something you all need to understand about this blog, is that it is my madcap personal diary scrapbook thing like when i was 10 and developed an overwhelming obsession for bayern munich despite having zero other interest in sports or football and then handmade zines about all its players for no reason whatsoever. i develop new interests, i put down my most ill-considered and hasty thoughts, i put down my most considered and well thought out ones. its a mixed bag and if that’s not for you, then mayhaps we ought to part ways
i make a point of tagging rigorously bc i believe there are enough tools for people to curate their experiences online! some of the common tags are underneath the cut - block them if you don’t want to see them, or scroll. asks are always open, but please remember that i am a real person with a 3d experience of the world that doesn’t all appear on this blog: just like you.
I also do regularly check the blogs following me aren’t spam or suspicious blogs. If you have an empty blog with nothing to indicate there’s a real person behind the blog, I’m going to block you.
You can also find me on dreamwidth, bluesky & pillowfort at the same handle. Mutuals, friends & folks I’ve chatted with please feel free to drop me a line on tumblr chat for my discord handle. If you're wondering what in fresh hell my url is supposed to mean: here's an explainer.
I do not reblog donation posts, except for those vetted & requested by personal friends or mutuals.
Currently very deep in a Tolkien pit.
Tags for blocking: personal, the vaguest of vagueblogs, star wars, star wars thotz, my meta, indpol, living that capitalist lyf, god gave rock and roll to you, silm, tolkien, lotr, silm thotz, politics, current events, long post, wank for ts, my fic, my fic meme
Other recurring tags to block/filter: replies, anonymous asks, ask meme, we will all fry together when we fry (serious climate change tag), pending environment tag, hashtag third world gothic, left stuff, development things, imperialism, neoimperialism, american imperialism, colonialism, debt tyranny, just another day in the field, psych stuff, gender stuff, anthropological sorcery, fandom things
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there’s been some recent discussion re: race and Tolkien and fandom and I just wanted to anonymously thank you for your part in those really nuanced and thoughtful takes. (This also applies to balrogballs who doesn’t have anon on last I checked but I really really appreciated both your posts on the subject!) I’m a fan of colour – ethnically Indian and living in the UK – who has gone to some pains to Never reveal my race on tumblr partly because I know exactly what this “liberal” fandom is capable of lol. And yeah idk if I have any clear point here but I just wanted to thank you and balls both for being willing to have the discussion and call out white fans who deify Tolkien bc it really does mean a lot to me and I am sure others in my position as well ❤️ idk if I will ever be willing to “come out” as brown online so to speak which also kind of hobbles my own ability to speak about race in the Tolkien fandom so thank you!
💖💖💖💖💖💖🫂🫂🫂🫂
if there's one reason I am insistent about talking about race in fandom, its because I've seen, over the past decade and a half, the ways in which white liberal fandoms can become isolating and painful spaces for fans of colour - and crucially, enforce norms that make fans of colour question and second guess their experiences and encounters with racism, either diminishing it or trying to rationalise it as something else. It's an extremely unpleasant experience and by god, it is about time that experience was named and fans of colour got to feel less profoundly alone and insane in poring over these interactions and experiences.
Anyway! I totally understand why you don't want to "out" yourself! The only thing I'll say is that I hope more fans also talk abt race, racialisation and experiences in Tolkien fandom - not just as fans of colour, but that white fans also take the time to do so in a way that's engaged and thoughtful. The more people talk about it and name experiences, the less these things are allowed to fester or be swept under the carpet. Tho frankly, I get it man, I really get it. I am grateful to all the people (esp @balrogballs) who talk abt race re. Tolkien, bc wow is it a profoundly thankless and frankly uphill job given the givens. I hope we can all have a less isolating experience in this fandom and really, ideally, a fun and iddy experience sans restriction and nitpicking and self-censorship!!!!!
“Down with the dark forces of colonialism!”, Belgrade, Serbia, 1961. Photographed by Tomislav Peternek
After the murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961, demonstrations were held in Serbia as a sign of protest, which turned into riots. As many as 150,000 demonstrators gathered on the streets of Belgrade and 25,000 in Subotica.
Demonstrators carried pictures of Lumumba and signs saying “Death to colonialism” and “Freedom for subjugated nations”. A group of protesters broke away and attacked the Belgian embassy, which they demolished and hung Lumumba’s picture on with the inscription: “Glory to the fighter for the freedom and peace of African people”, and set fire to all the embassy’s vehicles.
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just started these old shades, my first georgette heyer, which made me curious what you think is the best place to start with her like how you answered a similar question with le carre
WHAT A GREAT QUESTION
My answer to this question varies depending on how a) acquainted you are with the regency romcom as a genre and b) Regency England as a period of history. Accordingly -
IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE REGENCY OR REGENCY ROMCOMS
Frederica - lots of classic Heyer hijinx at its best, with an eminently lovable heroine and one of her better heroes. This is kidfic at heart, but the kids are so delightfully naughty, they're endearing. Beware the age gap, if that bothers you. Personally, it adds a frisson of sexiness to me.
Sprig Muslin - again, more Heyer hijinx at its best, in a spiritually kidfic novel except the kids are all teenagers. If you are 30 or 40 years old and too old for this, you will have great fun siding with the 34/29 year olds having their own quiet romance in the background.
Arabella - more classically regency romcom ft. a delightful comedy of errors, starting with the hero of the tale being snobbish and the heroine deciding to take him down by pretending to be rich. Rescue dogs, dissipated brothers and orphan children abound.
Cotillion - CLASSIC fake dating, ft. a truly unforgettable and ridiculous cast of characters, convoluted schemes, hilarious mishaps, a poorly attempted elopement and maybe the only sexy Heyer dad to be set on page.
Friday's Child - marriage of convenience cum fake dating setup, in which our hero and heroine marry so the hero can access his inheritance and the heroine can escape her drudge of a family. She's 17 and hero worships him! He's 24 and selfish! His friends are 24 and range between not very bright and extremely mercurial! All kinds of hijinx ensue before the tangle of lovers sort themselves out and our hero does some growing up.
The Corinthian - this one of the entries in Heyer's accidental homoeroticism genre ft. a proto-transmasc hero(ine) / our eponymous "corinthian" i.e. dissipated sporting gentleman. Danny Lavery does a far better sales pitch than I do over here.
A guide to other Heyers arranged roughly by genre/taste underneath the cut, which I realise goes above and beyond this ask, but I started writing this up so what the hell -
YOU'RE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH THE REGENCY & REGENCY ROMCOMS
The Unknown Ajax - classic Heyer hijinx, but this time with a satirical bent on the snobbery, ignorance and the prejudices of the aristocracy, along with detours into Customs and smuggling in Kent. The denouement of this novel is I think one of THE greatest Heyer setpieces ever. Extremely funny, with a peak Heyer stock cast.
False Colours - a twin roleswap comedy of errors re. love, but one of the more sophisticated Heyer's in its examination of family and marriage dynamics and the perennial problem of money, especially for widowed women; while still being a delightful farce.
Sylvester, or, The Wicked Uncle - delightfully tongue in cheek look at the lady novelist in high society, but also a sharp look at class, consequence & self-regard in the uppermost ranks of the aristocracy, society foibles and hypocrisies and a portrait of familial abuse/control that touched me on reread a couple of years ago.
Faro's Daughter - deeply funny farce about class, respectability, gender and money set in/around a high society London gaming hell and I think probably the closest Heyer has ever come to writing anything like enemies-to-lovers (they really do insist on battling it out like honourable gentlemen, at various points in the tale; its delightful)
The Foundling - this is really more a comedy of errors adventure story than anything, with a truly ridiculous cast and even more ridiculous series of events. However, it also to me is an extremely acute portrait of like...helicopter family behaviour and how stunting that is, but also how much agency people do have despite that, besides a very gentle and tender love story that would be quite Austen-esque, if the plot wasn't as farcical lol.
The Grand Sophy - ok look there are truly eyewatering amounts of antisemitism in this one, so if you pick it up, please be aware that you're going to encounter a truly gruesomely antisemitic caricature of a moneylender. However, Sophy is truly the girl blorbo of all time and this is Heyer hijinx at its absolute best.
The Convenient Marriage - I'm biased here, but I love this one. Literally what it says on the lid, ft. detours through scheming rakes and ex-mistresses, elaborate revenge schemes, duels, attempted kidnapping & sexual assault foiled by one very indomitable lady, a masquerade, and attempted highway robbery before our leads can be united in love. Our heroine's brother and his absurd friends are really the standout to me in this tbh. Though again be warned and mind the age gap (17/35)
April Lady - this is essentially a retelling of The Convenient Marriage, but I think with the more sophisticated sense of theme and depth to the characters, especially to the married couple and their fraught emotions about the question of love and money - does she love him or his money, does he love her or is he resentful because she's spendthrift. The revenge scheme here is replaced by a headstrong teenager who wants to marry the dullest man in the world.
YOU LOVE HIGH CAMP MELODRAMA & 18th CENTURY GOTHIC
These Old Shades - Heyer's Georgian novels in general are very melodramatic & this one truly has everything. Kidnapping! Dramatic escapes! Children swapped at birth! Inheritance schemes! Gender swaps! Revenge! Suicide! Dramatic outfits of revenge! And a truly unforgettable, delightful cast to carry it all out.
The Masqueraders - another proto-transmasc novel! This time we have false identities, gender swaps, reclaiming inheritances, duels, con artist dads, Jacobites and the spectre of treason. No dramatic revenge outfits, but there is a very romantic moonlit horseback ride of escape.
The Black Moth - look, Tracy Belmanoir is Justin Duke of Avon i.e. Satanas before Satanas existed. His foil ofc is the son of an Earl turned highwayman, disowned after he cheated at cards. The point of contention is a respectable middle class girl, whom Tracy Belmanoir tries to kidnap. There obviously is a duel. There obviously is a triumphant reinstatement to rightful position.
The Talisman Ring - another disowned son! This time for "murder"! He is now a smuggler! But wait, he's been shot! And rescued by his cousin, who doesn't know they're related! This one straddles the line between a classic Heyer with hijinx and her more melodramatic Georgian novels, but I decided to put this here because this is basically 18th century gothic redone as comedy. EXTREMELY funny but also tongue in cheek abt its own dramatic nature.
The Devil's Cub - following the next gen. of These Old Shades, it starts off with a bang with a murder, a duel and a kidnapping and only proceeds from there. However, like The Talisman Ring it straddles the line between melodrama and romcom and ultimately resolves more in favour of romcom, though be warned it does take rakishness to its ultimate and ugly conclusion rather than it just being a vague spice.
YOU LOVE JANE AUSTEN
A Civil Contract - a marriage of convenience between a bankrupt viscount and a merchant's daughter. A really classic tale of navigating class, duty and love - probably, I think one of Heyer's most sophisticated meditations on love, class and comfort.
Bath Tangle - another thoughtful meditation of class, ranging between the merchant class, the gentry and the uppermost ranks of the aristocracy. Really thoughtful exploration, as well, of the differences in rank and how that shapes gender norms & tensions between lovers.
Venetia - just a really lovely and thoughtful exploration of class and gender again, the restrictiveness of social norms and their essential thwarting of happiness, how respectability is construed and maintained, but is also negotiable depending on rank and location, explored via romance with a rake.
The Nonesuch - candidly, I think this one straddles the line between an Austenesque exploration of class and gender via romance (and ofc the foibles of class and class snobbery, in Yorkshire society v. London society), and a classic Heyer tale of hijinx. A nice place to start if you want to dabble in Heyer but are suspicious of improbable non-realist tales.
The Black Sheep - okay again reccing with the caveat that this has truly eye-watering amounts of racism re. India, but AS AN INDIAN, I personally found it deeply hilarious to encounter these lurid constructions of race. If you're confident of your own POV, its fun to poke at how India exists in the imaginary here and how racialisation works. A more uncomplicatedly fun meditation on class and womanhood, family and duty to family by means of romance with a rake. You will also enjoy this if you are 30 or 40 years old and too old for this shit (i.e. high-strung teenagers and emotionally selfish family members)
YOU LOVE MYSTERIES
The Quiet Gentleman - a young man returns to claim his inheritance, to the disapproval of his stepmother and stepbrother. Then the murder attempts begin. Despite the murder attempts, quite a droll little novel and a rare Heyer with any look at Radical/Whig politics of the time.
The Reluctant Widow - a lady turned governess by circumstance gets embroiled in various schemes, including potentially high treason. Again, much funnier than the summary would suggest, though its not that hard to actually crack the mystery of what's what.
The Toll-Gate - a young captain fresh from the Napoleonic wars ends up embroiled in an affair of murder, highway robbery and attempted forced marriage. This isn't quite as funny as the previous two, but I think the characters have slightly more depth to them and while many Heyers hint at the fear of sexual violence a lot of upper class women are navigating, I think this is the one that takes this the most seriously.
Regency Buck - a largely classically Regency tale, however over the course of the novel a murder and forced marriage plot emerges and is foiled. I'm a bit ambivalent on this one, because on the one hand it is a delightful novel of manners, with fun detours on the difference in behaviour between the upper classes (gentry v. aristocracy v. royalty), the romance is kind of ehhhhh.
YOU LIKE ROMANCE IN YOUR MILITARY FICTION
An Infamous Army - on the eve of Waterloo, a young ADC to the Duke of Wellington falls in love with an Alistair. Somewhat of a sequel to These Old Shades & Regency Buck. However really speaking, this is all a reason for Heyer to write an extensive and loving description of the Battle of Waterloo that is immensely historically accurate. If you enjoyed Victor Hugo's Waterloo interlude, this might be for you!
The Spanish Bride - I haven't read this one personally, but I'm including it for completionist purposes. It's set during the Peninsular Wars and is based on the diaries of a real soldier, however the romance is between a 25 year old and a 14 year old.
YOU LIKE HOMOEROTIC HISTORICAL FICTION
The Great Rhoxhythe - have you ever read a homoerotic John le Carre novel and thought, wow you know what would complete this is if it was set during the reign of King Charles II and was about court corruption and France and Catholicism? No you probably haven't, but you want to read this one anyway. Extremely tragic, extremely homoerotic and full of homoerotic heartbreak. 11/10.
The Conqueror - I have not read this one personally but my fellow Heyer appreciator @glintglimmergleam confirms it is indeed an homoerotic take on William I's conquest of England, though it lapses later on in the tale.
AMBIVALENTLY ENJOYABLE NOVELS
Powder & Patch - I'll be frank, its been literal years since I've read this novel and I have no idea how it stands up. From what I do recollect, it was a very enjoyable Georgian era romance, but with 90% less melodrama compared to the others. More a novel of Georgian era manners; I would personally compare it more to Sheridan than melodramatic 18th century novels.
Lady of Quality - explores very similar themes to The Black Sheep, with a similar love interest of rude & libertine propensities. The romance is fine, but I do think again this is a thoughtful portrait of gender, class and family life for spinster women approaching their 30s in Regency Bath & more enjoyable in that regard, rather than as a romance.
Charity Girl - this is a breezy retread of Cotillion, but is not as funny and not particularly all that much more thoughtful and deep as, say, April Lady is compared to The Convenient Marriage.
ANTIREC
Cousin Kate - extremely tedious attempt at a gothic novel and laughably bad. The opening chapters are interesting in its portrait of the dilemmas of an impecuniary upper class woman, particularly in surviving as a governess/companion and the liminality of that position. Afterwards, simply not worth reading.
There are also her other historical novels, which I haven't read as yet, oops.
But Michael, you say, what about the SEXINESS. What about the ROMANCE. What about the EROTICISM. Well, here are the top 10 emotionally horny Heyers, in my onion:
Something I had to unlearn: giving your character a tragic backstory is not the same as giving them a wound. A backstory is just information. A wound is the thing that makes them flinch at something totally unrelated fifteen chapters later and the reader goes "oh." If the backstory doesn't leave a nerve ending somewhere in the present-day plot, cut it. Nobody needs the trauma. They need the flinch.
Celegorm isn't dog-coded at all, he's falcon-coded. Predatory (symbolic association with warfare), carnivorous (not a scavenger), aristocratic & inherently connected to hunting but also not immediately at the top of the hierarchy like the eagle (ref. medieval hierarchy of raptors). Additionally, while often solitary & not a pack animals, falcons often pair-bond; their loyalty exists in a complex of being less servile/conditioned and more pragmatic/pathological.
In a sense you can think of Oromë as the falconer and Fëanor as the falcon's owner who sends him out to hunt & kill for him.
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you know like for the past five or six years i gave my parents a lot of grace for like being wretched abt me coming out as trans and put it down to them having to get over their conservatism. however, they are literally right now the only people in my life, INCLUDING DEEPLY CONSERVATIVE CHURCH PEOPLE, who are acting like i am personally persecuting them by exercising adult autonomy to move out and adopt a kitten in a way that's like implying somehow i am being godless and hasty and taking too many risks in doing so and also do i even love them anymore. literally the only people in my life who are annoyed and upset by this instead of delighted and excited about the cat - my mother straight up was like, ugh you can bring the thing here for a few days - and asking me questions abt the kitten, like, literally no questions, no interest from them whatsoever. and like, let me tell you, it is making me reconsider a lot of things about them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok there’s been enough reblogs from enough people on enough various posts of mine that now i need to stand up for the bitches who don’t fuck of the world. people aren’t writing bad smut because of a lack of having sex. they are writing it because a lot of people have very poor visualization skills and forget halfway through what position characters are supposed to be in, or don’t understand what makes a word a good or bad choice, or can’t create compelling dynamics. i promise that even the sexually inactive, by virtue of also existing within the human form, would know that if you’re behind someone you can’t lick their nipple. and i promise that the frequently sexually active are equally prone to using the word “mewled.” i can pretty much guarantee that having a lot of sex and writing good sex scenes are unrelated. do you think your favorite horror authors are cutting people up in their basements. do you think your favorite food critics are michelin chefs. do you think the people blocking cool combat scenes in movies are routinely getting into cage fights. no they just understand how to utilize tone, pacing, momentum, and the tools of film direction, while keeping action tied to character. like believe it or not this is simply a skill like everything else. idk i always think that that point of view shows a lack of understanding of what makes a sex scene work. it removes the craft of it in a way i find short-sighted. i think people are confused about the reason teenagers are writing bad sex scenes. it’s not because they’re not fucking, it’s because they are young and haven’t had the years to hone their writing craft the way someone older has.
Hiroshima, August 6, 1945
Nagasaki, August 9, 1945
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document 1961 (ヒロシマ・ナガサキの記録), (hard cover, cloth, with case, leaflet (Japanese), booklet (English, 54 pages)), Japan Council Against the 'A' and 'H' Bombs, Tokyo, 1961 [Komiyama Tokyo, Tokyo. Burnside Rare Books, Portland, OR]
Preface: Hideki Yukawa
Photography: Juichi Nagano, Ken Domon, Shogo Nagaoka, Teruaki Tomatsu, Torahiko Ogawa, Yoshito Matsushige, Yuichiro Sasaki, Hayashi Camera Shop, Nagasaki Photo Service
Painting: Iri Maruki, Toshiko Maruki
Layout and Design: Kiyoshi Awazu, Kohei Sugiura, and Kazunobu Shimura
beatrice muchadoaboutnothing is a trans woman: a brief treatise
thematically, i think in a play about the social vulnerability of women, having a character be a trans woman just makes sense as a way to provide depth to that idea. specifically, i love the concept of beatrice's view of men being informed by her own experiences as a closeted trans woman (it's amazing what people will say in front of you when they think you're one of them) and as someone later facing sexism and transmisgoyny.
usually when someone does a trans reading of this play/character, they look at beatrice's famous speech about wishing she was a man and interpret her as a trans man, which is perfectly valid! but this idea started for me with the simple thought that i wanted an out and accepted trans character to play with rather than a closeted one who cannot transition, just as a matter of personal preference at that particular time and with this particular text. but then i kept thinking.
as above, the concept of beatrice reading men for filth in the context of having lived among them is great. the "oh god that i were a man" speech is extremely disparaging of men and what they claim to be vs how they actually wield their power. what she wishes is that she had the power that men have automatically in her society--felt all the more keenly because there was a time when she was able to wield that power and she gave it up to be happy, to be herself, to be free in a different way. (here is where i sometimes imagine beatrice regretting ever transitioning, believing that her own happiness and health is less important than having the power to protect hero's happiness and health, because i love angst.) but now that the worst has happened, she is reduced to begging a man for help and it's demeaning and infuriating and tragic.
i also love turning on its head the line "i cannot be a man with wishing, therefore i will die a woman with grieving." being a trans person, dealing with internalized transphobia, knowing that transitioning will put a target on your back, wishing you could just be the gender you're born as--but no amount of wishing will make her not a woman. i think she loves herself and her gender but the play is focusing on points of conflict so that's what i'm talking about here.
in a play about misogyny, the vulnerability of women, and the hypocrisy of men, a trans woman has a unique perspective on both masculinity and femininity both as genders and places in society. (in the ideal version, i think john would be a trans man to mirror this experience, but that would require him to be rewritten to have actual depth and personality and all that is a different essay). there is also just a particular kind of strength that comes from having to carve out and defend your identity in that way which i think fits her very well.
lastly, a couple of other miscellaneous things from the text that can tie in:
beatrice recounting "a double heart for his single one" meaning both "i loved him twice as much as he loved me" and "i loved him as two people: [birthname] and beatrice"
benedick insisting he wouldn't marry her even if "she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed." Adam, not Eve. in MY illustrious opinion, this is benedick saying "i don't care HOW big her dick is i'm NOT gonna marry her."
finally updating this with some more thoughts, mainly prompted by this post from @butchhamlet! (And there are some other great thoughts about trans readings of this play here!)
[Beatrice is] an unmarried woman dependent upon the hospitality of her uncle. This is the same position that Rosalind in As You Like It occupies at the court of her uncle, Duke Frederick, but there marriage is not the constant topic of conversation—and, of course, Rosalind manages to make her escape, together with her cousin Celia. In Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice and Hero are the young women of the household, and it is expected that they will marry.
[...]
Beatrice is not an heiress [...and] her position is more precarious than Hero's. [...This] will return, more vividly and painfully, after the humiliation of Hero, when Beatrice longs to revenge her cousin and must instead enlist Benedick's aid to fight with Claudio: "O God that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market place" (4.1.303-304). It is worth noting that in other Shakespearean comedies of this period the heroine does become a man, at least for a little while. Portia, Rosalind, and Viola all cross-dress, assuming male costumes and names in order to perform some act of rescue, release, or revenge. But Beatrice has this option only in the wishful form of a condition contrary to fact. Much Ado About Nothing is a play that engages topics like male bonding and female disempowerment, for all the powerful figures in Messina are men.
—Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All
This is such a great point because women disguising themselves as men is such a hallmark of Shakespeare's comedies! And this is a play about, in many ways, the various masks we wear--and yet Beatrice's desire to hold the position of a man (power) is the subject of a tragic and impassioned speech rather than a lark of crossdressing. In Much Ado, that gender boundary is utterly impassible; which sets us up in a very interesting way for a trans reading.
Because in this reading, Beatrice DID transcend that divide, which is exactly why she can't do it again. The pressure for her to perform femininity is all the higher because she has to "prove" and "earn" her place as a woman. She doesn't get to masquerade as a man and have a funny little adventure. Her being brash and outspoken is already pushing it.
Or, to look at it from the other direction: Beatrice already spent half her life dressed up as a man, pretending to be one. The play is now set in a time where, narratively, that opportunity has passed. That plot arc has already happened. That trick won't work a second time.
I think there is a parallel to Lady Macbeth here--another woman begging a man to do violence for her. But in Macbeth that desire is largely selfish, while in Much Ado it is to serve the protection of another woman. So often in Shakespeare, it is the women who get shit done, who take things into their own hands (sometimes, but not always, via crossdressing) so when a woman can't do that it feels significant and intentional. Beatrice is such a strong character and yet still helpless in the face of gendered power dynamics.
Masculinity in Much Ado is also very linked to credibility, which is another reason the ol' crossdress maneuver wouldn't work. It's not just about gendered power dynamics, but also class. Who outranks who? Who has had favor conferred upon them by a prince? Who has their masculinity revoked for being too young or too old or too dumb?
We see this perhaps most keenly in Act 5 scene 1. First, a confrontation between Leonato and Antonio vs Pedro and Claudio. Antonio is enraged and questions their masculinity, calling them cowards and pale imitations of men for their actions against Hero; when they leave and Benedick arrives, Claudio jokes about how "two old men without teeth" tried to fight them.
And then Benedick rebuffs their attempts at joking around and issues his challenge to Claudio. Immediately they seek to undermine his masculinity. Claudio is like "isn't it wild how he's questioning my masculinity lol" and Pedro launches into a made-up story about Beatrice talking shit about him, including innuendo about her saying Bene has a small dick. Knowing that Benedick is in love with her, they tease him about getting cucked (which, in fairness, he talked about at length earlier in the play). Benedick's parting words refer to Claudio as "lord lackbeard" which is definitely a reference to his youth and probably also implying he's too young to be a "real" man. At no point do Claudio and Pedro take this seriously; this confrontation becomes less about Hero and more about dick-measuring. Indeed, the reason Claudio is so incensed to begin with is that Hero cucking him is an insult to his (extremely fragile) masculinity. By punishing her so spectacularly, he is re-establishing his credibility as a man.
(This is also why I tend to read John as trans--despite his rank, he is an outsider and his masculinity doesn't "count" the same way everyone else's seems to.)
There's definitely more here, but I'm still chewing on it.
i love this post and i love imagining how social transitioning could have worked for her - i am rereading the play with the reading of beatrice as an out trans woman, and it gives such an edge to all the interactions where people talk about how merry she is.
No, uncle, I’ll none: Adam’s sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.
so did transitioning also lock her into perpetual spinsterhood? like okay she surrendered all her legal and financial privileges so of course she can't be a husband, but to be a wife to a man would still have some sin to it? or at least she says so, and probably she means it, but like simultaneously it's the safer way to be, letting her continue her social role as unsexed funnywoman. who is very desirable regardless! but god, so so careful with distancing herself from it.
that all also works if she's cis but not quite marriage material (an illness? a romantic past with benedick? something worse?) but i like this specific tightrope for her, especially with how quickly and beautifully she and benedick tumble right off of that rope.
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As it turns out, there was such a thing as Culturally/Politically Topical Embroidery on Men’s Waistcoats. It started post-1783, but, for obvious reasons, gained steam post-1789. Some had a bust of Rousseau (or Voltaire, depending on which side in that particular argumentative fandom one took) embroidered on theirs, some had scenes from the theatrical comedies they liked, some had symbols of the unity of three estates of the nation against the royal despotism, such as the episcopal crook, the sword, and the spade bundled together in a sheaf.
Some just went for slogans, such as “vaincre ou mourir” (victory or death).
The decline and fall of this fashion craze came in about 1792, when the Journal de la mode et du goût reported men's waistcoats had become almost universally red ("gilets presque tous rouges"), and that the journal had virtually stopped describing men's fashion because it had ceased to change.
Which is a shame. I vote to bring politically snarky waistcoats back.
