We’ll Never Be Those Kids Again: Queer Perspectives on Children’s Cinema

This chapter argues for the usefulness of queer perspectives as tools to analyze (Swedish) children’s cinema. By rejecting heterocentric/straight readings of the films as being ‘true’ or ‘real’, as was done by the late film scholar Alexander Doty, it is possible to reread the canon of Swedish children’s cinema, which has arguably been quite heteronormative from the beginning. This is done by reading Simon Small through Doty’s perspective. The utility of queer theory in analyzing children’s cinema is emphasized as the chapter examines the queer young masculinities found in Simon Small. Furthermore, the chapter examines non-male bodies, such as Bobo and Klara in Lukas Moodysson’s We Are the Best! by applying Jack Halberstam’s concepts of tomboyism and punk tomboyism. The queer reading of Simon Small challenges the idea of children being innocent, asexual creatures by disclosing the homoerotic relationship between Nils and Bertil and their way of creating a queer home together. The queer perspective on We Are the Best! deals with masculinity in non-male bodies and the negotiation of gender identity. Both of these queer perspectives are beneficial when analyzing children’s cinema and can be supplementary to each other in the analysis.