After years of speculation, ‘Scooby-Doo’ has officially confirmed Velma is gay. If that news seems both obvious and overdue, that’s because it is.
In the new straight-to-TV film ‘Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo’ – the thirty-fourth of the series – show runners decided to give fans what they’ve been waiting for.
A now viral clip from the movie shows Velma crushing on a woman. ‘Jinkies’ she sighs, voiced by Kate Micucci, after meeting her new beau for the first time.
Velma’s famous thick-rimmed glasses steam up as she falls into a giddy daze, dropping a box of Scooby Snacks to the floor.
The news has been met with jubilation from fans and LGBTQ+ allies. When searching Velma’s name on google, you’re now met with a stream of confetti and pride flags.
Anthony Irwin, Google senior interaction designer, described the search engine easter egg as a way to ‘celebrate together’.
‘We saw a long-anticipated moment for a character people love, and had a good feeling it’d be an identity-affirming surprise for fans around the world,’ said Irwin.
But despite the positive response, Velma has been trying to come out of the closet for years.
Of the numerous show-runners who have picked up the Scooby-Doo baton since the show’s launch in 1969, many have tried to demystify Velma’s sexuality.
James Gunn, who sat at the show’s helm in the early 2000s, admitted he struggled to portray Velma as an out-and-proud lesbian due to studio pushback.
‘I tried!’ Gunn said in 2020. ‘Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio kept watering it down, becoming ambiguous’. In Gunn’s movie sequel, Velma was eventually given a boyfriend.
The outpouring of joy from LGBTQ+ fans is bitter sweet. As Julie Bindel – a gay woman and long-time Velma fan – described her own excitement at the news, she used a viral tweet as evidence that lesbian representation is still piece-meal.
Fans were hardly shocked at Velma’s new crush – the villain Coco Diablo. Bindel recalls her own teenage relationship with the character fondly, stating the Velma helped her to feel represented as a young lesbian.
‘I loved the fact that she wore baggy jumpers and defied femininity. She also shared my view of the world: getting exasperated with the boys, being cleverer than them, and showing how girls do not have to adhere to stereotypes of femininity and passiveness.’
But the memories are bittersweet, too. ‘At that time, there were hardly any real-life lesbian role models for us; Velma was the closest we got’.
By making her character explicitly queer, Scooby-Doo writers are not only rewarding long-term fans of the series. Velma’s openly queer identity is a turning point for children’s TV.
The sweet scene in which Velma first meets Diablo, crushes on her, and then later admits her feelings to Daphne, haven’t gone viral because the news of a famous cartoon character’s sexuality is ground-breaking (which it is, of course).
It’s important that young people see queer representation in their favourite shows, and not just in LGBTQ+ focused programming. Diversity needs to be normalised in mainstream television and movies, too.
The deep blush, steamed glasses, and fumbling response Velma has to her new crush are all familiar feelings most have had before, regardless of how we identify. That’s what makes the scenes so special.
I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.
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