I never even knew what shipping was before I got into the iCarly fandom. But Carly and Sam balanced each other's personalities out so perfectly, I had to ship them, once I found out I was supposed to choose sides. Then in Victorious came Jori, the spitfire couple with the classic antagonist chemistry and overflowing romantic tension. It's such a great pair that they've become the #1 most popular ship in Victorious. Plus, since I can be a bit of a misandrist and a heterophobe at times, I tend to ship almost exclusively gay and lesbian couples...
But of couse, we all know those will never happen on a kid's network like Nickelodeon. That's what we all say. And we're probably dead right. But to everyone who says that it specifically can't happen on Nickelodeon, I would contest that. It's a long shot, it's unlikely, it'll probably never happen and nobody in their right mind denies that. But it's not strictly unthinkable, and it's not beyond the realm of possibility, no matter how slim the astronomically small chance is.
The Dynamics of Television Evolution
After my recent trip down memory lane with Ren & Stimpy, I'm particularly well aware of the way TV boundaries evolve over time. As a matter of fact, TV boundaries have been habitually pushed back for a while now. The examples are numerous. Today words like "bitch" and "shit" are a-okay to say on TV, in the past this was not so, no matter what a show's demographic was. In the 90s the Xena girl/girl almost-kiss was considered groundbreaking, but today we've seen more than that even on Nickelodeon.
And the best example is with adult cartoons: in the 90s Butt-head became forbidden from saying the word "fire" after a kid burned his house down. But today Peter on Family Guy can blow up children's hospitals, kill people and things, an endless parade of gruesome things. Though, to be fair, the genre of adult cartoons has taken a specific amount of concentration on and delight in pushing boundaries, so they've evolved at an excellerated rate. The point is that the boundaries are being pushed and thereby lessened.
When it comes to gay civil rights, there may never come a day when everyone is accepting of homosexuality. But just like with interracial marriage, there will come a day when the open express of dissent will be socially and culturally shunned. Today there are interracial couples on both Nick and Disney. Some day there will be gay couples on Nick and Disney. There is no question of whether or not it will happen, the only question is when.
When we look at how much hatred and ignorance is still alive and well in our country, it's clear that we probably won't see a gay couple on Nickelodeon for quite some time. Braindead religious housemoms would be in an uproar over it, and it might hurt Nickelodeon's ratings. Nobody here is saying that Jori is going to happen on Victorious.
All I'm saying, is that it's not enitrely inconcievable. Because the fact is, this is a boundary that will eventually be struck down. Someday, somewhere down the line, a kids' TV writer will decide to put gay characters in their show, and network executives will decide to air it. It's easy to think that it can't happen just because it's not okay for it to be shown on a kid's network yet, but the way that it will eventually become okay to show is by it being shown. Could Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon be the ones to do it? Yes, potentially, if they make that choice.
Reasons why Nick could decide to break this boundary:
- A Nick companion network, called The N or Teen Nick, created and showed for three seasons an original drama called South of Nowhere. Groundbreaking not merely for a Nick affiliate but for TV in general, it was the first program to feature gay teens as the show's primary main characters. While Teen Nick shows a vast plethora of things that would not be okay on Nick, the existence of South of Nowhere proves two important points: (1) That the corporate powers behind Nick are not categorically apposed to showing this type of content, and (2) that those same forces are, in fact, interested in pushing those boundaries (as SoN did not just for Nick, but for TV in general).
- While the threat of boycott is troubling, controversy also makes for unending publicity and ratings. Breaking this boundary would unquestionably bring accolades to Nickelodeon from the LGBT community. I could envision Dan Schneider seeking a place in history with this move. Even in the most cold-hearted executive terms, homosexuality is becoming more "popular;" more palattable and more profitable in the entertainment sector, as well as in public opinion at large.
Examples in the past of Nickelodeon (the main network, not Teen Nick) taking controversial steps in the right direction:
- In the Drake & Josh episode 4-1 "Josh Runs Into Oprah," Drake and Josh kiss. It's for comedic rather than romantic reasons, but these are not only two men but also brothers!
- In the iCarly episode 3-18 "iPsycho" the recurring villian Nora grabs a girl at her party and kisses her on the mouth. This was also shown for comedic reasons, but Nora's motivation for the kiss is unexplained, it seems to be some level of romantic interest would be the logical conclusion.
- Dan Schneider's shows make frequent and often unambiguous allusions to same-sex relationships. They habitually feature cross-dressing, as well as often pair same-sex characters up in fantasy scenarios like plays and skits.
Again, I'm not saying Jori will happen. It almost definitely won't. But is it possible? Yes. And the longer Victorious continues, the stronger (however slightly) the chance gets, as society continues towards making homophobia a culture-wide taboo.
On our end, we've been trying to coax Dan Schneider to acknowledge the large gay fan constituency for his shows. So far he has unfortunately declined to comment, despite commenting on damn near every other trend iCarly or Victorious scores. But getting Jori to trend worldwide is still a victory for us Jori shippers. Here's the trend we got last night, we even got it pretty high.
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