Spongebob Squarepants is perhaps the most overexposed cartoon character ever. The googly-eyed dope is a daily intruder into millions of living rooms and dorms in his television show. He has also squished into the market, gracing bath towels, Scotch tape dispensers and, in a stroke of marketing genius, sponges.
But Spongebob has now jumped from the after-school cartoons to the national news. Conservative activists have called this good-natured sponge a threat to traditional family values because of a recent skit in which he promotes gay tolerance. The uproar is indeed very funny, but it is also a bit scary, because it shows the far Christian right's sheer paranoia on social issues.
Spongebob was part of a music video made by the non-profit We Are Family organization to promote tolerance and peace and was distributed to schools nationwide. Normally this wouldn't be news - cartoon celebrities donate their time for educational videos all the time - but conservative activists James C. Dobson and Focus on the Family have thrown it into the limelight.
Dobson and his watchdog group have taken exception to the video, saying it promotes acceptance of homosexuality. The video depicts Spongebob and over 100 other cartoon characters, including Winnie the Pooh and the Rugrats, singing Sister Sledge's 1970s hit "We Are Family." According to the video makers' website, the video was made to promote acceptance of everyone regardless of "abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics." Dobson and other Christian conservative commentators say they take exception to a specific part of that pledge.
"Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary but it crosses a moral line," said Dobson.
The particularly odd part is that they focus on two words, "sexual identity," that are not even said in the video. The song "We Are Family" has indeed long been associated with gay and lesbian unity and pride. Dobson also might have noticed Bert and Ernie from "Sesame Street," who were memorably "outed" by Rev. Billy Graham, dancing with the other characters. The video even showed several male cartoon characters and puppets hugging and putting arms on each other shoulders. Cover your children's eyes!
Dobson and his cronies need to get a life. Maybe there's a legitimate debate about sex on television. But inventing the presence of homosexuality among a talking kitchen sponge, a 7-foot-tall talking bird, and a pudgy bear, well, some of us think that's a little paranoid.
Regardless who's in the White House, or who's got the money in Washington, American society is making progress - progress away from racism and homophobia and toward acceptance. The Grahams, Falwells, and Dobsons of the world are realizing this, and that's why they have to come up with scapegoats like Spongebob.
And cloaking it all under the term "family values" turns our stomachs. The American family is an important, even sacred thing. But it is most deeply threatened by alienation, poverty, joblessness, and crime - not homosexuality.
In other words, if the alleged homoerotic content of Spongebob makes you squirm, then you need to get your priorities straight. That is, right after you get your head examined.
