The new Netflix animated kids’ show CoComelon Lane includes a boy with two dads in its ensemble cast. In one episode, he dances briefly in a tutu as he explores what he likes to do. It’s a joyous scene—but unsurprisingly, some conservatives are upset.
In the episode “Say Cheese Nico” (Season 1, Episode 8), a young boy named Nico is getting ready for a family photo with his two dads. He’s not sure what he wants the photo to look like, though, and tries to decide among a number of outfits and costumes at the photography studio.
His dads encourage him to “Just be you” and think about “the things you like to do.” They go through some possibilities. He likes to help, his dads observe—so Nico tries on a firefighter helmet. He enjoys cooking, too—so a chef’s outfit is next. He also loves “to get up and dance,” the dads note—so he puts on a tutu and tiara and does a few twirls. He’s in the tutu for all of about five seconds.
He still can’t decide, however, so his dads continue to encourage him to just be himself. Finally, he piles several hats on his head—firefighter helmet, tiara, chef’s toque, and a propeller beanie. The dads each similarly don a stack of hats for a joyous family photo.
Nico is a boy who encompasses multitudes, from the traditionally masculine (firefighter) to the feminine (tutu and tiara), and places in between. As important as it is to have stories of gender creative children who are gender creative all or most of the time (such as in My Shadow Is Pink), it’s equally valuable to show a child who is gender creative only some of the time, as seems to be the case with Nico. He’s exploring who he is and who he wants to be, and he isn’t letting gender restrictions get in the way. Nico’s dads (and the show’s writers) deserve much credit for truly letting him be himself, even as he is still finding out what that means. That’s a valuable lesson for young viewers.
It’s also notable that the gender creative child here has two dads. It used to be that we rarely if ever saw any depiction of queer or gender creative children with queer parents, since the LGBTQ community was fighting hard to dispel the old myth that LGBTQ parents “make” their children LGBTQ. Now, there’s a growing number of children’s books with “second-gen” queer kids (which you can find by filtering my Database of LGBTQ Family Books by the “Queer kids w/queer parents” tag), and clearly children’s television is following suit. We LGBTQ parents still don’t “make” our kids LGBTQ, but some of them turn out queer regardless—or are at least more willing to explore gender creativity and have “more flexible attitudes towards gender,” as research shows.
The usual conservative suspects are riled up about Nico’s tutu, however, as Newsweek reports. One is even calling for a boycott of Netflix. I do believe that Netflix won’t be swayed, however. They’ve had LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ shows before, including Ridley Jones (with a nonbinary bison and a girl with two dads) and Princess Power, which just dropped its second season and includes a girl with two dads. (Here’s my interview with Queer Eye star Tan France, who voices one of the dads.)
If you feel like dropping Netflix a nice note to voice your support of its LGBTQ inclusion in CoComelon Lane and other kids’ shows, you can contact their Investor Relations department.
Kudos to CoComelon Lane creator Moonbug Entertainment and to Netflix for giving us this valuable representation. Keep on dancing, Nico!