#ruffa alving-olin

[kattahj]

A bit of lesbian/queer representation in history:

This is a collection of newspaper columns by Barbro Alving, published in 1953 in Sweden. Her pen name was Käringen mot strömmen ("the old lady against the stream," after an old folk tale), and the title of the book is "Hemmakväll" = evening at home.

While Barbro wrote under a pen name (two, actually, the other one was "Bang", which she used for serious articles) she wasn't anonymous, people knew who she was. That's her in the blue chair. The woman sewing is her life partner, Loyse Sjöcrona, nicknamed "Viran" in the columns, and the younger woman is her daughter Ruffa. The dog is called Bongo, and they also had a housekeeper named Signe Andersson (not pictured).

The exact nature of Barbro's and Loyse's relationship is debatable – Ruffa has later claimed that it started out sexual, but was platonic by the time she was born. On one hand, she ought to know. On the other, don't we all shy away from the thought of our parents having sex? *g*

Either way, they lived together for 47 years, starting when Ruffa was two, and Barbro was as openly a butch wlw as anyone could be in 1953.

And while there's a bit of angsting in her teen diaries ("God has no right to make me like this, half man, half woman") she seems remarkably secure in her identity later on – and her audience were fine with it. Just as they accepted her as an unmarried mom (after a hookup in 1938), they accepted the unusual family. And the columns, cosy little stories of everyday life, are full of stories about "Viran".

In this particular collection, she even complains that the housing politics doesn't take into account families such as hers, and that a bunch of people might need to live together without being a traditional nuclear family.

"We are two working women and a schoolgirl and a housekeeper and a dog. It is, humanly speaking, a very vital family formation. I can't do without the child; without her I can't imagine my existance. The child can't do without Viran; without her she would have been lost at sea (because mother is literally travelling at sea and on trains). Viran with her professional work can't do without the housekeeper; without her she would overexert herself and become a beautiful corpse. And none of us can do without the little dog, because he's so sweet."

It's easy to think it was all doom and gloom in the past, partly because of the laws (homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness at that point) but also because of media. But there were also little pockets of love like this one.

(Note 1: Barbro's work as a serious reporter with the pen name "Bang" is remarkable and includes such things as reporting from the Spanish civil war while six months pregnant, but that's for some other time.)

(Note 2: If you wonder about the name "Ruffa", it started out as a baby nickname, which in turn started out as the hypothetical name of the third head of a two-headed tortoise, as imagined by Barbro and a friend one drunken night in their youth. The name was never meant to get stuck, but Ruffa kept using it all her life, even professionally.)

[kattahj]

I've been reading "Let Him Go" reviews seeing what they say about Booboo Stewart, and while many reviewers don't mention his acting at all, those who do are generally positive. (Republic Times,  AZCentral, Forbes, KGUN, Flickreel, Indiewire, The Wrap, Deadline, Slant (which hated the rest of the film), Eminetra, Reel James, and probably more that I haven’t seen.) The only criticism I’ve seen concerning his character has been about the writing, not the performance. So that’s good!

And then there’s the (spoilery) review where one of the reviewers thinks that this was a weird subplot to include and his husband/co-reviewer gets distracted by Booboo’s name:

Nick: ...And Booboo Stewart, who plays Peter Dragswolf...

Joseph: Booboo... The character's name is Booboo Stewart? 

Nick: No, the actor.

Joseph: Oh, wow.

Nick: He's the Native... He's the Indigenous character that they befriend and...

Joseph: How do they spell Booboo? 

Nick: B-O-O-B-O-O.

Joseph: Oh my God!

Nick: He's been in a lot of stuff.

Joseph: I like that name, it's funny.

LOL! We’ve all been there. :-) Personally I’ve gone from “that is the worst name” to “that is the best name” because I like to hear him say it.

As for the rest of the film, I still can’t tell whether I’d like it or not, but since it won’t be screening here in the foreseeable future I guess it doesn’t matter.