Representation in Animation
Animation can arguably be a medium of exploration and growth. As other GLARe posts have shown, animated films are far more than just cartoons for children! Films like Into the Spiderverse (Persichetti et al., 2018) and The Mitchells vs the Machines (Rianda, 2021) are some of my personal favourite examples of the medium, experimenting with aesthetics, stories, and characters. Animation appears to lend itself to writers, designers and actors allowing their imaginations to run free.
One of my favourite examples of this is the exploration of gender and sexuality: LGBTQ+ representation can be found in a breadth of different cartoons and animated films and we are finally beginning to see stories that deal with these kinds of characters in a way that centres queerness as a meaningful story to be told, as opposed to stereotypical, almost caricature-like depictions. GLARe contributor Jasmin touches on this kind of traditional representation in her post on Hercules (Musker and Clements, 1997).
There aren’t many films or shows that offer queer representation in while offering a challenge to traditional views of gender: genderqueerness and fluidity is harder to find in most mainstream media. That’s not to say they don’t exist at all. Vogt (2022) clearly shows that nonbinary and genderqueer characters are getting more common in animated TV shows, but even then, most of the examples Vogt found are side characters, often reduced to the one facet of their identity.
Nimona (Bruno & Quane, 2023) appears as one of the recent creations in the medium to change this. The story, at its core, is about acceptance and community among those who are ‘different’, and this translates smoothly into a clear allegory for genderqueerness through the titular character Nimona. The film is based on a comic by actor and artist ND Stevenson, who himself is a strong voice inside the queer community, having voice acted in She-ra, Princesses of Power, (Stevenson, 2018) another cartoon well known amongst fans for having brilliant queer representation. Nimona is not even a year old at the time of writing, but it has already received a lot of critical attention for its experimental style and its inclusion of LBGTQ+ characters and stories.
What happens in Nimona? (Spoiler warning!)
The film follows the story of the titular character and her friend Ballister, a disgraced knight of the realm, as they try to earn back the love that the fantastical modern fairytale world they live in has denied them. Nimona is a magical shapeshifting creature, the specifics of which the viewer is never told. The allyship within communities comes from the fact that Ballister is an explicitly gay character, who’s relationship with another knight, Ambrosius, plays a major part in the story and the characters’ development. This immediately goes to show how Nimona is not afraid of displaying LGBTQ+ characters with the rich stories they deserve, making the metaphor of genderqueerness through Nimona’s character and powers feel pretty genuine and thought out.
The genderqueer allegory in the film is not only made clear by Nimona’s dialogue, as with quotes like the one used in the title :
“I’m not a girl! I’m a shark!”
where the ambiguity of her gender is clear to the audience, but is also layered into the story through the viewpoints and use of language of those around her in the story and how they interact with and refer to her.
There is likely a breadth of ways in which the use of language and story devices can be used to analyse how Nimona portrays the genderqueer allegory, from analysing the use of metaphor, the use of character design of the protagonists to separate them from the other characters, as well as the use of subversive storylines. However, I want to talk about the use of language via critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2013) – which allows me to analyse various story tropes, lexical devices, metaphors, and kinds of labels to see how the text (in this case, the film) constructs characters and by extension particular identities and social phenomena, such as gender. One approach within critical discourse studies, the discourse historical approach (Wodak, 2015) takes this viewpoint of analysis and helps me identify different kinds of discourse strategies. This episode of the podcast Lexis features Lancaster Alumna Dr Jessica Aiston. She explains this approach and much more about critical discourse studies in brilliant detail.
The three most relevant strategies for understanding how genderqueer allegory works in this film are nomination, predication and perspectivisation strategies.
These three strategies are the most useful to break down the use of language to portray genderqueerness as they show how a character or specific group of characters are portrayed and perceived, and how this furthers any message the story wants to get across. And when talking about genderqueerness, or any other unique identity in animation, ‘labels’ and stereotypes are often integral to a character. Animation is known for its stylisation of characters in their physical design, voice acting and memorable/exaggerated personalities. Straight away when thinking about the unique stylisation of characters leading to different tropes, Nimona’s ‘punk’ style is a brilliant example of this. Her spiked pink hair, the studs and piercings throughout her outfit are all immediate indicators of a rebellious nature. But as these kinds of designs and ways to portray something about a character become more common, counter-cultural trends such as ‘rebellious’ main characters end up having the opposite effect and become slowly normative. This is where linguistic discourse strategies can come into play as subtler and alternative ways of portraying character tropes necessary to the story.
Another reason that looking at the allegory and the general use of language within Nimona through these specific discourse strategies is potent is due to the constant emphasis throughout the film on the power of labels, and words (something that analysing nomination strategies will show). Many characters are shown to feel strongly about certain labels that their fantasy society has attributed to them, Nimona and Ballister especially, spending most of the story trying to rid themselves of these labels. For a brief example, Nimona does not respond to the term ‘girl’, nor does she ever give more of an answer to who or ‘what’ she is that extends past ‘Nimona’. Ballister heavily values the title of ‘knight’ that slips just out of his grasp at the beginning of the film, as to him it represents the final stamp of acceptance from a society he has been fighting to be welcomed into for his whole life. He spends most of the film trying to rid himself (and eventually also Nimona) of their ‘villainous’ ‘monster’ labels. This shows how the power of language and perceived representations (another aspect of the discursive approach) within the film contribute to the theme of community within ostracised groups.
TABLE ANALYSIS
For the main part of my analysis, I’m going to display blow the examples of the different discourse strategies that I believe are the most obvious instances in the dialogue (and other general messages) of the film. These are instances of the characters and the filmmakers themselves constructing discourse and perspectives around Nimona and therefore her genderqueer-coded characterisation.
The table below illustrates more detailed kinds of devices within the three discourse strategies, with examples from the film in the form of dialogue quotes as well as a few brief descriptions of scenes/themes that also contribute to these devices. The column on the right is my more in-depth analysis of how these examples of devices aid the genderqueer allegory in the language throughout the story.
| Strategy | Example | Importance to allegory |
| NOMINATION- For example Membership Categorisation Devices (Labelling) | · “Freak” “Little Girl” “Monster” “It”
· “Sidekick” “Nimona” “Shark” “Rhino” “Me” |
The use of categorisation and ‘labelling’ is one of the most obvious ways the allegory of genderqueerness as perceived by others can be shown. The two separate bullet points here divide the labels by ones that are forced on Nimona by other characters in the story, and labels that Nimona identifies with, and insists Ballister uses. |
| PREDICATION- Qualification of social actors (positively or negatively)- Stereotypical evaluative attributions of positive and negative traits | · “Cold cruel world that rejected you” (Assumed by Nimona)
· “Can you be normal for a second” · “You know what you are” “There’s no place for you” “Be normal” · “[…] Then I shapeshift… and I’m free” |
Every one of these examples of the evaluation of Nimona by other characters (and herself) is mostly negative, apart from the last. This shows the allegory for genderqueerness in Nimona’s character taking a darker, and sadly more realistic turn. A big part of the reality of being within that community is the ostracization it comes with. The final quote is a positive from Nimona, a powerful moment in the story showing how important her identity is to her- which can again be taken allegorically. |
| PREDICATION- Explicit comparisons | · “I’m not a girl! I’m a shark!”
· “It would be easier if you were a girl” · “And now you’re a boy” “I am today” · “I’m not ‘a people’” |
These examples from the more explicit conversations had about Nimona’s identity are all taken from conversations between Nimona and Ballister throughout the course of the story. Specifically, the “It would be easier if you were a girl” quote strikes a very frank chord with the language that is often used around genderqueerness. Combined with Nimona’s consistent and insistent responses of affirmation in herself like “I’m not a people”, the allegory grows to an overall positive perception of genderqueerness, from Nimona and Ballister’s perspective. |
| PREDICATION- Allusions & Implicatures | · “So you’re a girl and a rhino?”
· Heavy insistence from Nimona as “Nimona” being the only label she wants to be used · Nimona’s backstory scene, shown to shapeshift to try and fit in with multiple kinds of animals |
The implicatures and allusions serve a similar purpose to the explicit conversations but come across as a choice by the filmmakers more than Nimona as a character. They allow the allegory to neatly weave into the story with the main magical fantasy aspect of shapeshifting. This power itself acts as a springboard for the message of non-conformity to come from in the form of creative animal character designs and puns from Nimona herself in these various animal forms- which also goes to show to the audience how comfortable and happy she is with her ever-changing, unique identity. |
| PERSPECTIVISATION & FRAMING- Framing & POV (By the filmmakers not the characters) | · “They only see you one way, no matter how hard you try”
“I see you Nimona, and you’re not alone.” · “A lot of people aren’t as accepting as me” · Consistent Anti-Establishment attitude from Nimona |
The perspective and framing is a little more difficult to implement in a non-written text, as a lot of it is often looking at how the speech and thought of characters within the story is presented – but the filmmakers still make some explicit choices in how the two ostracised protagonists are represented. Both Ballister and Nimona have significant quotes about being ‘seen’, either negatively and forcefully by society, or by each other, in a comforting and welcoming way. There’s an importance shown on understanding and accepting, another important facet of the genderqueer experience portrayed in the story. |
So why does this analysis matter?
Through highlighting the already high quality and importance of the use of genderqueer allegory in Nimona, I’ve been able to show some of the more subtle language techniques that were used in this story to push the message across. This can make it clear to anyone looking to analyse queer themes in more media that things like stereotyping through personality and language, character design and typical (and often outdated) tropes are not the only things to look out for. The use of nomination, predication and perspectivisation in language really does help when telling a message in a more subtly allegoric fashion.
This is incredibly useful as well for those looking to create their own stories with queer-coded characters, or characters that do not conform as typically to gendered stereotypes in mainstream animation. It gives creators and animators ways to still convey the messages they want to, even when mainstream companies and distributors are not as eager to platform less conventional gender representations of characters. This is very important as even with such subtle and well-written allegorical representation, Nimona itself had a very turbulent history with its production from comic book to screen adaptation hosted on Netflix, and finally to an Oscar nomination. Queer representation in animation is a consistent uphill battle, especially as animators try to make it more and more mainstream, but films like Nimona do provide a lot of optimism for the future.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Bruno, N. & Quane, T. (Directors). (2023). Nimona [Film]. Blue Sky Studios.
Butler et al. (2024). Jess Aiston and Critical Discourse Analysis (No. #50) [Audio podcast episode] Lexis. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3scwtcPU5DtbRQ8RMNAmxz?si=81229dcd241c4aae
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis. In The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 9-20). Routledge.
Musker, J., & Clements, R. (Directors).(1997). Hercules [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures.
Persichetti, B., Ramsey, P., & Rothman, R. (Directors). (2018). Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse [Film]. Sony Pictures.
Rianda, M. (Director) (2021). The Mitchells vs. the Machines [Film]. Sony Pictures.
Stevenson, N. D. (Executive Producer). (2018-2020). She-ra and the Princesses of Power [TV Series]. Dreamworks Animation.
Vogt, O. (2022). “You Are an Experience!”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Characters in Children’s Animated Series (Doctoral dissertation, North Dakota State University).
Wodak, R. (2015). Critical discourse analysis, discourse‐historical approach. The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction, 1-14.