Archival Work Meets Pop Culture
Here at the DTA, our teams have processed hundreds of objects over this past year. While many of the objects we see are interesting, we don’t often come across objects that cover topics we may be familiar with in our day-to-day lives. It is for this reason that an article on the gender-bending practices of television’s beloved Bugs Bunny from Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (October, 1994) caught our attention. In “Bugs Bunny: Queer as a Three Dollar Bill,” Hank Sartin pays special attention to Bugs’ numerous instances of unconventional masculinity: “He kissed his opponents, he pranced, he danced ballet, and he dragged.” Sartin also examines the often flirtatious relationship between Bugs and his arch “frenemy” Elmer Fudd: “Bugs Bunny was part of a comic couple who kissed more often on screen than Hepburn and Tracy.” Although we didn’t watch Looney Tunes in its original airing era, we still enjoyed seeing such a prominent part of pop culture examined in this way.
