Is SpongeBob SquarePants Gay?

There has been a lot of controversy between parents about whether or not Spongebob Squarepants is homosexual. As a parent myself, I also wondered this watching this little square sponge with my son in the evening. Many cartoons in fact dictate that he is, however many also suggest that Spongebob is just an adolescent.

As parents, it is our job to make sure our children are not exposed to things that are against our morals. I am in no way encouraging parents to go against how they feel about this cartoon. The amount of adult humor involved is enough to question whether or not it should be shown to children of this age level. All I intend to do is answer the question of the sexual orientation of Spongebob Squarepants.

I remember one Friday night I walked into the front room and nickelodeon was doing a special to answer this question. I immediately changed the channel and informed my son that watching such programs are not appropriate for his age level. Unfortunately, because he had already seen the brunt of the program, I had no other choice but to have a talk with him about homosexuality and what it is.

The creator of Sponge Squarepants, Stephen Hillenburg, informed the Wall Street Journal that Spongebob was not designed as a gay character. Yet many gay viewers enjoy watching him laugh and sing with his best friend Patrick Star. Between playing house, taking up feminine characteristics, and running around in his underwear, what can excuse him from not being gay?

Well considering the cartoon was designed for an audience between the ages of 3 and 11, could it be that Spongebob may have the mentality of five year old. The immaturity of this character is evident in almost every episode. Spongebob is a goofy goober and has been told time and time again he is just a kid. What boy at the age of five doesn't run around in their underwear and sing silly songs? Does this show potential into being homosexual at a later age? No, it just means a child acting like a child.

Furthermore, Stephen Hillenburg also stated that he created Spongebob to be an asexual creature. Now sponges are not asexual, however this is a cartoon. In cartoons, anything is possible such as having a fire at the bottom of an ocean. So when a character is designed to be asexual, more than likely it will have male and female characteristics. For Spongebob to behave in both manners only proves Hillenburg's design and does explicit homosexuality.

Nobody questioned Scooby Doos gender when he dressed like a girl, nor did they wonder why there is only one female smurf living among many male smurfs. Perhaps the problem lies with the amount of sexual content the media shows on TV. Eventually it will leak its way into a kid's cartoon. And then when you mix the gay community into finding similarities between themselves and a sponge with the maturity level of a child, of course people will start throwing it out of proportion. This cartoon is nothing more than an asexual creature at the age of a preschooler.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2313221.stm