Bert and Ernie

There is this petition going around about how Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street should come out of the closet and get married.

I'm of two opinions on the matter.

Part of me says "Why?" After all, growing up Bert and Ernie were just two characters who shared an apartment and bickered with each other, largely due to the two radically personalities. Growing up I never put any thought into it as to why they were living together. I just took it as written and laughed at their antics and learned the lessons they taught.

Largely that you can be of two differing personalities and still get along.

But as an adult, now I can think of these things and look at the two of them with another, less innocent eye and I can see where that it is rather odd. Even as simple roommates to share the rent...both of them in the same bedroom is a bit odd. But again there is the flip side that you never see anything resembling affection. Friendship certainly (if not I think Bert would have long since killed Ernie) but not affection like what you'd see in a couple. Not to mention that while Bert as a character seems mature enough to be in a relationship, Ernie seems too immature, too childlike to be in a relationship of that level, homosexual or otherwise.

So again that pert of my brain says "Why bother? Why not just let them continue being what they appear to be on the surface...friends. After all most of the Muppet characters are superficial, surface level personalities that were created to be that way in order to teach a lesson or two."


But there is the other side of my personality. The side that remembers how they dealt with the death of an actor on the show. They did not gloss over Mr. Hooper's death. They didn't replace him, they didn't say "Oh he retired and is living in Florida" or any of that bullshit. They made us kids look death square in the eyes and realize that this is what happens at the other end of our allotted span of years and that it is as much a part of life as seeing a baby born.

Much of my philosophy about death got its start with Mr. Hooper. That early on in my life I understood that death is the end of our existence here on Earth save for the fond memories of those we leave behind.

Or Linda. There was a deaf woman who was striving to exist in the world of the hearing. A woman with an obvious disability who was still as much a part of the Street's life as Gordon and the rest of them. Again my perceptions of the disabled came from seeing that just because they have something malfunctioning doesn't mean that they are different from the rest of us in their wants, desires, and ambitions in life.

Hell in South Africa where HIV is prevalent, they have a Muppet that is HIV positive. Granted this is a little silly, but you have to give credit where credit is due for the attempt at showing that an HIV infected person is not some evil plague carrier that much be killed with fire (or at the very least...shunned).

So the other side of my personality says that having Bert and Ernie coming out and revealing that they are partners would not be that bad of a thing. That it would help children understand that homosexuality is not the collection of baby-buggering bastards that the religious right (which is often neither) make them out to be.

Funny thing about blogging. As one collects one's thoughts, often times another possibility comes to mind.

My new honest opinion is that they need to keep Bert and Ernie as they are. What they ought to do is to get a homosexual couple to "move in" to the Street and have an adopted child or a child that is biologically the offspring of one half of the couple. That way you can have the whole "I have two Mom's or two Dad's and I'm as loved as if I had one of each" thing going there.

Some may think I'm putting too much thought into it. But in my defense...the people who originated this petition must have done so as well.

Which of us is more disturbed? I'll leave that to the rest of ya.