Is macgregor in jungle cruise gay

MacGregor Houghton is the tritagonist of the Jungle Cruise. He is portrayed by Jack Whitehall. MacGregor Houghton is the younger brother of Lily Houghton. The family lived in Kensington where MacGregor lived a posh and privileged life with a love for clothing and Queensberry Rules boxing. When MacGregor was seven, he lost two of his toes on an adventure with Lily. MacGregor was secretly gay. MacGregor Houghton, a gay character, and Veronica Falcon's revamped Trader Sam join Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt on Disney's "Jungle Cruise.".

Though Jungle Cruise’s McGregor Houghton certainly isn’t a perfect attempt as far as gay representation in Disney films go, he’s a step (albeit a small one) in the right direction. Jack Whitehall portrays MacGregor Houghton, the younger brother of Emily Blunt 's character Dr. Lily Houghton who eventually reveals himself to be gay in the adventure film.

Jack Whitehall plays a gay character in Disney's Jungle Cruise, but McGregor's coming out scene still feels behind on the times. Then, we suddenly get a tender, ruminative, and significantly more emotionally grounded scene where McGregor confides in Frank that followed Lily to the Amazon out of loyalty to her for standing by him in spite of his closed-minded family — and because he was running out of excuses as to his reluctance to marry one of the many eligible women his family had arranged for him.

It's a small moment, but for the film to have burly blockbuster superstar Dwayne Johnson — the epitome of heteronormative masculinity — take McGregor's coming out so easily in stride feels like Jungle Cruise telling its audience that there's no single macgregor depiction of what it means to be a man, and that a person's cruise is hardly something to ostracize them for.

Essentially, he embodies the conventional masculine ideal, making Frank the ultimate man's man compared to the slender, weak, and frivolous McGregor. Of course, Johnson noting how casual the reveal was speaks to what many have seen as the continuation of Disney's failed promises on the front of representation. No lingering glances toward Frank or even a flirtatious smile at one of the tribesmen the group gets to encounter during their journey.

The gay panic jokes, in turn, were made to solidify Frank's hetero-masculine status, while whittling McGregor's sexuality down to a punchline. He doesn't have all that significant of a role in the plot save for a few key moments, and as touching as the coming out scene is, it's still a watered-down rendition that's safe for Disney's "family-friendly" ideals — continuing the studio's 'tell-don't-show' attitudes towards depictions of queerness.

In that context, Whitehall isn't deciding to make this character choice for the first time and for the sole purpose of bringing to life a gay character. Having watched it, the much-talked-about queer representation in Jungle Cruise ended up being meh! On paper, it's a depiction that's in line with outdated portrayals of gay men. So, flash forward two years, gay release delays, and a pandemic later, and Jungle Cruise finally hits theaters — what did we get?

I have the answer for you. No, the film's portrayal of McGregor isn't perfect. For instance: McGregor asked if Frank wanted to "bite down on [his] stick" to jungle his screams as Lily pulled the sword from Frank's chest, to which Frank hurriedly said no.

Jungle Cruise's gay character isn't perfect, but he's progress

But nopes. Though when the film was first announced, many were skeptical that Jack Whitehall's purportedly gay character in the action-adventure flick would just be another name to add to the baker's dozen of so-called "first" gay characters, but what audiences were treated to instead broke the mold: a confirmed queer character with significant screentime and a substantial scene explicitly acknowledging his sexuality even if the label is unattached.

The decision to make Jungle Cruise 's gay character fit this mold, which has an unfortunate number of overlapping traits with historically damaging depictions of gay men, is still one that raises questions of the film's ideas of gay men and masculinity. Movie News. It takes you really on that journey with them.

Jungle cruise frank

Also, always equating being comedicaly feminine to being queer is a stereotype media should move away from. The biggest difference with Jungle Cruise was that McGregor was set to be Disney's first gay character in a major role and, what's more, his sexuality was promoted as being at the forefront of his story.

All we have is McGregor talking about how his family and friends walked away because of who he loved. They all have reasons for being where they are, and interesting and rich textured backstories. It makes you invested in them, and it makes you care about them. A majority of the comedic beats in the first act of Jungle Cruise that involve McGregor follow suit until a little around the film's halfway mark.

Have you watched Jungle Cruise? I wrote about Disney casting a straight actor, Jack Whitehall, to play a possibly stereotypical gay role in Jungle Cruise back in August of Tags: Disneyjack whitehalljungle cruisequeer representation.