Conservatives Enraged by the Idea That Care Bears — Fictional, Pastel-Colored Magic Beings — Could Be Trans

In today’s edition of “dumb stuff that conservatives are mad about for some reason,” the British right-wing is currently losing its collective mind over a digital museum exhibit that suggests a transgender reading of one of the Care Bears. Yes, really. Villiers Revealed: We Have Always Been Here, an exhibition slated to run through January of next year at Melton Carnegie Museum in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England, centers around George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who is rumored to have been a lover of King James I. According to the Culture Leicestershire website, “the exhibition expanded beyond his story to explore intersectional queer and trans histories across cultures and time.” The digital version of the exhibition, which appears to be what anti-LGBTQ+ commentators are mad about, “encapsulates and expands the original physical exhibitions,” notably including a Student Gallery featuring the work of 35 student volunteers at the University of Nottingham. Those students each selected objects that they 3D scanned, adding their own queer interpretations in written contributions to the exhibit.That included a queer/trans reading of the Care Bears toy and greeting card line authored by classics student Bryony Reeves; namely, Reeves pointed to Funshine Bear, noting that this particular character in the franchise “is considered to be transgender or gender fluid.” Reeves went on to explain that early versions of Funshine were “presented as female, then after 2002 they were depicted as male.” (I, for one, am here for this unintentional Nonbinary Care Bear icon.) “Funshine is a symbol for the LGBTQA+ community; having a character like Funshine who transitions, with a positive characterisation, sends a strong message to those going through a similar change,” Reeves’ digital exhibition text reads. “You are loved and cared for.” Of course, because we can’t have nice things, conservatives promptly proceeded to get Big Mad about this