Drama Chick Rhapsody

and i can’t stop thinking about it. i’ve always considered beauty and the beast to be one of the darkest films in the disney canon, as well as its most beautiful. it’s entirely about monsters, about the ways that people are determined to be wrong and dangerous: there’s the beast alone in his castle in the forest, and belle mocked and sneered at by her village, and even maurice carted off to an asylum. 

and that it was written and conceived of in part by a gay man who, according to his sister, trained himself out of “effeminate” physical mannerisms when he was young because he was bullied for them, and who as he wrote it was dying of an incredibly stigmatized illness— like, god. 

i mean when you just listen to those songs he wrote, the mob song (“the beast is] set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite / he’ll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free”), belle (“it’s a pity and a sin / she doesn’t quite fit in”)— and there was a cut song, human again, where the castle servants looked forward to rejoining the world.

like it’s obviously queer, but more than that, it’s the self-identification and self-validation of a man who knew this was this work was probably his last. at the end of the film, the beast is so sad, has succumbed entirely to despair and death. his society is coming to destroy him, and he can’t even be angry, because he doesn’t have anything left. but then he does. and he is still precious, and his life is still meaningful. he’s a person, and he can be loved. he can find happiness.

in the original beauty and the beast, the beast proposes marriage to belle every night and it’s her acquiescence that breaks the spell. in the disney movie, the beast only waits for belle to love him, because he cannot love himself. it’s such an unexpected blessing for both belle and the beast that they can find acceptance in each other, after both are so othered and dehumanized by their communities. their vulnerable joy in each other and themselves is so important, and their love song so wonderingly sweet. at the end, it is only when someone loves and accepts you that you stop being a monster. 

But like, thematically it’s also just fundamentally super fucking gay in a way I’m still trying to articulate.

Part of it is in the religious oppression narrative. And it’s in the found family vibe. It’s in Catra trying to assure Shadow Weaver that it’s “just a phase” when Adora first defects from the horde. It’s in the princesses forming a literal rainbow when they work together at the end of season one. It’s Bow “coming out” as a rebel fighter to his two dads.

It’s in Adora’s narrative of being told her whole life to deny her own needs and desires, like that part in season five when Shadow Weaver is trying to convince her that Catra is a distraction? And that Catra will always be a dangerous and corrupting influence on her? But then her vision of Mara tells her that she deserves to have love. 

It’s in Adora initially being mislead to believe Mara was a monster when she was actually a freedom fighter who refused to submit to her predestined path.

And it’s in Catra’s angry repressed… everything. On a subtextual level everything about Catra’s narrative reads like an angry abused gay teenager whose disconnect with her own feelings has turned both self destructive and outwardly destructive. And then in season 5 when she’s brainwashed/converted by horde prime and tells Adora she’s finally at peace and free from feeling anything about her. Like. THE SUBTEXT.

And then also the way Adora/Catra are paralleled to Spinerella/Netossa in season 5. And Spinerella’s line, when she’s first revealed to be possessed, that’s something like “it’s a pity we can’t be together in the light of horde prime”. Which like, obviously refers to the fact that no individual relationships of any kind get to exist, period, under his rule because nobody gets to be an individual. But, again, the subtext. The layer of meaning there that wouldn’t exist if they were a straight couple.

But then the thing that saves the ENTIRE UNIVERSE is Adora and Catra finally accepting their love for each other (and turning into a LITERAL RAINBOW when they kiss).

And just the whole emphasis on supposed imperfections and impurities being people’s greatest strengths. It’s just.

1. how long have you known you liked girls?

2. talk about the girl who made you realise you liked girls

3. are you in a relationship at the moment?

4. do you have a crush at the moment?

5. describe your crush!

6. do you tend to like more masculine, feminine, or androgynous girls?

7. do you look/dress more masculine, feminine, or androgynous?

8. what’s your gaydar like?

9. tall girls or short girls?

10. intimidating girls or kind girls?

11. hugs or kisses?

12. do you have an ideal ‘type’? what would they be like?

13. what’s your favourite personality trait of yours?

14. what’s your favourite personality trait for a girl to have?

15. what’s the best thing about liking girls?

16. do you have any friends who are wlw?

17. have you ever been to pride? if so, what was your first pride like?

18. do you like the lesbian flag?

19. what was your first kiss with a girl like?

20. who was your celebrity/fictional gay awakening?

21. what’s your favourite lgbt+ movie?

22. who’s your favourite openly wlw celebrity?

23. do you wear makeup?

24. who was the first person you came out to (if you have)?

25. has anyone ever come out to you?

26. have you found a community of lgbt+ people?

27. do you have any older lgbt+ people you look up to?

28. do you identify with butch/femme labels?

29. who’s your favourite fictional wlw?

RE-UPLOADED BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL HAD A TYPO

What Your Favorite Avatar Ship Says About You (Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra)

Transcription below the cut

Tell It To The Bees (2018)