God, I could write a whole essay about how amazingly Bob’s Burgers tackles queer characters, but let’s focus on one queer character for now: Gene Belcher
One of the biggest things I’ve noticed about Bob’s Burgers since I’ve started watching again is how, as a queer character, Gene is written amazingly well. He may be gay, he may be trans, he may be nonbinary, but this kid is not straight. (There are 30-min video compilations to prove this.)
And I am incredibly comfortable with the ambiguity that this show holds for that. I love it. He could never be revealed to be anything, and he’s still a complete and awesome character.
It allows the writers to let Gene just explore who he is, who he might want to be, without that being (too much) the butt of the joke. What’s more is I love how Linda and Bob are written as Gene’s parents. They clearly know who their kid is and what to expect from his behavior, attitudes, and wardrobe choices.
One of my favorite Linda moments has to be when Gene has the flu, and he’s stuck in the bathroom. When we see him, he has blue eyeshadow on, and Linda casually says “Ooh, love the eyeshadow!” It may be small, but oh I loved that line.
I love that this fictional child is being nurtured to love himself, not just by his parents, but by his siblings as well.
“Time to focus on your good daughter! Gene!”
“I’m pretty!”
Not only does Gene exemplify a queer kid just being a kid, but it shows Bob and Linda as being great examples in parenting on all fronts, but mostly just by letting Gene be himself.
(And that’s not even mentioning Tina’s tendency towards polyamory…)
Since Bob's Burgers has been silent for a while, I figured I'd share some more of my Bob's animation . This was the first shot I called "I want that shot!" of the season. Really wanted to go for some GOOPY fx . I definitely had fun with these shots.