Over the last decade we started seeing more cartoons trying to appeal to kids and adults alike. Disney’s Star vs. The Forces of Evil is no exception to this trend.
It follows Princess Star Butterfly from Mewni, a planet in an alternate dimension. In order to train her magic properly, her parents send her to Earth (because it’s ‘less dangerous’ there). She becomes the foreign exchange student living with Marco, a human boy, and his family. Throughout the course of the show, Marco learns about Star’s magic and life on Mewni. He becomes her ally in driving away evil forces that seek to destroy Star’s family and the Kingdom of Mewni.
Season 4 of of the show premiered earlier this month. In the first episode, Star, Marco, and Star’s father River Butterfly attempt to find Queen Moon, who mysteriously vanished. In their searching, they come across a local play parodying Mewni’s royal family. They are momentarily convinced that the actor playing Queen Moon was, in fact, the real queen.
We soon discover they are wrong, and that the actor (a man in drag) just has really awesome makeup skills. Marco is the one most impressed by this. ‘I’m not the real Queen Moon,’ the actor, Eric, tells the group after taking off his wig. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I was trying not to break character.’
While Star and River cry over being ‘so close’ to finding Queen Moon, Marco, mouth agape says, ‘Oh my gosh’ as he approaches Eric. ‘You have a gift,’ Marco exclaims with a smile. ‘This is the most flawless contouring I’ve ever seen,’ he continues, rubbing Eric’s face.
‘I used my new illuminizer to highlight my cheekbones,’ Eric gleefully replies. ‘Sometimes Turdina likes to highlight with glitter,’ Marco responds, referencing his own princess character from an earlier season.
‘I like to use glitter on my eyelids to make them pop,’ Eric remarks. ‘Sometimes I’ll put a little bronzer on and then blend it with my…,’ Marco begins before being cut off by a distraught Star.
Although this is not the first time we’ve seen queer representation in Star vs. The Forces of Evil, this short scene couldn’t come at a better time. There is a rising popularity of drag kids, like Desmond is Amazing, who are becoming famous drag queens in their own right. Other famous drag kids include Violet Vixen and Lactatia.
There is also a huge interest across the United States in Drag Queen Story Time, where professional drag queens come to public libraries, community centres, and bookstores to read storybooks to kids. One recent Drag Queen Story Time event in San Francisco had an estimated 500 attendees.
With the rising normalisation of and interest in drag culture, it’s great that Star vs. The Forces of Evil did its part in referencing this phenomenon.
via GSN