have crafted their own subversive and celebratory readings .
Villains regularly become gay icons ; Disney princes are frequently reframed as gay men ; and so many people have read Frozen ’ s Elsa as queer that the push to give her a girlfriend has become a prominent media narrative around that franchise .
Elsa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ characters like Maleficent and Jafar in Disney ’ s recent live-action updates , all represent a definitive recent shift away from the flamboyant queer villains of Disney ’ s past .
It ’ s a shift that ’ s generated mourning among viewers over the loss of such sassy and colorful characters , even while they recognize that such stereotyped queer coding was full of problems .
Disney ’ s pivot away from negative tropes hasn ’ t exactly been smooth , however ; recall the jubilant headlines around 2017 ’ s Beauty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promised that Josh Gad ’ s updated version of Le Fou , Gaston ’ s fumbling sidekick , would be Disney ’ s first definitively queer character .
Yet his on-screen queerness was reduced to a quick shot of him dancing with a man , which was barely one second long .
It ’ s understandable , then , that some viewers might be nervous when it comes to how queerness will manifest in the updated Mulan .
The new film already deviates from the original in other ways — it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many of the comical aspects , and even jettisoned the original love story .
But whether or not the animated character retains her ( or his ) queer sensibility when transferred into live-action form , the original Mulan remains a queer cinema staple .
Alongside Mulan , here are the films we believe are the queerest in the Disney canon .
Notably , all of these films , most of which are animated , come from after the “ Eisner era ” of Disney films , known as the “ renaissance ” that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mermaid under former Disney CEO Michael Eisner .
It ’ s probably not a coincidence that several of these films involved Howard Ashman , a gay musical lyricist who co-wrote the scores to The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and shaped the story concept of Aladdin before his death in 1991 .
Ashman ’ s imprint on the Disney canon reminds us how much more meaningful it is when queer creators get to put versions of themselves onscreen — and allow queer viewers to glimpse their own reflections in the movies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are certainly open to queer readings — *taps button reading “ Ask Me About My Queer Reading of Pinocchio ” * — but let me hazard a queer reading of Robin Hood , my favorite Disney movie as a kid .
Disney took the Robin Hood story and filled it with anthropomorphic animals , then didn ’ t bother doing heavily sexed presentations of those animals , unlike , say , Lola Bunny in Space Jam .
This gives the film a strangely androgynous society , where you mostly know a character is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tell you they are and/or because of what they happen to be wearing at the time .
And yet Robin Hood and his friends are fond of dressing up , of playing roles , of blurring the lines of identity , in a way that feels very queer .
Identities are often messy !
What ’ s more , the film ’ s presentation of a lovable band of outcasts , living on the fringes of society and actively hunted down by the powers that be has numerous resonances with the ways that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ edges of Western society .
Robin and his friends long for a world where they are invited into mainstream society , while still getting to be their super cool selves , which they get when King Richard returns at the end of the film and he ’ s not just a lion but a True Ally .
Anthropomorphic animals allow for kids ( and adults ) to divorce themselves from who they are and consider just who they might actually be .
Furries quite literally consider this question of the liminal space between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to examine in cartoon animals .
If you ’ re a little boy who has a crush on fox Robin Hood , maybe that leads you to accept yourself sooner .
If you ’ re a little girl ( that everybody thinks is a little boy ) who loves to watch Robin pretend to be a woman fortune teller , maybe that leads you somewhere else .
Anthropomorphic animals allow us to see something just human enough to sympathize with , while allowing us just enough of a remove to question everything about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most full of anthropomorphic animals ( at least until Zootopia ) , Robin Hood belongs in the queer Disney canon .
—Emily VanDerWerff There are numerous reasons to include The Little Mermaid in the queer Disney canon .
To begin with , there ’ s Ursula , a flamboyantly campy villain who lives to be over the top .
You could imagine her as a drag queen , as a particularly revolutionary lesbian who longs to destroy the cis-heteronormative patriarchy , or as a Harvey Fierstein character .
And that ’ s before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was modeled on Divine , the drag performer who worked extensively with queer cinema icon John Waters .
But forget Ursula !
We know about Ursula !
I just told you about Ursula !
Let ’ s talk Ariel , the heroine of the film , one of the core Disney princesses , and a bastion of compulsory heterosexuality .
Or is she ?
Okay , textually , yeah , she ’ s just a half-girl/half-fish who longs to be all girl , and she falls in love with a handsome prince , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ married in a lavish wedding .
She ’ s not particularly queer — unless you ’ re a trans woman .
Where many trans guys connect with Mulan , many trans girls connect with Ariel , the girl who will never be seen as a girl until she has a sea witch perform an elaborate transformation on her , then loses her voice the second she ’ s allowed to be herself .
( Is this a metaphor for vocal dysphoria — wherein some trans people feel discomfort around the sound of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trans women suddenly find themselves ignored and talked over after coming out , in ways their cis women counterparts are all too familiar with ?
Honestly , take your pick .
The Disney canon isn ’ t exactly full of princesses for a trans girl to latch onto .
Mulan ’ s entry into masculine spaces is celebrated , for example , because women embracing traits strongly associated with masculinity is celebrated in fiction .
But the inverse is rarely true — when ’ s the last time you saw a male-coded character @ @ @ @ @ @ @ femininity in a kids movie ?
So we trans girls have Ariel , but honestly , that ’ s fine .
She ’ s fun , she ’ s feisty , and “ Part of Your World ” is about when you really want to sit with the girls in your class at lunch but they won ’ t let you .
I sing a mean “ Part of Your World.
” Ask me sometime at karaoke .
—EV There are a few characters in the Disney canon , like Beauty and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen as homoerotic paragons .
I ’ d also argue that flamboyant candelabra Lumiere is , despite his entanglement with the French feather duster , a Kinsey 5 .
But perhaps the most heartbreaking gay reading of Beauty and the Beast involves the story of the Beast himself .
The Beast ’ s curse to live as the reviled monster forever if he can ’ t find love before his 21st birthday — was , according to director Bill Condon , who helmed the 2017 live-action remake , a way for original lyricist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own struggle with AIDS .
“ Specifically for him , it was a metaphor for AIDS , ” Condon told Attitude magazine in 2017 , around the release of the remake .
“ He was cursed and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him and maybe there was a chance for a miracle and a way for the curse to be lifted .
It was a very concrete thing that he was doing.
” There ’ s also a moment where the townsfolk , blinded by their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t like , what we don ’ t understand / in fact it scares us / and this monster is mysterious at least.
” That isn ’ t unlike the prejudice felt by gay men like Ashman , who was dealing with AIDS complications while writing the lyrics for the songs of the original animated movie .
On the surface , Beauty and the Beast is about finding true love , and seeing beyond appearances .
But dig a little deeper , and the movie also delivers an important message about compassion and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who society too often deems unworthy of it .
—Alex Abad-Santos The Lion King ’ s Scar follows the shopworn trope of a gay-coded villain : He preens , flips his hair , saunters in ways that his very stiff brother Mufasa doesn ’ t .
He loves to talk about succession and monarchy .
And with regard to the latter , because he can ’ t even dream of defeating his brother when it comes to a test of masculinity and strength , Scar resorts to sabotage and subterfuge to ascend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Be Prepared ” could easily be called , “ Listen Up , Fives , a 10 Is Speaking.
” Scar subverts the rules of order and the very precious Circle of Life .
On the one hand , Scar and many stereotypically portrayed characters like him feel like the byproducts of lazy and unimaginative writing ( oh , wow another limp-wristed , gay-ish villain ! )
.
But on the other , Scar has been embraced by Disney fans , LGBTQ+ fans in particular , who see him as subversive and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And it ’ s important to understand why .
Since gay people haven ’ t ever been allowed to be the heroes of Disney movies , no one can really blame us for taking our crumbs and appreciating the bombastic , oppositional , unapologetically queer villains like Scar .
He may be a villain , but at least Scar is an architect of his own devious life .
The Lion King has a couple of less-villainous queer-coded characters in Pumba and Timon , Simba ’ s two nihilistic , adoptive gay dads @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem like they ’ re having half as much fun as Scar as he unleashes his dark vision everywhere the light touches .
—AAS Thematically , Hunchback is one of the queerest Disney films .
As in the famed Victor Hugo novel upon which the Disney film is loosely based , the plot centers around a man whose physical deformity renders him a social pariah .
Quasimodo has been brought up by an evil politician who ’ s confined him his entire life within the borders of the Notre Dame Cathedral .
Judge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own repressed sexual desires , which grow until they render him desperate and diabolical .
Quasimodo is the only one who can unmask him and reveal his hypocrisy to the world .
A deeply controversial film at the time of its release because of its dark and cynical , even sinister view of organized religion , Hunchback is perhaps Disney ’ s most intense film .
Every minute of it is crowded with beauty , from the stunning visuals to the beautiful , lush score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the kind of towering emotions you ’ d expect from a story about two intensely passionate men who are both struggling to break free of their restraints in wildly different ways .
Frollo ’ s sexual hypocrisy and raging hatred of Esmeralda , the object of his desires , makes him the perfect allegory for modern-day homophobes .
His story also doubles as the suffocating , debilitating nature of the closet itself .
By contrast , Quasimodo is literally confined physically to the “ closet ” of the church , but his longing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inspiring .
It prompts Disney ’ s best “ I Want ” song , which is also one of the gayest songs ever written , “ Out There.
” In the song , after Frollo reminds him that the world will never understand his deviance , Quasimodo longs to have just one day to spend outside ( the closet ) .
He longs to “ live like ordinary men ” who are “ heedless of the gift ” of normalcy they have .
He ’ ll remember his one moment of freedom , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ old and bent.
” It ’ s a whole Pride parade in one song .
—Aja Romano Is there a Disney movie with a queerer premise than “ drag saves China ” ?
That ’ s the crux of Mulan , in which our heroine realizes , through pretending to be a perfect bride and pretending to be a perfect soldier and failing at both , that gender is ultimately performative .
And her realization ultimately informs her plan of dressing Yao ( Harvey Fierstein ) and her fellow soldiers as women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ save China ’ s Emperor from the Huns .
Mulan ’ s signature song , “ Reflection , ” is about never getting to express who she really is , and always feeling like she must conceal and suppress who that person is .
She pretends to be a man and enlists in the army to protect her ailing father .
Because the movie features an Asian female protagonist who bucks Disney princess tradition by being a fierce fighter , it ’ s easy to see how it resonates among a generation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mulan also functions as an allegory of living in a closet , and the constant fear of being exposed and shunned by society for being who you truly are .
What Mulan doesn ’ t know is that her greatest strengths are the very characteristics she ’ s been urged to hide — her intellect , her quick thinking , her ingenuity — and in the end they ’ re key to saving her country .
And her story is arguably ( with competition from Frozen ) the most empowering coming out tale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ queerness has historically been an act of deviance and subversion , queer villains have always been a cinematic mainstay — which means that reclaiming a villain , and villainy itself , is itself a common act of queer subversion .
If only for this reason , Maleficent is one of the gayest Disney films around .
The live-action movie fully reclaims and softens the antagonism of one of Disney ’ s most popular villains , the ice-cold fairy-slash-dragon from Sleeping Beauty — which is itself one of Disney ’ s arguably queer-coded fairy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angelina Jolie ’ s Maleficent , betrayed by her childhood love and wonderfully , campily bitter about it , fixates on his daughter Aurora .
But unlike the original Charles Perrault fairy tale or the Disney legacy film , Maleficent grows to love Aurora , so much that it 's her kiss , not the handsome prince 's , that finally awakes Sleeping Beauty in the end .
It ’ s all very sapphic and decidedly non-maternal .
The updated take on Maleficent is perhaps one of Disney ’ s most obviously innocent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at times painfully queer .
The moment early on in the film when someone she loves betrays her by slicing off her wings — ostensibly in order to “ save ” her — comes off like an excruciating form of conversion therapy .
And just like all conversion therapy , it fails , and Maleficent emerges from the moment of trauma stronger , angrier , smarter , and ready to be gay , do crimes .
—AR Elsa is perhaps the most famous character in the queer Disney canon , because so far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their way to avoid saying she ’ s straight .
They haven ’ t said that she ’ s queer , but her lack of a dude love interest across the two Frozen films has caused plenty of queer folks to claim her as the Disney princess for them .
The queer reading seems , to some degree , accidental in the first film .
There , the “ true love ” story is between sisters , an intentional subversion of the Disney standard .
Because of the sister story being the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a handsome doofus to follow her around and try to win her love , unlike her sister Anna , who finds herself at the center of a genuine love triangle .
Look beyond the text of the film , and there ’ s plenty to suggest Elsa as subtextually queer .
Her parents attempt to get her to hide her magic powers ( perhaps a metaphor for queerness ) deep down .
When those powers emerge , she is greeted with horror by society .
Also , “ Let It Go ” is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deep within you bursts forth , and it feels so great , you have to sing about it .
Frozen 2 all but drags Elsa ’ s queerness into the text , though it chickens out at the last minute .
She follows the voice of a mysterious woman into a strange forest where nothing is as it seems ; there , she meets a fetching young woman named Honeymeron .
When they chat around the fire later , there ’ s a slight undercurrent of romance .
Elsa ultimately heads off into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secrets , but at the film ’ s end , she chooses to stay in the mysterious forest with these people who seem to know more about her than she does , one of whom is Honeymeron .
You really don ’ t have to squint to give this a queer reading .
Many asexual folks also find representation in Elsa , who just doesn ’ t seem like she can be bothered with the whole elaborate ritual of dating and marrying and mating .
Similarly , more than a few trans women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the elaborate transformation into a much more badass version of herself she undergoes in the first film .
Truly , Elsa contains multitudes , and if you ’ re looking for a Disney film where the queerness is almost canon , look no further than the Frozen duology .
—EV Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work , and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

The biggest question surrounding the live-action Mulan, now on Disney+, is whether it’s done justice to the 1998 animated film. But some fans have a much more specific question on their minds: Will 2020’s Mulan still be queer?
If you’ve never really thought of Mulan as a queer film, that’s okay. It does, after all, feature a heterosexual romance between its crossdressing title character and the military leader whose battalion she joins after disguising herself as a boy. But for many queer audiences, Mulan is a seminal queer narrative — and it’s hardly the only Disney film to claim that honor. Throughout the pantheon of Disney films, generations of queer Disney fans have found stories and characters that mirror themselves and their experiences. These films and characters arguably comprise the “queer canon” of Disney — and among them, Mulan is arguably one of the most significant.
Mulan’s struggle to accept her prescribed gender, her sexual and gender confusion when she’s trying to fit in with all of the “other” boys in her squad, are classic hallmarks of the identity struggles that countless queer and transgender teenagers face — especially in situations where they’re expected to conform to rigid gender roles.
The introspective character ballad, “Reflection,” with its famous query, “When will my reflection show who I am inside?” can easily be read as a transgender anthem, and even includes a reference to “passing,” a crucial concept in trans communities. What’s more, in what seems to be a sly reference to the public discourse around queer and trans identity in the ’90s, a character claims that if Mulan is allowed to crossdress, “traditional values will disintegrate!” Then there’s the trope of the crossdressing hero getting entangled in a sexually confusing romance, a plot that’s been used to inject queerness into stories since Shakespeare and beyond.
Disney, with its famous reticence toward depicting openly gay characters almost certainly didn’t intend to produce an overtly gay narrative in Mulan. Until this year’s Onward, a Pixar film, Disney didn’t have any textually queer characters in its films. No queer sidekicks were present, let alone a main character. Yet Disney narratives have long been tied to the queer community, partly by design. As Sean Griffin’s book Tinker Bells and Evil Queens notes, Disney has long targeted gay audiences — and partly because queer audiences are experts at co-opting ostensibly straight narratives for themselves.
“The idea that lesbians and gay men could be watching Disney and using the texts (films, TV shows, theme parks, records, etc.) to further a definition of their sexuality is initially stunning and provocative,” Griffin wrote.
“Historical evidence indicates that lesbians and gay men have read Disney artifacts from a non-heterosexual viewpoint throughout the company’s history ... as long as evidence showed that homosexual audiences were understanding Disney through a ‘gay sensibility,’ then a relationship existed whether Disney approved of it or not.”
The reason queer audiences have gotten so good at this co-opting is that when it comes to queer cinema, queer and transgender stories are frequently interpreted through subtextual readings of ostensibly straight or cisgender narratives. Often these readings are inserted or hinted at intentionally in the film’s margins, in a practice known as queer “coding.” This extrapolation of queer subtext is so commonplace that much of what we consider to be the queer cinema “canon” are films whose queer readings have had widespread cultural influence, even if they themselves aren’t textually queer. See, for example, the widely established queer readings of films like Bride of Frankenstein or the intentionally queer-coded Rebel Without a Cause.
Within the animated Disney canon, these kinds of readings can be found everywhere. We can pick out repeated tropes and themes that allow us to describe films and characters as queer-coded. Disney’s plots frequently involve characters somehow undergoing a magical transformation, outcast because of their differences, and yearning to find their place within a loving society — all themes that can easily serve as queer and trans allegories or as “a queer-studies crash course.”
Viewers frequently read vintage Disney films like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Dumbo as containing queer and/or trans metaphors, and the same goes for newer films like Lilo and Stitch and Tangled, just to name a few. Of course, most of these stories existed before Disney’s versions, but the Disney versions helped popularize their narratives as well as strengthen their queer subtext.
At the same time, Disney’s villains, in general, have nearly all been queer-coded through troubling negative queer stereotypes. The male villains — villains like Sir Hiss and Prince John from Robin Hood; Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective; Aladdin’s Jafar; The Lion King’s Scar; Pocahontas’s Governor Ratcliffe; Hercules’s Hades; Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog; the list goes on — are typically variants of campy, overly posh, effeminate men whose effeminacy is a cause for suspicion and concern, a reason to distrust them. The one notable exception to this rule is Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston, a villain intentionally designed to be so manly that he becomes inherently homoerotic. (Observe, for example, how “the gay Gaston” is just ... Gaston.)
Meanwhile, female Disney villains tend to fall into two general categories. The first is full of campy drag queen variants, like Cruella De Vil, The Rescuers’ Medusa, or The Little Mermaid’s Ursula (who was modeled after actual drag icon Divine). The second contains cold, frigid types — think Cinderella’s stepmother, the queen from Snow White, Gothel from Tangled, or Maleficent — who all fall into the negative cinema stereotype of the predatory older woman who’s become toxically obsessed with a beautiful young woman.
Within this rather broad and complicated range of representation, queer Disney fans have crafted their own subversive and celebratory readings. Villains regularly become gay icons; Disney princes are frequently reframed as gay men; and so many people have read Frozen’s Elsa as queer that the push to give her a girlfriend has become a prominent media narrative around that franchise.
Elsa in particular, as well as reimagined characters like Maleficent and Jafar in Disney’s recent live-action updates, all represent a definitive recent shift away from the flamboyant queer villains of Disney’s past. It’s a shift that’s generated mourning among viewers over the loss of such sassy and colorful characters, even while they recognize that such stereotyped queer coding was full of problems. Disney’s pivot away from negative tropes hasn’t exactly been smooth, however; recall the jubilant headlines around 2017’s Beauty and the Beast live-action redux, which promised that Josh Gad’s updated version of Le Fou, Gaston’s fumbling sidekick, would be Disney’s first definitively queer character. Yet his on-screen queerness was reduced to a quick shot of him dancing with a man, which was barely one second long.
It’s understandable, then, that some viewers might be nervous when it comes to how queerness will manifest in the updated Mulan. The new film already deviates from the original in other ways — it’s lost most of the songs, removed many of the comical aspects, and even jettisoned the original love story. But whether or not the animated character retains her (or his) queer sensibility when transferred into live-action form, the original Mulan remains a queer cinema staple.
Alongside Mulan, here are the films we believe are the queerest in the Disney canon. Notably, all of these films, most of which are animated, come from after the “Eisner era” of Disney films, known as the “renaissance” that began with 1989’s The Little Mermaid under former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
It’s probably not a coincidence that several of these films involved Howard Ashman, a gay musical lyricist who co-wrote the scores to The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and shaped the story concept of Aladdin before his death in 1991. Ashman’s imprint on the Disney canon reminds us how much more meaningful it is when queer creators get to put versions of themselves onscreen — and allow queer viewers to glimpse their own reflections in the movies they love.
Numerous older Disney films are certainly open to queer readings — *taps button reading “Ask Me About My Queer Reading of Pinocchio”* — but let me hazard a queer reading of Robin Hood, my favorite Disney movie as a kid.
Disney took the Robin Hood story and filled it with anthropomorphic animals, then didn’t bother doing heavily sexed presentations of those animals, unlike, say, Lola Bunny in Space Jam. This gives the film a strangely androgynous society, where you mostly know a character is a man or a woman because they tell you they are and/or because of what they happen to be wearing at the time. And yet Robin Hood and his friends are fond of dressing up, of playing roles, of blurring the lines of identity, in a way that feels very queer. Identities are often messy!
What’s more, the film’s presentation of a lovable band of outcasts, living on the fringes of society and actively hunted down by the powers that be has numerous resonances with the ways that queer culture historically hid out on the edges of Western society. Robin and his friends long for a world where they are invited into mainstream society, while still getting to be their super cool selves, which they get when King Richard returns at the end of the film and he’s not just a lion but a True Ally.
Anthropomorphic animals allow for kids (and adults) to divorce themselves from who they are and consider just who they might actually be. Furries quite literally consider this question of the liminal space between identities, but everybody can find something to examine in cartoon animals. If you’re a little boy who has a crush on fox Robin Hood, maybe that leads you to accept yourself sooner. If you’re a little girl (that everybody thinks is a little boy) who loves to watch Robin pretend to be a woman fortune teller, maybe that leads you somewhere else.
Anthropomorphic animals allow us to see something just human enough to sympathize with, while allowing us just enough of a remove to question everything about ourselves. As the classic Disney movie most full of anthropomorphic animals (at least until Zootopia), Robin Hood belongs in the queer Disney canon. —Emily VanDerWerff
There are numerous reasons to include The Little Mermaid in the queer Disney canon. To begin with, there’s Ursula, a flamboyantly campy villain who lives to be over the top. You could imagine her as a drag queen, as a particularly revolutionary lesbian who longs to destroy the cis-heteronormative patriarchy, or as a Harvey Fierstein character. And that’s before you get to the fact that she was modeled on Divine, the drag performer who worked extensively with queer cinema icon John Waters.
But forget Ursula! We know about Ursula! I just told you about Ursula! Let’s talk Ariel, the heroine of the film, one of the core Disney princesses, and a bastion of compulsory heterosexuality.
Or is she?
Okay, textually, yeah, she’s just a half-girl/half-fish who longs to be all girl, and she falls in love with a handsome prince, and at the end, she gets married in a lavish wedding. She’s not particularly queer — unless you’re a trans woman.
Where many trans guys connect with Mulan, many trans girls connect with Ariel, the girl who will never be seen as a girl until she has a sea witch perform an elaborate transformation on her, then loses her voice the second she’s allowed to be herself. (Is this a metaphor for vocal dysphoria — wherein some trans people feel discomfort around the sound of their voice — or for the ways that trans women suddenly find themselves ignored and talked over after coming out, in ways their cis women counterparts are all too familiar with? Honestly, take your pick.
The Disney canon isn’t exactly full of princesses for a trans girl to latch onto. Mulan’s entry into masculine spaces is celebrated, for example, because women embracing traits strongly associated with masculinity is celebrated in fiction. But the inverse is rarely true — when’s the last time you saw a male-coded character celebrated for embracing traits strongly associated with femininity in a kids movie? So we trans girls have Ariel, but honestly, that’s fine. She’s fun, she’s feisty, and “Part of Your World” is about when you really want to sit with the girls in your class at lunch but they won’t let you. I sing a mean “Part of Your World.” Ask me sometime at karaoke. —EV
There are a few characters in the Disney canon, like Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston, who are seen as homoerotic paragons. I’d also argue that flamboyant candelabra Lumiere is, despite his entanglement with the French feather duster, a Kinsey 5.
But perhaps the most heartbreaking gay reading of Beauty and the Beast involves the story of the Beast himself.
The Beast’s curse to live as the reviled monster forever if he can’t find love before his 21st birthday — was, according to director Bill Condon, who helmed the 2017 live-action remake, a way for original lyricist Howard Ashman to tell a story about his own struggle with AIDS.
“Specifically for him, it was a metaphor for AIDS,” Condon told Attitude magazine in 2017, around the release of the remake. “He was cursed and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him and maybe there was a chance for a miracle and a way for the curse to be lifted. It was a very concrete thing that he was doing.”
There’s also a moment where the townsfolk, blinded by their prejudice, declare “we don’t like, what we don’t understand / in fact it scares us / and this monster is mysterious at least.” That isn’t unlike the prejudice felt by gay men like Ashman, who was dealing with AIDS complications while writing the lyrics for the songs of the original animated movie.
On the surface, Beauty and the Beast is about finding true love, and seeing beyond appearances. But dig a little deeper, and the movie also delivers an important message about compassion and empathy, and extending love to marginalized people who society too often deems unworthy of it. —Alex Abad-Santos
The Lion King’s Scar follows the shopworn trope of a gay-coded villain: He preens, flips his hair, saunters in ways that his very stiff brother Mufasa doesn’t. He loves to talk about succession and monarchy. And with regard to the latter, because he can’t even dream of defeating his brother when it comes to a test of masculinity and strength, Scar resorts to sabotage and subterfuge to ascend to the throne. His iconic song, “Be Prepared” could easily be called, “Listen Up, Fives, a 10 Is Speaking.”
Scar subverts the rules of order and the very precious Circle of Life.
On the one hand, Scar and many stereotypically portrayed characters like him feel like the byproducts of lazy and unimaginative writing (oh, wow another limp-wristed, gay-ish villain!). But on the other, Scar has been embraced by Disney fans, LGBTQ+ fans in particular, who see him as subversive and one of Disney’s greatest villains.
And it’s important to understand why.
Since gay people haven’t ever been allowed to be the heroes of Disney movies, no one can really blame us for taking our crumbs and appreciating the bombastic, oppositional, unapologetically queer villains like Scar. He may be a villain, but at least Scar is an architect of his own devious life.
The Lion King has a couple of less-villainous queer-coded characters in Pumba and Timon, Simba’s two nihilistic, adoptive gay dads. But even they don’t seem like they’re having half as much fun as Scar as he unleashes his dark vision everywhere the light touches. —AAS
Thematically, Hunchback is one of the queerest Disney films. As in the famed Victor Hugo novel upon which the Disney film is loosely based, the plot centers around a man whose physical deformity renders him a social pariah. Quasimodo has been brought up by an evil politician who’s confined him his entire life within the borders of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Judge Frollo’s actions are ruled by his own repressed sexual desires, which grow until they render him desperate and diabolical. Quasimodo is the only one who can unmask him and reveal his hypocrisy to the world.
A deeply controversial film at the time of its release because of its dark and cynical, even sinister view of organized religion, Hunchback is perhaps Disney’s most intense film. Every minute of it is crowded with beauty, from the stunning visuals to the beautiful, lush score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. And it’s completely suffused with the kind of towering emotions you’d expect from a story about two intensely passionate men who are both struggling to break free of their restraints in wildly different ways.
Frollo’s sexual hypocrisy and raging hatred of Esmeralda, the object of his desires, makes him the perfect allegory for modern-day homophobes. His story also doubles as the suffocating, debilitating nature of the closet itself. By contrast, Quasimodo is literally confined physically to the “closet” of the church, but his longing for freedom is soaring and desperate and inspiring. It prompts Disney’s best “I Want” song, which is also one of the gayest songs ever written, “Out There.”
In the song, after Frollo reminds him that the world will never understand his deviance, Quasimodo longs to have just one day to spend outside (the closet). He longs to “live like ordinary men” who are “heedless of the gift” of normalcy they have. He’ll remember his one moment of freedom, he claims, when he’s “old and bent.” It’s a whole Pride parade in one song. —Aja Romano
Is there a Disney movie with a queerer premise than “drag saves China”?
That’s the crux of Mulan, in which our heroine realizes, through pretending to be a perfect bride and pretending to be a perfect soldier and failing at both, that gender is ultimately performative. And her realization ultimately informs her plan of dressing Yao (Harvey Fierstein) and her fellow soldiers as women so they can bypass palace security and save China’s Emperor from the Huns.
Mulan’s signature song, “Reflection,” is about never getting to express who she really is, and always feeling like she must conceal and suppress who that person is. She pretends to be a man and enlists in the army to protect her ailing father.
Because the movie features an Asian female protagonist who bucks Disney princess tradition by being a fierce fighter, it’s easy to see how it resonates among a generation of young women and Asian Americans.
But Mulan also functions as an allegory of living in a closet, and the constant fear of being exposed and shunned by society for being who you truly are. What Mulan doesn’t know is that her greatest strengths are the very characteristics she’s been urged to hide — her intellect, her quick thinking, her ingenuity — and in the end they’re key to saving her country. And her story is arguably (with competition from Frozen) the most empowering coming out tale Disney has ever told. —AAS
Because queerness has historically been an act of deviance and subversion, queer villains have always been a cinematic mainstay — which means that reclaiming a villain, and villainy itself, is itself a common act of queer subversion. If only for this reason, Maleficent is one of the gayest Disney films around. The live-action movie fully reclaims and softens the antagonism of one of Disney’s most popular villains, the ice-cold fairy-slash-dragon from Sleeping Beauty — which is itself one of Disney’s arguably queer-coded fairy tales.
In the new version, Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent, betrayed by her childhood love and wonderfully, campily bitter about it, fixates on his daughter Aurora. But unlike the original Charles Perrault fairy tale or the Disney legacy film, Maleficent grows to love Aurora, so much that it's her kiss, not the handsome prince's, that finally awakes Sleeping Beauty in the end. It’s all very sapphic and decidedly non-maternal.
The updated take on Maleficent is perhaps one of Disney’s most obviously innocent outcasts, which makes her story feel at times painfully queer. The moment early on in the film when someone she loves betrays her by slicing off her wings — ostensibly in order to “save” her — comes off like an excruciating form of conversion therapy. And just like all conversion therapy, it fails, and Maleficent emerges from the moment of trauma stronger, angrier, smarter, and ready to be gay, do crimes. —AR
Elsa is perhaps the most famous character in the queer Disney canon, because so far, the Frozen films have gone out of their way to avoid saying she’s straight. They haven’t said that she’s queer, but her lack of a dude love interest across the two Frozen films has caused plenty of queer folks to claim her as the Disney princess for them.
The queer reading seems, to some degree, accidental in the first film. There, the “true love” story is between sisters, an intentional subversion of the Disney standard. Because of the sister story being the focus, Elsa doesn’t have a handsome doofus to follow her around and try to win her love, unlike her sister Anna, who finds herself at the center of a genuine love triangle.
Look beyond the text of the film, and there’s plenty to suggest Elsa as subtextually queer. Her parents attempt to get her to hide her magic powers (perhaps a metaphor for queerness) deep down. When those powers emerge, she is greeted with horror by society. Also, “Let It Go” is all about what happens when something hidden deep within you bursts forth, and it feels so great, you have to sing about it.
Frozen 2 all but drags Elsa’s queerness into the text, though it chickens out at the last minute. She follows the voice of a mysterious woman into a strange forest where nothing is as it seems; there, she meets a fetching young woman named Honeymeron. When they chat around the fire later, there’s a slight undercurrent of romance. Elsa ultimately heads off into the unknown in search of hidden family secrets, but at the film’s end, she chooses to stay in the mysterious forest with these people who seem to know more about her than she does, one of whom is Honeymeron. You really don’t have to squint to give this a queer reading.
Many asexual folks also find representation in Elsa, who just doesn’t seem like she can be bothered with the whole elaborate ritual of dating and marrying and mating. Similarly, more than a few trans women see themselves in Elsa, because of the elaborate transformation into a much more badass version of herself she undergoes in the first film. Truly, Elsa contains multitudes, and if you’re looking for a Disney film where the queerness is almost canon, look no further than the Frozen duology. —EV


vox--2020-09-04--A third of Americans might refuse a Covid-19 vaccine. How screwed are we?

Share All sharing options for : A third of Americans might refuse a Covid-19 vaccine .
How screwed are we ?
When the Covid-19 pandemic became a full-fledged crisis in March , public health experts gave a prescription for riding it out : Flatten the curve with social distancing , lockdowns , contact tracing , etc.
, and then wait for a vaccine .
The hope was , and still is , that a mass vaccination campaign can restore the world to normal .
For many reasons , the success of a vaccination campaign is not guaranteed .
The vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs to be enough of it to put a dent in transmission .
Another challenge perhaps overlooked : “ What if we get a safe and effective vaccine , and people choose not to get it ?
” says Matt Motta , a political scientist at Oklahoma State University .
Pervasive vaccine refusal looks like a real possibility .
Motta ’ s research on a hypothetical Covid-19 vaccine , as well as polling from Gallup ( and others ) this summer , reveal that between a quarter and a third of the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Covid-19 .
( These surveys generally ask about a hypothetical FDA-approved vaccine and not about one approved under an Emergency Use Authorization before clinical trials have ended . )
The surveys might be actually underselling the problem .
“ When we look at seasonal influenza vaccination rates , for example , surveys always overestimate the number of people who get it , ” Motta says .
It ’ s easier to say you ’ re going to get a vaccine to a pollster than it is to actually go get one .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not about a skepticism of all vaccines ( although there is some of that , for sure ) .
It ’ s skepticism about this potential vaccine , created in record time , via the Trump administration ’ s Operation Warp Speed .
Overall , 83 percent of Americans agree that if a vaccine is approved too quickly , they would worry about its safety .
There ’ s so much about the US response to the pandemic that has been botched .
We failed on testing early and then failed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact tracing , on reopening many of our communities safely .
And yet we haven ’ t screwed up a vaccine campaign yet .
There ’ s still time to get it right .
It requires not just developing a safe vaccine , approved without the taint of a political rush job , but also a vast social science research effort to better understand people ’ s anxieties about the vaccine , and then help move them toward acceptance .
No approved vaccine exists yet .
But every day , pharmaceutical companies are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they perhaps will release data before the end of this year .
That means the window to get it right “ is closing , ” Emily Brunson , a medical anthropologist at Texas State University , says .
“ If we don ’ t , we run the risk of undermining public health in the US — and even more specifically undermining the entire vaccination program.
” US public health may be undermined by the US government itself Billions have been spent on developing the Covid-19 vaccines .
But lacking in the development @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public ’ s trust .
There ’ s tension here , though : The White House itself is diminishing the credibility of its own FDA .
On the one hand , public health researchers and experts want to figure out how to convince people who are vaccine hesitant to accept it to put the brakes on the pandemic .
On the other , the Trump administration is muddying the waters with actions that lead to — at best — the appearance of a politically compromised FDA , the US agency tasked with approving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There ’ s reasonable confusion : Is operation Warp Speed designed to save the American public or ensure Trump ’ s reelection ?
Just last week , FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn cited misleading statistics about the efficacy of using blood plasma to treat severe Covid-19 .
And now , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) has told hospitals to be prepared to distribute a vaccine by November 1 ( suspiciously close to Election Day ) .
As Vox ’ s Umair Irfan reports , it ’ s still unlikely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use by then .
But even the appearance of political interference could lead to lasting damage to a vaccination campaign .
Sketchiness is creeping into these key public health agencies : CNN reports that sudden changes to CDC Covid-19 testing guidelines ( which experts strongly oppose ) , came from “ the top down.
” Even Republicans are worried about political influence on the vaccine process .
Seventy-two percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats worry the vaccine approval process is being driven more by politics than science , according to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is a scary moment , ” Sandra Crouse Quinn , chair the department of family science at the University of Maryland , says .
“ I worry that any pressure to try to move one of those [ vaccine candidates ] forward as an electoral strategy , political strategy , while undermining the public ’ s trust , will damage us for years to come .
...
The public ’ s trust in the FDA is really critical here .
With every effort the White House makes to pressure FDA on decisions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the agency and the likelihood the public will take this vaccine.
” Vaccine hesitancy is not uniform .
Black communities — some of the hardest hit by Covid-19 — are particularly hesitant .
If a vaccine is approved , it will likely be voluntary for people to get .
Right now , the polling and research finds that some communities will be more willing to volunteer than others .
Of particular concern is the increased level of hesitancy in Black communities — for many reasons — which have already been disproportionately impacted by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these communities could lead to continued disproportionate Covid-19 suffering .
( That is , if these communities have access to the vaccine in the first place . )
In a May to June survey , Motta and co-authors estimated Black Americans are about 40 percent more likely to refuse a vaccine than white Americans ( their demographically representative survey found 43 percent of Black Americans plan to refuse a vaccine versus around 29 percent of the American public at large ) .
In July , Gallup found 67 percent of white Americans said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaccine ; 59 percent of non-white Americans said the same .
Zinzi Bailey , a social epidemiologist at the University of Miami , is not surprised by this disparity .
“ These are historically rooted , long-standing issues , ” she says .
Black communities have been exploited and harmed by medical researchers , and biases in medicine persist .
“ I think a lot of people feel like they ’ re going to be experimented on , ” Bailey says .
“ Words like ‘ warp speed ’ are not reassuring in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survey , he and his colleagues find several reasons why Black Americans could refuse a vaccine .
They ’ re worried about safety and effectiveness .
They are also worried about access : that they won ’ t be able to get or afford a vaccine when it becomes available .
In terms of access , their fears are well grounded .
Already during the pandemic , there have been access problems with Black and minority communities , namely testing .
In April , Vox ’ s Aaron Ross Coleman found that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with retail stores for testing largely left communities of color underserved .
Bailey stresses that the increased hesitancy in Black communities shouldn ’ t be framed as a deficiency within those communities .
Rather , it is a reflection of how our society has treated them .
“ I think what these [ survey ] results are indicating is an underlying level of mistrust that is rampant in the country , ” she says .
“ Mistrust is the name of the game right now , which hampers our ability to move forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are indications that this hesitancy isn ’ t just about vaccines in general but that there ’ s an added uncertainty concerning the Covid-19 vaccines in development .
“ Black community and other minority communities vaccinate their kids for measles , mumps , rubella , ” says Justin Stoler , who studies health disparities at the University of Miami .
“ There are disparities there , but not disparities like we ’ re seeing with Covid willingness.
” It ’ s not just Black communities that may be less willing to vaccinate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a vaccine ( they are 70 percent more likely to refuse a vaccine than men , according to Motta ’ s research ) , as do political conservatives and people living in rural areas .
Plus , there ’ s the long-standing anti-vaccination movement , which will seek to undermine Covid-19 vaccination efforts .
The challenge is that each of these communities may require a different strategy , have different underlying anxieties and fears , and require a slightly different intervention to placate their fears .
We need more vaccine social science research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hesitancy problem ?
Experts I spoke to say there needs to be widespread , on-the-ground anthropological research in communities to find out what their vaccine concerns are and to test educational campaigns to address those concerns .
“ We are , and should be , investing an enormous amount of resources in the research and development of a vaccine , ” Crouse Quinn says .
“ We ’ ve invested very few , almost no resources , in the social and behavioral science research that will help us understand in real time how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In August , Brunson headed a working group that published a social science research agenda for a Covid-19 vaccine campaign .
“ What we ’ re arguing for is that state and local health departments need to be given the funding , ” she says , to go out into communities and figure out what anxieties people have about the vaccine , and the messages and educational materials that might placate those fears .
Research and development into the vaccine technology costs billions .
Brunson says the social science component might cost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But it ’ s being overlooked .
“ We ’ ve been talking with people in the Senate , we ’ ve been talking with Congress , we ’ ve been really trying to push this even with nonprofits and nothing has come through yet , ” Brunson says .
Which is a shame .
“ I think a lot of people feel like they ’ re going to be experimented on ” “ There ’ s an assumption that if we can develop the vaccine technology , that if we build @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ ll get vaccinated , ” she says .
“ And it ’ s not true .
The social component is as complicated if not even more complicated than developing the vaccine technology.
” ( Such a suite of on-the-ground social science research has been effective in increasing willingness to vaccinate for Ebola in African countries . )
Motta and his collaborators are independently doing some of this research ( which has not yet been published ) , trying to figure out what sorts of messages might move people toward vaccine acceptance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot of research on how to communicate during a pandemic , ” he says .
But preliminarily , “ we find that if you talk about the personal health risks of Covid , that ’ s something that seems to resonate.
” Messages about how a vaccine could help the economy don ’ t work , and messages about how the vaccine could help save others are less effective than messages about personal risk .
Most importantly , we know what doesn ’ t work : shaming , and , as Motta @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re wrong and here ’ s why.
’ ” There could be a lot of different strategies that work .
“ We know that , from my own research that , the more people you believe want you to get a flu vaccine , the more likely you are to take it , ” Crouse Quinn says .
“ We know that if you have a high perceived risk of the disease , you ’ re more likely to take the vaccine .
But if you have a high perceived risk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your willingness.
” It ’ s complicated to find out the right mix of messaging that works , and for whom .
Trump could upend it all .
He has a remarkable , well-documented power for taking issues that normally are apolitical , and splitting opinion on them along political lines .
This could happen with a vaccine , leading to a swell of refusal among his political opponents .
“ By tying vaccine safety issues to his personal political ambitions , Trump [ could make ] vaccine safety a partisan issue , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s potentially a huge problem , as Democrats are currently much more likely than Republicans to intend to vaccinate .
If Democrats start to doubt that a truly effective vaccine was rigorously vetted , we could see even greater compliance problems.
” How many people need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 anyway ?
Let ’ s say there is a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine , approved without political inference by the FDA .
And still , 30 percent or more of Americans refuse to get it .
Does that immediately ruin the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Natalie Dean , a biostatistician and vaccine researcher at the University of Florida , explains there are several variables at play that will determine what proportion of the population will need to be vaccinated .
Dean sent along the following chart to explain .
At first glance , it ’ s a little hard to interpret , but it can help us think through the math .
What it shows is that varying levels of vaccine effectiveness ( the different colored line ) , and the effective contagiousness of the disease ( the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a population need to be vaccinated to eliminate the disease .
The more potent the vaccine , the fewer people need to be vaccinated .
A less potent vaccine , ( or perhaps one that requires multiple doses to achieve its highest potency ) , would require nearly everyone to be vaccinated .
The good news in this chart is that R is not a fixed number .
It changes based on our actions ( like wearing masks ) , and depending on how we use other public health tools to combat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re able to bring the effective R down by other means , ” Dean says , “ by having better contact tracing , or better isolation , or reducing the super spreading events , or having more testing so that we can catch people in their infectious period ... all these ways that we can reduce R , then that will also reduce that [ vaccine ] threshold that we need to hit.
” A vaccine , Dean reminds , “ is a potentially valuable tool , but it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 vaccine campaign is not lost yet .
But the clock is ticking .
“ We are in a window of time right now where this can actually be addressed , and be addressed well , ” Brunson says .
A botched vaccine campaign could undermine public health in the United States .
But , a good campaign , she stresses , could lift it up , and “ increase faith in public health and belief in vaccination , ” she says .
“ That would really put us as a country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ path.
” Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Even when the economy and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work , and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Share All sharing options for: A third of Americans might refuse a Covid-19 vaccine. How screwed are we?
When the Covid-19 pandemic became a full-fledged crisis in March, public health experts gave a prescription for riding it out: Flatten the curve with social distancing, lockdowns, contact tracing, etc., and then wait for a vaccine. The hope was, and still is, that a mass vaccination campaign can restore the world to normal.
For many reasons, the success of a vaccination campaign is not guaranteed. The vaccine has to be effective, and there needs to be enough of it to put a dent in transmission. Another challenge perhaps overlooked: “What if we get a safe and effective vaccine and people choose not to get it?” says Matt Motta, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University.
Pervasive vaccine refusal looks like a real possibility. Motta’s research on a hypothetical Covid-19 vaccine, as well as polling from Gallup (and others) this summer, reveals that between a quarter and a third of the American public say they would be unwilling to be vaccinated against Covid-19. These surveys generally ask about a hypothetical FDA-approved vaccine and not about one approved under an emergency use authorization before clinical trials have ended. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll asked respondents if they’d take a free vaccine approved before election day: 54 percent said they would decline.
The surveys actually might be underselling the problem. “When we look at seasonal influenza vaccination rates, for example, surveys always overestimate the number of people who get it,” Motta says. It’s easier to say you’re going to get a vaccine to a pollster than it is to actually go get one.
The hesitation showing up in these polls is not about a skepticism of all vaccines (although there is some of that, for sure). It’s skepticism about this potential vaccine, created in record time, via the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed. Overall, 83 percent of Americans agree that if a vaccine is approved too quickly, they would worry about its safety.
There’s so much about the US response to the pandemic that has been botched. We failed on testing early and then failed to scale it up. We failed on contact tracing, on reopening many of our communities safely. But we haven’t screwed up a vaccine campaign yet.
There’s still time to get it right. It requires not just developing a safe vaccine, approved without the taint of a political rush job, but also conducting a vast social science research effort to better understand people’s anxieties about the vaccine, and then help move them toward acceptance.
No approved vaccine exists yet. But every day, pharmaceutical companies are making progress on vaccine trials, and some may release data before the end of this year. That means the window to get it right “is closing,” Emily Brunson, a medical anthropologist at Texas State University, says. “If we don’t, we run the risk of undermining public health in the US — and even more specifically undermining the entire vaccination program.”
US public health may be undermined by the US government itself
Billions have been spent on developing the Covid-19 vaccines. But lacking in the development process is a key ingredient: the public’s trust. There’s a tension here: The White House itself is diminishing the credibility of its own Food and Drug Administration.
On the one hand, public health researchers and experts want to figure out how to convince people who are vaccine hesitant to accept it to put the brakes on the pandemic. On the other, the Trump administration is muddying the waters with actions that lead to — at best — the appearance of a politically compromised FDA, the US agency tasked with approving a vaccine for widespread public use. There’s reasonable confusion: Is operation Warp Speed designed to save the American public or ensure Trump’s reelection?
In August, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn cited misleading statistics about the efficacy of using blood plasma to treat severe Covid-19. And now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told hospitals to be prepared to distribute a vaccine by November 1 (close to Election Day). As Vox’s Umair Irfan reports, it’s still unlikely that a vaccine will be authorized for use by then. But even the appearance of political interference could lead to lasting damage to a vaccination campaign. Sketchiness is creeping into these key public health agencies: CNN reports that sudden changes to CDC Covid-19 testing guidelines (which experts strongly oppose) came from “the top down.”
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 62 percent of the public are now worried that political pressure from the White House will result in a FDA-approved vaccine arriving before all the safety data is in.
Even Republicans are worried about political influence on the vaccine process. Seventy-two percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats worry the vaccine approval process is being driven more by politics than science, according to a recent Stat and Harris poll. (In the Kaiser poll, 35 percent of Republicans agreed that the administration will push the FDA to approve a too-soon vaccine.)
“This is a scary moment,” Sandra Crouse Quinn, chair the department of family science at the University of Maryland, says. “I worry that any pressure to try to move one of those [vaccine candidates] forward as an electoral strategy, political strategy, while undermining the public’s trust, will damage us for years to come. ... The public’s trust in the FDA is really critical here. With every effort the White House makes to pressure FDA on decisions, we further risk the credibility of the agency and the likelihood the public will take this vaccine.”
Vaccine hesitancy is not uniform. Black communities — some of the hardest hit by Covid-19 — are particularly hesitant.
If a vaccine is approved, it will likely be voluntary for people to get. Right now, the polling and research finds that some communities will be more willing to volunteer than others.
Of particular concern is the increased level of hesitancy in Black communities — for many reasons — which have already been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Higher vaccine refusal in these communities could lead to continued disproportionate Covid-19 suffering. (That is, if these communities have access to the vaccine in the first place.)
In a May to June survey, Motta and co-authors estimated Black Americans may be about 40 percent more likely to refuse a vaccine than white Americans (their demographically representative survey found 43 percent of Black Americans plan to refuse a vaccine versus around 29 percent of the American public at large). In July, Gallup found 67 percent of white Americans said they’d get an FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine; 59 percent of nonwhite Americans said the same.
Zinzi Bailey, a social epidemiologist at the University of Miami, is not surprised by this disparity. “These are historically rooted, longstanding issues,” she says. Black communities have been exploited and harmed by medical researchers, and biases in medicine persist.
“I think a lot of people feel like they’re going to be experimented on,” Bailey says. “Words like ‘warp speed’ are not reassuring in this case.”
In Motta’s survey, he and his colleagues find several reasons Black Americans could refuse a vaccine. They’re worried about safety and effectiveness. They are also worried about access: that they won’t be able to get or afford a vaccine when it becomes available.
In terms of access, their fears are well grounded. Already during the pandemic, there have been access problems with Black and minority communities, namely testing. In April, Vox’s Aaron Ross Coleman found that the White House’s initiative to partner with retail stores for testing largely left communities of color underserved.
Bailey stresses that the increased hesitancy in Black communities shouldn’t be framed as a deficiency within those communities. Rather, it is a reflection of how our society has treated them. “I think what these [survey] results are indicating is an underlying level of mistrust that is rampant in the country,” she says. “Mistrust is the name of the game right now, which hampers our ability to move forward with public health initiatives.”
Again, there are indications that this hesitancy isn’t just about vaccines in general but that there’s added uncertainty about the Covid-19 vaccines in development. “Black community and other minority communities vaccinate their kids for measles, mumps, rubella,” says Justin Stoler, who studies health disparities at the University of Miami. “There are disparities there, but not disparities like we’re seeing with Covid willingness.”
It’s not just Black communities that may be less willing to vaccinate. Women also report greater hesitancy about a vaccine (they are 70 percent more likely to refuse a vaccine than men, according to Motta’s research), as do political conservatives and people living in rural areas. Plus, there’s the longstanding anti-vaccination movement, which will likely seek to undermine Covid-19 vaccination efforts.
The challenge is that each of these communities may require a different strategy, have different underlying anxieties and fears, and require a slightly different intervention to placate their fears.
We need more vaccine social science research
How do we get ahead of this hesitancy problem? Experts I spoke to say there needs to be widespread, on-the-ground anthropological research in communities to find out what their vaccine concerns are and to test educational campaigns to address those concerns.
“We are, and should be, investing an enormous amount of resources in the research and development of a vaccine,” Crouse Quinn says. “We’ve invested very few, almost no resources, in the social and behavioral science research that will help us understand in real time how the public will respond to a vaccine.”
In August, Brunson headed a working group that published a social science research agenda for a Covid-19 vaccine campaign. “What we’re arguing for is that state and local health departments need to be given the funding,” she says, to go out into communities and figure out what anxieties people have about the vaccine, and the messages and educational materials that might placate those fears.
Research and development into the vaccine technology costs billions. Brunson says the social science component might cost, nationally, around $40 million. But it’s being overlooked. “We’ve been talking with people in the Senate, we’ve been talking with Congress, we’ve been really trying to push this even with nonprofits and nothing has come through yet,” Brunson says. Which is a shame.
“I think a lot of people feel like they’re going to be experimented on”
“There’s an assumption that if we can develop the vaccine technology, that if we build it, people will come, and we’ll get vaccinated,” she says. “And it’s not true. The social component is as complicated if not even more complicated than developing the vaccine technology.” (Such a suite of on-the-ground social science research has been effective in increasing willingness to vaccinate for Ebola in African countries.)
Motta and his collaborators are independently doing some of this research (which has not yet been published), trying to figure out what sorts of messages might move people toward vaccine acceptance.
“We don’t have a lot of research on how to communicate during a pandemic,” he says. But preliminarily, “we find that if you talk about the personal health risks of Covid, that’s something that seems to resonate.” Messages about how a vaccine could help the economy don’t work, and messages about how the vaccine could help save others are less effective than messages about personal risk. Most importantly, we know what doesn’t work: shaming, and, as Motta says, “telling people ‘you’re wrong and here’s why.’”
There could be a lot of different strategies that work.
“We know from my own research that the more people you believe want you to get a flu vaccine, the more likely you are to take it,” Crouse Quinn says. “We know that if you have a high perceived risk of the disease, you’re more likely to take the vaccine. But if you have a high perceived risk of vaccine side effects, that will depress your willingness.”
It’s complicated to find out the right mix of messaging that works, and for whom. Trump could upend it all. He has a remarkable, well-documented power for taking issues that normally are apolitical and splitting opinion on them along political lines.
This could happen with a vaccine, leading to a swell of refusal among his political opponents.
“By tying vaccine safety issues to his personal political ambitions, Trump [could make] vaccine safety a partisan issue,” Motta says. “That’s potentially a huge problem, as Democrats are currently much more likely than Republicans to intend to vaccinate. If Democrats start to doubt that a truly effective vaccine was rigorously vetted, we could see even greater compliance problems.”
How many people need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, anyway?
Let’s say there is a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, approved without political interference by the FDA. And still, 30 percent or more of Americans refuse to get it. Does that immediately ruin the chances of a vaccination campaign succeeding?
Not necessarily.
Natalie Dean, a biostatistician and vaccine researcher at the University of Florida, explains there are several variables at play that will determine what proportion of the population will need to be vaccinated.
Dean sent along the following chart to explain. At first glance, it’s a little hard to interpret, but it can help us think through the math.
What it shows is that varying levels of vaccine effectiveness (the different colored line), and the effective contagiousness of the disease (the R), affect how many people in a population need to be vaccinated to eliminate the disease.
The more potent the vaccine, the fewer people need to be vaccinated. A less potent vaccine (or perhaps one that requires multiple doses to achieve its highest potency) would likely require nearly everyone to be vaccinated.
The good news in this chart is that R is not a fixed number. It changes based on our actions (like wearing masks), and depending on how we use other public health tools to combat the spread of Covid-19.
“If we’re able to bring the effective R down by other means,” Dean says, “by having better contact tracing, or better isolation, or reducing the superspreading events, or having more testing so that we can catch people in their infectious period ... all these ways that we can reduce R, then that will also reduce that [vaccine] threshold that we need to hit.”
A vaccine, Dean reminds, “is a potentially valuable tool, but it’s not the only tool.”
A successful Covid-19 vaccine campaign is not lost yet. But the clock is ticking.
“We are in a window of time right now where this can actually be addressed, and be addressed well,” Brunson says. A botched vaccine campaign could undermine public health in the United States. But a good campaign, she stresses, could lift it up, and “increase faith in public health and belief in vaccination. That would really put us as a country, across the board, on a better path.”


vox--2020-09-04--The ancient palindrome that explains Christopher Nolan’s Tenet

Christopher Nolan ’ s Tenet is a mysterious movie , one I can ’ t possibly explain , at least not without a dozen more viewings .
( With the Covid-19 pandemic and the film ’ s only-in-theaters strategy , that won ’ t be happening any time soon . )
But I was startled to realize that there is one way to unlock it , sort of .
It seems that Nolan found inspiration in an unlikely source : an ancient Latin palindrome known as the Sator square that anthropologists have been digging up all over Europe , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about , for decades .
I am but a film critic , so I won ’ t pretend to understand or fully explain the entire history of the Sator square here .
But once I realized its link to Tenet , I was able to understand and even respect the movie a bit more .
So here ’ s a brief history of the Sator square , and why I think it ’ s significant to the film .
The Sator square is ancient , mysterious , and everywhere The Sator square , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , rendered in Latin , of five words : SATOR , AREPO , TENET , OPERA , and ROTAS .
You can read the square in four directions : • Horizontally , beginning in the bottom right corner • Vertically , beginning in the bottom right corner Additionally , the words in the first and fifth lines are the same , just inverted ; same for the words in the second and fourth .
The word in the third and central line is itself a palindrome .
And it is “ Tenet.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relates to the movie — beyond the obvious connection to the title — in a moment .
Instances of the Sator square have popped up all over Europe .
Two were found during the excavation of Pompeii , the ancient Italian city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 .
Others have been found in Italy , England , Syria , France , Portugal , and even Sweden , and have been dated from the second century all the way to the 14th .
Sometimes they were scratched into walls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ written in books .
( You can read about the history of Sator square discoveries in a number of places . )
Attempting to literally translate the words in the square yields some sort of message about a farmer named Arepo and his plow .
But because the square has often been found in connection with churches , chapels , and abbeys , some scholars believe it is Christian in origin .
There ’ s a simple reason for that : If you rearrange the letters , you can get something like this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form the shape of a cross , spell out Pater Noster in two directions .
Pater Noster translates to “ Our Father , ” the opening of the Lord ’ s Prayer , which Christians have prayed together for millennia .
The cross is flanked by two A ’ s and two O ’ s , which could mean “ Alpha ” and “ Omega , ” a Christian reference to God .
( Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet , and they are used to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beginning and end of history and every point in between . )
One possible explanation for this apparent relation to Christianity is that early Christians , who were persecuted and slaughtered by authorities under the Roman Empire , used the square to covertly signify their presence to one another ( much like the fish symbol ) .
Another is that the square was designed to aid the faithful in contemplation , by providing a reminder of the presence of God .
During some time periods , the Sator square seems to have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Magi ( the three “ wise men ” who follow a star and bring gifts to the infant Jesus ) , who are unnamed in the Bible .
However , some scholars have challenged this connection .
The discovery of the Sator squares in Pompeii suggests that the palindrome may have older roots in Judaism or another religious sect ; few Christians would have been present in Pompeii in AD 79 , just decades after the execution of Jesus , and since their religion originated as a sect of Judaism , use of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet widespread .
Others have posited that a reference to Greek or Egyptian deities is encoded into the square , or that it is intended for use in incantations — that its palindromes were thought to be imbued with magical properties in some folk and religious traditions .
The square has been credited with quenching fires and curing insanity .
A 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch doctor ’ s manual instructs its reader to inscribe the square in butter smeared on a piece of bread and eat it as a cure for rabies .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Given that the square has appeared at sites whose dates of existence span more than a thousand years , it ’ s also possible that its meaning has morphed over time , depending on who was wielding it and who was looking at it .
( That wouldn ’ t be uncommon ; early Christians , for instance , borrowed the fish symbol from Greeks and Romans . )
But whatever the case , the square seems to have a mystical purpose , its many possible readings colliding in a way that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It has served as a kind of mandala — a configuration of symbols intended to direct the viewer ’ s focus toward something divine or transcendent .
The title of Tenet — a movie about people who figure out how to move both forward and backward in time — is a palindrome .
“ Tenet ” is also the name of the film ’ s shadowy organization that ’ s trying to keep the world from ending .
So the connection between the events of the movie and its title seems clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the title or story .
The other four words in the Sator square also show up in Tenet : “ Sator ” is the last name of Kenneth Branagh ’ s character , a cruel Russian oligarch who is communicating with the future .
“ Arepo ” is the last name of an unseen Spanish art forger whose copies of two Goya paintings become blackmail fodder early in the film .
The first scene in the movie takes place in an opera house , where an orchestra is tuning up , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sequence , guards who work for “ Rotas Security ” try to protect a freeport ( a building that ’ s been acquired by collectors but not yet taxed ) .
So in a sense , the Sator square is seeded throughout Tenet , woven into its fabric in a way that is easy to miss .
Yet it ’ s unmistakably present , and since the movie itself contains sequences that move , in essence , forward and backward — and are the same yet different when you watch them — it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a kind of cinematic Sator square .
As I explained in my review of Tenet , Nolan has an abiding interest in the links between the mathematical and physical world and the more metaphysical properties of human existence — properties like love , memory , courage , and belief .
He seems to have an intuitive sense that all of these things are connected to the passage of time , and the way it expands and contracts phenomenologically .
In movies like Inception , Interstellar , Dunkirk , Memento , and more , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concept , finding emotion and feeling in the emotionless fabric of the universe .
So it seems to me that Tenet is Nolan ’ s attempt to join a lengthy tradition of using the Sator square as some mystical or religious center of contemplation — and to draw us into an excavation of the idea of faith itself .
The word tenet means principle or belief , especially in a religious or philosophical system .
Several times in the movie , its characters discuss faith , fate , and fanaticism .
And near @ @ @ @ @ @ @ character declares that he has faith — in the mechanics of the universe .
Maintaining enough of a belief in the mechanics of the universe to entrust your life to them — something we all do all the time — seems like solid footing , not on the same level as trusting in an unseen deity or other spirits .
But Nolan likes to challenge our preconceptions .
At times he ’ s proposed worlds where the rules of the universe that we take for granted — about space , dimensions , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — are bent into strange new shapes .
In Tenet , he does this with time and entropy , proposing a world in which humans have figured out how to reverse the natural process of decline and move backward .
He is suggesting that the things most of us assume are impossible might just be things we haven ’ t discovered yet .
I think he might be wondering if something that some of us call “ God ” or “ magic ” is tied up with all of those still undiscovered mysteries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s way of focusing us on those mysteries , of creating a 21st-century Sator square on a big , bright screen .
He ’ s given us something to contemplate , a puzzle we must return to more than once to begin to apprehend .
And whatever my feelings about Tenet , I freely admit : That is pretty cool .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work , and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is a mysterious movie, one I can’t possibly explain, at least not without a dozen more viewings. (With the Covid-19 pandemic and the film’s only-in-theaters strategy, that won’t be happening any time soon.)
But I was startled to realize that there is one way to unlock it, sort of. It seems that Nolan found inspiration in an unlikely source: an ancient Latin palindrome known as the Sator square that anthropologists have been digging up all over Europe, and that cryptologists and historians have been arguing about, for decades.
I am but a film critic, so I won’t pretend to understand or fully explain the entire history of the Sator square here. But once I realized its link to Tenet, I was able to understand and even respect the movie a bit more. So here’s a brief history of the Sator square, and why I think it’s significant to the film.
The Sator square is ancient, mysterious, and everywhere
The Sator square, in brief, is a five-line palindrome, rendered in Latin, of five words: SATOR, AREPO, TENET, OPERA, and ROTAS.
You can read the square in four directions:
Horizontally, beginning in the top left corner
Horizontally, beginning in the bottom right corner
Vertically, beginning in the top left corner
Vertically, beginning in the bottom right corner
That means it’s a four-directional palindrome.
Additionally, the words in the first and fifth lines are the same, just inverted; same for the words in the second and fourth. The word in the third and central line is itself a palindrome. And it is “Tenet.”
I’ll get to how that relates to the movie — beyond the obvious connection to the title — in a moment.
Instances of the Sator square have popped up all over Europe. Two were found during the excavation of Pompeii, the ancient Italian city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Others have been found in Italy, England, Syria, France, Portugal, and even Sweden, and have been dated from the second century all the way to the 14th. Sometimes they were scratched into walls and tablets; other times they were written in books. (You can read about the history of Sator square discoveries in a number of places.)
Attempting to literally translate the words in the square yields some sort of message about a farmer named Arepo and his plow. But because the square has often been found in connection with churches, chapels, and abbeys, some scholars believe it is Christian in origin. There’s a simple reason for that: If you rearrange the letters, you can get something like this:
The words above, arranged to form the shape of a cross, spell out Pater Noster in two directions. Pater Noster translates to “Our Father,” the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, which Christians have prayed together for millennia. The cross is flanked by two A’s and two O’s, which could mean “Alpha” and “Omega,” a Christian reference to God. (Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, and they are used to signal God’s presence at the beginning and end of history and every point in between.)
One possible explanation for this apparent relation to Christianity is that early Christians, who were persecuted and slaughtered by authorities under the Roman Empire, used the square to covertly signify their presence to one another (much like the fish symbol). Another is that the square was designed to aid the faithful in contemplation, by providing a reminder of the presence of God. During some time periods, the Sator square seems to have been the source of traditional names for the Magi (the three “wise men” who follow a star and bring gifts to the infant Jesus), who are unnamed in the Bible.
However, some scholars have challenged this connection. The discovery of the Sator squares in Pompeii suggests that the palindrome may have older roots in Judaism or another religious sect; few Christians would have been present in Pompeii in AD 79, just decades after the execution of Jesus, and since their religion originated as a sect of Judaism, use of Latin in Christian practice wasn’t yet widespread.
Others have posited that a reference to Greek or Egyptian deities is encoded into the square, or that it is intended for use in incantations — that its palindromes were thought to be imbued with magical properties in some folk and religious traditions. The square has been credited with quenching fires and curing insanity. A 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch doctor’s manual instructs its reader to inscribe the square in butter smeared on a piece of bread and eat it as a cure for rabies. A Cyrillic version shows up in Orthodox amulets.
Given that the square has appeared at sites whose dates of existence span more than a thousand years, it’s also possible that its meaning has morphed over time, depending on who was wielding it and who was looking at it. (That wouldn’t be uncommon; early Christians, for instance, borrowed the fish symbol from Greeks and Romans.) But whatever the case, the square seems to have a mystical purpose, its many possible readings colliding in a way that points to what’s beyond them. It has served as a kind of mandala — a configuration of symbols intended to direct the viewer’s focus toward something divine or transcendent.
Spoiler alert: Moderate spoilers for Tenet follow.
Is Tenet Nolan’s cinematic Sator square?
The title of Tenet — a movie about people who figure out how to move both forward and backward in time — is a palindrome. “Tenet” is also the name of the film’s shadowy organization that’s trying to keep the world from ending. So the connection between the events of the movie and its title seems clear.
But Nolan didn’t stop at the title or story. The other four words in the Sator square also show up in Tenet: “Sator” is the last name of Kenneth Branagh’s character, a cruel Russian oligarch who is communicating with the future. “Arepo” is the last name of an unseen Spanish art forger whose copies of two Goya paintings become blackmail fodder early in the film. The first scene in the movie takes place in an opera house, where an orchestra is tuning up, and chaos quickly sets in. In one sequence, guards who work for “Rotas Security” try to protect a freeport (a building that’s been acquired by collectors but not yet taxed).
So in a sense, the Sator square is seeded throughout Tenet, woven into its fabric in a way that is easy to miss. Yet it’s unmistakably present, and since the movie itself contains sequences that move, in essence, forward and backward — and are the same yet different when you watch them — it functions, in a way, like a kind of cinematic Sator square.
As I explained in my review of Tenet, Nolan has an abiding interest in the links between the mathematical and physical world and the more metaphysical properties of human existence — properties like love, memory, courage, and belief. He seems to have an intuitive sense that all of these things are connected to the passage of time, and the way it expands and contracts phenomenologically. In movies like Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Memento, and more, he’s been toying with that concept, finding emotion and feeling in the emotionless fabric of the universe.
So it seems to me that Tenet is Nolan’s attempt to join a lengthy tradition of using the Sator square as some mystical or religious center of contemplation — and to draw us into an excavation of the idea of faith itself. The word tenet means principle or belief, especially in a religious or philosophical system. Several times in the movie, its characters discuss faith, fate, and fanaticism. And near the end, Robert Pattinson’s character declares that he has faith — in the mechanics of the universe.
Maintaining enough of a belief in the mechanics of the universe to entrust your life to them — something we all do all the time — seems like solid footing, not on the same level as trusting in an unseen deity or other spirits.
But Nolan likes to challenge our preconceptions. At times he’s proposed worlds where the rules of the universe that we take for granted — about space, dimensions, the human body, the nature of dreams — are bent into strange new shapes. In Tenet, he does this with time and entropy, proposing a world in which humans have figured out how to reverse the natural process of decline and move backward. He is suggesting that the things most of us assume are impossible might just be things we haven’t discovered yet. I think he might be wondering if something that some of us call “God” or “magic” is tied up with all of those still undiscovered mysteries.
So maybe Tenet is Nolan’s way of focusing us on those mysteries, of creating a 21st-century Sator square on a big, bright screen. He’s given us something to contemplate, a puzzle we must return to more than once to begin to apprehend. And whatever my feelings about Tenet, I freely admit: That is pretty cool.
Tenet is playing in select theaters.