Cartoon Characters Who Were Significant In The Development Of My Queer Identity And Current Inspirations For My Weightlifting Routine

by Mallory Ortberg · January 28, 2015

Hyena, Gargoyles

hyena1

Influence on queer identity: Haircut, lascivious smile
Weightlifting inspiration: Squats, swimmer’s press

Kida, Journey To Atlantis

queer13

Influence on queer identity: Look at her
Weightlifting inspiration: Deadlifts

Carmen Sandiego, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?

queer12

Influence on queer identity: Hair lustrousness, general butch-y swagger, boots
Weightlifting inspiration: Bent-over rows

Queen Beryl, Sailor Moon

queer11

Influence on queer identity: Cackling, imperiousness, redheaded deviousness

queer10

Weightlifting inspiration: Shoulder presses

The fox version of Robin Hood, Robin Hood

queer8

Influence on queer identity: Roguishness
Weightlifting inspiration: Endurance, cardio

Johnny Bravo, Johnny Bravo

queer7

Influence on queer identity: Campy, performative masculinity
Weightlifting inspiration: LIFT HEAVY

Gaia, Captain Planet

queer6

Influence on queer identity: Chillness, headbands, Bonnie Raitt-style stripe of white in hair
Weightlifting inspiration: Dips and pullups; functional strength

Fox, Gargoyles

fox1

Influence on queer identity: Cyborg extensions complicating notions of gender binary, lipstick
Weightlifting inspiration: Tricep extensions, planks

Demona, Gargoyles

demona

Influence on queer identity: Everything

demona2

Weightlifting inspiration: Bicep curls, squats, bench press, box jumps

Monterey Jack, Rescue Rangers

queer1

Influence on queer identity: Sweaters, self-acceptance
Weightlifting inspiration: Food as fuel

Tank Girl, Tank Girl

queer5

Influence on queer identity: Cutting jeans into shorts, kissing girls
Weightlifting inspiration: Kettlebell swings

Poison Ivy, Batman

queer2

Influence on queer identity: Unhealthy romantic friendships, campy high femme performance
Weightlifting inspiration: TRX straps

Livewire, Batman

queer3

Influence on queer identity: That haircut, eyeliner application
Weightlifting inspiration: Walking lunges

Spinelli, Recess

queer9

Influence on queer identity: Leather jackets, machisimo
Weightlifting inspiration: Lift heavy, get in fights

Mallory is an Editor of The Toast.


75 Comments

  1. ramina +41

    You guys, I am doing a cosplay of Queen Beryl and seeing her here made me real real excited/happy

    her anti-gravity boobs and shoulder talons inspire my entire life just saying

  2. hussified +22

    I can’t decide if Kida or Spinelli gets more of my vote – right now it’s a 50/50 awesomeness split.

  3. thebellewitch +16

    Bonnie Raitt stripe of white in hair: I want that. Sadly, as my hair begins to gray (I’m 31! Geez! 31!), it does not seem to be happening.

    1. projectbeks +12

      Ditto (nearly 32 here). I have casual gray hairs spread throughout my hair, making them difficult to see, but there is one very bright strand of hair in the middle of my head that I have high hopes will influence her neighbors to become a lovely stripe of silvery awesomeness.

        1. perianwen +3

          Maybe I’d be able to get to a place of not caring and just letting it be, if society wasn’t so messed up about aging and beauty. Until then, dye it is. 🙁

      2. saffiedarling +3

        22 for me! (28 now)

        I wouldn’t mind so much except that it shows up in my fringe and makes it curl when the rest of my hair is straight-ish.’

        Oh and after getting through my teens unscathed, I’ve picked up adult acne somewhere along the way. I’d cope with one or the other but both just seems unfair.

        (On roaccutane now, seems to be helping, but it means I’m not allowed to dye my hair, so I’m channeling my old english teacher who was also early gray and rocked it.)

      3. owlsintheforest +1

        l started in my very early twenties, in fact l found the first one at twelve. l have a badass streak that l love now. You are badass too, if that’s what you want.

    3. robotneedslove +10

      30, lots of greys.

      Craziest grey-hair thing that has happened to me: a few months after a VERY stressful period in undergrad, my friend was playing with my hair and found all these hairs that had little strips of grey in them, like skunk hairs. Like, I had started going grey, and after things settled down, my hair was like “ok all quiet on the southern front we can go brown again guys”. Bodies, man! Anyway, I surmise that my greys are somewhat attributable to my stressful job.

    4. wrappedupinbooks +6

      Have been greying since age 13 when the girl who sat behind me in 7th grade English ripped one out of my head and informed me.

      However I am pleased to report that around 21-22 I started to develop a stripe in front that is now becoming quite prominent. The bad news is that is that the greys in the back are also becoming much more numerous. Just shy of 25 now, anticipating being totally white by 30.

      1. lizlabz +1

        I was 15 when I started to notice salt in my pepper, and I started to see a concentration in my mid-20’s, but at 31 the stripe is only really visible in certain light. I remain hopeful.

  5. logicbutton +51

    This post speaks to me.

    Olivier Mira Armstrong, Fullmetal Alchemist

    Influence on queer identity: disdain for paternalistic men
    Weightlifting inspiration: swagger, everything else

    1. logicbutton +25

      Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5

      Influence on queer identity: being myself, no matter what that looks like.
      Weightlifting inspiration: endurance

      1. Gen_Burnsthighs +27

        Utena Tenjou, Revolutionary Girl Utena

        utena

        Influence on queer identity: fancy tomboy femme fashion, subverting stereotypes
        Weightlifting inspiration: sword fighting, dunking skills

        1. SYMPHOQUEER +15

          I came here to post Utena but with “squat thrusts” and “Stairmaster 5000” for the weightlifting part.

          Noriko Takaya, Gunbuster

          Influence on queer identity: fighting hard against impossible odds, unwavering faith in the women you admire, extremely 80s headband and leotard
          Weightlifting inspiration: 10km jogs in iron sandals, every weightlifting routine ever but in a robot

          1. citizenchristy +21

            Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, Battlestar Galactica

            Influence on queer identity: infinite swagger, full acceptance of the phrase “you be you [SPOILER: even when you’re an angel person or ghost that everyone can see somehow or something]”
            Weightlifting inspiration: ab bench, calf extensions

          3. citizenchristy +7

            Ack, that’s the one I was looking for, lifting-wise! There’s this scene in which Adama’s showing her just how strong she isn’t involving a leg press, isn’t there? ISN’T THERE? (I watched the show in 2009 and just re-watched the miniseries recently and, gee whiz, guys, I could go on about Battlestar Galactica for literally hours.)

          4. logicbutton +6

            Yeah, it’s after she wrecks her knee and she’s trying unsuccessfully to prove that she’s good to go back to flying!

          5. saffiedarling +9

            Everytime I think I’ve got my sexual identity down, I see a picture of Starbuck (or a women’s soccer team, or Cameron Esposito, or that photo of Keira Knightley on the sidebar) and then go ohhh and have to redefine again.

          6. cheekypinky +1

            Starbuck was my first “Oh. I might find girls attractive as well” moment. Bless Our Lady of Black Half-Bras.

  6. PierrePoutine +16

    Very illuminating. I would also nominate Velma for inclusion in a roster of queer cartoon influences.

    1. malloryelis +13

      I always hated Velma! No good reason, I just found her super-irritating. I think it was all the orange.

  9. PretzelcoatlX +10

    I never got to chance to see much of it before it went off-air, but Cybersix’s drag king ways and never skipping leg day were one of my influences.

    And if we’re going into the video game realm, Sabin from Final Fantasy VI/III, for being a muscle bear who can suplex a train.

  10. katiemcgillicuddy +63

    Influence on queerness: tank tops with boots, tough but vulnerable, questionable taste in romantic partners
    Weightlifting inspiration: chest press, ship maintenance

  13. Ava Adore +24

    Hells to the yes re: Spinelli, fox-Robin Hood, and Carmen Sandiego.
    Up for nomination: JESSICA FUCKING RABBIT, my queen.
    (Also who let me watch Cool World as a child???)

    I also found a lot of mine were non-cartoon, like Trini the Yellow Power Ranger and Rizzo from Grease and Atreyu from the Neverending Story. In YA books, I was about Kestrel from Night World and Helaine from Diadem and the version of Little Red where she kills the wolf or is the wolf.

  14. ProfPumps +20

    Since my twitter is private, I don’t think my reply to today’s “how did you know you were gay/bi” shows up, but for the record, my answer was: Jessica AND Roger Rabbit.

  16. jennycieplak +13

    Well, fox Robin Hood certain helped in my awakening as a straight girl, too. I didn’t realize Kida existed, maybe I would have gone in a different direction if she had been around when I was a kid…

    3. Abraxas +3

      She is my first anime crush (sadly didn’t read the manga), her suits, her cool control, her passion in battle, so freaking hot.

  18. Just_a_Dinosaur +13

    Well, the rest of my day is going to be spent pondering my cartoon influences now. (in regards to my queerness, that is; I don’t even lift bro)

        1. elsajeni +18

          Oddly, it accelerated mine. “Cousins? COUSINS? WHAT? WHAT IS THIS HIDEOUS BETRAYAL, I… uh, I’m taking this more personally than my friends seem to be, something may be going on here.”

  21. crawlkill +12

    women really get the short end of the phallus when it comes to a gushing list of Robin Hood’s impacts on their queerery

    would also have accepted the misunderstood woundedness of Slagar the Cruel

  22. chrisyukine +27

    The Major
    Influence on queer identity: Purple hair and leather jacket, my physical body is a shell to be remade as I want.
    Weightlifting inspiration: Running, squats, core strengthening, typing.

  23. pretty_monster +9

    i shall henceforth refer to this post when determining whether a particular exercise/philosophy is legit and worthy of inclusion in my life.

    *brb updating workout routine*

  24. zachariahary +55

    So I know the Toast sets a pretty high standard for tags, but I’m not sure “gargoyles, gettin’ swole, LGBT” is gonna be topped.

    Also really hope someone one day performs a Google search for all three of those and it yields only this piece.

  25. Carvell +11

    Just realized how much Lela’s particular combination of toughness and vulnerability is a prototype for Lana Kane of Archer

  26. vmartinipie +7

    ugh I need to work out more so I, too, can look awesome in anatomically improbable outfits…

  27. avidbiologist +18

    Aaaah this is so great. For me, when I’m around mostly women, my gender-aspirational(?) type seems to be the comically incapable beta male (Shaggy from Scooby Doo) or the scrappy and widely ignored but still hopeful protagonist dude (Rocko, also Balto but I think that is also because he is “mixed-race”).

    But when I end up in a group of dudes I feel 90-95% Johnny Bravo in that I have this inherent need to prove my masculinity to people who see me as this adorable little semi-Asian girl, and I have no idea how well it works but dudes get so baffled. It’s great.

  28. redschuhart +18


    Influence on queer identity: shingled bob, ability to hover while meditating, icy exterior covering too many emotions

    Shoutout to Robin also from Teen Titans, and Raimundo from Xiaolin Showdown for their cocky/insecure androgyny (they were small and slim, I took any genderqueer inspiration I could scavenge…) Thank you, Robin and Raimundo. for being the prototypes to my new over-identification with Lars from Steven Universe

  31. JGlo +11

    Harley and Ivy remains my absolute favorite episode of Batman. Still pissed that men came between them. I wanted them to be badass together forever.

  34. Maty +2

    Not a cartoon character, but Illia from Star Trek:The Motion Picture figured importantly in my trans identity. The fact that a person could fundamentally change was inspiring, if that’s possible at ten years old.

  37. simoneblatt +3

    Yessss Carmen Sandiego is my patronus.

    But um what about Dana Scully I think my actual sexual orientation is “Mulder and/or Scully please”

  38. castles in the air

    Yessss Carmen Sandiego is my patronus.

    But um what about Dana Scully I think my actual sexual orientation is "Mulder and/or Scully please"