#in another heterosexual role??? THE HORRORS

[hislittleraincloud]

I hope there's a hot, exploitative sex scene before they start to get their asses haunted. "Young married couple", eh. Have it be their wedding night.

👹👹👹👹👹

Good ruck, little Mogwai. Abrams is a deadbeat dad when it comes to his creations.

ETA: I'm rlly not keen on his pinched face but his body...little Gremlin hands get to touch that 😭😭😭😭😭

[hotvintagepoll]

Josephine Hull (Arsenic and Old Lace, Harvey)—Josephine Hull was only in two major movies - “Harvey” and “Arsenic and Old Lace” - but those two roles made her an icon. Her mobile, expressive face is unforgettable. She was expert at playing these women who seem to be very conventional, until you scratch the surface and realize they’re scrungly to the core. The scene in Harvey where she is watching a bad performance at her soiree, and trying to look pleased while actually being appalled, is priceless [link]. In that same movie, she has wonderful scenes where she is trying awfully hard to disbelieve in Harvey (her brother’s invisible friend who is a 6-foot-tall white rabbit) but finds herself, to her horror, believing in him. (This one is a highlight - she comes in around 2:50 [link] Her other role, in Arsenic and Old Lace, is a sweet little old lady who the hero (Cary Grant) discovers to his horror has been murdering people. And again she sells her total conviction that she is normal, while being decidedly NOT. Another great example of her wonderful talent at scrungly facial expressions is in this scene, where she is waiting for an old man to drink poisoned wine [link]

Michael Redgrave (Dead of Night, The Lady Vanishes)—I'm not sure what the heterosexuals think of him, but as a lesbian who got obsessed with him after the last poll, Michael Redgrave is the scrungliest of men. Is he pathetic? Yes. Does he look like he is crying a little in all these movies? Absolutely. And yes, he may be tall and therefore not as much a little guy, but he has such a pathetic demeanor that I will always look down on him, despite the fact he is a foot taller than me. Please just watch Dead of Night when he gets jealous of others flirting with his ventriloquist dummy. It's worth it.

This is round 2 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Josephine Hull:

Batty little old ladies who are definitely less than sane [see video below]

Michael Redgrave:

[content warning if puppets freak you out]

[krispdreemurr]

I don't think player-centric sexuality can be criticized without criticizing male-as-default. Even ostensibly gender-neutral protagonists will be treated as male if the writer setup a scenario that can only work if the protagonist is A) male and B) alienated from women the way a straight man would be. But even still, a lot of assumptions about the audience are built in. Things like gacha or harems having a majority of female characters to collect confessions from, with the minority of male characters being aloof and professional. 1/???

In Snowgrave we force Kris & Noelle into specifically ungendered roles. Noelle is the mage, the girl, soft & malleable - she's also the offense & the stoic one in the face of calamity. Kris is the knight, the human, the commander - they're also Noelle's support & the one who calls for help throughout the route. But I don't think "Snowgrave Kriselle is heterosexual" overrides that. Like, throughout the Weird Route we pigeonhole Kris & Noelle into a pair of functional but imbalanced & codependent roles, isolated from everyone else, and naturalize it through ideas of Love, Marriage, & responsibility. Is that not related?

look, I'm going to be direct about a doylist aspect here that I haven't wanted to bring up as strongly because I didn't want to just come off as snarky: I don't think toby fox, who I suspect accidentally stumbled into writing nb characters to begin with and who has been consistently kind of bad about it, is deliberately writing anything about male as default or the horrors of misgendering. further, i don't particularly want to keep reading people finding reasons to call Kris male in terms of story roles or whatever, because it feels bad and I think people are way too quick to go to male as default.

i do think a lot of what "default RPG protagonist" entails closely overlaps with a heterosexual male view of the world (god knows I've talked w people about the quiet lesbian amusement when a game has a character creator but still has all the women fawn over you), and I do think that has bled into deltarune's critique; toby fox writes a stock RPG romance gone wrong, and that involves the bashful healer girl (who is none of those things) and the strong-willed protagonist (who is none of those things). but i just think reading Kris' role in it as "male" isn't quite how I take it, beyond the background radiation of the world where anything neutral or null will lean male.

snowgrave brings in signifiers of marriage like the rings, and then has them treated as flat objects to be given for bonus affection and better stats. there's no actual bond formed between Noelle and Kris by them giving her a ring, and in fact one ring is traded for another even worse one the second that becomes possible. the relationship is reduced down to equipment and grinding and saying the correct things in the correct order. it's a critique of the flatness of relationships in video games first and foremost, and I think the ways it feels heterosexual are mainly just background radiation

[bkatlips]

Ranking and explaining my rankings of Mike Flanagan’s shows and how they make me feel in honor of spooky season and just finishing Usher!! Why not!! Everyone else is doing it!! I’m also going to give it a gay score based on how gay they are (which also includes how big of a role gay characters played).

Disclaimer: Every one of these shows is well-made in one way or another and deserves to be watched based on whether someone else finds the premise interesting and not whether I liked the show. Too often I see “that show was bad to me therefore you shouldn’t watch it” and I disagree with that line of thinking.

1. The Haunting of Bly Manor-I can already hear people screaming “Hill House is better!” In some ways, yes! In some very important ways, however, I disagree. The biggest being Bly Manor emotionally resonated with me a lot more. The themes, the found family (as someone who is an only child), and of course, the lesbianism. Dani’s story of compulsory heterosexuality may be one of if not the best in media and her love story with Jamie ended up being one of the best media has to offer, too. And really using a horror story and turning it into a love story is kind of brilliant (and annoying for the people who were just there for the jumpscares I guess). Don’t get me wrong the show has flaws (why the FUCK do Peter and Rebecca have so much screentime? was that eight episode really the best placement?) but the stuff that lands, really really lands. I’m still thinking about Dani and Jamie 3 years later. Hannah’s episode was very well done. The kid actors little Amelie and Ben were phenomenal. Upon rewatch you notice most decisions and dialogue in the show were made with some purpose and it usually relates to something thematic. Some people may say it doesn’t really have one defining central thesis therefore making it messy, but to me the fact it has many themes actually makes it more fun to think about. Gay score: 100000/10

2. The Haunting of Hill House-A horror classic that got me into Flanagan! This is Flanagan’s best series as far as making you pee your pants. That hat man is just scary! The character work is nice. Those first 6 episodes are incredible. Perfect. The thing that brings it under Bly Manor for me is honestly the ending. It left something to be desired for me. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but it just did not conclude in such an emotionally resonant way as Bly Manor to me. Shout out to the Newton Bros because the music on this damn show (and Bly too but that’s basically Hill House music continued) is so so good. Also the character work is masterful because Shirley Crain is kind of a bitch but you do come to love her. In fact, there wasn’t a Crain I didn’t feel for. They’re deeply fucked up, sympathetic people. It’s a great show with some great thematic work but it just doesn’t speak to me quite as much as Bly, that’s it. I know that’s unpopular but it is what it is. A great good show nonetheless. Gay score: 8/10

3. The Fall of the House of Usher-This show is wild and honestly I couldn’t decide between ranking this one or Midnight Club third. I went with this one because the acting and technical stuff was so phenomenal. I’m not really into gore horror so this wasn’t like my thing on the surface but I do appreciate what a homage to Poe it is in the very limited knowledge of Poe’s work that I have. It was fun to see all the cast from previous shows back again especially T’nia. One of the downsides to this show is it doesn’t really make you feel a lot and so compared to the Haunting shows for me that makes it inferior for sure. But it’s a fun watch and honestly I need to rewatch the final episode because I had a hard time paying attention for that one. Gay score: really fucking queer/10

4. The Midnight Club-Ah Flanagan’s little dud. This one is really not very loved compared to the others, seems to be just about nobody’s favorite, however personally I liked it. I think people are a little unfair to it and while it may not be Flanagan’s best, I don’t think it’s awful. It doesn’t really tackle anything new when it comes to themes. There’s some death, grief, stages of acceptance, and cult stuff. I think the way it has these kids telling stories to deal with their reality was really brilliant in a way. There was one episode (six I think) that dealt with depression and suicide that made me sob and I thought was super well done. That one stuck with me.I think it would have benefited from a more likeable main character and also from the second season that was planned! Gay score: 6/10

5. Midnight Mass-To be honest, I probably could have gone without watching this show. It just didn’t really resonate with me and didn’t really entertain me save like the very last two episodes. It’s technically well-made and I appreciate what Flanagan was trying to do and convey with the danger of cults and religion. It was obviously a very personal project and was him working through his own experiences but it wasn’t for me. It had a few too many monologues and I don’t think monologues make an interesting character piece. However, it’s a critically acclaimed work so I recommend anyone who wants to check out Flanagan’s work still check it out! Especially if you like weird vampire stuff I guess. Also the acting especially from the priest was phenomenal. So there’s definitely pros to this show, but it didn’t add anything to my life for me! Gay score: 3/10 :/

Also, shout out to Mike because every single one of these shows is queer to one degree or another. He loves the gays! Ally! Bisexual wife probably helps too!

[floral-ashes]

Another moving book review of Gender/Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body, this time by philosopher Gwen Marshall. 🔥

First time someone comments on the poetry peppered through the book, which I find interesting since I am a bit self-conscious about my poetry skills! 💖

“Florence Ashley is a transfeminine law professor, ethicist, and (as virtually all publicly visible trans folks are forced to be) an activist. Rather than a dry review in the style of an academic journal, I'd like to provide a more personal report.

This book aroused me, laid bare my trauma, and rang a bell deep in my soul. I’ve never felt so seen. Their erotic tales resonated with my own encounters. Their poetry remains with me still, days later. And their analyses? They may very literally change the course of my life.

Ashley's account of the way trauma informs their adoption of the role of bottom in their sexual encounters revealed to me my own, similar journey. Now I have weeks or months of material to work through with my therapist -- maybe at the end of it, I'll come out on Top?

Their description of their experiences navigating dating, the internalized homophobia of cis men, and our own internalized compulsory heterosexuality have me setting off on another journey of self-discovery, one concerning my sexual orientation. And their brilliant dissection of the ways in which TERF rhetoric and transphobia corrupts even the most self-assured transfemme's sense of self is all-too-familiarly heartbreaking. Many times in reading this book, I had to put it down to sob and hold myself, waiting for the reignited trauma to pass. Unlike other times when old trauma is triggered, however, these episodes feel like healing.

Finally, Ashley's account of what is to be done in their final chapter shook me to my core. As someone who once waved the flag of revolutionary socialism myself, I saw my own loss of hope reflected in Ashley's words. Rather than adopting a nihilism, however, they propose a palliative activism. We cannot save this world, circling the drain as it is. We cannot undo the rampant spread of transphobia, certainly not any time soon, if ever. Captialism has won. What we can do, however, is put our world in hospice and try to alleviate the suffering of our loved ones and our communities as much as possible, bringing some peace and pleasure to those we love, while the world slowly dies around us. This is the ideology I have been looking for. And if we adopt this palliative model, despite the horrors around us, we can imagine our loved ones, and ourselves, happy.

Ashley's influences are clear. References to previous trans writers, gender theorists, and philosophers abound, but they present them and connect them in profound and revolutionary ways. Or palliative ways, perhaps?

In sum, this book could change your life. It changed mine.”

Link to review.

Where to get the book.

[doki-doki-lesbians-club]

hello! please rant about the comphet subtext in ddlc. i wanna hear it so bad please please please please please

Hi! I think I've written on this before, but I can't recall when or where, so I'll try and recall as many points as I can!

This'll be a long one, so under the cut!

For starters, let's talk base game. Obviously, all four girls fall for the MC and that's that. However, watching the ways that the other club members interact, it's pretty clear to many players that they have feelings beyond just friendship.

Namely, I sight Natsuki's poems. First off, the poem "Amy Likes Spiders" can be read as Yuri's love of horror (which is how I initially read it when I first played). However, it's also pretty easy to read this as either Natsuki's experience being trans, or being gay. Either way, that makes the entire narrative of the poem make sense, and also explains lines like "I tried not to let her touch me. She likes spiders, so her hands are probably gross." as well as "It doesn't matter if she has other hobbies. It doesn't matter if she keeps it private. It doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt anyone.

It's gross. She's gross. The world is better off without spider lovers."

Seems pretty clear, right? These lines may feel intense and out of place with other readings, but when you imagine Natsuki being outed to her shit friends as gay, or trans, it all starts to make sense.

Have you ever read the poem "I'll Be Your Beach"? Because it's gay as all hell!

We're led to assume that the romantic poems Natsuki and Yuri write are about the MC, but that would be odd to imagine when reading this poem. Natsuki writes about "your heavy thoughts", "your insecurities", and "your memories" and ends by saying "You'll learn to love yourself again." When, exactly, did the MC express any of these sentiments? Let alone to Natsuki?? But I think it would be pretty easy to connect all of these points to another girl: Yuri.

It's easy to see some strong subtext here for gay Natsuki (and maybe trans too, if you wanna see that). But when we break into the Side Stories, this is where it gets real interesting...

MC is not there. The Side Stories are purely scenes to read through to watch the Literature Club form for the first time as all the girls meet each other and get to know one another. Because of this, we get to see more of them and their feelings toward each other than we could have ever dreamed of in the base game!

Without giving too many spoilers for some of the best scenes in the entire game: the Side Stories are pretty gay. It's nearly impossible to ignore. These girls are clearly imagining each other as more than just friends, are going through some feelings. Each pairing even gets their own spotlight, and we see how each and every one of them has some interest in each other, which is a stark difference from the base game.

The main difference? MC is not there.

The base game has a lot of themes surrounding control, reality, and choices (or the lack thereof). Not only are all the girls destined (or "programmed") to fall in love with MC, it can't be avoided, even by Monika, who wasn't meant to have a route at all. They were already playing with the ideas of fate, and programming, and free will, but what happens when you remove the object that decided their fate?

Well, when we removed MC from the scenario altogether, we see the girls happier, getting along better, and showing interest in one another that we only got in subtext in the base game. To me, this leads to another theme of choice and control: compulsive heterosexuality. If part of the "generic dating sim" frame of their reality is forcing them to express interest in the male protagonist, even if they couldn't care less and really are interested in each other, that's the same themes but on a whole new level.

Left to their own devices, the girls are happy and expressing interest in one another. In the "game" they are forced to play roles in, we see their problems exacerbate, their situation spiraling, as they all desperately cling to the MC as the object of their affection. Seems pretty comphet to me.

Thank you sooo much for this ask! It's been a while since I wrote a long post like this! :D Speaking outside of my own trans/gay perspective, it seems pretty hard to imagine any other future for these girls in light of the Side Stories. And to that extent, I think the Side Stories gives us a window into a happier world; one where they are all free to grow and thrive as who they are, regardless of what that means for each of them! I think that's only further fueled this wonderful fandom: seeing them happy.

and gay.

Thanks again for the ask~!

[ludinusdaleth]

speaking of rewatch essay potential, i am still looking forward to your eventual essay about a certain over-hyped heterosexual villain couple

ha, i honestly dont know if have much to say on them other than that i just dont know if they work past their role as a gothic horror couple to goon to & being vecna's goons. maybe itll feed more into another idea i have about how the reason c1 isnt my favorite is because it comes to close to being unique but nearly always falls back into archetypes in ways the other campaigns completely blow away. but honestly i need to rewatch before solidly putting it to paper.

[infwctednyacifier]

🏡⋆｡👥 ₊˚🧸ﾟ. DUO, ORIGINAL = DOLL COUPLE – ALTER PACK

It’s been a while since I’ve made an alter pack/got a request so I decided to make another out of boredom lol. They have a 50’s and horror vibe!!!! Hope you enjoy!!!

Names – Rosette „ Missy „ Lottie „ Nancy „ Rosie „ Ellie

Age – ageless / Immortal

Pronouns – she / her „ it / it's „ lace / laces „ porcelain / porcelains „ blue / blues „ soft / soft’s

Gender – cisgender / cutecoregender „ hyperfeminine „ porcelaindollcoreic „ creepdollic „ sensigirl

Orientation – heterosexual „ androsexual

Role – physical protector „ apathy holder „ crybaby „ admirer

Species – haunted doll

Source – original

Emojis – 🍰 „ 🧩 „ 🧸 „ 💌 „ 🍡 „ 🎀

Likes – cooking „ cleaning „ shopping „ slasher genre „ her husband

Dislikes – aggression „ destruction „ being away from her husband „ jealousy „ cats

Appearance – white skin „ dark hair ( short / rests on shoulders „ curls into circles at bottom ) „ dark eyes ( big „ dark eyes ) „ 50’s style ( housewife dresses „ wiggle dresses ) „ slender „ curvy „ short

Names – Charles „ John „ Heinrich „ Lucien „ Gunnar „ Kristen

Faceclaims –

Age – ageless / immortal

Pronouns – he / him „ it / it's „ porcelain / porcelains „ bandage / bandages „ gauze / gauzes

Gender – cisgender / porcelaindollcoreic „ creepdollic „ medigender / gendermedical

Orientation – heterosexual „ gynosexual

Role – admin „ announcer „ archivist „ advocate

Species – haunted doll

Source – original

Emojis – 🗃️ „ 📑 „ 🏡 „ 🏥 „ 🩹 „ 🖼️

Likes – medical spaces „ his wife „ psychology „ psychological horror „ torturing victims

Dislikes – disruptions „ stupidity „ destruction „ being away from his wife for too long „ jealousy

Appearance – white skin „ dark hair ( short / brushed back ) „ dark eyes ( big „ dark eyes ) „ 50’s style ( 50’s / 80’s business man outfits ) „ muscular ( a bit pudgy ) „ tall

Faceclaims –

[alivegirlmari]

sorry i keep bothering u BUT i have another question😭 i was wondering if you’d seen this interview of melanie (https://youtu.be/xhHDMOEnuB4 the first minute and a half) and what you think of that because i’m pretty sure shauna does NOT care but to me jeff very much went from a sympathetic guy who loves his wife to a sinister little man😭 i get making bad decisions when you’re young but man😭

you are NOT bothering me omggg you could neverrr. me when i wake up to an anticurses ask and get to chew on it at work for the next two days: ❣️ 💕 💞 💓 💗 💖 💘 💝

i've seen a few people analyze that specific interview and tbh i don't think i have anything groundbreaking to add but i wanna just ramble about shauna anyways asdjnjsdk so! putting this under a readmore bc it'll probs be long-ish and incoherent <3

ok so. shauna's relationship to motherhood has always fascinated me. when i first watched yj it was all in one night, in a haze, during a not-good-mentally period in my life. so it took me an embarrassing amount of episodes to go from 'oh she hates callie bc callie's wilderness baby and thus a reminder of everything that entails, both jackie-related and trauma-related' to 'OH callie can't be wilderness baby, timeline wise, which adds an even more insane level to shauna returning to jeff post-crash'. bc the decision to date him let alone marry him has always been sooo interesting to me!! like yeah we all knew why but like, how did it happen? how long after the crash? did he call her up once she got out of hospital? did she go back to school? was it another drunk grief hookup thing again, but one that spiraled into more? did they discuss jackie at all? iirc, when he reveals he's read the diaries, he implies they never talked about the 19 months which is why he read them. but did they ever discuss jackie, separate to what happened in the woods? or was she the eternal elephant in the room? i mean, yes it's canon that shauna marries him out of guilt and shame and obligation, but the CALLIE of it all is the wildest part to me. bc she's pregnant with his baby, and then jackie dies and the baby dies, and then she goes back and has anotherrr baby with him, in spite of everything!!!!

so melanie p much saying 'she can't keep justifying her decision to not have kids with him, so they have one'. is like. well she's right!!! i can 1000% see jeff pushing to have kids and shauna, unaware that he knows about wilderness baby and not wanting to tell him, agreeing to it bc a) she'd rather die than talk about it honestly, b) the guilt of it all, and c) well that's what normal suburban heterosexual couples do isn't it?? get married and have kids!! and to me jeff has always been that guy, which he even admits in canon! he was always gonna be the high-school boyfriend to jackie, but that's his life role, too: he stays in his home-town, he owns a business in his home-town, his only friend is his teen bestie, etc. he's the suburban straight guy who doesn't properly wash his underwear, whose wife cooks every meal (that he still complains about), who thinks flavored lube is too kinky and weird and gay for him.

and it annoys me that the show doesn't even lean into the horror of that, let alone like...the genuinely terrribleeee things he does. like if you're not gonna frame it as devastating, tragic, claustrophobic, and miserable that shauna marries jackie's very Normie boyfriend and has another baby with him, that her whole life has become a jackie altar and not what she herself wants, then at least frame it as awful that he blackmailed her and her friends using their trauma??? HELLO???and i hate that the adam thing kinda like. made them ~even~, narratively, or at least made people forget about jeff.

and if you're NOT going to make it a heterosexual horror story, AT LEAST make him the wifeguy people insist he is online!! what REAL self-respecting wifeguy would turn down strawberry lube or panic when their wife grabs the gun from the guy holding them at gunpoint!!! and i mean, his reactions (to the gun thing at least) are valid and normal, ofc he'd freak out, majority of us would too. but this IS a tv show, he's not real, and you can't have him be the freaked out, 'you're out of control' husband and the 'my wife can do no wrong' husband ykwim. (me & rose talked about that angle specifically here)

but also YES it's legitimately evil for jeff to not tell shauna he knows about wilderness baby and for him to just then. keep bringing up having another one. the most generous reading i can give him is that he also, of course, feels guilty about jackie, and his desire for marriage and children with shauna is driven by that, but again: he knew he was only ever the high-school boyfriend, so. and what melanie said in that interview IS right but it's not being said/implied/explored in canon, and i worry that if it was then again, it wouldn't be shown as the horror it is, so i'm almost glad?? bc i'm not sure the general audience would see through that and view it as evil either.

anyways, jeff n shauna to me is like. does she love him? probably, in some way, on some level. i think she enjoys his company sometimes, i'm sure they have happy memories together etc. but he will always be a reminder of #everything. and so will callie! and i think that's just a more interesting dynamic to explore!!! (though tbh. loveee the goat stuff, but shauna just kinda. saying everything so explictly to lottie did feel like a telling not showing, exposition moment. as did the fact that it was a KID like sometimes this show is so subtle and other times it's incredibly not ajdksjask.)

um anyways it's 4am. i need to go to sleep. i am probably forgetting something bc i have So many thoughts about shauna + motherhood ESPECIALLY in the teen timeline which i didn't even touch lol, and how it connects to adult timeline but i do wanna give the writers temporary benefit of doubt just bc we've still got 2 eps left. so who knows what'll happen. me personally i'm hoping jeff dies and/or goes to jail and we explore the complex web of feelings that shauna and callie have towards each other, and they change their names back to shipman. i think it's rly funny and sad and tragic that callie doesn't care that her mom's a killer (well, she does), she's just so happy her mother's being honest with her. </33 also just love women who aren't naturally maternal and aren't good mothers but they're not villainized for it, and it's also not a one-dimensional portrayal either.

(final note that i LOVE is that in the original pilot script, shauna has another kid!!! callie has an older sister!!! soo curious whether she was meant to be a surviving wilderness baby or if they had another kid post-crash...jeff im in ur walls regardless)

[homenecromancer]

Some loose ends re. Nosferatu (2024).

So in my previous post about Nosferatu (2024) I didn’t mention the relationship between Thomas and Ellen, because it’s not something my teenage self would’ve really enjoyed — she mostly found fictional heterosexual relationships a little bit dull and unappealing. But that relationship is both narratively important and offers some moments my younger self would have liked.

Thomas being in the movie means that we get to see him suffer, too. (Compared to the original Murnau film, this adaptation gives Ellen much more to do — the original is really Thomas’s story.) We’re all on Tumblr here. “I wanna see that hot guy suffering” has been a mainstay of this site from the get-go. And Thomas suffers absolutely beautifully! Both members of the couple suffer physically and psychologically due to Orlok’s influence over the course of the film. For me as a teenager, imagining “what if my suffering were so visible that no one could ignore it” was an important release valve — and boy, is Thomas’s suffering visible. He receives recognition for his experience of The Horrors before Ellen receives recognition for hers, and I think that helps with the tension of the narrative. One main character is helped and told that what they are experiencing is real and serious while the other character is still being largely ignored — will Ellen get help, too? Or will she have to remain in the role of the caretaker, her own pain forced below the surface of the narrative? (And watching her, barely out of her own sickbed, take care of Thomas, allows viewers to indulge their own feelings of wanting to either care for another, or have another care for them.)

But there’s happiness in this movie, too. Thomas and Ellen mutually love each other deeply. At some points, before Ellen confesses that Orlok has been abusing her for years, the relationship between her and Thomas is strained by her self-enforced silence on that issue. (Why is she so anxious at the start of the movie for Thomas not to leave her? Because, as she tells him [and us] later, it is only when they are together that she feels free from Orlok’s shadow.) Once she painfully reveals her secret, and angrily demands that Thomas not touch her because she is “unclean” — Thomas only holds her more tightly. Sure, Professor Von Franz provides Ellen with a healthy platonic relationship where a man listens to her concerns. That’s important. But aside from Thomas, every other man in the movie disrespects Ellen to some degree. Thomas wants to give his wife the best that he can give to her, and he actively works to respect her, though he’s still limited by the mores of his time period. Unlike the other men in the cast (Von Franz excluded), Thomas doesn’t do anything to Ellen that will hurt her, even if it’s “for her own good”. There is no threat coming from his direction.

OK I kind of just wanted to use that image. Thank you.

[lirri-eats-eyes]

actually going back to this, i only have one disagreement with this post.

"The Grishaverse doesn't seem to have any form of homophobia;" i was conflicted about this because on one hand, this could just be a product of bardugo having to work within our society's already-heternormative standards to give the story structure and make it understandable for readers, but on the other hand, i think bardugo deserves more credit than that. i think there are deliberate instances of the characters or society showing homophobia that add to the story's overall setting.

im going to list some examples here, and then maybe try to analyze why they exist in the end

example number 1:

(bear with me i don't have access to the first book currently) but jesper talks about "flirting with girls" while bonding with wylan, who is more of a stranger that the crows are holding at arm's length at this moment. after wylan asks "only girls?" jesper grins and amends his statement, saying no, not only girls. this could hypothetically just be a product of a society that accepts queerness but where heterosexuality happens to outnumber any other type of attraction, but this could also be jesper testing the waters because he knows wylan is a) a stranger and b) a son of a merch. i think that with the second interpretation we can set up the idea that queerness is generally seen as "less high class" and that maybe those in the crow gang don't really give a shit (and perhaps embrace it as something that seperates them from the upper crust), but wealthier people in power do in fact care.

example number 2:

wylan's status as van eck's heir is pretty important to the plot (and VERY important to van eck). i figure a society that puts so much weight on heirs and family name probably has difficulty being normal about relationships where reproduction cannot occur. although, wylan never "comes out" to his father and we can't see his reaction (and never really displays any anxiety about coming out as much as he displays anxiety about his dyslexia [?] being revealed) so that might be something that discredits this evidence. in any case, even if homophobia doesn't exist in this society to the extent that it exists here, i have not trouble imagning van eck mocking wylan for another thing he can't do (have a biological heir with jesper)

example number 3:

again, an example of how straight interactions are kinda seen as the norm (and again could be written off as them just being more common in this universe). however, the other point that matters is that matthias's society has specific standards for different gender roles. i don't think it's impossible for a society to have split gender roles while also being normal about gender-queerness, but i think bardugo also knows well enough that matthias's explanation of Fjerdan gender roles can be reflected in the Real World. i personally think that we are supposed to read his and the broader Fjerdan values as pretty sexist without necessarily drawing direct comparisons to any specific culture, even though one can be tempted to with the way the grishaverse nations are introduced. that all to say, i think Fjerdan culture, with the way matthias explains it, would not take too kindly to trans people.

fourth example, tw for sexual assault.

example number 4:

this is when inej describes her indentured work at tante heleen's. a man gets upset that he cannot "perform" (likely referring to his body not 'properly' reacting to inej's) and hits her to vent his frustration at himself because he sees her as an object. setting aside the horror of this scene, this implies that on some level, there is shame that comes with a man not being able to have sex with a woman. this could be a high-ranking man, which refers back to van eck's obsession with producing an heir, or this could just be an average man, which means on some level lack of attraction to the opposite sex could mean some sort of shame

those are all the examples i remember. i think it's no mistake that bardugo usually uses examples of straight relationships being expected or strict gender roles to describe the oppressive cultures or people she wrote. i also think it's no mistake that she does not write characters "making a big deal" out of jesper, wylan, kuwei, or nina's queerness; i think this is her using fantasy as the venue for escapism that it usually is, while also managing to tackle real-world issues in metaphor.

SOC and CK allegories for the queer characters (and other thoughts)

I was going to make a separate blog to yell about books but I decided to do it here.

I AM NOT DONE CROOKED KINGDOM AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS SO EVERYTHING I SAY IS HAVING ONLY READ HALF THE BOOK SO FAR.

The Grishaverse doesn't seem to have any form of homophobia, but SOC and CK are chalk fulllllllll of what I can only see as plots that mimic queer experiences for the queer characters in the main group.

We have four queer characters (that I know of at the moment): Jesper, Wylan, Nina, Kuwei.

So let's start with the obvious, three of the four are Grisha. Obviously not all Grisha are queer, but all the Grisha in the party are. This gives them an automatic plotline of "hide who you are".

It could be said that since Nina is Ravkan she wasn't raised that way, and no, she wasn't. However since leaving Ravka she has been forced to hide for her safety, and not only that but she is frequently told she's "too much" which sounds a lot to me like what some people say about queer people when they think queer people should be less queer. Also Matthias is all about being "traditional" and "proper" and Nina's whole thing is that she is neither. Traditional and proper sound a lottttt like some people's arguments to be homophobic.

Jesper's I think is rather obvious. His father has a clear concern for his son being Grisha since it can put your life at risk. In Jesper's argument with his dad he goes off and asks his dad why did he never let him go to Ravka where he could be himself and learn about himself and his powers. Oh not to mention the fact that him and his dad talk around him being Grisha like it's some sort of virus that can be caught by simply speaking the word.

Kuwei's took a second to hit me but when it did I was like "ah yep, makes sense" and this is probably because it took me a hot second to realize Kuwei was queer. Yeah, apparently him being jealous that Jesper only looked at Wylan a certain way didn't tip me off... ANYWAY THOUGH. Kuwei is also told to hide who he is, but his dad goes the extra length of literally making a drug to help him hide himself. Is it giving anyone else Dorian's dad from Dragon Age vibes??? Blood magic for the gay son???

FINALLY, I will talk about my baby, the character I love more than anything else. Wylan. Here's the thing about Wylan, while I was reading SOC I wasn't sure if homophobia existed in this world yet and I was half convinced that his dad disowned him because gay. While his dad obviously didn't do that, I still think at the end of the day it portrays an experience that is very similar. Wylan is shamed, hidden, and ultimately his dad tries to have him killed, all because he can't read. His dad loathes him over such a stupid reason, especially since Wylan is absolutely brilliant at tons of stuff and the cutest lil guy. But I think it's that hatred of his son over something so trivial that really lends itself to being about something else entirely, Wylan being queer.

All four of our queer characters in the main group have different plots, but ultimately they all circle around the idea of hiding who you are and being ashamed of who you are. That sounds like a very common queer experience if you ask me.

I don't know if this was intentional or just a huge coincidence. As a writer myself I am all too aware of how easily accidental metaphors and symbols can happen. But I think about it a lot as I'm reading so I wanted to shout about it either way. I also have no clue if this is a common idea or not, I just know when I pointed it out to my friends who had read the books prior, one of who loves and reads them yearly, they both kinda went "oh damn, you right," but didn't see it before I mentioned it.

Anyway, if I missed things (or you wanna yell at me about how wrong I am, which is usually the more likely option) I'd love to know thoughts :)

AND BONUS THOUGHTS

This one is super obvious but I just wanna say it. Jesper is ADHD and no one will change my mind in the history of ever. This man cannot sit still, has been described as having limitless energy, and he seeks constant immediate gratification in the form of gambling and adrenalin rushes. COME ON MAN. I know I know, there's a lore reason, something something Grisha not using magic blah blah. No. No. He is ADHD and you cannot tell me otherwise. And I love him dearly.

Also, not a theory or anything but, y'all, I love Wylan so much. I just wanna give him a hug and a lollipop and tell him it's okay. He's so cute.