#antigone

think of the one oedipus play we do have that no one reads or understands cause it has no gore and sex, but demonstrates how self-forgiveness breaks a truama-bonded distortion of time.

She embodies ideas that are typically reserved for what society considers "masculine." She's allowed a soldier's mindset. Country, Piety (Filial and Divine), Fraternity, Freedom, all of these rank above her longing for children or a husband. It does not cross her mind until she is about to die and even then it is more a mark of how young she is than it is a regret. She even goes as far to say that she would never have done what she did for a husband or a child because they can be replaced, she cannot replace her brother.

I don't know, as someone who has never felt any interest in marriage or children, who also values family and country and honor and fraternity and freedom above those things, as someone who was socialized female and still navigates the world as such most of the time (both by my own choice and for safety), it's exceedingly fulfilling to see such a mindset depicted in a character that isn't male. Especially in an ancient.

I very rarely have found a female character who doesn't somewhere in the text struggle with marriage and the want (or express disinterest which is pushed back against by the narrative or other characters) of children. Antigone is celebrated or admonished for her rashness not her lack of perceived femininity.

It is her perceived femininity that causes Creon to underestimate her. She ascends that artificial box that people try to define her by, to restrict her actions within. She exists as a person with feelings that are human and undefined by gender. Her rage isn't "feminine". Her life isn't defined by her gender. She is. And she is allowed to be.

It's a character type I struggle to find anywhere else. Shakespeare's women are constantly dealing with this, which is why I tend to swing for male roles. Even the ones that desire power, like Lady Macbeth, are couched within the context of their husbands and oftentimes struggle with the want or need for children.

I'm just tired of male characters being the only people who experience these sorts of things. We are all human. These aren't "masculine" experiences, they belong to all of humanity.

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Final thoughts

Sorry for the gender binary of it all but my experience with queer art is much more nuanced than I can manage to express in this and additionally is still not proportional in terms of representation as it should be.

Additionally, before I get comments about my gender identity, I'm Genderqueer and I'm comfortable within that label. I don't reject femininity I just don't align with the marriage and kids part of it society has affixed to it and I think I pretty heavy handedly proved I'm tired of the rejection of that being THE main plot point for female characters. Additionally, I don't want to be a man, trust me I've done the thought experiments when I was figuring out my identity. I'm a human being. As I said in a YouTube comment once, my gender identity is the belief that we as humans are all equals, free to choose how we perform our gender.

This is also NOT a bashing of female characters who want children or husbands or the traditional roles assigned to them, this is me wanting more representation of how I and others experience the world. The thoughts can coexist.