Patrick plays with gender roles and seems to ridicule masculinity a specific example is presented in an episode titled “Patrick-Man”, in which Patrick becomes a superhero and pretends to be tough and very masculine, which is not a behavior typical of him since he is also presented as a child, resulting in a satire of masculine gender roles. Some could argue that his outfit is typical of a tropical setting, however, yet his not-so-masculine outfit and behavior reveal his sexual preference. In the case of Patrick, his only outfit is a pair of purple and green shorts with floral print.
This infantilization of SpongeBob supports Castiglia’s and Reed’s argument about Jack, from Will and Grace, who is portrayed as childish because he’s the “gayest” character in the series SpongeBob and Patrick are reproved by Squidward in the same way that Will does with Jack (254). His cheerful face is very similar to a kid that has just been given candy. He is also a very sensitive creature, as demonstrated in the picture above, he seems harmless and adorable, the most interesting aspect is his childish appearance, for instance, he wears shorts and knee-high socks with a bottom up shirt and tie which resembles a school uniform.
Just the fact that he is the only character that is not an animal already singles out SpongeBob as being different and not following the nature of a dominant culture. First, I will start with the construction of the main character, SpongeBob. His best friend is a starfish named Patrick, he also has a female friend called Sandy, he has an hostile neighbor, who’s at the same time his co-worker, Squidward, and a greedy boss called Mr. Spongebob is a sponge that lives in a pineapple house under the sea called BIkini Bottom. After exposing my own analysis to prove queerness in SpongeBob, I will also show the way in which the audience denies my claim, just to support the heterocentrism as an dominant ideology.Īs opposed to example used by Castiglia and Reed, Will and Grace, Spongebob is not openly gay. After a narrative, and symbolic analysis with a psychoanalytic approach and a gender role analysis, I argue that Spongebob provides its audience with gay memory through camping, which has transformed the mass cultural phenomena that is Spongebob into subcultural memories (Castiglia and Reed 254). However this success among the young and adult audience,simultaneously, should not come as a surprise.
An article published in USAToday ( ) expressed the unexpected popularity of the cartoon Spongebob, and its commercial success among an adult audience.