#her entire homoerotic Thing with eliza

[arundolyn]

unspeakable rizz (dahlia telling someone to scream more) vs sexual harassment (terumi telling someone to scream more)

[smugraccoon137]

Supergirl Season 2 episode 8 Medusa review part 2

If your curious part 1 was just my breakdown of Kara and Mon-els relationship that got way too long. But as always SPOILERS AND GAY THOUGHTS AHEAD

Me and kel get so excited when Lenas in an episode. Like practically giddy. I can’t help smiling when shes on screen honestly. And yes Katie McGrath is beautiful, but beyond that such a pretty smile and lovely voice. I’m sure ratings started to spike when she joined the cast. Okay enough about pretty girls on to the review 

Tipsy fucking Alex though guys I can’t get over this mess of a person. 

Alex: if I have to come out to my mom then I choose to do it drunk

Kara: no your not *yoinks beer*

Alex: wait no my coming out juice

Kara Danvers sneaky sneaker extraordinaire can totally interview Lena and find out Cadmus things without anyone knowing. The confidence this goofball has is top tier

Underrated relationship: Alex and Winn though. I really really love Winn and honestly Alex is such big sister energy to both him and Kara. 

wow Lenas pretty in the interview scene. A touch of auburn hair from the sunlight really makes this shot and we never get to see her with her hair down. Fan service honestly, or maybe she heard a certain beef cake reporter was gonna come by and wanted to dazzel her.

Lena: hair up is for business. Hair down is for flirting friendship time with Kara

Poor baby thinks she falls short nooooo. Your doing your best godamn your only like 25 jesus. Kara give her a hug she needs love and affection

Kara thinks shes being so sneaky in this interview. Such a golden retriever, bad at sneakin. As soon as she toes the line Lena catches on and kicks her out. Really good acting in the scene, the subtle change in expression to show Lenas guard raising. Good job Katie.

Real quick Lena why is your office so ugly? How do you keep it clean? You spend 99% of your days in this place and its whiter than a hospital room. I hate it. Why is your desk an oval? and why does it have a hole in it? Kara cant eat you out in secret anymore damn. 

OOHHHhhhh noooo the fucking gas bomb in the bar what the fuck. EVERYBODIES DEAD JESUS WHAT WAS THAT

Poor Mon-el. What happened at the bar was fucked up, and he feels like its fault when its obviously not.

Love that he and Kara are having bro time playing some Monopoly. Oh no not Kara asking if he likes her. Honestly thought these two had good chemistry in this scene. Im a sucker for dumbass not understanding certain words and phrases. So Kara having to reiterate her questions and finally being like “You don’t want to mate with me do you?” was super fun. Omegaverse vibes mfs. Although I am confused by mon-els reaction “I mean have you seen the kind of women I’ve been attracting?” I honestly don’t know what this means.

Kara internal reaction though: Oh thank god

Wow Kara really just has no regard for her own life, huh? she just opens the door and possibly contaminates herself. It’s good to want to help people, but love you gotta care about yourself too

Good reveal with the fortress of solitude. Oof Kara gonna feel like its her fault all those aliens died and mon-els sick. They do a really good job of showing Karas relationship with her parents through their holograms. She wants so badly to see them again, to talk to them. And she can, but not really. They just aren’t real.

Lena cattily to her mother: im used to celebrating holiday weekends alone at my desk

me to Kara: please invite her to thanksgiving

Okay so Lena being adopted is another interesting parallel to Kara. Also the fact that both Kara and Lena fall into there families shadows, and are left behhind or forgotten. Really interesting how Lena and Karas relationship is so similar to Clark and Lex’s for obvious purposes. Though the CW queer coding the fuck out of their relationship in Smallville really only adds to Supercorp fever. Its always been Homoerotic subtext Harold!

Me watching Lena and Lillian trade verbal blows: Wow ya’lls relationship is fucked up. Lex and Lionelle would spar and fence but you two are on another level jesus

oooooof that last line. 

Lena: I know your lying

Lillian: and how could you possibly know that?

Lena: because you told me you loved me. And we both know thats not true

Who wrote this jesus fuck my heart. The PAIN.

Bonus thought Lena thinks Karas smart. Goofball beefcake sneaky sneakster who doesnt know the difference between flirting and friendship is smart she thinks. I love these idiots

Wow Kara just doesn’t wait huh? Oh cadmus is going to be at LCorp? Not on my watch. Lena’s there. I know this because I tune into her heart beat just to check on her cus she likes to work late. Don’t worry Alex it’s for friendship reasons.

That LCorp security guard got princess carried for .2 seconds. Best moment of his life.

God its like dark out. Lenas working on a holiday weekend into the night. I hate this, give her friends.

Lena looks so scared when Kara gets thrown into the giant LCorp sign

And then hurt Kara looking up at her with dread.

Kara internal: fuck don’t come out now. I came here to save you

God I love the protectiveness. Its *chefs kiss*. Hank throwing the beam at Lena and Kara even in her hurt state throwing herself in front of it. Sometimes self sacrifice is gay. But how Lena looks at her after wards like “I can’t believe I’m alive. I can’t believe she chose to save me”. Met with a gruff “Get out of here!”. mm yes this is my kind of content. Fight for me.

I was robbed an aftercare scene but I doubt it will be the last time. (*COUGHS* the “im leaving” phone call *COUGHS*)

Talking about the virus Eliza: what about Lena Luthor?

Kara: What about her?! (super defensive is also a super power maam)

Winn: Luthors can be pretty good actors

Kara: No, I looked into LENAS EYES. She doesn’t know anything about cadmus or her mother

J’onzz: Would you stake Mon-els life on that?

well I guess that really puts Lena and Mon-el right next to each other in priorities huh? Which one is more important? 

Wow Lena totally has a crush on Supergirl after that. Flustered dork. 

Lena: *laughs nervously* you know that doors not really an entrance

Kara: *upsettit stone face pupper*

Lena: :,) 

Okay but the way Lena just says “Anything” all breathless and helpful when Kara says she needs her help. Shes crushin hard

Kara tells Lena her mother is in charge of Cadmus. 

Lena: >:(

Annnd the crush is dead. That did not last long. Really love that Lena has such a different relationship with Kara vs Supergirl though, good dynamic having her reactions so different. Which I believe actually relates as a Clark and Lois parallel? Seeing as how Lois has two separate relationships with Clark and Superman. 

OOf the way Lenas throat bobs with genuine sadness because who she thought Supergirl was is wrong. Shes just like the rest of them. Thinks Lena is just another crazy Luthor. It hurts

Kara: I know what its like to be disillusioned by our parents, but Im a pretty good judge of character, and you are not like your mother. She is cold and dangerous. And you are too good and too smart to follow in her path. Be your own Hero.

Wow just what a good line. They are capable of some things here and there arent they? Melissa's delivery on this is excellent. And the way Katie McGrath is able to show such depth of sadness and bitterness even from a shot of her BACK is really cool. Great acting in this scene in particular. And I can see why the “desperation to be good” is such a highlighted part of these two relationship. Its the one thing in common between Lena and Supergirl, the place where they can meet in the middle. And the way Lena looks after her as she leaves! AHHH thats the good shit, the pining

Okay big Mon-el scene in coming so if you dont want to hear my ranting skip over this part. 

Funny how as soon as Kara has this big impactful scene with Lena full of tension and emotion the writers were like: shit we almost forgot Mon-els dying. 

Kara: *staring sadly back into Lenas office kind of wanting to go back in*

Writers: *cough cough* KARA He’s DYINGGGG

Kara: Oh shit right. Mon-el Oh no. My *looks at poorly written handwriting on her palm* romantic interest?

Wow Mon-el looks like shit, poor guy. Someone swaddle this pillow princess and get him some soup.

Heres a question. Kara is visibly upset that Mon-el is dying. Is it because she’s sad that the guy shes likes is dying. Because her friend is dying? Because her father created the virus thats killing him (what the writers want us to think)? Or because no matter what Kara does the people she loves keep falling through the cracks and shes helpless to stop it?

Her parents. Clark. Her adoptive father. Now Lena. Now Mon-el. Why can’t she ever do anything? Why is it always her fault? This poor kid has some deep seeded abandonment issues

Mon-el: you know you look beautiful with the weight of all these worlds on your shoulders.

I do remember my reaction here, cus I thought this was a weird line. A line that was obviously meant to be romantic and complimentary, but it felt unsettled in my stomach. Coming back and watching the scene it sits even more uncomfortably there. He obviously means well, but this line is kind of just shitty. Its a very selfish and unthoughtful thing to say to someone. 

Kara’s entire fucking life has revolved around other people and making sure they are happy and taken care of. But having “failed” at such a young age to do the impossible things asked of her (carrying on Kryptons legacy, raising Clark) she overcompensates. Any normal person would just make their life revolve around their family and friends, not healthy but it works. But Kara feels responsibility over an entire world of lost people and lives. So the amount she overcompensates is ungodly. She does have the weight of worlds on her shoulders. This is not a joke or hyperbole. Its just her life. And thats so fucking shitty. And to have someone actually see that and acknowledge it. To make it a reality so to speak. Then to have them say “yeah you look good like this” while you’re a shaking Atlas being crushed. It is just a little too much isn’t it? That pain to have someone see you finally, and then completely miss the point. For them to go “oh wow your so strong. your so brave” instead of “let me help you. you shouldn’t have to do this at all, forget by yourself. But now I am here”. 

I imagine this was the scene that crowned my darling himbo boy Mon-Hell? Which is so unfortunate. I hope Im wrong, but I feel that his character might just end up a big missed opportunity

I want everyone to know that me and Kel screamed through the entire enxt few seconds of the scene. We knew the kiss was coming from how they were building it up. But god was it painful, especially for it to be delivered after a line like THAT. But yeah very loud angry screaming

Also not to be that bitch but Kara and Mon-els scene was a total of 1:53 RT, and Kara and Lenas ran at a 1:57 RT. Just sayin...

No Lena don’t be evil thats too sexy...

Okay but the way that Lena just tricks Lillian is so good. Shes so clever. And added bonus she makes her ask for her help, which is nice actually. Lillian's obvious vice is weakness and that is often shown in embarrassment. A woman like this asking for help borders that line of weakness and its nice to see on such a dislikable character. Lena didn’t just get what she wanted she got a point over her mother.

Lena looks good in the purple coat. Repeat she is pretty

Love the mental chess game between Lena and Lillian. Lena offering help right off the bat and giving her the isotope free of charge. And then Lillian making Lena launch the virus to prove herself. Good stuff.

Kara appears: don’t do it Lena!

Lena: why not? im a luthor

Okay so obviously Lena switched the Isotope and the Virus won’t work. But thats what makes this line so perfect. Throwing it back in Supergirls face. Like “Yeah, Im a luthor. And Ill show you what im capable of.” But instead of mass death and destruction Lena saves the day. She saved thousands of lives, and its because shes a Luthor that she was able to do that. Really nice way to full circle that 

Wow Lillian really just starts booking it without Lena, huh? bitch

I really love the scene of the virus falling all around National City. The choice of an orangish snow falling was a really really good one. Paired with some excellent music for the mid season finale.

Its sad but I do love Hank just being ready and at peace with death. Im sure he misses his wife and daughters. 

Okay but Lena calling the cops is tea. Send your mom to jail honey. 

So we’re really not gonna talk about how Lena saved everyones asses? Like don’t you think Supergirl would want to talk to the woman that A) kind of tricked her, and B) saved National City. Thats just what makes sense??? But no we’re going to ignore that the DEO is a kind of shit at their job sometimes. And that the woman that they were accusing of having a part to play in all the xenophobic shit is the one who did their job. BY HER SELF. 

Okay rant over. This was a long one review dear god. Really really good episode though. I enjoyed rewatching all the scenes even if it was a mixed bag of feelings. Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed all the screaming!

[nellygwyn]

do you study 18c lit as well????? any recs?

Yeah!

I mean, other than Jane Austen's novels (YES she technically wrote some of her stuff in the early 19th century but a) some of it was initially written in the 1790s, like Northanger Abbey and possibly Pride and Prejudice, and b) the early 19th century is a honorary part of the 18th century since it is still Georgian), I recommend Fanny Burney's Evelina. It is SO funny, was hugely successful and influential and Jane Austen even became subscribed to Burney's subsequent work after its publication. It certainly has shades of what Austen would later perfect.

Evelina is an epistolary novel (so, told through the form of letters), published in the late 1770s, about a young girl named Evelina Anville's first trip to London and the people (read as: men) she meets there. She is respectable, but it is believed she was born out of wedlock and her parents are presumed missing or dead so she is raised by a clergyman in Dorset, who brings her up around genteel, middle class country people from good families. When she's in London and in the middle of discovering herself, however, she discovers she does in fact have family and GASP....THEY ARE FRENCH! AND SOME OF THEM ARE IN TRADE AND SPEAK IN A COCKNEY ACCENT AND TURN UP LATE TO THE THEATRE! O, how will she ever get Lord Orville to fall in love with her now? Evelina's actually pretty relatable, she has acute anxiety around attractive men and she gets into all kinds of scrapes because of it.

Against my will, I liked Pamela by Samuel Richardson but perhaps only because it offered me an immersive foray into the attitudes of 18th century men and women when it came to gender roles. It's long, though, and not at all morally good lmao....a potential rapist is redeemed because Pamela Is So Virginal. It's interesting though.

Henry Fielding was a right knobhead irl, but The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is absolutely funny asf and super bawdy. Fielding was just like 'what if I wrote a picturesque novel about a bunch of dumb, horny bitches' and voila! Also, you should check out the BBC adaptation. It's good. In a similar vein, I have heard Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne is similar in humour and bawdiness but I have never read it entirely. I have heard good things though.

Defoe shouldn't be on here because he didn't drink Respect Women Juice BUT The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders is pretty good (so is the BBC adaptation) if you can overlook the fact that she, you know, accidentally marries her brother and has several kids with him. Interesting portrayal of female sexuality given that Defoe was like, an incel.

I recently read Fanny Hill by John Cleland in its entirety and it was very fun! Idk if I'd recommend it to everyone because it's pornographic but Cleland mostly uses euphemisms anyway. Very controversial at the time and banned in the UK until the 1970s (still haven't figured out why?). The only time it's weird in a bad way, rather than a camp way, is when Cleland uses Fanny as a mouthpiece to basically say 'I'm a massive homophobe and all gay men should die' but....other than that...

Gothic genre wise, The Castle of Otranto is camp and hilarious once you read about the way in which Horace Walpole first presented it to the world ('Oh um....I just found this medieval manuscript guys????'). Ann Radcliff is like, Jane Austen meets Hammer Horror and I respect that. The Monk was amazing but Matthew Lewis was 19 and horny as hell when he wrote it and you can tell. It's like 'what if I wrote about boobs and the crimes of Catholicism lol....'

You should also read Eliza Steele's memoirs of her time as the companion of Sophia Baddeley. Sophia Baddeley was an irl courtesan and actress of the late 18th century and very popular in her time but her life was turbulent. Steele's narrative isn't always truthful but some have suggested it has a homoerotic undertone to it. I wrote a very good paper on it, if I do Say So Myself.

There is no scientific or philosophical stuff on here (ugh, I might recommend Voltaire's Candide bc it is funny...) because I hate men who say words.

[its-just-like-the-movies]

My Fair Lady (64, C)

Looking at My Fair Lady, I can’t help but be filled with nothing but questions. Primarily, what in god’s name made this stodgy enterprise such a durable cultural sensation for decades? How did it clean up so many awards on the stage and screen, especially Rex Harrison as the disgustingly crusty Henry Higgins? Did no one mind the blazing misogyny back in the day, or was the original stage production smart enough to make Higgins the butt of his own jokes? As a film, this is a vexing object to me, as gorgeously dressed, set, and scored as it is unrepentantly gross, classist, and packed to the brim with godawful songs for its men to mainly inflect to rather than actually sing, certainly not the way Eliza Doolittle has to sing. And yet, Audrey Hepburn and Marni Nixon’s creation was bafflingly the only component of the film not to get recognized by an Academy voting body that had the gall to including Gladys Cooper in about three sequences of warm, haughty nothingness. Even more confusing than the film’s reception is the film itself, mounted with so little shaping or cinematic might by director George Cukor, a director I’ve only met twice (The Philadelphia Story and the 1944 Gaslight) but know well enough to be sure that he’s capable of far more than just lazily plopping a stage production in front of the camera. For sure, art director Cecil Beaton took plenty of advantage in making the film to create extravagant, visually resplendent sets and unbelievable gorgeous outfits that are the only facet of the film ever willing to mock itself, in the form of absurdly large and ornate hats. But the beauty of it all can’t hide that there’s barely a character I wanted to be around or listen to for a good portion of the film’s three hour running time, devoid of most things that a viewing audience might call “appealing characters”, “bearable politics”, or “pleasant lyrics”, even as I felt currents of the film sweeping me up and gaining my attention. It’s far more fascinating to me as a cultural object than a film, possessing such a dubious combination of merits and demerits that the sheer size of its success is as hard to buy as the series of decisions that turned it into a filmed staging with none of the life a staged production could’ve brought it?

The deadly miscalculation of the whole thing announces itself almost instantly, once Higgins has his first encounter with Cockney street urchin Eliza Doolitte selling flowers to other rich people. After taking records of her accent and how she speaks, the film’s first song begins as he verbally abuses her for the way she speaks, saying she should be slain and bemoaning the state of how the English learn the English language. A lot of My Fair Lady’s most obvious comedy comes from the way Higgins and other members of British high society react to (mainly berate) Eliza’s manners and accent, and even if the Pygmalion tale is as much a joke at the expense of Higgins as it is Eliza, the film is too enraptured in Henry’s point of view to really fight him or make him the butt of the joke. It’s one thing to point out that Harrison’s cantankerous performance is without any self-humor, but the problem mainly lies in Cukor’s direction and tone, taking the whole thing to earnestly and without much wit or farce. Singin’ in the Rain was more than capable of balancing itself as both those things, as well as being a damn sterling musical that could accommodate a sweet, sweeping romance, and turning every one of its characters into jokes at one point or another. My Fair Lady has almost none of that dexterity, retaining itself entirely from Higgins’s point of view even in sequences focusing on Eliza and her arc. The whole film feels prescribed from Henry, damning itself in the process.

It doesn’t help that Cukor doesn’t guide the film’s two female performances into giving much bristle against Harrison, or frame them in any interesting way. Gladys Cooper is filmed at such an alarming distance we can barely see her face, and her droll disdain for her son and kindness to Eliza cannot combat how little Cukor’s camera is interested in her. I don’t know how much to call Hepburn a problem in the same way, given that her interpretation of Eliza is neither deeper nor shallower than Harrison’s, and hers is clearly the more demanding part. For sure Hepburn’s performance is the most entertaining thing the film can give us, and she’s a game actress when it comes to lip-syncing to the glorious Marni Nixon’s singing of Eliza’s songs. Hepburn’s acting in these scenes is full of energy, not just because Eliza’s songs are practically the only ones that allow her interpreter to belt, or really sing actual notes instead of the “I’m doing to do vocal inflections in this patter song” that are exclusively Higgins’s lot. Her physicality is invigorating, and convincingly “sings” in each of these scenes. Hepburn is especially fun when she has to be angry at Higgins, and she’s certainly charming, but Hepburn’s interpretation is a limited as Harrison’s is, albeit within a much larger range of feeling. She does exactly what’s asked of her, but she doesn’t add anything to Eliza’s complicity, or hatred, or romance, or really anything.

Still, Harrison isn’t in any way more compelling than her, and his schtick is immediately grating in every respect. It’s not just that his songs are barely songs at all, but the character of Higgins is so repellent that a more agile performer than Harrison would need to do a lot of work to make him even remotely bearable. A stronger director would’ve made that load easier to bear too, but Cukor’s lack of shaping makes Harrison even more culpable in his flat, uninspired performance. This is what he thinks Henry Higgins should be? This is what he thinks My Fair Lady is about? He is at least more bearable than Stanley Holloway as Eliza’s father Alfred, who is given one completely forgettable song and two that are astonishingly grating and seemingly endless. The end point of his arc is funny, sure, but it’s baffling that this character is given such lavish attention from any point of view. If anything, Alfred’s views on his daughter and women are more overtly awful than Henry’s, confined as they are to smaller doses that have to make up for lost time by being more reprehensible. The sheer kindness of Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Eliza’s late-in-the-game suitor, is the only beacon of light this film has in presenting a version of a straight man that is, in any conceivable way, bearable to be around. And for the record, yes, I have forgotten everything about Colonel Pickering as a character, except for his being the primary subject of the film’s remarkably homoerotic ode to the stability, reliability, and all around betterness of men in comparison to women.

That song, perhaps the nicest thing Henry Higgins has sung or said to anyone that isn’t himself up until that point, is distinctly homoerotic for the same reason that everything else up to that point had been so blatantly unpleasant. My Fair Lady is a witless film without much by way of subtext, and because it presents everything it does at face value, so must we take it as such. This may not even be as problematic as it is if we didn’t have to suffer through the film’s odious ending, given how much the film’s second act is entirely devoted to Henry’s realization that barely anybody in his immediate circle really likes him, especially the young woman he’s fallen in love with while molding her, berating her, and using her as a servant. After successfully flaunting Eliza at a ball and congratulating every single person but her for turning her into a believable noblewoman, his inability to grasp her anger as she demands a future from him and rejects the ways that he’s used her - even if she did agree to sign on with him - is the strongest confrontation these characters have had up to that point. His crucial lack of self-awareness could have been a fascinating character point had the film not been complicit in it too, one that rears itself again in what should have been his final encounter with Eliza at his mother’s house. Higgins is not wrong in giving himself credit for Eliza’s diction, but his chronic blindness towards the contributions of anyone else in his work - look at how shocked he is when it is Colonel Pickering who Eliza credits for learning how to be a noblewoman, not Henry - is too damning to be overlooked, and no cringy, I’m-13-and-just-got-a-blog excuse of “I treat everyone horribly” is enough to compensate for his stunning lack of character. Even as Eliza taunts him with her own independence he cannot help but make it about him, only realizing how much he values her until he’s shredded every possible inch of goodwill he could have left. That My Fair Lady ends the way it does is surely a tribute to its own lack of self-awareness, one that damned any of my own goodwill while watching it.

And yet, in spite of myself, parts of it have lingered with me. Cecil Beaton’s extravagant costuming and set design is surely the highlight of the film, visually stunning across characters of every social rung, and the only part of the film that’s willing (or smart enough) to make a joke out of itself. The sheer insanity of the outfits worn by the rich folk at the horseraces is all we need to know that these people aren’t meant to be taken seriously, as confined as they are refined, and still the scale of it all shows real imagination and craft on Beaton’s part. The men are dressed with a much care as the women, and every location is given gorgeous detailing. Then again, if you’re so repulsed by My Fair Lady’s characters that you’d like to look away for a little while, the score is wonderfully orchestrated, carrying emotional beats with greater force and earnest feeling than anyone else in front of or behind the camera. Even if I’ll contest many of the songs are bad, clips of them are still in my head, especially since most songs are just the same phrases repeated about a third of the time.

But of course, when should aesthetic merits ever compensate for ghastly politics and inadequate realization, especially in a film that has so many issues in both of those areas. It’s a slog to sit through. I only felt any energy from it when Eliza got mad, and even that was mostly because I agreed with her more than the film really did anything different in her scenes. My Fair Lady is a gross object, but only because it doesn’t seem to have any deeper understanding of itself, nor is anyone involved interested in fighting against the piece and dig into it. There’s enough good here, and what’s good is actually pretty fantastic, that I don’t mind giving it the C grade I’ve currently bestowed it. The general misunderstanding of the text feels more catastrophic than any one correct decision can recuperate it, and even if it hums along fine on its own, misbegotten terms, it takes a long while for the narrative to really pay off. And who can forget how all of that goodwill evaporates as soon as the film ends the way it does, suggesting a romance the previous twenty minutes had done everything in its power to repudiate. George Bernard Shaw raged against that ending, publishing asterisks and post-scripts into subsequent copies of Pygmalion so that his critique of it could live on well after he died. Thank god that it has. There are points of view about art and literature that I’m fascinated to hear about, to discuss and to try and understand. But I’m very, very thankful that I don’t have the disposition to enjoy the way My Fair Lady ends, or to go along with anything that this dullard of a film winds up saying about men and women, about class hierarchy, about respectability. Or rather, the way that even all this is muddied by that horrific finale. My Fair Lady is somehow a witless and self-contradictory object, pleasurable in some respects and still dubious in others. I’d be perfectly fine never seeing it again in my life, and if I do, I better start now. If I don’t start early, it’ll go so long I’ll never have time to watch another movie again.