Gay Robin Hood
He probably wasn't. But this article discusses themes of homosexuality in the legends, and Robin Hood's sexuality. It also tells the story of what happened to the professor who wrote the article after the media picked up on the idea of a 'gay Robin Hood'. Very interesting, and quite funny.
I like the idea of Robin Hood being gay. As the article points out, Maid Marian was a late addition to the legends. Before then they were entirely homosocial - just a bunch of men living in a forest surrounded by phallic imagery. Or as one paragraph puts it:
He is beset - or empowered - by symbols. Deep forest, dark caverns, towers to be climbed, tunnels to be penetrated; and all that done with bows, arrows, swords, spears and quarter-staffs, and in tight green tights at that. The tradition is seething with a strongly coded sexuality, that is curiously uncoupled from conventional morality because of its coding and so is in the contemporary American critical language `queer', resistant to authority like any outlaw - and so if described as `gay' presumably all the more shocking.
I think 'my' Robin Hood is bisexual. To me it feels right. Robin Hood is supposed to be a rebel, an outlaw, outside of mainstream society. And as mainstream society is heterosexual, it makes sense for Robin Hood to be less than entirely straight. But I still love Marian - the kick-ass version, not the soppy one.
All this is a long way of saying that I'm busy reading everything I can about Robin Hood and loving all of it.
I like the idea of Robin Hood being gay. As the article points out, Maid Marian was a late addition to the legends. Before then they were entirely homosocial - just a bunch of men living in a forest surrounded by phallic imagery. Or as one paragraph puts it:
He is beset - or empowered - by symbols. Deep forest, dark caverns, towers to be climbed, tunnels to be penetrated; and all that done with bows, arrows, swords, spears and quarter-staffs, and in tight green tights at that. The tradition is seething with a strongly coded sexuality, that is curiously uncoupled from conventional morality because of its coding and so is in the contemporary American critical language `queer', resistant to authority like any outlaw - and so if described as `gay' presumably all the more shocking.
I think 'my' Robin Hood is bisexual. To me it feels right. Robin Hood is supposed to be a rebel, an outlaw, outside of mainstream society. And as mainstream society is heterosexual, it makes sense for Robin Hood to be less than entirely straight. But I still love Marian - the kick-ass version, not the soppy one.
All this is a long way of saying that I'm busy reading everything I can about Robin Hood and loving all of it.