#and his female perversions era

[sufferthesea]

love that tiktok has already suspended my account

anyway shameless self-promo: READ THE BOOK THAT GOT MY ACCOUNT SUSPENDED AFTER A WEEK (TEACHER'S PET by KANDI WILDE on Kindle!!)

[writergeekrhw]

Hi there! I’m a huge DS9 fan, and I wanted to thank you and the other DS9 writers for how respectfully you portrayed Jadzia’s gender history. I understand from your previous answers that you weren’t necessarily thinking of her as trans (allegorically or otherwise) while writing her, but, considering the era you were working in, it’s really amazing to me how clearly and forcefully you chose not to go in a transphobic direction with her character. Like, she’s an attractive young woman who frequently and unashamedly tells people that (in her own words) she used to be a man, and she was in a TV show that began airing a year after The Crying Game came out; it’s very easy to imagine a version of the show where she is seen as (to use Julia Serano’s term) a deceiver and the object of either disgust or perverse fascination or both because of her change of sex. But instead, she’s allowed to be proud of her history and unashamed of her sexuality without either being seen as a threat to her womanhood. No one cares that she only came into a female body recently. She has nothing to hide or be ashamed of. She is loved for who she is. I’m a queer trans woman, and I mostly live in stealth (in the “I let people assume I’m a cis woman” sense) because of the discrimination and othering I’ve faced when I’ve come out to people in the past, which can be deeply isolating. At the risk of being embarrassingly sincere, Dax helps give me a vision of the future worth looking forward to. I truly can’t thank you enough <3

Thank you so much for sharing your story. It means a lot to me that Dax was helpful in your journey. Live long and prosper.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - We In A Slump, but help might be coming from a very strange source

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Sept 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 3 of 12 - I don’t have a lot to say except that the plot is somewhat predictable but the show is still very engaging. War is fantastic. I’m enjoying it a hell of a lot.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 10 of 12 - The second leads are getting better in this one. I understand where they are coming from, which makes their conflict so much more understandably painful, and honest to a friends2lovers trope. The main couple is kinda standard college relationship drama, but they are cuties.  

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - How is Ohm so damn gorgeous? Meanwhile, babies’ first argument. And it’s sponge bath time. Q has got to be wondering if Min is as meticulous with all kinds of care and attention to detail all......the......time. Somebody here in the hellhole said something about this being "the most BL to ever BL." And I think they’re right. At least right now. Although, watch out, we got us a new contender from the east.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - I do love the continuation of the perversion, in a good way, of the punishment trope from last week's episode. Oh, has the show finally remembered its title? NO SINGING. 

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 7 of 10 - More kidnapping and an attack and now there’s a girl involved and somebody’s going to China and I don’t understand anything! And I don’t really care. Is this how the actual book originally went? Because it’s wild. Also TOO MANY of flashbacks. I guess they got a bit of a boyfriend era, and the claiming during the water fight was cute, but otherwise...... meh

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 15 - One shouldn’t make comparisons, of course, but all I can think about is how amazing Captain was as Noh in the original series. Thus this show is mostly just making me want to rewatch the original. It’d be an interesting twist to have Aim be queer instead of a damaged cool girl slut. Was the helmet hand letting go a foreshadow of the iconic bookstore hands letting go? Also, I gotta say for the second episode of a series there are already too many flashbacks. Why are they using filler when they have so much content crammed into so few (comparable) episodes for a series? It’s annoying. Stop it.

Live in Love (Sun Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - This show has some interesting, if heavy handed, things to say about shipping and trolling, but also predatory/proprietary female behavior. It’s fascinating to see it tackled head on, if handled in a profoundly clumsy manner. I’m not sure how I feel about it. That said, most of this episode was actually an advertisement for a resort in Phuket. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I'm getting What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? vibes from this show. Only this is WAY more bullying. It’s very old-fashioned 90’s billionaire romance novel only gay. It’s never a good sign when I’m watching two boys kiss and I really want one of them to just bite the other ones lip off instead.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - No ep this week. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun grey) ep 8 of 10 - Gosh it’s so frikin adorable. Baby got sick. He has SUCH A CRUSH. And such a courageous little confession! Yay! Can’t wait for next week. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YouTube) ep 1 - sure, yes this is, in fact, just Ba Vinh doing his thing with pretty boys again. And yet...... There is a REASON this leapt into the standings guns blazing. So it’s high school set but it's stepbrothers trope. (My, aren’t we popular this year?) I know, but I NEVER get tired of this trope. We got us Bach (BV's sullen tsundere) and Dat (babygirl meets bully). It’s GREAT how the brothers' dynamic is entirely different at school than when they're at home. My ear isn’t trained for Vietnamese, but I think Dat is using different pronouns depending on his location (his personality entirely shifts when he’s at school). I’m not sold on the Bach character, although I always trust BV to serve in the end (at least we know the kisses will be good), but Dat is utterly in love, a touch spicy, and reasonably complex. The surrounding cast is good too, my favorite pretty boy is there playing top dog (woof), and one of the besties is out gay (YAY!). The plot of the show is...... well...... absent. Nothing happened. But if we are aiming for Love Sick slice of life style BL, I'm game. Subs are appropriately terrible and confusing. But I like it A FUCK TON so far, so I’m gonna keep it in rotation. Nice to have Vietnam back in play. What a shocker.

2024 has been a year of upsets.

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 3 of 10 eps - I weirdly enjoyed the farcical music and the utter absurdity of the court case. I also liked how it highlighted what a good team these two are. Frankly I don’t mind a bit of an antihero sleazy lawyer + conman, it's engaging. I’m getting wholesome out of Thailand. I don’t really need it from Japan at the moment. Also I don’t believe for one second our conman actually is serious about the relationship. Conmen gonna con. I'm reminded of the scorpion and the frog fable.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - I love Orca so much. I do not love the autotuned version of Orca, but I knew what I was in for with this particular show, it's in the title after all. I did laugh a whole lot when Laing used kha. Hon, I don't think that word means what you think it means......

The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) eps 11-12fin - I never thought I’d say this, but the pacing was off in the penultimate episode. Taiwan, and its chronic misuse of flashbacks strikes again. That said we eventually got a "lock in" trope and Wang being the biggest little flirt shit in the cafe OMG!!! Of course, you shouldn’t use a girl to torment your bf, but it was so well done, I can’t really complain. Meanwhile, teacher kisses. And now I understand exactly why they’re present in this narrative. Clever. Bummer of a burden on that ending though. I cannot see how they’ll manage to stick this landing. [That was ep 11]

AND NOW EP 12 - doomey doomey doom

Not the water bottle trope! Argh the teenage lust of it all. Just stop it. Wang is so smart he knows exactly how bad he has to be to leave the class. And his bf certainly knows that too. And......

......

So that was not an ending and I’m not happy about it and no one is surprised. Even I’m not surprised. I’m just disappointed. Even tho I suspected this was where we were headed I'm disappointed. That’s it. That’s all I got. How do I review something that was such a crushing let down?

Conclusion:

Based on a Mou Mou novel + the Your Name Engraved Herein team, this is old-school coming of age BL and it was bloody fantastic. Tsundere seme to beat all tsundere (smartest + tallest + bestest at everything but people) meets socially-ept cutie smart-ass uke. They're living together by end of ep 1 and start kissing by end of ep 2. A stellar tense slow burn stepbrothers trope that ate my life and than just belly-flopped the finale. What I'm left with is epic levels of disappointment and well...... at least nobody died? My standard "fatally flawed" rating for any BL is 4/10 so I guess that’s what I’m giving it. 

Before you ask me for the stats: Taiwan does not have a history of second seasons. I went ahead and ran the numbers and the odds are certainly not in our favor. I put the chances at 2%.

Yes, I contemplated a revenge rating of 2/10 but even I'm not that mean.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

In Case You Missed It

Falling For My Boss is vertical format (nash) short from Korean BL about a happy-go-unlucky man who keeps losing his flower shop business because of romantically misbehaving employees (apparently it's a thing). When his best employee brings in a new boy he's worried she's falling for him, but it turns out it's his own heart on the line. He a clueless softy and The Boy is a lost broken sweetheart, making this a gentle little snippet of a show. There's a baby linguistic negotiation, some hung slinging, awkward handholds, and everyone is very pretty. For me the absence of kisses and the vertical format were more annoying than the length, which felt fine but many viewers will find too short. I enjoyed the 30 minutes of cute. All of which makes this a solid 7/10 from me. It was originally only available on this one ap in very short form with ads so I wasn't gonna bother. Then some kind soul cut it together without ads and stuck it up for download. Say thank you.

Oddball recommendation next: This podcast episode touches on some stuff we see in Thai BL so I think it's worth listening to. Journalist Dominic Faulder on the Complex History Between Thailand & Myanmar

Happy of the End (Japan Gaga) - Completed its run. A boy is disowned for being gay, dumped by his boyfriend, and ends up in a dysfunctional co-dependant relationship with his would-be kidnapper. We were due for another messy JBL and it's exactly as expected. I do not like it at all and DNFed. Gossip round the hellhole is that was a solid decision.

Marriage Equality Law has officially been enacted in Thailand...

Yes the actual law. Goes into effect Jan 22, 2025

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Coming Oct 2024:

10/3 Fourever You (Thai iQIYI?) 16 eps - New directs Earth (UWMA, 12%) + Pond (Century of Love, 180 Degrees), Bas (Gen Y, 2 Moons) + Maxky (Why You… Y Me?) and other familiar faces like Bever. Sampler pack university BL from Wabi Sabi that looks like it's trying to be a gay Boys Over Flowers (4 older med students hot boys) and I'm not mad about it. Trailer Not sure who's distributing this but my guess is iQIYI since they had the last few from this house.

10/7 Every You Every Me (Thai Gaga) 10 eps - Jade and Chin have lived over a thousand lifetimes. In each one they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. (This pair, TopMick was piloted in a My Universe ep, that was one of the only ones I liked.)

10/10 Eccentric Romance (Korea ????) 12 eps - Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab, that has been in production since 2022 which is a LONG time in the BL world. I'm worried but I like the concept: friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER.

10/10 Gangster and His Boyfriend (Korea ????) 8 eps? - Kim Dong Bin (famous trainee & idol reality competitor, yeah that happens) stars as a fallen idol who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a gangster family. Discovers that his friend’s father is responsible for the murder of his entire family years ago. I don't know much about this one, neither does anyone else and I'm not sure where I got that release date so……

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea ????) 8 eps - Adaptation of Booker-nominated famous coming of age novel of the same title by Park Sang-Young. Cynical yet fun loving student writer Young pinballs from home, to class, to Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju. As time passes Jaehee settles down and leaves Young to face his problems on his own. Young finding comfort in the arms of the series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness and another who might be the great love of his life. Not really BL. Stars Kim Go-eun (The King: Eternal Monarch), Noh Sang-hyun, and Nam Yoon Su (The King’s Affection). This already released as a movie and isn't very well regarded, this date is supposedly an international release as a series. I'm wary of it being BL.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I got nothing, The On1y One drove me into a funk.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[makeyoumine69]

My Lovely Detective VII

PAIRING: Patrick Bateman x Fem!Detective!OC

CO-WRITER: @iron-flavored-lipgloss

CONTAINS: NSFW, master/pet dynamics, dirty talk, implied BDSM, pet names, brat taming, humiliation and maybe something else :D

WORDS: 2.2k

A/N: Hello everyone! Please forgive us for the long wait, we have been quite busy lately. Enjoy the new chapter!

LINKS: [MASTERLIST]; [SERIES MASTERLIST]; [AO3].

In My Twisted Era

Buying clothes for Andrea had become one of the few and all the more unexpected pleasures in Patrick Bateman's life. With Evelyn it had been absolutely horrible (she had her very own taste), and not even Courtney would have agreed to wear such skimpy, if not downright whorish clothes. But Andrea couldn't really refuse, she just had to show whatever sexy little excuse of an outfit Patrick was currently in love with. And for tonight's special occasion, there was no other woman he would rather have on a leash. 

"I told you, this is no ordinary party. This is the dress code, and you will not bring your prudish sense of style into it."

The woman was wearing a very expensive set of lingerie, which he had deliberately made a little too tight to make her tits look even fuller, showing off every curve in a way that would surely make any other man jealous. The heels were also painfully impractical, probably the highest shoes Andrea had ever owned, and against her will it made her cling even tighter to Patrick's arm, needing stability. 

All he had to do was tug on the sturdy little leash attached to her choker and Andrea would stumble right into his arms or fall to her knees—another idea that drove Bateman a little crazy, so he tried not to think about it right now. Patrick himself, of course, was dressed very differently, showing off his finest tuxedo, but pretending that there was nothing humiliating about Andrea being almost naked under her new big fur coat—that coat she was now forced to take off in the checkroom.

"It's very warm inside. Real candlelight," one of the ladies in charge explained emphatically to Andrea and then winked playfully at Patrick.  Andrea, who in her blushing anger only looked delightfully innocent to these professionals, who had never experienced the perversions of an elite motto party like this. "One more thing—we have to check for any weapons."

That was ridiculous, of course—where would Andrea hide a weapon? Under her elegant Colombina mask?  No, this was one of the few rules tonight to ensure everyone's privacy. But everything else was a part of the game, like the female cloakroom attendant groping Andrea. She squeezed her tits a little and pulled her lace thong down, as if to check if she had a gun shoved up her pussy. 

"Hush darling, let it happen," Bateman whispered in her ear, just loud enough for the other woman to buy their supposed relationship and notice the shiver running through Andrea's body as a pleasant side effect.

Annoyed, Andrea tried not to scoff and spat in the attendant's face as her hands resumed their shameless exploration of her body. "One more move and I'll break your fucking fingers," she hissed as the woman bent down to her neck, her lips almost touching the detective's throat. "Understand?"

Unaware of Andrea's words, Patrick leered as he enjoyed the scene unfolding before him. Oh, how often had he imagined himself having fun with Andrea and another woman. Tonight all his fantasies could come true, he would do anything for it.

The attendant suddenly backed away, almost bumping into Bateman, but he managed to step away at the last moment. Scowling, Andrea adjusted her lingerie, looking aggressive and very angry. 'If only I could rip these clothes off,' the woman thought, looking around to assess the situation. There were a lot of people, a lot of rich, depraved people who were definitely sick and immoral. Patrick's cheeky chuckle caught Andrea's attention again—the woman who had shamelessly groped her a moment ago was now busy inspecting Bateman, and judging by his reaction, the man was enjoying the process.

"Have a nice evening, Mister." The woman murmured before pecking Patrick's cheek and slipping something into his jacket pocket. 

Frowning in disgust, Andrea wanted to use this as a chance to escape, but as she turned to see the exit, another couple walked in. A black haired man was holding a blonde girl on a leash who was crawling on all fours like a dog. This was already too much for Detective Moore, more than too much.

When Patrick had finished with the bitchy cloakroom lady, he grabbed Andrea's wrist and forced her to follow him further into the house. "I... I don't feel well," the brown-haired woman said as they moved through the noisy crowd of people, most of them already naked but still wearing their masks. "Can... Can I use the bathroom?"

'This party is the chance I've been waiting for,' the idea came to her faster than she could move, as she slipped through the groups of rich yuppies and their pocket whores. 'I should escape. Otherwise I won't make it tomorrow.'

"We've barely arrived," Patrick muttered, slightly annoyed, before he seemed to think of something—his mood changed again. "But I guess my poor girl was so nervous, she couldn't help it." He was playing that role again, the caring and generous lover—only the arrogance of his smile betrayed his true nature. "We'll look for a bathroom on the way."

One hand firmly on the leash, the other boldly wrapped around her waist, Andrea couldn't help but follow him deeper into what seemed to be a temple of hedonistic desire. The high, dark walls and even the ceiling were adorned with various framed nude paintings that would have been tasteful under any other circumstances, but here, in this place, they only added to the sinister atmosphere—along with those suspicious noises of unknown origin echoing through the hallways, a seemingly endless number of them branching off to the left and right of the main corridor. 

Bizarre shadows dancing on the walls and the beguiling scent of musk and sandalwood followed Patrick and Andrea, as well as dozens of other couples. Some women balanced on their stilettos like Andrea, others crawled on the floor, it was hard not to step on their fingers.

And finally, a glamorous ballroom awaited them, with chandeliers hanging down, the lights dimmed naturally, and sensual jazz sounds played by a live band. There were several champagne towers and a buffet table so large it could have fed the entire homeless population of New York, yet girls in short maid dresses carried trays of drinks and snacks through the flow of muted conversation. 

There seemed to be too much of everything, but "it's just the entrance hall," Patrick assured Andrea, smiling at the couple next to him, exchanging brief nods with the other man and thus showing respect for each other.

"First time here?"

"It is, for her." 

Patrick squeezed Andrea's shoulder, but his gaze remained on the young woman lounging on the floor, caressing her male companion's leg and looking up at him with large, dilated pupils. 

"You like her?" The broad grin that appeared beneath the stranger's mask suggested that he was not annoyed by the attention his girl was receiving—quite the opposite. 

"Well, I can't lie ... she seems very well-behaved."

'And she's very blonde and busty, too. Although Andrea's tits look even better.'

"Yeah, you're a good little kitty, aren't you, Jessica?"

Patrick watched the woman, apparently Jessica, in utter fascination as she rubbed her cheek on this guy's shoes and told him, "Yes, Master."

It was a very strange mixture of affection and obedience—basically the opposite of Andrea. 

"I assume you didn't come for the food. Although..." They cast an odd glance at another group of men lined up around a girl smeared with cream. 

"Not exactly. Andrea's not quite there yet."

As they left this hall of the gluttonous, Jessica simply followed, but when it came to Andrea, Patrick had to pull hard on her leash first. Any protest died in her throat as Andrea had to gasp for air instead.

"A brat, huh? Charming little hot blood..."

"I don't share her with men." Patrick wasn't even sure how those words had come out so quickly and clearly - Evelyn having an affair had never bothered him. 

'And it's not like I care about Andrea ethier!'

But the thought of this stranger (who was about as tall as he was and looked very fit to boot) fucking Andrea made him feel sick. 

"Oh, not me. But my little Jessica likes to play with girls. So maybe..."

 And of course that sounded much more appealing to Patrick.

Andrea swallowed hard, a shiver running down her spine at the thought of being involved with another woman. There was no way Bateman was considering it, but when he approached the bitch named Jessica and leaned down to stroke her cheek, something inside the detective tightened like a spring.

"Now, now," Patrick crooned as Jessica tried to kiss his hand. "You're a playful one, aren't you?"

The owner just chuckled, completely unbothered by the fact that another man was touching his girl, and it made Andrea almost vomit, but instead of making a scene, she decided to play along and get Bateman's attention back. 

Quickly, the brunette stepped back so that the leash in Patrick's hand tightened, forcing him to look back at his pet. "Hey," Bateman barked in a threatening tone, pulling on the leash to bring Andrea closer until she was level with him. "Behave yourself," he pointed an index finger at her, knitting his perfectly sculpted eyebrows. "Otherwise you'll..."

Patrick froze, the words stuck in his throat like a lump as Andrea wrapped her plump lips around his finger and sucked on it with pure devotion. Another couple seemed hypnotized by the scene as the lewd aura of Bateman and his lovely detective consumed them like a fog.

"And I thought you wanted to play with me first," Andrea purred after releasing Patrick's finger. "We don't need anyone else."

"Is that so?" Bateman murmured back, his pupils dilating by the second as he watched Andrea nestle against his large palm. "Or are you just jealous?"

Patrick nuzzled the detective's neck and cupped her ass possessively, eliciting a soft moan from her lips. Andrea even forgot the couple next to them, the place they were now, she forgot everything. Just one bite was enough to bring down her defenses. That man, dear God, that man was a devil in the flesh. Disappointed and absolutely jealous, Jessica reached out to touch Bateman again, but her master wouldn't let her, tugging at the leash and forcing her to stay still. Andrea couldn't hide her pleasure at seeing this poor little bitch suffer, even though she felt terrible about having to act so damn lewd. 'I must have completely lost my mind.' 

Satisfied and sated, Patrick pulled away from Andrea to turn and wink at Jessica, making sure the detective didn't see it. "It was a pleasure to meet you," Bateman nodded to the stranger and his submissive. "Have a good evening."

With that, Bateman tightened his grip on the leash and made Andrea follow him. It felt like the party was getting even more crowded, female moans, male groans and seductive giggles blending into a wicked cacophony of sounds; Andrea's head was spinning from the strong scent of the aroma candles. 

"Where are we going?" Andrea asked suddenly as they turned another corner and walked down the dimly lit hallway. "Patrick?"

The man didn't answer, speeding up as if they were being chased. But by whom?

The woman could feel her heart pounding so painfully against her chest that it was hard to breathe, but when they reached their destination, Andrea felt weak in her knees. With a smug grin on his handsome face, Bateman opened the door, and the first thing Andrea saw were several large chains attached to the ceiling, holding what looked like a leather seat. Speechless, the woman took an uncertain step before Patrick placed his hand on the small of her back, urging her to get in. Once inside, a soft click of the door echoed through the small room with dark walls and intimate lighting. 

God, what was this place?

"Is it... some kind of torture chamber?" Andrea asked, looking around in complete shock. "Why... Why are we here?"

It took Patrick only a little effort to push Andrea's body into the leather seat, the woman still too stunned by her new surroundings and his quick movements. 

"You know, you could have told me earlier. That you want me all alone..." He leaned down, his left and right hands grasping at the attached chains, trapping Andrea close to him. 

There seemed to be no escape from those eyes—hypnotic and so hungry, a dangerous desire radiating from each of his smooth movements. If just the look could kill. If eyes could devour...

Andrea couldn't help but shiver.

"You're sweating, dear." His thumb began to stroke her forehead, caressing her cheek in a light gesture that would seem so uncharacteristically tender if she didn't know him better. Beneath the surface of this controlled seduction, he is the same beast as always.  "That feeling... you know the one. The one that makes your heart race and your fingers tremble, just like this." His hand now ran down her naked arm, rubbing circles of false comfort over her goosebumps. 

Down to Andrea's wrist, that vulnerable spot where the veins shimmered purple through her skin and her artery pulsed rapidly under the dull pressure of his thumb. She was alive, and that made him feel alive in a way that no words could express. 

"Is it fear or...? Are you so excited for me?"

P.S. Thank you for reading until the end! You can follow my side blog @makeyoumineagain and my amazing co-writer @iron-flavored-lipgloss and turn on notifications to know when we update!

[campgender]

Cold War Hollywood cinema & the threat of the femme to the binary

Conclusion to Cold War Femme by Robert J. Corber (2011)

transcript under the cut

“[…] It didn’t want her to leave, and her poor bedeviled mind wasn’t strong enough to fight it. Poor Eleanor!” But Theo rejects this interpretation and provides an alternative construction of Eleanor’s desire, which does not deprive her of sexual agency: “Maybe not ‘poor Eleanor.’ It was what she wanted, to stay here. She had no place else to go. The house belongs to her now, too. Maybe she’s happier.”

In this way, the movie indirectly challenged the discourse of female homosexuality that circulated in American society during the Cold War era. In associating Eleanor’s sexuality with the supernatural, the movie suggests that it defies explanation. As a feminine woman who has made a lesbian object choice, her desire cannot be attributed to a pathological identification with masculinity. Rather, it requires an explanation that acknowledges her diference from the butch Theo.

The movie’s deviation from the Cold War construction of the lesbian surfaces more fully in its refusal to contain Eleanor’s desire. In the Cold War era movies tended to adopt one of two strategies for containing the threat the femme allegedly posed to the dominant social order. Some movies, like All About Eve, masculinized the femme’s identity by drawing on an older model of sexuality to mark her as a lesbian. In suggesting that the femme’s femininity rendered her lesbianism invisible by disguising her identification with masculinity, these movies assimilated the femme’s desire to the Cold War discourse of female homosexuality, which attributed the development of lesbian identities to a pathological rejection of femininity.

Other movies, like Marnie, contained the femme’s desire by ultimately realigning it with the institutions of heterosexuality. Rather than attribute the heroine’s perverse sexuality to a rejection of femininity that glossed over the diferences between her and the butch, these movies instead rendered her lesbianism “artificial” by attributing it to a traumatic childhood experience. Also drawing on an older model of sexuality, these movies assumed that the feminine woman who made a lesbian object choice was less deviant than the masculine women who did and thus could reorient her desire.

In adopting these strategies, Hollywood cinema refused to acknowledge the femme’s diference from both the butch and the straight woman. The Haunting adopts a diferent strategy: it kills off its heroine. It thereby indirectly validated the new system of sexual classification, which privileged object choice over gender identity. Eleanor’s femininity neither masks an identification with masculinity, nor indicates that she can be incorporated into the institutions of heterosexuality.

Unlike many of the heroines we have encountered in this book, Eleanor’s attempt to realign her sexuality with the law fails. She displaces her desire for Theo onto Dr. Markway, whose paternalistic interest in her she mistakes for love. But in so doing, she replaces an accessible object of desire with an inaccessible one. She does not realize that Dr. Markway has a wife (Lois Maxwell), until she shows up unexpectedly at Hill House to inform him that newspaper reporters are on his trail and to persuade him to abandon his experiment, of which she disapproves.

Mrs. Markway’s appearance precipitates a crisis in which Eleanor imagines that she wants to take her place in the house. Mrs. Markway disappears into the house after being terrifed by a supernatural experience in the nursery, the “cold, rotten heart” of the house where she has insisted on spending the night, and she gets lost searching for her husband. Eleanor increasingly takes on Hill House’s “sick” and “deranged” identity, indirectly confrming the perversity of her desire. In one of her voice-overs, which punctuate the movie, she remarks that she has begun to disappear into the house “inch by inch.”

When Dr. Markway insists that she leave the house while he and the others remain behind to search for his missing wife, she exclaims, “I’m the one who’s supposed to stay. She’s taken my place.” But Hill House cannot incorporate the normative Mrs. Markway, and it ejects her. By contrast, Eleanor’s death in the fnal scene insures that she retains her place in the house as a “kindred spirit.” Eleanor crashes her car into the tree when Mrs. Markway—who in a fluttering white nightgown looks like a ghost—frightens her by darting across the road, and she swerves to avoid hitting her. Despite her normative gender identity, Eleanor cannot be incorporated into the dominant social order.

But even as it acknowledges Eleanor’s diference from both Theo and Mrs. Markway, The Haunting provides a psychoanalytic explanation of her “abnormal” sexuality. Eleanor’s history bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Abigail and her paid companion. After Hugh Crain dies abroad, Abigail continues to inhabit the nursery, which suggests that his death arrests her development by preventing her from resolving the Oedipus complex.

She dies an old woman in the nursery when her companion has a tryst with one of the local “farmhands” on the veranda and fails to hear her when she knocks her cane against the wall. The tryst emerges as a violation of the companion’s homosocial bond with her mistress. After Abigail’s death, the companion lives on in the house in “complete solitude,” and haunted by her role in her mistress’s death she eventually commits suicide by hanging herself from the railing of the circular staircase in the library.

Abigail’s death has the same impact on the companion as her father’s death had on her. It arrests the companion’s development by turning her away from heterosexual romance. This representation of the companion’s relationship with her mistress reinforces the association between lesbianism and the supernatural in the movie. The nursery emerges as a site of perverse female desire, Hill House’s “cold, rotten heart,” which explains Mrs. Markway’s terror when she attempts to occupy it.

The representation also provides an explanation for Eleanor’s deviant sexuality by drawing a parallel between her and the companion. Eleanor feels guilty about her mother’s death and increasingly identifes with the companion. Like Abigail, Eleanor’s mother pounded on the wall of her room when she needed her. The night she died, Eleanor ignored her pounding and went back to sleep. Eleanor’s identification with the companion suggests that her guilt about her mother’s death has arrested her development; hence her desire for other women.

Tis treatment of Eleanor’s sexuality suggests that the feminine woman who made a lesbian object choice posed an even greater threat to American society than the Cold War construction of the lesbian indicated. In the Cold War era, Hollywood movies tended to promote lesbian panic by underscoring the femme’s ability to pass as a “normal” woman. Reinforcing the association between lesbianism and communism in Cold War culture, these movies attempted to show that the femme’s resemblance to the straight woman enabled her to spread her “abnormal” sexuality throughout society while escaping detection.

By contrast, in insisting on her diference from the butch and the straight woman, The Haunting attempted to show that the femme threatened to destabilize the binary construction of gender and sexuality. As her choice of the paternalistic Dr. Markway as a father substitute indicates, despite her identification with femininity, Eleanor cannot resume her Oedipal journey, which her relationship with her mother has interrupted.

Nor does her death in the fnal scene contain her “monstrous” desire. Her closing voice-over confirms Theo’s belief that Hill House now belongs to her, as well as to the other female ghosts who haunt it. Echoing Dr. Markway’s opening voice-over, Eleanor informs the viewer, “We who walk here walk alone,” as an image of Hill House appears on the screen.

In this way, The Haunting showed that in trying to repress the femme’s diference as a subject of desire, the Cold War construction of the lesbian had failed to counteract the threat she posed to American society. At once similar to and diferent from the butch and the straight woman, the femme continued to haunt the normative construction of American womanhood.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Mar 11, 2024

As a child of the Eighties and Nineties, I remember well that homosexuals were fair game in the mainstream media. One columnist in The Star railed against “Wooftahs, pooftahs, nancy boys, queers, lezzies — the perverts whose moral sin is to so abuse the delightful word ‘gay’ as to render it unfit for human consumption”. After the death of Freddie Mercury, sympathy in The Mail on Sunday was limited. “If you treat as a hero a man who died because of his own sordid sexual perversions,” one writer cautioned, “aren’t you infinitely more likely to persuade some of the gullible young to follow in his example?”

It was sadly inevitable that the AIDS crisis would exacerbate this ancient prejudice. A headline in The Sun declared that “perverts are to blame for the killer plague”. And while a writer for the Express held “those who choose unnatural methods of self-gratification” responsible for the disease, letters published in its pages followed suit. One reader called for the incarceration of homosexuals. “Burning is too good for them,” wrote another. “Bury them in a pit and pour on quicklime.” Someone had been reading his Dante.

I happened to come out in a much less hostile climate. In the early 2000s, we were enjoying a kind of Goldilocks moment, neither too hot nor too cold. We weren’t generally on the receiving end of homophobic slurs, but nor were we patronised by well-meaning progressives. My memory of this time was that no one particularly cared, and I was more than happy with that. Being gay for me has never been an identity, it’s simply a fact, as unremarkable as being blue-eyed or right-handed.

And so it has been troubling to see a resurgence in the last few years of the kind of anti-gay rhetoric that was commonplace in my childhood. Of course, it could be argued that the rise of social media has simply exposed sentiments that were previously only expressed in private. As Ricky Gervais has pointed out, before the digital era “we couldn’t read every toilet wall in the world. And now we can.”

Yet the most virulent homophobia appears to be coming from a new source. Whereas we have always been accustomed to this kind of thing from the far-Right — one recalls Nick Griffin’s remark on Question Time about how he finds the sight of two men kissing “really creepy” — but now the most objectionable anti-gay comments arise in online spheres occupied by gender ideologues, from those who claim to be progressive, Left-wing and “on the right side of history”. The significant difference is that the word “cis” has been added to the homophobe’s lexicon. Some examples:

“Cis gay men are a disease.”

“Cis gay men are truly some of the most grotesque creatures to burden this earth.”

“I hate cis gay people with a burning passion.”

“If you’re a cis gay man and your sexuality revolves around you not liking female genitalia I hope you die and I will spit on your grave.”

“Cis gays don’t deserve rights.”

“There’s so many reasons to hate gay people, most specifically white gays, but there’s never a reason to be a transphobe.”

“It’s time to normalise homophobia.”

Of course, any bile can be found on the internet, but these kinds of phrases are remarkably commonplace among certain online communities. Even a cursory search will reveal innumerable examples of gender ideologues casually branding gay men “fags” or “faggots”, praising the murder of gays and lesbians, and claiming that the AIDS epidemic was a positive thing. Many thousands of examples had been collated on Google Photos under the title “Woke homophobia: anti-gay hatred & boxer ceiling abuse from trans activists & gender-identity ideologues”. The site was taken down last year, presumably because it violated Google’s policy on hate speech — or perhaps because it revealed the toxicity of the ideology the company has spent so long promoting.

If such ideas were restricted to the demented world of internet activism, we might be justified in simply ignoring it. But we now know that the overwhelming majority of adolescents referred to the Tavistock paediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. Whistleblowers have spoken out about the endemic homophobia, not simply among clinicians but also parents who were keen to “fix” their gay offspring. And of course there was the running joke among staff that soon “there would be no gay people left”.

And now a series of leaked internal messages and videos from WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health), has revealed that clinicians in the leading global organisation for transgender healthcare have openly admitted in private that some teenagers mistake being same-sex attracted for gender dysphoria. The result of the “gender-affirming” approach has amounted to what one former Tavistock clinician recently described as “conversion therapy for gay kids”. Homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organisation’s list of psychiatric disorders in 1993, and yet here we are medicalising it all over again.

So how did we reach the point where gay conversion therapy is being practised in plain sight by the NHS? Much of the responsibility has to lie with Stonewall, a group that once promoted equal rights for gay people but now actively works against their interests. It has even gone so far as to redefine “homosexual” on its website and resource materials as “same-gender attracted”. It should go without saying that gay men are not attracted to women who identify as men, any more than lesbians should be denounced for excluding those with penises from their dating pools. What trans activists call discrimination, most of us call homosexuality.

Indeed, activists often claim that “genital preferences are transphobic”, or that sexual orientation based on biological sex is a form of “trauma”. The idea that homosexuality is a sickness was one of the first homophobic tropes I encountered as a child. Now it is being rebranded as progressive.

As for Stonewall, its former CEO Nancy Kelley went so far as to argue that women who exclude trans people as potential partners are analogous to “sexual racists”. She claimed that “if you are writing off entire groups of people, like people of colour, fat people, disabled people or trans people, then it’s worth considering how societal prejudices may have shaped your attractions”. It is worth remembering that Stonewall is deeply embedded in many governmental departments and quangos, as well as corporate and civic institutions. Anti-gay propaganda is being reintroduced into society from the very top.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service has been meeting with trans lobby groups such as Mermaids and Stonewall to discuss changes to prosecutorial policy in cases of sex by deception. Since these meetings — only revealed after sustained pressure from a feminist campaigner who submitted Freedom of Information requests — the CPS has recommended what Dennis Kavanagh of the Gay Men’s Network has described as “a radical trans activist approach to sex by deception prosecutions that would see them all but vanish”. In trans activist parlance, the barriers to having sex with lesbians and gay men are known as the “cotton ceiling” and “boxer ceiling”. Now it seems the establishment is attempting to support the coercion of gay people into heterosexual activity.

Consider a recent post on X by Stephen Whittle, OBE, a professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University. In a reply to LGB Alliance’s Bev Jackson, Whittle took issue with the notion that “love is all about genitals” (an argument that Jackson has never made). Having dismissed this straw man as “a very hetero/homo-normative perspective”, Whittle then claimed that “a lot of gay men can’t resist a young furry ftm [female-to-male] cub”.

While it is true that there are some bisexuals who identify as gay, it is simply not the case that homosexual men “can’t resist” certain kinds of women. As Jackson rightly noted in her response, this is rank homophobia, “disturbed and disturbing on every level”. Yet it has been expressed by an individual who has been described as a “hero for LGBTQ+ equality”. With heroes like these, who needs villains?

Another example is Davey Wavey, a popular online influencer, who has encouraged gay men to perform heterosexual acts in a video called “How to Eat Pussy — For Gay Men”. It may as well have been called “Gay Conversion Therapy 2.0”. We are firmly back in the Eighties, where gays are being told that they “just haven’t found the right girl yet” and lesbians are assured that they just “need a good dick”. And yet now these demeaning ideas are being propagated by those who claim to be defending the rights of sexual minorities.

The Government’s recent guidance on how schools are to accommodate trans-identified pupils — in which biological sex will take precedence over identity — has been met with horror from gender ideologues. One of the common refrains one hears from activists is that it represents “this generation’s Section 28”. But this is to get it precisely backwards. Gay rights were secured on the recognition that a minority of the population are same-sex attracted. In dismantling the very notion of sex and substituting it for this nebulous concept of “gender identity”, activists and their disciples in parliament are undoing all of the achievements of previous gay rights movements.

The widespread homophobia of the Eighties, epitomised by Section 28, was based on the notion that homosexuality was unnatural, dangerous and ought to be corrected. Present-day gender identity ideology perceives homosexuality as evidence of misalignment between soul and body. In other words, it seeks to “fix” gay people so that they fit into a heterosexual framework. It is no coincidence that so many detransitioners are gay people who were simply struggling with their sexuality. Gender identity ideology is the true successor to Section 28.

The proponents of this revamped gay conversion therapy dismiss our concerns as “transphobia” and “bigotry”, or as part of a manufactured “culture war”. Worse still, the new homophobia is being cheered on by those it will hurt most. While prominent gay figures continue to feed the beast that wishes to devour them, we are unlikely to see this dire situation improve any time soon. It was bad enough in the Eighties, when gay people were demonised and harassed by the establishment. Who thought we would have to fight these battles all over again?

[ceescedasticity]

A writeup/outline of the House of the Dragon/Song of Ice and Fire fic I worked on feverishly for a month and a half:

Premise: So, over two-four months of binging HotD fanfic before abruptly focusing on something else, I found a lot of fics with one or more Game of Thrones-era characters being reborn into the Dance era, but very few in reverse — I can only remember one, and it overwrote a canon character who I like with a HotD character I don't care about so meh. (There were a handful more with HotD characters suddenly being transported to the GoT era, but most were abandoned.)

So, the other way around — why might such a thing happen?

Well — Jace owes the Starks a Targaryen princess. The Starks seem to have felt dying cleared the debt, but they aren't the only ones who might care about oaths sworn in godswoods. So, Jace gets to be reborn until he delivers. As a girl, because he doesn't have a right to promise other Targaryen princesses. —Except his brothers. Well, sisters.

Unfortunately the Old Gods do not have free access to Targaryens; they need there to be a backdoor, so not every generation is accessible. Also they are possibly using a somewhat perverse definition of "princess".

First backdoor: Melissa Blackwood, one of the mistresses of Aegon the Unworthy. Jace and Luke are reborn as Mya and Gwenys Rivers. (Melissa's third child is a boy, and also earmarked for other purposes, so Joff sits out this round.) Even after they're legitimized they're not precisely princesses; there's no reason the Starks would want to marry them. They end up pretty preoccupied with Targaryen stuff anyway, supporting Daeron II and opposing the Blackfyre Rebellion. They go through some bad stuff. There's a whole story here, between the Blackfyre Rebellion and the frankly insane dynamics of Aegon IV's court.

(Part of the story is about their little brother, Brynden Rivers, who loves them very much and also sees who they are after a greenseer-awakening sojourn on the Isle of Faces.)

Altogether it's not an entirely unsuccessful life, but delivering Targaryen princess: Not accomplished.

You might think that Betha Blackwood would be the next backdoor! You would be wrong. Possibly Shaera was un-meddleable due to upcoming Prince that was Promises bloodlines. Possibly the Old Gods are set on only reincarnating them as questionable princesses.

The next backdoor is Jenny. Duncan and Jenny weren't planning on having children, but whoopsie-daisy, twin girls. Jenny's friend (the future Ghost of High Heart, henceforth Woman of the Forest/WotF because I don't want to keep typing that) sees some things about the babies, but not very clearly, so they end up named Junia and Layne.

Junia and Layne have a good, sheltered childhood. (Junia could definitely have been a much better and more responsible princess than Shaera, but whatever.) They're in their mid-teens when Aegon V comes up with his dragon-hatching scheme. They are 1000% on board with this. They love dragons. Targaryens without dragons is just wrong. They die at Summerhall. But — and this will be important — the WotF understands their situation enough to know they will eventually be back.

If Lyanna Stark had daughters (who didn't already have Destinies), that would have been a suitable backdoor. But, she doesn't, and her son mustn't be tampered with. And of course not much later there's a serious Targaryen shortage.

If I were writing this properly I'd introduce Jessamyn, Lucinda, and Jocelyn Flint and leave the connection vague until later, but since I'm not — their mother Mona (short for Daemona) was a Blackfyre in the female line. Their father Ronnel is the backdoor, and a younger son of House Flint of Flint's Finger who ran off to become a sellsword in Essos.

(This is the most excruciating parentage by far, because after Mya and Gwenys's experiences they really, really hate Blackfyres.) (Joff is here for the first time, and Jess and Lucy won't let Jo out of sight, mostly.)

Ronnel says they're trueborn and no one in Westeros can contradict him, but technically their parents never formally married (no godswoods available).

Mona dies and Ronnel gets sick/takes an injury that won't heal/idk something where he's dying but not immediately. Mona didn't trust her family, so Ronnel takes the girls to the North. He'll trust his brother with his daughters' safety — but not with the several chests of Essosi gold Ronnel is leaving to them. Those Ronnel entrusts to Eddard Stark, the contents to be released to his daughters only; as a compromise, they can withdraw some before they marry to help offset expenses.

Thus they are not infrequent visitors to Winterfell, not close to the Starks but quite well acquainted. Which puts them closer to 'marrying a Stark' than they've ever been, but Catelyn is very clear that they are not suitable prospects. Jessamyn Flint is a responsible girl with enough dowry for a respectable smaller house to overlook questionable origins and some personal eccentricities, but shouldn't look higher.

Also Jess has a temper — better controlled than Jace's, because Mya faced severe consequences for lashing out and Junia's family actually taught her how to manage anger, but it's still there. When it shows up at Winterfell it's usually because Theon Greyjoy, comedic genius, has reacted to Lucy's somewhat boyish behavior by persistently nicknaming her Brave Lucy Flint. This is generally agreed to be reasonable grounds for even a lady to lose her shit. (If Jess had Jace's training and muscle mass it would be all over for him.)

Cascade effect from this: Because the Brave Danny Flint thing gets brought up over and over and OVER again, tied into reality in a way the song alone won't do, Jon is much less enthusiastic about the Night's Watch. In fact, he wants to go for a knighthood first (or instead) — when he leaves Winterfell he goes to House Locke, one of the handful of Northern houses that does knighthood. And when the North goes to war, Jon rides with House Locke to the Green Fork and gets captured.

After Robb is crowned, Jess has the idea of reaching out to her father's contacts in the Company of the Rose — would any of them want to come defend an independent North, at least enough to get a good price hiring them? She also volunteers her dowry to pay for it. So, Jess and one of her Flint cousins set out to get a ship to Essos, and Lucy (with Jo) is dispatched to Winterfell to get the gold if things work out.

The three-eyed raven gives Bran a very clear and explicit warning about Theon's party approaching, with instructions on how to avert it. The castle falling would be useful to drive his successor northwards, but Brynden is not about to let Gwenys get captured by Ironborn. The attack is foiled with minimal casualties, but Theon takes out one of Lucy's eyes. (Lucy has a hysterical laughing fit before passing out.)

—After this Theon is either dispatched for the Wall and does Night's Watch things or "escapes" with "Reek" and has a very bad time.

In the course of preparing for the attack Brynden revealed through Bran that he's still alive and can communicate through weirwoods. He has to be much less cryptic in explaining why Bran needs to cross the Wall. Lucy is unconvinced and says she certainly couldn't let Bran go without her, which Brynden doesn't like at all. Fortunately for Brynden's plans Lucy is still in recovery, and she is unable to stop Bran from slipping away with the Reeds, Hodor, and also Jo. Brynden will be in so much trouble when she tells Mya.

Jess has her own problems. The safe thing to do would be to head to Essos by way of White Harbor — but starting from Riverrun that's a long way out of the way. Sneaking through the Riverlands to Saltpans should be much faster. It's a terrible idea but Jess knows the Riverlands well (or did when she was Mya) and her cousin is short on common sense. They get caught and taken to Tywin at Harrenhal. We now have Jess, Jon, Arya, and Tywin all in Harrenhal.

Which is not quite the same as it is in canon, because — remember Jenny's friend knowing Jenny's daughters would be reborn someday?

The Woman of the Forest dug up those seven dragon eggs Aegon V brought to Summerhall and buried them by the Harrenhal heart tree. They'd already been in a pyre with way more than seven people, and Harrenhal has plenty more death to offer, so when magic starts growing again — say, about when the direwolf mother came south — they hatch. Now the Harrenhal godswood has seven possibly cursed dragons. (Almost definitely cursed, really. They're most active at night and stealthier than they should be even at night; they grew quickly to a fairly small size for dragons and then stopped; they are uncannily knowing for animals.)

Cursed or not they've been very considerate for dragons — they've never attacked inside the castle. They're practically friendly with the castle smallfolk who discovered and secretly fed them. (The smallfolk called them after the major houses of Harrenhal — Hoare, Qoherys, Harroway, Towers, Strong, Lothston, and Whent.) When they started attacking Lannister raiders they did it outside the castle.

Since Jon Snow has been a prisoner, one of them has been lurking around the relevant tower more.

When Jess arrives, one breaks into her cell within a few days. (Jon is an option. They're meant for Jess.) (The one that's most for her is Strong, because of course it is.)

There's a very exciting night after which they're in control of Harrenhal and Jess and Jon have claimed dragons, to Jon's consternation. (Two more of the dragons are destined for Lucy and Jo.)

Blah blah, more stuff happens, I'm not sure how the war works out exactly but Robb marries Jess after all because she's from a good northern family and HAS A DRAGON.

They still have quite a bit to do up North even before the Others show up because in addition to the Ironborn and potential Bolton problems—

No Jon Snow means Lord Mormont gets killed by a wight, which means that the Watch started attempting to elect a new Lord Commander and deadlocked. No Great Ranging. No infiltration of Mance Rayder's wildlings by Jon or anyone else. Wherever the wildling army attacks — maybe not Castle Black if it's full of election — they're a surprise, and any wall-climbing advance guard was un-infiltrated. Mance gets through.

(Which will actually be a benefit when the Others show! Going to take a while to work that out, though.)

The Bastard Dragons will likely help with all this. (Also Brynden has to be careful with Bran or his sisters will be disappointed.)

Anyway anyway — that's only four out of seven bastard dragons spoken for, and what about the Greens?

So, considering the dragonkeepers as a quasi-religious order. They are likely to be distraught when the last dragon dies. They perhaps might want to demand vengeance — perhaps not on the current king, both because the senior Dragonstone dragonkeepers remember Aegon III as a little boy who loved Stormcloud plus, you know, he's the king. Perhaps they might instead turn to Valyrian blood magic and access to Targaryen funerary urns, and commit mass ritual murder-suicide to chain the guilty to life where they can be punished.

This doesn't work with an empty funeral urn, so they can't actually target Rhaenyra or Daemon, or Daeron. Any non-Targaryens aren't on the table at all. But Aegon II and Helaena had funerals, and Aemond's bones were dredged up with Vhagar's. (Some might question the inclusion of Helaena among the guilty, but her suicide triggered the storming of the Dragonpit.)

The curse will see them reborn, when a Hightower has a child with Targaryen blood. The curse will see their bodies warped with approximations of draconic traits, eventually killing them painfully. The curse will end when there are dragons again.

The first available "child of a Hightower, with Targaryen blood" is the youngest daughter of Rhaena and Garmund Hightower, followed by Rhaena's daughters's children. They go through a few rounds of this before some of the Hightowers figure out what's going on. They come up with a way to stall the curse, but decide that probably they should try to avoid marrying Targaryens. Rhaena's grandchildren don't bear the Hightower name, so it doesn't fall on any of them.

It does pop up when Viserys Plumm marries a Hightower. And when a Hightower fathers a child on a dragonseed whore, years after that.

(The curse doesn't specify gender, but somehow Aegon is a girl every time. He undergoes character development partially from this and partially from experiencing actual competent parenting and unconditional love.)

Fast forward. Leyla Hightower is one of Lord Leyton's daughters, and the only one to marry into a knightly house. Suppose, then, that this was a coverup after she got in trouble. Suppose she got into trouble with a descendant of one of Aegon V's sisters, and surprise, turns out that's enough to trigger the curse. Mad Maid Malora figures out what's going on fairly soon, so Agnes and Ellyn get the curse mitigation very young.

Leyla then goes on to fuck Robert at the Lannisport tourney and has Emmon. To complete the set.

Agnes, Ellyn, and Emmon are all nominally the children of Ser Jon Cupps, but Leyla and Robert weren't exactly discreet. Jon Arryn comes up with a pretense to invite Ser Cupps and family to court — he wants a closer look at white-blond Leyla and her black-haired son.

Ellyn would rather die than set foot in King's Landing, so she goes to be a companion to her cousin Margaery instead. We'll come back to her.

Lord Arryn and Stannis interrogate Leyla but leave Ser Cupps out of the loop. Emmon isn't told anything but figures it out. Agnes decides Cersei was custom-crafted by cruel gods to answer the question "what would a queen have to be like for Aegon to think better of Rhaenyra by comparison".

When Jon Arryn dies, Stannis takes Leyla and Emmon — evidence — to Dragonstone. Emmon is very unhappy about this. Agnes and Ser Cupps are left behind. Ser Cupps, still clueless, helps Ned's investigation as best he can, and is 'accidentally' killed in the chaos around Ned's arrest. The Lannisters decide Agnes isn't much of a Reach hostage, but still worth hanging onto. Agnes is very unhappy about this and makes it everyone's problem.

Back in the Reach, Ellyn doesn't care about Renly but she is fond of Margaery and Loras. She tries some of Malora's tricks to protect the encampment. It interferes enough that Renly doesn't get killed.

Emmon eventually manages to get off Dragonstone — Leyla will probably be safe there but Melisandre is making him nervous. He wants to get back to the Reach or find Renly's forces, since breaking Agnes out of King's Landing on his own is unrealistic. (As far as kings go Emmon thinks all the Baratheons are pretenders, but the Lannisters and Stannis have made themselves his enemies.) Inconveniently, he makes landfall in the Riverlands. He is captured. He is imprisoned in proximity to Jess, and both of them have to come to terms with a lot of things real fast.

So Emmon is also at Harrenhal, and also claims a dragon, and also calls dibs on two more for currently absent siblings.

Claiming of the Bastard Dragons:

Hoare, renamed Hoarwing (by Jess), renamed Hoarfrost (by Jon): Jon Snow

Qoherys, renamed Rhaenaxes because who cares about House Qoherys and Queen Rhaena was awesome: Ellyn Cupps

Harroway, renamed Harrowfyre: Agnes Cupps

Towers, renamed Towerfyre (by Jess), renamed Riverwing (by Emmon, from reasons he won't discuss): Emmon Cupps

Strong, renamed Strongwing: Jessamyn Flint

Lothston, renamed Danelleys because Mad Danelle was definitely the best Lothston: Lucinda Flint (You could therefore, if you wanted, nickname the dragon Danny Flint — or perhaps Danny Flint's Revenge)

Whent, renamed Whenthor: Jocelyn Flint

When Daenerys finally arrives, they all make terms — they insist on good terms, but they won't set dragon against dragon for the sake of any crown.

[disappointingyet]

These are my favourite films released in the UK in 2022 – as far as I can tell (it’s getting increasingly hard to work out what snuck out when. Taken as a whole, the list looks a bit Nordic, a bit gloomy, short on action. I’ve put together a round-up of some of the other movies I saw this year, including the critics’ favourite and at least one notorious turkey. And, as ever, there was a lot I didn’t see, because I didn’t get around to it or because I didn’t want to. Specifically, I should mention Top Gun: Maverick, which by most accounts is an excellent piece of film-making – but going to watch a sequel to a film I found excruciatingly dull and full of unappealing characters seemed kind of perverse. And The Banshees of Inisherin:  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is unforgivable racist trash, I didn’t like In Bruges (or his brother’s film Calvary for that matter), so I’m not willing to give Camberwell’s Martin McDonagh another chance.

Anyway, on to the list (and do let me know what you think I might have enjoyed but missed).

1. Licorice Pizza 

Paul Thomas Anderson in fun mode, telling the story of an entrepreneurial teen in early 1970s LA. It’s beautifully specific, and rather than making cheap and obvious jokes  based on stereotypes of the era, it builds punchlines from history. Contains (words I never anticipated writing) a cameo from Bradley Cooper that’s just gobsmacking.

Full review here

2. Hytti nro 6 (Compartment No6)

This is a Finnish train movie set in super-bleak post-Soviet Russia. So yes, you will feel cold and uncomfortable just watching it. Our mismatched travellers are a Finnish mature student exiting a relationship with a Moscow-based academic and a young Russian miner. The question, of course, is how these two will find common ground, but this film – with moments of sharp humour and excellent observation – avoids the obvious and earns your time and patience.

Full review here

3. Verdens Verste Menneske (The Worst Person In The World)

I remain baffled by the title, which does come from a line in the film, but sets off all sorts of false expectations. The central character is no monster (nor, despite what one of the other leads tells her, a particular good person), just a typical contemporary female lead, struggling to find something fulfilling to do as her twenties and early thirties drift past her while dealing with the inadequacy of men, whether as relatives or partners. This is told in 14 sharply written chapters. In particular, the one in which two strangers at a party play at testing what they can do without technically cheating on their partners is great film-making. One quibble and a question: the film sympathises a bit too much with the I’m-just-saying-it-as-I-see-it comix writer dude, and can a bookshop assistant and a barista really afford a flat like that in central Oslo?

(MUBI)

4. White Noise

Middle-aged angst, teen angst, fear-of-the-apocalypse angst, married angst, it’s-the’80s angst, American consumer angst, academic rivalry angst… all these angsts and more are explored in Noah Baumbach’s dark comedy, adapted from a novel by Don DeLillo. Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig play the couple who know that in many ways they should be happy, but of course that just amplifies their misery. Baumbach does a fine job of recreating the 1980s and manages several switches in scale that could have easily tipped the film off balance. Make sure you stay for the closing credit sequence, which is great although it does make hard to actually read who the key grip or the catering company were. 

(Netflix)

5. Bergman Island 

A filmmaking couple go to Ingmar Bergman’s old stomping ground to get some writing done. All does not go smoothly. Much less heavy-going than that makes it sound, and at least as reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy as it is of Bergman. I found it captivating.

Full review here

(MUBI)

6. Emily The Criminal 

Pleasingly spare, low-budget gig economy and scam economy LA thriller that makes superior use of Audrey Plaza's particular screen presence and vibe. Firmly recommended.

Full review here

7. Les Olympiades, Paris 13e (Paris 13th District)

Shot in very lovely black & white, this is essentially a sweet comedy-drama about the romantic misadventures of a trio of young(ish) Parisians, although it was marketed as something a bit edgier than it really is. Director Jacques Audiard is best known for male-centric crime movies, but maybe the co-writing credit for Céline Sciamma (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Petite Maman) gives a better steer on what this is like. 

(MUBI)

8. Madres Paralelas 

I’ve been mostly underwhelmed by Almodóvar’s recent run of what could be called anti-melodramas: stories of wild coincidences and personal tragedies told in numb, mostly humour-free fashion. Madres Paralelas worked better for me: he makes an odd choice of framing the central narrative with a very different one involving the same characters. It’s jarring, but I think it ultimately makes its own kind of sense.

Full review here 

9/10. Bodies Bodies Bodies/Triangle Of Sadness

I wasn’t expecting to be repeatedly reminded in 2022 of Very Bad Things, a (not very good) 1998 comedy starring Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz that’s like The Hangover only with a high body count. These films are both vastly superior to VBT, but echo its rapidly escalating nastiness. Both involve the privileged classes placed in situations of extreme discomfort, although the politics of Triangle Of Sadness are more explicit and (it feels) more central to the film than those of Bodies Bodies Bodies.

In BBB, a bunch of twentysomethings gather in big, isolated house just as a storm is approaching. They start playing bodies bodies bodies (known in my time as murder in the dark), only… well, you can guess. There’s a strong 1990s vibe to this, especially the way the movie seems to feel about its characters, while being very 2020s in its casting, the sex lives of the characters and the woman worried her podcast (‘a podcast takes a lot of work!’) isn’t getting any respect from her friends. I really enjoyed this.

If you have seen Ruben Østlund’s Force Majeure or The Square, you’ll know to expect fairly broad satire and the lives of the pampered going very wrong in Triangle Of Sadness. (If you haven’t seen any of them, start with Force Majeure, which is the best of the trio.) TOS ups the stakes on Force Majeure’s ski resort by putting its characters on a luxury yacht. There’s a deceptively low-key beginning in which we’re introduced to Yaya (the late Charlbi Dean) and Carl (Harris Dickinson), models in a relationship driven - at least for her - by the potential for Instagram influencer synergy. The intensity builds when they bag a free holiday on the yacht, where Østlund attempts to outdo The Square’s much-discussed party scene. At which point, it’s fair to say that as much as Jean Luc Godard’s Week End and assorted Buñuel films, this is indebted to American gross-out movies. Subtle this film is not, but if you have a strong stomach and a taste for comedy that’s grotesque and openly political, this is a blast.

11. Competencia Oficial (Official Competition)

Take the title of the movie itself plus that of the film-within-the-film – Rivalry – and you’ve got the theme of this Spanish comedy. An aging billionaire decides to fund a potentially prize-winning film in an attempt to cement his legacy. He’s advised to hire the talented-but-eccentric Lola (Penelope Cruz) to direct and she casts a very serious theatrical type (Oscar Martinez) and a mainstream movie star who has houses in LA and St Tropez (Antonio Banderas).  The two actors, inevitably, clash over their contrasting lifestyles and approaches to their craft, with Lola’s interventions pushing up the tension. The film is essentially a three-hander, as the trio rehearse the film in the vast, empty, marble spaces of the rich dude’s foundation. 

It stays more on the leash than I was expecting – there are multiple opportunities for things to get unhinged that the film doesn’t take (or mostly). I did properly laugh a fair number of times, and with Almodóvar seemingly sworn off comedies for good, this does a decent job of filling that void.

[mogwai-movie-house]

Hello! I would like to ask two questions, actually.

From what I can judge, you seem to enjoy watching and reviewing movies. Do you also watch TV series sometimes and if yes, what are the ones you would say are genuinely worth watching? (except Succession, and I also know that shows like Mad Men, Sopranos and the Wire are considered to be some of the prime TV examples.)

What are your favorite old Hollywood classics?

Thank you!

Howdy,

I can see from looking at your blog that you like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and I really can't think of any better-realized shows than those. Their creators really stuck the landing and told a perfect, clear story from the beginning to the end, which is where most other shows seem to fall down: the first 4 seasons of Game of Thrones might be the best TV show ever made, but the last 2 or 3 might be the very worst; the same goes for Rick & Morty (first 4 seasons perfect, last couple a disaster). The Simpsons was the best show on TV for the first 13 or so seasons, but has been a dull and unfunny walking corpse of its former self for over two decades now, which is terrible to see. South Park was at the very peak of human achievement in that medium for over 20 years, but then hit a very tiresome and uneven patch a few years back and hasn't really recovered, though it's always worth a look. The first 3 seasons of Arrested Development are perfection; the last two are dismal. The first season of True Detective is mostly excellent; the rest just get worse and worse. So decline in quality is probably the greatest issue with even the greatest shows, particularly in America, where the makers tend to view a hit show as a cash cow they can keep on milking until it dies, rather than a story needing telling with a beginning, middle and end, like a good film or a book.

I never really clicked with Mad Men: I had an ex-girlfriend who was hooked on it, and I tried to watch a couple of episodes with her, but I just couldn't connect. I could see that it did a nice job of recreating the physical details of the era in which it was set, but was completely anachronistic in its depiction of the people, their words, actions and motivations, none of which seemed at all real to me, and all clearly in the service of creating some very clumsy feminist strawmen to attack, while also perversely reveling in it. In some ways it seemed to me a test run for The Handmaid's Tale (or 50 Shades of Grey); a fetishization of real-or-imagined female victimhood, consumed overwhelmingly by women who found a strange mix of pleasure in the pretty clothes and smartly dressed aloof, boorish and powerful men they delight in hating but secretly want to bang. I can see some people must have felt they found more than that in it, but I just don't seem to be the audience for it.

My favourite shows in recent years have been Inside No. 9, Rick & Morty and Black Mirror, though the quality of all of them has become much more patchy. Get Shorty is not at that level but very enjoyable. Curb Your Enthusiasm has remained consistently slight but fun. The White Lotus and Enlightened are both good.

Further back I would list Extras, The Office (the original UK show) and Life's Too Short, all perfectly realized from start to end. Same goes for Spaced, Father Ted and I'm Alan Partridge. Northern Exposure and Buffy The Vampire Slayer are both wondrous and unique, though the last season of each goes downhill. I loved Community (first 3 seasons) and Louie. Then obviously things like the original Twilight Zone and Star Trek. I really enjoyed Lena Dunham's Girls, too, though I haven't gone back to rewatch it.

There are too many great films from the past to list, but if I were to try recommend some of the classics to people unfamiliar with anything before their own schooldays, off the top of my head I would probably say Sunset Blvd (1950), The Third Man (1949), The Night Of The Hunter (1955), His Girl Friday (1940), It Happened One Night (1934), The Ladykillers (1955), North by Northwest (1959), Le Plaisir (1952), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1930), The Last Command (1928), and Black Narcissus (1947). All of them are strikingly original and perfectly-realized stories that satisfy in a way all films should but almost all present-day films are incapable of doing.

[femalewhumper701]

Feeling like shit, so it's comfort viewing hours. Time to cross another Argento off my bucket list, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.

I love the small tiny bits of progressivism that wander into Argento's work. I don't think it's super intentional, or done with any particular agenda, it's just refreshing.

In Deep Red, the mc doesn't have much more than a "wow, okay" reaction to his friend being gay, treats his friend's partner the same as if he'd been a straight female, and leaves. The person I was watching it with and I looked at each other after that scene and went "...did that just happen? In this genre?" [Spoilers in the tags]

In Tenebre, the interviewer starts talking about how the book in question takes a stand against perversion because the killer targets gays, and the author goes "...he's the killer. He's insane, you're not supposed to agree with him." Despite the female reporter being a caricature of what men of the era believed a feminist is. Nobody's perfect.

Now, "Bring in the perverts," says one inspector, "we can't rule out that the killer may be a pervert." A row of sex offenders files in, exhibitionist and rapists and a child molester. The last to enter is a either a drag queen or a trans woman, it's unclear. "No, no, no!" says the other inspector, going on to call her by her chosen femme name. "For the last time, Ursula is a transvestite, not a pervert!" (Ursula clutches her purse indignantly. "Well, I should hope so!" she says, and storms off.) Find me another giallo - or much any 80s media - that doesn't consider "transvestite" to be a kind of pervert. I'll wait.

[anthonybialy]

Policy of Errors

Claiming everyone else gets everything wrong is just another error.  The worst violators are mad about misinformation and don’t even have a sense of humor about irony.  People who never get anything right failing to smirk about it is not even the worst part.  Noting what they do believe here in reality hurts feelings and causes, which is sufficient proof for them.

Every single hoax confirms the liberal worldview.  Those are a fun few days for true believers. Trifling details like accuracy are for the intolerant.  Noting the constant stream of hate crimes in contemporary America is backed up about everything but the facts.  The feeling is what motivates Democrats, as it sure isn’t results.  Guardians against fascist racists are still convinced a MAGA Hate Squad is roaming Red State hive Chicago.  Jussie Smollett was attacked by everything but attackers.

Every charge against cops is believed by those who don’t believe any against criminals.  It only seems backward if you believe the entire criminal justice system is a farce designed to oppress the underprivileged.  

Overwrought liberals act reflexively in a way they claim those they impugn do.  It’s surely not the first time they think everyone else holds the same bleak personality characteristics they actually do.  Meanwhile, their belief system causes the problems they claim to remedy.  Proclaiming cops do bad makes stopping actual abuse harder.  It’s not the first time incentives go haywire because those who don’t grasp them encourage perverse ones.

Sneak in if you want to be treated like royalty.  Border sob stories reflect how Democrats only have sympathy for people in America who aren’t allowed to be here.  Uncannily, the pattern is the same with legal criminals.  The few things retailers manage to stock get stolen.

Foes of mean arrests and prosecutions enjoy acting like shoplifting is no big deal and just a way of coping with poverty, anyway.  You don’t want children to starve, do you?  Everyone struggles to make sure minors get enough calories during the era of Bidenomics.

The president’s grifting crackhead brat has to rip off others: how else would he make money in Dad’s economy?  Genetics indicate there are no useful skills no matter where one climbs the family tree.  Hunter Biden is just like his dad, and they both think they’re being complimented.  That bit where he was caught establishing a new standard for corruption showed us a lot about his defenders, too.

Eager suppressors assured us they were protecting the world against falsehoods as they violated the concept of open speech to promulgate one.  You’re now free to tweet regarding the scandal about the scandal.

Don’t be racist by noting the commie cabal which inflicts horrors upon citizens and the rest of the world as policy is responsible for what it did.  Chinese despots have to pretend China behaved.  I’m unsure what excuse Americans excusing a monstrous regime have. Are they ideological allies, bravely fearful that legitimate criticism will provoke bullies, or unable to distinguish between ethnicity and autocracy?  The answer doesn’t matter when the options are all repulsive.

The lengths America’s noisiest homegrown critics will go to defend a particularly appalling tyranny couldn’t serve as a more blatant example.  Perhaps those indignant on behalf of schemingly incompetent commies who infected the world are secretly admire the control of information in defiance of alleged absolute truth.

Gender is a whim.  Believe it or get treated like a witch.  Complicating the simplest observations is the cause of those most opposed to how things are.  Foes of the rather easy way to determine who’s a male or female are surely as dedicated to evidence on other issues.  Fanatical practitioners smugly announce they believe in science, which is the least scientific notion possible.

The presumption government will help can safely be classified as misguided.  It’s been disproven consistently enough that we can call it a lie if we’re feeling less generous.  The excuse of ignorance means not knowing a thing about current events, which is sadly likely among those whose reply to regrettable news about their ideology is “Fox News!”  Wondering what possible evidence could be on the side that figures every interaction requires political guidance is irrelevant, as they’ve made up their minds.

Those who get everything wrong are deeply concerned that you’re spreading lies.  The First Amendment’s whole point is that we can sort it out ourselves, which frightens control freaks who neither tolerate differing opinions nor challenges to what they risibly deem cold cases.  Jittery censors don’t believe in any sort of open market or natural right, and consistency is not always admirable.

Controlling alleged hate speech means anyone who disagrees.  There’s an ulterior reason just like everything else woke sputterers claim, namely that they’re as disconnected from the truth as they are productivity.

Psychological projection is the only productive liberal industry.  Business sadly thrives.  Making a show of calling everyone else a fibber is intended to distract from their own bouts with truth.  Robbers call tip lines blaming others.  I’m sure investigators will be thrown off by the blatant distraction.

If you didn’t want coercion with the sheen of legality, you should have thought about that before being bossed around.  A politician should decide everything except if babies get to be born, according to those obsessed with accuracy.  Lecturing about biology while averting their eyes from sonograms is merely the most egregious hypocrisy by those who commit sins they accuse everyone else of transgressions.  Everyone else is a phony, according to the most prominent examples.

[militaryinclusivityresearch]

Looking Back, a View to the Future of the Health and Readiness of Gender and Sexual Diverse U.S. Service Members

INTRODUCTION

Recent global events emphasize the importance of a healthy, ready military force capable of rapidly responding to humanitarian emergencies or military crises. Maintaining this capability requires a methodical, evidence-based approach to health, inclusive of all service members, the greatest strength of the U.S. Armed Forces. Until recently, a substantial number of dedicated military members were unable to obtain the individualized health care necessary for optimal physical and mental health. Specifically, gender and sexual diverse (GSD) individuals, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) people were only recently received similar benefits as heterosexual service members.1,2 These changes also underscore the significant deficiencies in scientific evidence needed to fully address the health and readiness of GSD–service member (GSD-SM) population, consistent with national and DoD strategic goals: high-quality, equitable care that enhances patient experiences. Our objective is to provide a brief overview of the history of the GSD-SM population, selected health utilization rates, outcomes, and disparities, as well as perceived challenges accessing health care and insufficient knowledge critical in delivering sex- and gender-appropriate care. We provide strategies to address these issues and optimize health care delivery to improve readiness for GSD-SMs.

HISTORY OF GENDER DIVERSITY IN THE U.S. MILITARY

The most recent survey from the DoD approximated 85,504 (6.3%) active duty members across all U.S. military services identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.2 The number of self-identified transgender or queer GSD-SM is estimated to be over 14,700, of which 8,980 are active duty.2 Approximately 78% are transgender women who joined as men.3,4 Sex, male or female, refers to the biological classification of individuals based on X and Y chromosomes. Gender is a social and cultural construct describing characteristics and individual behaviors irrespective of race, ethnicity, or sex.5 Since 2011, lesbians, gays, and bisexual service members have been able to serve publicly without the risk of being dishonorably discharged from service.6

The earliest mention of GSD individuals in the U.S. military dates back to the American Revolutionary War. One of the founding fathers of the U.S. Army, Baron Friedrich von Steuben,7 after being abruptly discharged from the Prussian Army for suspicions of being GSD, was chosen by Benjamin Franklin, who disregarded accusations against von Steuben prioritizing his military expertise gravely needed by the Continental Army. Von Steuben’s methods and strategies are still employed today by the military. Although he received numerous accolades for his leading role in wartime victories, including having a city in New York named after him,7 GSD individuals remained objectionable in the military.

The Articles of War from the World War I era included the military’s legal ban on GSD-SM, upheld during World War II.8,9 Military members engaged in homosexual or other perverse sexual practices were deemed unfit for service. Before 1945, soldiers who identified as homosexual were commonly dishonorably discharged, citing homosexuality as an undesirable character trait for military service. After October 31, 1945, enlisted soldiers who identified as homosexuals with an honorable service record, but had not committed any sexual offense, were granted honorable discharges.10 By 1951, the Uniform Code of Military Justice specified that sodomy, including oral and anal sex, was subject to court martial. This solidified the legality of banning GSD individuals from military service.11 In 1981, the DoD provided a single rationale for this ongoing ban, stating that homosexuality was not compatible with military service and GSD persons severely undermined completion of the military mission.12

In October 1991, the foundation to allow GSD individuals to openly serve was established during a campaign speech by then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. He pledged to release an executive order ending military discrimination against self-identified GSD-SMs. Clinton’s pledge attracted intense media coverage and broad resistance from Congress and military leadership. Negotiations with the opposition resulted in the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy enacted in 1993.11 The DADT policy authorized the dismissal of service members who admitted to being GSD. The DADT policy stated that a service member would be separated from service once the military determined that she/he attempted or engaged in homosexual act(s), married or attempted to marry a same-sex partner, or declared that she/he was GSD. The DADT ruling was established based on the congressional verdict that a person engaging in homosexual acts posed an unacceptable risk to the military’s ideals of morale, discipline, good order, and unit cohesion, compromising the capabilities of the Armed Forces. The “Don’t Ask” component of the statute referred to provisions that military recruiters did not ask recruits whether they were GSD. Subsequently, the Secretary of Defense bore the final responsibility of whether to interrogate recruits regarding their sexuality. The “Don’t Tell” aspect provided a resolution—service members would be subject to discharge if the individual chose to admit that she/he was GSD.13 From 1993 to 2010, more than 13,000 service members were dismissed from service for violating the DADT policy.4,13

Finally, DADT was repealed in 2011 through relentless lobbying and resource mobilization, GSD advocacy groups, and veterans, along with the leadership and legislative efforts of select members of Congress and, importantly, the support of President Barack Obama.6 Service members are no longer subject to involuntary discharge based on sexual orientation. Furthermore, spouses and family members are eligible for the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts.14 The last barrier was removed in January 2021, when President Joseph Biden issued an executive order allowing all transgender individuals who qualify, to serve openly, free from discrimination.15

HEALTH AND READINESS OUTCOMES OF GENDER-DIVERSE SERVICE MEMBERS

Achieving the strategic aims of delivering high-quality, equitable care mandates attention to the needs of all service members. Currently, the military GSD population is closely reflective of the Nation’s diversity—approximately 7% and just over 8%, respectively.2,16 Recent studies show that compared to their heterosexual counterparts, GSD active duty and veteran members experience greater health disparities, specifically in mental health.2,17 This is partially because of experiences with workplace discrimination, increased stress, decreased social support, victimization, and stigma.18–20 In the context of military service, these disparities become especially complex, given the unique health care needs of the GSD-SMs and military readiness requirements.2,21,22 For example, active duty GSD-SMs were more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to binge drink (39.1% versus 33.7%), engage in unprotected sex (43.5% versus 34.3%), experience unwanted sexual contact (29.5% versus 8.2%), and be prescribed mental health medications (13.0% versus 8.1%).2 Existing research studies also provide evidence that GSD-SMs and veterans are at increased risk for alcohol-related problems, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide.2,23–25 Specifically, GSD-SMs experienced higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (14.4% versus 10.1%), suicidal ideation (15.8% versus 7.7%), and major psychological distress (30.5% versus 15.5%). Factors associated with these adverse mental health outcomes among GSD-SMs included decreased emotional and social support and victimization.23 Victimization, in particular, has been linked to increased risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide risk.18 Examples of victimization include mental and physical aggression both open and overt, stalking, sexual harassment and assault, and limited career opportunities.18,20 In contrast, however, there is some evidence that GSD individuals who join the military despite the known challenges associated with their sexual orientation are more resilient19; however, this area is not well studied.

Inferior physical health outcomes have also been reported among LGBTQ populations, although evidence is less robust compared with mental health research. For example, LGBTQ service members and veterans were found to have an increased risk of having human immunodeficiency virus, sexually transmitted infections, unhealthy weight/obesity, hypertension, smoking, and eating disorders.2,18,23,26,27 The prevalence of cancer, sleep disorders, cardiometabolic conditions, unintended pregnancy, and fertility concerns are higher among LGBTQ populations regardless of military status.28 However, evidence is inconclusive as observed in a study that Meadows et al. showed no differences between LGBTQ and heterosexual service members with regard to physical exercise, sleep hours, pain medication use, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or musculoskeletal injuries.2 Furthermore, behavioral health differences associated with gender and sexual identity suggest that health needs may differ based on gender identity: lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.28,29 These studies and the policy reforms in 2021 regarding military eligibility for transgender individuals emphasize only a few of the multitude of deficits in knowledge and necessitate further research to understand and address the specific health and readiness needs of GSD military service members.

LGBTQ HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION

Despite the repeal of the DADT policy in 2011, GSD-SMs continue to experience limited access to gender-appropriate care, discrimination, distress, and stigma from military health care providers.30,31 Data from a 2013 study showed that 30% of the gay and bisexual military service members surveyed did not feel comfortable disclosing their sexual identity to military health care providers because of fear of discrimination.32 One study reported that 75% of GSD-SMs and veterans revealed that health care providers presumed that they were heterosexual.33 A survey among gay, lesbian, and bisexual veterans indicated that 25% of the respondents avoided at least one service from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) because of worries about stigma. The survey also reported that less than half (45.5%) of the respondents utilized VHA services in their lifetime and only 28.7% benefited from VHA services during the previous year.34 Most concerning, with regard to readiness and warfighter strength, were the findings that GSD-SMs were more than twice as likely as their heterosexual peers to perceive their health care needs were inadequate.2,32 This is partially because of military providers lacking expertise in gender-appropriate care as well as uninformed perspectives,31 which directly conflicts with the DoD strategic aim of improving patient experiences.

GSD HEALTH RESEARCH IN THE U.S. MILITARY

Although several studies have been published in the previous decade regarding the health of GSD-SMs and veterans, a formal research agenda addressing the health and readiness of military GSD individuals has yet to be established in the DoD. In 2014, the DoD awarded funding to researchers from the University of Southern California to conduct studies on social integrations and health inequalities experienced by the LGBTQ population serving in the military. Known as the Military Acceptance Project, this multi-year study produced multiple publications on the perceptions, integration, and health outcomes of GSD-SMs.35 In 2018, the TriService Nursing Research Program (TSNRP) funded a pilot study focused on investigating the lived experiences, social stressors, and other associated factors influencing the mental and physical health of GSD-SMs. The qualitative data showed negative and positive experiences such as lack of support and privacy, discrimination, harassment, bullying, and abuse. Positive responses cited understanding health care providers, improved care by VHA facilities, and living in an LGBTQ-affirming environment.36 The overall goals of the study recently published by our group were to establish a foundation for a larger-scale research program that informs stakeholder decision-making and policy to advance the quality of health care provided to GSD-SMs and veterans.36 Research exploring organizational approaches to health and readiness such as health promotion and resilience is lacking in this population.

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE FUTURE GENDER-APPROPRIATE CARE

Gender-affirming care for this manuscript refers to the delivery of care individualized to the self-identified gender, recognizing the broad diversity in the GSD community. In addition to improving training and education for all health care team members, gender-appropriate care begins with an empathic and non-biased assessment and treatment affirming members’ self-identified gender, their contributions, and status as valued members of the military. During initial interactions, health care team members should respectfully inquire about patients’ preferences regarding preferred gender-affirming names, pronouns, and honorifics. This recommendation aligns with the CDC 2022 guidelines and U.S. VHA gender-affirming policy to provide a harassment-free environment where veterans are addressed by their preferred name and self-identified gender.37 Health care providers should also avoid making assumptions or entirely disregarding the importance of sexual orientation in the patient’s care. Providers should avoid assuming patient health concerns are related to their sexual identity.38 Other strategies to cultivate trust with GSD patients are to utilize inclusive and sensitive language, ask open-ended questions, and provide nonjudgmental support.39 Importantly, health care providers need to recognize that sexual orientation is not the defining identity of GSD individuals. Health care must also be culturally appropriate, include targeted community outreach, and comprehensive services such as gynecological care for transgenders. Strategies such as these may benefit retired and active duty GSD-SMs by addressing their specific health care needs and alleviating health disparities as well.40,41

STRATEGIES TO ADVANCE RESEARCH FOR GENDER-APPROPRIATE CARE

Initial major steps in addressing knowledge deficits and advancing evidence-based care begin with dedicated funding mechanisms and changes to applicable DoD policies such as 10 U.S. Code § 654.42 Although the policy intention was to mitigate stigma and discrimination associated with collecting information about sexual orientation, unintended consequences resulted in significant limitations on research efforts. A recent PubMed database query for studies since 1993 when DADT was implemented yielded 75 articles, of which over 60% were opinion or involved veterans or foreign military. Nearly all remaining articles were descriptive, targeting mental health concerns including one literature review focused on suicide risk. A comprehensive scoping review of all research available from multiple databases, including gray literature, focused on active duty GSD-SM is urgently needed. This review would help define the current evidence-based landscape, identify gaps, and provide initial direction for future research. An evidence-based research agenda is also needed to guide efforts to identify knowledge gaps and address individual, organizational, and sociocultural influences on gender-specific mental and physical health relevant to warfighter readiness. A comprehensive theoretical anchor acknowledging all influences on health and readiness is needed to effectively facilitate these recommendations, such as a modified version of the Social Ecological Model for Military Women’s Health.43 Additionally, a group composed of research, policy, and clinical subject matter experts from the Army, Navy, Air Force, VHA, and Defense Health Agency would provide a centralized resource for stakeholders, mentoring scholars, and help guide future endeavors. Subsequent scoping or systematic review and meta-analysis would help to regularly update the research agenda. These actions would guide leaders and policymakers in crafting informed, relevant legislation, facilitate translational research, and develop evidence-based, standardized training programs for health care professionals in support of gender-affirming appropriate care. Recommendations are modeled after the successful TSNRP–sponsored Military Women’s Health Research Interest Group (MWHRIG). Since 2007, the MWHRIG has persistently worked to develop the scientific evidence required to improve the health and readiness of military women, resulting in changes in policy and clinical practice guidelines.44 The development of a GSD military population interest group is urgently required. Further delays will perpetuate the stigma, discriminatory policies, and health care practices degrading the health and readiness of the United States’ greatest resource delaying the realization of DoD strategic health care aims to deliver equitable and high-quality care.

SUMMARY

Healthy and prepared Armed Forces capable of responding rapidly to national security demands is critical, yet a significant number of U.S. service members continue to experience suboptimal care. Here, we present a brief overview of the history of GSD-SMs, selected health utilization rates, outcomes, and disparities, as well as perceived challenges accessing health care and insufficient knowledge critical in delivering sex- and gender-appropriate care. We provide strategies to address these issues and optimize health care delivery to improve readiness for GSD-SMs.

Pedro N Oblea, Jr., PhD, AN, USA, Leilani A Siaki, PhD, NP-BC, FAANP, AN, USA, Looking Back, a View to the Future of the Health and Readiness of Gender and Sexual Diverse U.S. Service Members, Military Medicine, 2022;, usac288, https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usac288

[geneticcatalyst]

HI YES WELCOME TO MY DOORSTEP ❤️ you are in luck I do still have all my notes on this topic (came very close to deleting them a week or so ago but ofc I didn't haha). I wound up writing a different essay about wants and pressures and agency comparing zzs, hly and jby but that's for later- let's circle back to the beginning. you've mentioned several things here that were in fact big parts of my scribbles from back then so I'm just going to dump the rest of it here for now:

Qi ye era zzs is hard to get a read on, even for the people who consider themselves close to him. He's committed to the bit so good it's become self fulfilling prophecy. The minute we meet zzs he's already hly's loyal shadow and hly has briefly forgotten he's there, which suggests they are extremely familiar and zzs has already stepped into the role he plays by that point!

Ironically I think tyk's rearview mirror is the best way to see the truth of qi ye era and try to figure out what's an act and what's real about this perfectly molded servant of the empire.

I think in part zzs is naturally suited for what he's doing. Someone who didn't already have good control of his emotions or was more interested in personal gain or building their own life wouldn't have been able to do what he did. My take is that he had less to repress than the average person to start with. Some of it is that he's spent so long ignoring his actual desires and personality that he doesn't remember what they are anymore and is just fully out of touch with who he is when he's not being tianchuang head. But after that long it's hard to tell- what's the difference between stuff you aren't interested in and stuff you don't waste time on because it's not important and stuff you can't let yourself be interested in?

So in regards to sex and relationships, these things are just wholly extraneous to the person he's committed to being. He is absolutely justifying it as those things don't serve the cause and are for people who don't have better things to do. And sure, that's valid! But. I think in tyk it mentions zzs having (during qi ye era) considered men as a silly thing that some rich guys do when they're bored even of women. Not an outright perversion, maybe, but kind of an out there pastime for like. Thrill seeking or something. He doesn't seem to have been interested in it and seems mildly surprised to be attracted to a man. Given that he talks about attraction to women, it's common to read him as a bi victim of comp het. As a bi victim of comp het myself, I get it. It's also a really common bl trope (realizing attraction to a new gender). So I was stunned when I finally came across the suggestion that he's demi. I don't know why that didn't occur to me (all the previously stated reasons, duh). But it's like. Wildly obvious in retrospect. It's not just that he's never been attracted to a man like that, he's never been attracted to anyone like that.

If you look at what he's doing in qi ye, it seems like he's going the same places as the rest of the crew, spending time with female entertainers, talking about which girls are the most attractive, etc. (he's not so scandalous about it as jby is, but that's deliberate on jby's part too.) He's one of the guys. Doing bro things. Meeting a social expectation. He's not involved with any women specifically, but i don't think it's out of the question that he's paid for services a few times. There's an argument to be made that it's useful for him to socialize/get information via places like this and I'm sure it really is, but it simultaneously cements his place in his own social circle and is just the typical thing his peers do for fun on the weekends. I think much like jby he uses this 'entertainment' as a distraction, but it's said later that zzs only has one vice and that's alcohol, so clearly any girls are just occasional release and not something he's particularly invested in. So in my opinion he knows what sex (with women) is like and thinks it's not bad but not worth getting too into, the way a lot of people in the capitol seem to!

Now, there's actually no way he hasn't wondered what it's like with men. One of his main character traits is just pure curiosity. He's nosy, he wants to know. And he personally knows at least a few men who are into that so it's not like it's not on his radar. I think he's thought about it and just put it aside as something that's for other people. I think a combination of pride and comp het prevents him from actually experimenting with men at all, he just decides that women are fine and someday he'll have to find one he can work with. Even that- the future- is somewhere between really far away and non-existent for, well, at least a few people in the main cast. So settling down or long term relationships are fine to discuss but really not on the table, which is a great excuse for not thinking about them.

I think there's just not really been all that much lost there in terms of sex/desire earlier in zzs' life compared to someone like hly who I think wants those things more and is actively running up against all the obstacles regarding his station and expectations on him. It'd be interesting to see if you somehow un-responsibilitied zzs enough during qi ye what he'd do- maybe have other close friends, maybe have casual love interests- but I'm not sure. I think he genuinely cares more about his goals at that point in his life.

But he's kind of put all his human connection in two baskets, I think, and having lost both of them post qi ye, I think he lost touch with those parts of himself too, only to have them resurface in tyk with zcl, wkx, and gx (ok cwn can come too everyone get in the found family). I think at that point the distractions finally become the goals and can be allowed to take over without the pressures of the capitol and the person he was so committed to being.

[So what do I assume a post capitol zzs with the goal of figuring out how to enjoy life is doing with regard to sex? Everything. Honestly I don't think there's much that's too out there for wenzhou, I think they are like kids in a candy store. Sure they're gonna try some things they end up not liking, but it's not going to stop them. I imagine they're very adventurous. However, I think they and zzs especially is still in the habit or still needs a layer or two of shielding from directly asking for things and negotiations are needlessly complex and bizarrely convoluted but that's just how they have fun. Also given the characterization we have I think that zzs:

-Does often prefer to bottom once he figures out how to retain control over the situation (and then later no longer needs to)

-Enjoys sensation broadly+doesn't have any fear of pain=is a bit of a masochist

-Enjoys proving himself = see above with the additional note: size queen]

i know thats outside of your usual focus but do you have any thoughts on zzs in qiye regarding this? i find his relationship with it in tyk very interesting and ive always wondered what it might look like for qiye. its super difficult to discern because as weve already discussed zzs is narratively treated a lot like a ghost, everything personal from him is either limited to his interaction with ljx or jing qi, and the latter has a huge first life bias

bestie ive been writing myself in circles about this one you're right it's not easy and the lack of being able to see directly means there's a lot of room for personal interpretation and i keep tripping over how my own orientation and experience colors my interpretation. i keep trying to get my business out of there and just talk about what's on the page but there's so little to go on its getting in there anyway which is not what i wanted! are we specifically thinking of pressure and expectations on sex/romance or other things like personality self expression and future plans? im not actually sure i can separate those either this is a mess (points at zzs)

[audreydoeskaren]

do you know Chinese symbolism for homosexuality?

tw homophobia, pedophilia

Hi again, for gay men there are a couple really well known ones but I’m not sure if they were real or fabricated, because all the articles describing them always cite the same couple sources from Antiquity... I tried to verify them but the only articles that didn’t copy and paste from the same source came across as extremely homophobic, so I decided to give up. The most common and reliable one is probably 断袖 or “cut sleeve”, which I mentioned in a previous ask. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some tangential but more important topics regarding homosexuality in China though.

As a followup to my previous ask where I said I'd look through some Ming and Qing novels to see how homosexuality was perceived at the time, the conclusion I (unfortunately) came to was that homophobia was very much alive and well in Chinese literature and society. A lot of people like to argue that gay people fared pretty well in China historically by either pointing to emperors who were or were rumored to be gay or time periods where gay sex was prevalent as a form of consumption. This is extremely shallow and also kind of Orientalist in my opinion, these arguments always go for the emperors and do not take nuance into consideration or dive into wider societal discourses on homosexuality in imperial China. If you research homosexuality in Europe by only looking at royalty, you’ll find plenty of homosexual behavior too, does that mean gay people had it very easy in Europe historically?? Not to mention that they usually don’t differentiate between dynasties, let alone centuries or decades, even though public opinion on homosexuality in China (or anywhere in the world tbh) could change very quickly. This is also sort of Orientalist, assuming “imperial China” to be a never changing entity with a never changing stance on homosexuality. Since I know nothing prior to the Ming Dynasty I’ll share some of my random findings on homosexuality and homophobia in the Ming, Qing and 20th century.

Gayness as disease

Nowadays the symbol of the cut sleeve is just a benign historical allusion but historically it seems that it was used in a negative and condemning sense, implying that people thought of homosexuality as a disease or deviation from the norm. The common phrase used for the cut sleeve is "断袖之癖", usually translated as "the passion of the cut sleeve" nowadays, but the meaning of the word 癖 here leans more toward "fetish", "obsession" or "hobby" with pathological connotations. I thought maybe this word had a different, nuanced meaning historically but it seems that it was used to describe what it means :(( The only silver lining is probably that with the progression of language it isn’t offensive anymore.

In a lot of popular novels from the Ming and Qing, homosexuality was depicted as a "perversion" and a decadent lifestyle that plagues morality, and gay characters were often either killed or straightened out by the end of the story. An example of this is the story 黄九郎 Huang Jiulang from the series 聊斋志异 Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by 蒲松龄 Pu Songling written in the 17th century. In this story, one of the protagonists was gay; he died after confessing his love to the other guy in a very fast paced bury your gays arc which somehow reminded me of the Supernatural finale, and reincarnated as a straight man because of his piety. Thanks I hate it. Pu uses the symbol of the cut sleeve to refer to the protagonist, presumably in a negative manner.

Gayness as power/status symbol

Another thing was that historically in China a lot of people confused homosexuality with pedophilia. This is a global thing, but its presence in China is often overlooked. This could be seen in the popularity of another term for homosexuality, "娈童", meaning something similar to "pederasty". I read somewhere that since the late Ming, pederasty was considered a type of tasteful consumption for high society, along with things like fashion, food, music and art. This was not equivalent to the "cut sleeve" or homosexuality as we know it nowadays, which refers to a personal sexual orientation, pederasty historically often refers to an imbalanced power dynamic where a wealthy, privileged man takes advantage of a young boy as a leisurely activity. It’s more to show off that someone in a position of privilege and wealth has the power to procure sexual objects, gender and age don’t matter much in this regard. I cannot help but cringe violently whenever someone brings up pederasty as proof of China’s historical “openness” toward gay people. Talk to me again when in this time and place you could marry someone of your sex (not a minor) and be considered a respectable couple instead of two jerks with a degenerate fetish (not saying that gay people have to marry, it’s just that the ability to do so is an important indicator of equality imo). Pedophilia and homosexuality are not one and the same good heavens.

I hypothesize that the reason why Chinese society was historically homophobic despite having no religious condemnation of homosexual individuals was the idea that having many concubines and male children was a status symbol for men. Women of marriageable age were seen more or less as commodities and male children could supposedly "continue the bloodline" 传香火 and were vessels for passing down prestige, so having them were of utmost importance to a privileged man. Being just gay or lesbian, however, meant that you didn't perform the "man strong working woman weak making babies" heteronormative family prototype, and was thus prone to criticism. When gay men didn’t have children they “couldn’t continue their bloodline” and were emasculated, when gay women didn’t have children they failed to “fulfill their duties as a woman” and were shamed.

It kind of makes sense considering how being bisexual was never a problem in comparison, especially for men. If you were a rich guy who had both male and female partners, you would still have children and concubines both male and female so nobody gives a shit. Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (reign 1505-21) was presumably bisexual and had both male and female lovers, nobody had a bone to pick with that; he famously liked to fuck around but those who criticized him did so for his debauchery instead of focusing on the gender of his partners.  This is different to homophobia in Europe where same sex attraction was considered evil and immoral in and of itself because of religious reasons, in China it was rather the other practical implications of homosexuality (not having children or a family) that attracted hate.

By the way can we just take a moment to talk about bi erasure in Chinese history. From all accounts of Emperor Zhengde I’ve read he comes across as extremely bisexual, but a lot of people try to make him a gay icon? I mean, he liked women too.

One interesting homophobic angle in ye olde China which I find kind of funny was straight women who wanted to climb the social ladder by marrying rich men talking shit about them after figuring out they were gay lmao. Historically, there were not so many work opportunities for women, so the easiest way to improve social standing was to marry a rich and powerful guy. Not saying that women didn't work, they did but their upward social mobility was restricted because they couldn't enter the imperial examination system which was how men became rich and powerful. This angle is relatively benign and kind of helps illustrate that historical Chinese homophobia was indeed fueled by classism and patriarchy.

Gayness as crime

I used to think that there were no anti-sodomy statutes in China (laws prohibiting sex between gay men), but it turns out that there was one decree in the Jiajing era (1521-67) and one in 1740, and private gay sex was not actually decriminalized until 1957. Same sex marriage is still not legal in China at time of writing. I couldn’t find detailed information on what these laws entailed or how they were enforced, but they’re enough to prove that homosexuality in China was legally punishable from the 16th century onward. On top of that, even when there was no law prohibiting private sex acts between people of the same sex, displays of gay affection such as kissing or holding hands could still be legally punished under “public indecency” or “hooliganism”, which was frequently what happened in the 20th century. 

[coochiequeens]

Jane Kaufman was making minimalist paintings in the early 1970s, spraying automobile paint on huge canvases. To be sure, the paint was sparkly, so the canvases shimmered — “lyrical abstraction” was how one reviewer described her art and that of others doing similar work — but they were firmly of their reductive minimalist moment. Hilton Kramer of The New York Times approved, giving Ms. Kaufman a nod as a “new abstractionist” in his mostly dismissive review of the Whitney Biennial in 1973.

Then Ms. Kaufman made a sharp turn.

She began stitching and gluing her work, using decorative materials like bugle beads, metallic thread and feathers, and employing the embroidery and sewing skills she had been taught by her Russian grandmother. By the end of the decade, she was making first luminescent screens and wall hangings, then intricate quilts based on traditional American patterns.

In celebrating the so-called women’s work of sewing and crafting, she was performing a radical act, thumbing her nose at the dominant art movement of the era.

Ms. Kaufman died on June 2 at her home in Andes, N.Y. She was 83. Her death was confirmed by Abby Robinson, a friend.

Ms. Kaufman was not alone in her focus on the decorative. Artists like Joyce Kozloff and Miriam Schapiro were inspired, as she was, by patterns and motifs found in North African mosaics, Persian textiles and Japanese kimonos, as well as by homegrown domestic crafts like quilting and embroidery. It was feminist art, though not all its practitioners were women. (One of the more prominent ones, Tony Robbin, is a man.)

The movement came to be known as Pattern and Decoration. Ms. Kaufman curated its first group show in 1976, at the Alessandra Gallery on Broome Street in Lower Manhattan, and called it “Ten Approaches to the Decorative” (there were 10 artists). For the exhibition, she contributed small paintings she hung in pairs, densely striped with sparkly bugle beads.

“The paintings are small because they are not walls, they are for walls,” Ms. Kaufman wrote in her artist’s statement.

Other galleries, like Holly Solomon in New York, began showing the Pattern and Decoration artists’ work, and it also took off in Europe before falling out of favor in the mid-1980s. Decades later, curators would scoop up artists like Ms. Kaufman in a series of retrospectives, starting in 2008 at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y.

“It’s funky, funny, fussy, perverse, obsessive, riotous, accumulative, awkward, hypnotic,” Holland Cotter wrote in his review of that show in The Times. The Pattern and Decoration movement, he wrote, was the last genuine art movement of the 20th century, with “weight enough to bring down the great Western Minimalist wall for a while and bring the rest of the world in.”

Ms. Kaufman was born on May 26, 1938, in New York City. Her father, Herbert Kaufman, was an advertising executive with his own firm; her mother, Roslyn, was a homemaker. She earned a B.S. in art education from New York University in 1960 and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. She taught at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., in 1972, one its first female professors. “She was famous for telling her female students, ‘You are all brilliant and you are all going to end up at the Met,’” said the arts writer Elizabeth Hess, a Bard graduate.

From 1983 to 1991, Ms. Kaufman was an adjunct instructor at the Cooper Union in New York. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institution. She was a Guggenheim fellow in 1974 and in 1989 received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her “Crystal Hanging,” a glittering sculpture that looks like a meteor shower, is in the Thomas P. O’Neill Federal Building in Boston.

In 1966 she married Doug Ohlson, an abstract painter. The marriage ended in divorce in the early 1970s.

No immediate family members survive.

While Ms. Kaufman was extremely serious about her work, she was also a prankster dedicated to political activism; for decades, a pink penis poster she created was featured at marches for abortion rights and other women’s issues. Its last outing was at the Women’s March in New York City in January 2017.

She was a member of the Guerrilla Girls, the art-world agitators, all women, who protested the dearth of female and minority artists in galleries and museums by papering Manhattan buildings in the dead of night with impish posters like “The Guerrilla Girls’ Code of Ethics for Art Museums,” which proclaimed, “Thou shalt provide lavish funerals for Women and Artists of Color who thou planeth to exhibit only after their Death” and “Thou shalt keep Curatorial Salaries so low that Curators must be Independently Wealthy, or willing to engage in Insider Trading.”

Membership was by invitation only, and most members’ names were a secret (they wore gorilla masks in public). Many Guerrilla Girls used the names of dead female artists, like Käthe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo. But Ms. Kaufman did not.

“Jane had a wicked sense of humor, the ability to get right to the center of an issue and the courage and principles to confront the powers that be,” the Guerrilla Girl who calls herself Frida Kahlo said in a statement. “We will never forget her. We hope that Jane is also remembered as a wonderful artist who tirelessly worked to break down the conventions of ‘craft vs fine art’ and later combined her meticulous handwork with biting political content.”

Ms. Kaufman’s later work, Ms. Hess said, was as political as her decorative work had been, and dealt with religious and social divisions. But she was unable to find a gallery that would show it. An embroidered piece from 2010 announced, in metallic thread on cutwork velvet, “Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers.”

“She was an artist who floated under the radar,” Ms. Hess said. “She was underacknowledged, though she had curated the first Pattern and Decoration show. Her work came out of her interest in women’s labor, but I think the real revelation to me about Jane’s work was its sumptuousness and beauty.”

In late 2019, a retrospective called “With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972 to 1985” opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (it is now at Bard through Nov. 28). Anna Katz, the show’s curator, chose a multicolored velvet quilt by Ms. Kaufman for the exhibition. Inspired by traditional crazy-quilt patterns, Ms. Kaufman had used over 100 traditional stitches, some dating back to the 16th century, in the piece, which she finished in 1985.

[thevampireofbrighton]

"The Vampiric Woman and Her Lady," First Chapter

Greetings,

In the coming year, I will set upon writing a thesis on female representation in vampire literature. I have already completed a first draft of the chapter in which I discuss J.S. LeFanu's "Carmilla" and thought I should share it here. Apologies for any formatting errors, I am slowly relearning how to use Tumblr.

The Vampiric Woman and Her Lady

Carmilla and Laura in LeFanu’s “Carmilla”

Carmilla and Laura each represent opposing paradigms of femininity with Carmilla’s brand being active while Laura’s is passive; however, rather than punishing Carmilla for her transgressions against Victorian ideals of femininity and rewarding Laura for upholding them, the story punishes both women simply for existing as females. Carmilla’s agency poses as much of a threat to Victorian society as Laura’s innocence and passivity. 

Carmilla

J.S. LeFanu’s Carmilla uses the titular character Carmilla to express concerns regarding women and their position in society. Carmilla’s perversion of motherhood, her status as non-English, and the ways she wields her femininity and sexuality are a product of her agency. Her agency threatens Victorian society because it contradicts the societal ideal of passive femininity devoid of desire; however, despite her villainy, Carmilla’s agency makes her a compelling figure for modern female readers because of the control she has over her body and her life. 

The way Carmilla undermines motherhood plays on Victorian fears of bad mothers abusing their power while exploring a sexual relationship in which a woman holds the power to dominate her partner. When Laura first encounters Carmilla, Carmilla appears as a maternal figure shortly after the death of Laura’s real mother. LeFanu writes, “She caressed me with her hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again” (LeFanu, 277). Carmilla’s position as a pseudo-mother to young Laura means that she possesses power over Laura. When Carmilla bites Laura’s “breast” in order to feed on her, she takes advantage of the power given to her and uses it selfishly (LeFanu, 277). This act of selfish abuse of power stokes Victorian fears of women taking the power given to them and using it for themselves as opposed to their families. Additionally, because Carmilla feeds from Laura’s breast, she reverses the image of the mother breastfeeding the child thereby turning a wholesome image into one that is perversely sexual. Motherhood is a place of ultimate power over another individual, and so sexualizing that power exemplifies the fear of female sexual power and authority. 

 In addition to bad motherhood, the initial scene between Laura and Carmilla explores themes of female sexual awakening which bolsters the Victorian sentiment that female sexuality is inherently perverted. When Laura—now nineteen—and Carmilla meet formally for the first time and discuss the “dream” they shared, Carmilla says, “I was aroused by a scream; you were sitting up screaming” (LeFanu, 288). Laura’s screams roused Carmilla from her slumber, but, as William Veeder points out in his article Carmilla: The Arts of Repression,  “the surface meaning of being awakened by Laura's cry carries also the suggestion that suffering, particularly female suffering, arouses Carmilla sexually” (201). For a woman to say “I am into Y sexually” is still fairly taboo, but it was all the more so in the Victorian era. 

Carmilla wields her feminine appearance with intent and takes advantage of the virtues others project onto her because of her appearance. Her awareness of how to use her femininity to advance her goals is hugely threatening to Victorian society which relies on women remaining powerless. At the beginning of the story, Laura is expecting a visit from General Spielsdorf and his daughter, Bertha; however, Laura’s father informs her that he’s received a letter from the General detailing Bertha’s death. We later learn that Carmilla was responsible and that the General knew this when he wrote the letter. He writes of Carmilla, “I thought I was receiving into my house innocence, gaiety, a charming companion for my lost Bertha” (LeFanu, 280).  The General cannot fathom a woman as anything deeper than her appearance, and Carmilla uses that to gain access to Bertha. Her ability to squeeze power, however malicious, from her feminine appearance was radically terrifying considering Victorian women were meant to be “pure” and ignorant of their own beauty. 

However, Carmilla’s ability to deceive others lies not only in her appearance but also in her performance of femininity. The General regales of meeting Carmilla and her mother at a masquerade ball. As if it were not enough that Carmilla is deceitful, she also makes her victims like her thus preying further on others’ treatment of women. The General goes on to say, “Millarca became very intimate with us… I liked her nature more and more every minute” (LeFanu, 325). Not only does Carmilla use the General’s conception of femininity against him, but she charms him into actually liking her. Her manipulation of the General demonstrates the invisible threat women pose. In a society that views women as fragile and incapable of evil, any woman can subvert that view and use it to her advantage. 

Carmilla’s unmarked appearance subverts the notion that evil can be plainly observed and thus avoided, which plays into the not-uniquely-Victorian fear of being endangered without knowing it. She is repeatedly described as various degrees of “beautiful” by Laura which subverts the fairy-tale notion of evil being present in the form of some physical mark or ugliness (LeFanu, 290). This suggests a failure of not only conventional knowledge but also of superstition to warn Carmilla’s victims of her true nature before it is too late. Even the General says Carmilla is “very pretty,” but in his next sentence refers to her as a “fiend” implying that her exterior beauty disguises her nature (LeFanu, 280). The form she takes while feeding on her victims is that of  “a sooty black animal that resemble[s] a monstrous cat” (LeFanu, 304). When he meets Carmilla at a masquerade ball, he says “She wore no mask” perhaps because the body she inhabits—that of a beautiful young woman—is itself a mask (LeFanu, 319). On the surface, the is nothing suspicious about Carmilla which is why she is such a threat: her femininity disguises her monstrosity.

Carmilla also weaponizes traditional aspects of Victorian femininity to disguise her physical strength, which emphasizes the threat of unknown evils. The feminine disguise Carmilla dons extends to the way she carries herself, which Laura describes as “languid” (LeFanu, 290). She plays up her adherence to Victorian feminine ideals that women should be “tubercular” and waifish. She disguises her strength by appearing to be exhausted by even the simplest of actions, which makes her vampiric strength all the more threatening—because it is thoroughly unexpected. Later, when the General attempts to apprehend Carmilla, she grabs ahold of his wrist. He does not expect Carmilla to be capable of physically besting him and when “The slender hand of [Carmilla] closed like a vice of steel on the General’s wrist…”, he is shocked (LeFanu, 339). The paradox that her hand is both “slender” and “like a vice of steel” exemplifies how much more threatening the unexpected and unknown are. It is one thing to know one should be afraid, but it is infinitely more dangerous to be in the presence of a monster and not even know it. Carmilla wields her sexuality with similar self-awareness. 

The autonomy with which Carmilla wields her sexuality threatens the heteronormative status-quo in which women are forbidden to be sexual and, because much of her power is derived from her sexuality, she exemplifies how much damage a sexually empowered woman can do to her society. Carmilla’s sexual power terrifies Victorian sensibilities which reject all notions of female sexuality. In his article Carmilla: The Arts of Repression, William Veeder writes, “Social theorists as well as novelists realized that orthodox attitudes toward sexual purity had caused a dangerous split between conscious and unconscious” (198). The Victorian model of sexuality taught women to consciously deny their sexual desires, but failed to eliminate them on the unconscious level thus creating the “dangerous split” Veeder refers to between the conscious and the unconscious. Because Carmilla is aware of her sexuality and pursues her desires actively, she resolves this tension created by the Victorians. Carmilla herself says “... love is always selfish; the more ardent, the more selfish” (LeFanu, 302). Carmilla is not ashamed of her “selfish” pleasure-seeking and, in fact, she asserts that love has always been in some ways a “selfish” act; the more pleasurable and passionate, the more selfish it is. The idea that a woman can be selfish in love and sex is taboo even today, but Carmilla has exemplified it since the Victorian era. One cannot be a selfish lover without first being sexually empowered and, despite her villainy, Carmilla’s selfishness is somewhat feminist. 

Perhaps the most plainly transgressive characteristic of Carmilla is her explicit and undeniable lesbianism, which she uses to ensnare her victims; however, the fact that Carmilla is so reliably able to capture the attention and affections of young girls indicates a cultural paranoia that within all women, a dormant lesbian lies in wait. Laura describes her first romantic encounter with Carmilla saying, “It was like the ardour of a lover… and with gloating eyes she drew me near to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses…” (LeFanu, 292). The words Laura uses to set the scene are erotic and reflect the confident intention behind Carmilla’s actions. Carmilla’s eyes do not just gaze passively, they “gloat” at the accomplishment of her goal. Likewise, Carmilla is the one doing drawing Laura in and kissing her. Additionally, Laura does not shy away from feminizing Carmilla during their sexual encounter as Laura repeats the words “she” and “her” thus admitting to committing an act of queerness. However, after her encounter with Carmilla, Laura remarks, “What if a boyish lover had found his way into the house, and sought to prosecute his suit in masquerade…” (293). Laura attempts to deny that she participated in a sexual encounter without a man’s involvement and that she enjoyed such an act. Laura, as a good English girl, cannot possibly be queer, because to be queer means that she cannot also be good. Herein lies the panic Carmilla’s lesbianism awakens. She draws queerness out of her victims. Just as Carmilla entraps her victims by making them aware of their queerness, the queer female reader is entrapped by her sexual enjoyment of the story.

The fact that a self-assured, sexually empowered woman who derived her identity from a source outside of motherhood was so terrifying that it warranted a monster to embody those fears lead to the creation of a character who would go on to define an entire genre of lesbian media is satisfyingly ironic. Carmilla embodies Victorian fears about what women are capable of when given agency of their reproduction, sexuality, and performance of their femininity. The things she does are monstrous because she is a woman doing them and not because she is a vampire. LeFanu uses Carmilla’s vampirism as a symbol of deviant femininity. 

Laura

Although the narrative depicts Carmilla’s agency as monstrous, it is not much kinder to Laura’s stagnance. Laura, as the point of view character, lacks knowledge of herself which Carmilla takes advantage of. Before Carmilla’s arrival, she is said to be bored and lonely. Throughout the story, her father and the General consistently fail to protect her and, being a woman, Laura is incapable of protecting herself. Where Carmilla represents the threats of active femininity, Laura represents the dangers inherent to passive femininity. 

Laura’s loneliness allows Carmilla to corrupt her, thus the narrative warns of the dangers inherent to feminine idleness. LeFanu introduces the reader to Laura by emphasizing how lonely she is by having her say, “I have said that this is a very lonely place… The nearest inhabited village is about seven of your English miles to the left” (LeFanu, 275). The emphasis placed on her physical isolation sets up a relationship between her loneliness and the events of the story. Upon learning of the delay facing the General and Bertha, Laura says, “I was more disappointed than a young lady living in a town, or a bustling neighbourhood can possibly imagine” (LeFanu, 279). Laura places herself in contrast with those who live around others which emphasizes how special an occasion receiving company is for her. Her physical isolation produces social isolation which makes Bertha’s delay, and eventual death, all the more dispiriting for Laura. So, when Laura sees Carmilla at the scene of the carriage crash, she immediately asks her father to invite Carmilla to stay with them saying, “Oh! Papa pray ask her to stay with us – it would be so delightful” (LeFanu, 283). Laura sees a friend in Carmilla, something which she so desperately wants. Laura’s loneliness grants Carmilla access to another victim. 

In addition to her loneliness, Laura lacks knowledge of herself,  creating a void for Carmilla to fill, thus her docile brand of Victorian femininity is what allows the monster in. Laura does not get a name until page 312 which creates a vacuum where Laura’s self-identity should be (Veeder, 199). Laura is empty, so when she encounters a being like Carmilla who wishes to fill Laura’s emptiness with herself, Laura stands no chance against Carmilla. Carmilla tells her, “You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one forever” and Laura is left “trembling” (LeFanu, 192). She replies, “I do not know myself when you look so and talk so” (LeFanu, 192). Laura has no means by which to resist Carmilla’s invasion because she does not have a sense of self to brace against Carmilla. After Laura is bitten and becomes ill she says, “Dim thoughts of death began to open, and an idea that I was slowly sinking took gentle, and, somehow, not unwelcome possession of me” (LeFanu, 307). At this point, Carmilla’s vampirism has quite literally infected Laura and slowly consumes her. Laura’s admission that her sinking is “not unwelcome” indicates that she has surrendered herself to Carmilla. Additionally, her ideas take “possession” over her which echos her lack of agency as she does not even control her own thoughts, rather, they control her. Despite her performance of the compliant brand of Victorian femininity, which contrasts sharply with Carmilla, Laura still receives blame for the events of the narrative. 

Laura’s father constantly fails to inform her of her dangerous situation which emphasizes women’s infant-like dependency on men to protect them. Laura’s father keeps news of Bertha’s death from her saying, “I quite forgotten I had not told you,” which indicates that his failure to communicate arose from his sheer incompetence (LeFanu, 279). However, when Laura is sick and dying of a vampire bite, he outright refuses to answer her questions regarding her own diagnosis saying, “[there is] Nothing [wrong]; you must not plague me with questions… you are not to trouble your head about it” (LeFanu, 315). In this instance, his failure to communicate is rooted in his desire to keep Laura in a state of blissful ignorance. He does this knowing that when the General did the very same to Bertha, she died (LeFanu, 280). Additionally, his characterization of Laura’s questions as “plague[ing]” him is a condemnation of Laura’s attempt to understand her own body (LeFanu, 315). If her father had told her that the doctor believed Laura had been bitten by a vampire, he could have provided her with the information she needed to catch Carmilla out and put a stop to her schemes earlier. But, because of his gross incompetence, he fails to do so. His failure embodies the fear that without competent men around them at all times, women will be helpless against any and all threats because they are naturally incapable of fending for themselves.

Both Laura’s father and the General are emasculated by their failure to protect Laura which genders their incompetence as feminine and forces Laura to assume the role of protector. Laura describes her father as an “invalid” and explains that she does not want to tell him about her encounter with Carmilla because she “was afraid of alarming him,” which links his physical state to his incompetence in protecting his daughter (LeFanu, 305). Additionally, in having to take her father’s invalidism into account, Laura is put in the position of protector which reverses the Victorian standard of women as fragile and men having to accommodate them. The consequences of her failure as a protector emphasize her natural unsuitedness to the role because of her gender. The General also fails twice to protect his charge and slay Carmilla: once as she preys on Bertha and once as she preys on Laura (LeFanu, 332). Veeder writes of this failure, “The male agent is only an onlooker, cut off from his manly sword, circumscribed by the vaginal crevice, impotent before the phallically swelling vampire” (205). The General’s failure to perform his protective duties not only emasculates him but also emphasizes Carmilla’s ability to take on a masculine role despite being a woman. In this schema, the General, like Laura’s father, becomes an invalid and his incompetence is feminized. 

Despite performing her femininity to a Victorian standard, Laura receives blame for her circumstances. This highlights that, as fearful as Victorians were of female agency, they were just as afraid of female passivity. Laura’s femininity is dangerous because it makes her the weakest link in her social chain and forces others to bear the responsibility for her safety. 

Conclusion

While Carmilla and Laura have diametrically opposing versions of femininity, the narrative punishes both of them simultaneously for existing as women. Carmilla’s deviancy matters less than her female status and Laura’s innocence matters less than hers. Carmilla is a story about the threats womanhood poses to the woman herself and those around her. 

Works Cited

LeFanu, Joseph S. “Carmilla.” Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu, edited by E F Bleiler, Dover, New York, NY, 1964, pp. 274–339. 

Veeder, William. “Carmilla: The Arts of Repression.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language , vol. 22, no. 2, 1980, pp. 197–223. JSTOR, https://doi.org/0040-4691/80/020197-27$02.15. Accessed 28 Mar. 2022.