(no subject)
rymenhild asked me for my top five feisty cross-dressed girls, because Rym knows me very well and is aware that I collect cross-dressed girl narratives like some people collect stamps. Which, again, makes these decisions very difficult!
5. Djaq, BBC Robin Hood
See, the thing is, if you weren't aware, the BBC Robin Hood series was kind of ridiculous. And I watched the first two seasons enjoying everything pretty much 100% ironically . . . EXCEPT DJAQ. Djaq, I loved with a whole heart: yes, she was the most hilariously obvious girl-disguised-as-a-boy I've yet seen on TV (for which I blame the series' costumer, but then, I blame the costumer for a LOT OF THINGS) but she was awesome and sarcastic and sensible - whenever she got lines, which admittedly was increasingly less common as the series got increasingly more focused on Robin's manpain - and when she left the show, I quit it. I mean, there were other reasons. But mostly it was Djaq.
(It was a fight for this slot between Djaq and Cecily, the cross-dressed girl from Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood, but Djaq won because thre are actually images of her, and I am shallow. But Cecily was also pretty awesome, and a large part of the reason that McKinley's is still my favorite adaptation.)
4. Rosalind, As You Like It
Rosalind is the reason that As You Like It is my favorite Shakespeare play. She's funny, she's clever, she totally passes the Bechdel test and hilariously stomps up and down on tropes of romantic tragedy; I don't blame Celia for being totally in love with her. I am totally in love with her, although, as I actually read the play before I ever saw it, I've never yet seen a version that did justice to the one in my head. But this is the first image I found when I went google searching, and I quite like the looks of this Rosalind, so she stays. (Let's not even talk about the Branagh version. Even aside from the racefail, how do you make As You Like It, which is an incredibly sparkling play, feel slow?)
3. Kurai, Angel Sanctuary
Only Kaori Yuki could come up with Kurai: super-adorable adolescent crossdressing demon princess who will totally eat human beings she doesn't like, on a mission to rescue the badass lady angel of her dreams, who subsequently has to deal with confusion about her sexuality when the lady angel turns out to have been reincarnated as a dorkfaced teenaged boy. I knew I loved Kurai with all my heart from the moment when she gave God the finger and told him he'd be sorry for messing with a bunch of stubborn idiots like them!
2. Mulan, Disney
I know Disney's Mulan is far from perfect or faithful to the original story, but . . . Mulan! She's so sensible and determined and heroic, and I love her kind of a lot, even if she does have the magical property of instantly growing out her eyebrows when she changes into boy's clothes. This is one of those movies I have to see about once a year just to watch Mulan kick ass or I start feeling like something is missing in my life.
1. Alanna, Song of the Lioness Quartet, and Jacky Faber, Bloody Jack
Yes, I am totally cheating here with a tie, but given that I wrote my thesis on THESE VERY LADIES, I think I am allowed! I could not choose just one. ;_; One's an awesome lady knight, the other just wants to run a merchant trading company if circumstance and various antagonists would only stop trying to make her be a schoolgirl pirate ballerina deep-sea-diver spy, and both of them are awesome examples of the way that gender fluidity interacts with coming-of-age narratives in a liminal [insert academic mutterings here] ANYWAY I LOVE THEM. These days Jacky is a bit more central to my heart, but I loved Alanna first.
All right, flist, your turn! Who is your favorite fictional cross-dressed lady? Bonus points if it's one I have not read or seen (because that means I can go hunt it down and make my collection grow. >:D)
5. Djaq, BBC Robin Hood
See, the thing is, if you weren't aware, the BBC Robin Hood series was kind of ridiculous. And I watched the first two seasons enjoying everything pretty much 100% ironically . . . EXCEPT DJAQ. Djaq, I loved with a whole heart: yes, she was the most hilariously obvious girl-disguised-as-a-boy I've yet seen on TV (for which I blame the series' costumer, but then, I blame the costumer for a LOT OF THINGS) but she was awesome and sarcastic and sensible - whenever she got lines, which admittedly was increasingly less common as the series got increasingly more focused on Robin's manpain - and when she left the show, I quit it. I mean, there were other reasons. But mostly it was Djaq.
(It was a fight for this slot between Djaq and Cecily, the cross-dressed girl from Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood, but Djaq won because thre are actually images of her, and I am shallow. But Cecily was also pretty awesome, and a large part of the reason that McKinley's is still my favorite adaptation.)
4. Rosalind, As You Like It
Rosalind is the reason that As You Like It is my favorite Shakespeare play. She's funny, she's clever, she totally passes the Bechdel test and hilariously stomps up and down on tropes of romantic tragedy; I don't blame Celia for being totally in love with her. I am totally in love with her, although, as I actually read the play before I ever saw it, I've never yet seen a version that did justice to the one in my head. But this is the first image I found when I went google searching, and I quite like the looks of this Rosalind, so she stays. (Let's not even talk about the Branagh version. Even aside from the racefail, how do you make As You Like It, which is an incredibly sparkling play, feel slow?)
3. Kurai, Angel Sanctuary
Only Kaori Yuki could come up with Kurai: super-adorable adolescent crossdressing demon princess who will totally eat human beings she doesn't like, on a mission to rescue the badass lady angel of her dreams, who subsequently has to deal with confusion about her sexuality when the lady angel turns out to have been reincarnated as a dorkfaced teenaged boy. I knew I loved Kurai with all my heart from the moment when she gave God the finger and told him he'd be sorry for messing with a bunch of stubborn idiots like them!
2. Mulan, Disney
I know Disney's Mulan is far from perfect or faithful to the original story, but . . . Mulan! She's so sensible and determined and heroic, and I love her kind of a lot, even if she does have the magical property of instantly growing out her eyebrows when she changes into boy's clothes. This is one of those movies I have to see about once a year just to watch Mulan kick ass or I start feeling like something is missing in my life.
1. Alanna, Song of the Lioness Quartet, and Jacky Faber, Bloody Jack
Yes, I am totally cheating here with a tie, but given that I wrote my thesis on THESE VERY LADIES, I think I am allowed! I could not choose just one. ;_; One's an awesome lady knight, the other just wants to run a merchant trading company if circumstance and various antagonists would only stop trying to make her be a schoolgirl pirate ballerina deep-sea-diver spy, and both of them are awesome examples of the way that gender fluidity interacts with coming-of-age narratives in a liminal [insert academic mutterings here] ANYWAY I LOVE THEM. These days Jacky is a bit more central to my heart, but I loved Alanna first.
All right, flist, your turn! Who is your favorite fictional cross-dressed lady? Bonus points if it's one I have not read or seen (because that means I can go hunt it down and make my collection grow. >:D)