just another girl that wants to rule the world
I've been reading a book that I borrowed from a friend of mine. She'd told me about it before, little snippets about the general setting and the characters, and just today I came across a character that she'd described to me as being incredibly, flamingly gay. He's fussy, obsessed with proper clothing and etiquette, and uses a supercilious tone of voice when talking. To my friend, he comes across as gay; to me, he comes across as being a prissy, anal-retentive twit. If she hadn't mentioned him to me before, the idea of him being gay would never have entered my head.
The character I personally consider Most Likely To Engage In Homosexual Activities is, in fact, a mercenary - warrior, informant and leader of a vicious band of soldiers. His manner of dress is quite flamboyant, admittedly, but to me that's a deliberate outward sign of how he distances himself from the society around him, rather than a penchant for fashion. What makes me think he's gay? His interaction with another male character, which - while only in its early stages - shows some rather promising slashy vibes.
I found it interesting, how my friend sees "gay" in a neat-and-tidy, clothes-obsessed, snippy character, while I see something altogether different; and I'm quite certain that, if we asked the author his intent, he'd be more likely to agree with my friend's reading than mine. I'm not sure if this means that I tend to disregard this gay stereotype, or if I'm going too far and deliberately avoiding the stereotype, albeit subconsciously.
Because, when it comes down to it, most of the openly gay men I know do fit the fashion-conscious, bitchy, fussy stereotype, to varying extents. Or maybe it's because I haven't seen that character interact with another male in the way I've seen my "gay" character do; i.e. I need to see the slash between two characters, rather than just seeing them as gay. *shrugs* I don't know. Just thinking out loud, really.
And, because I have a problem with over-analysis and an obsession with mythology, further ramblings:
The Barthez Battalion niggle at me in the same way Ralph of the Majestics did in the first season, begging the question: just where the hell are they from? The other new team, F Dynasty, are simple - their names and manner of dress mark them out as obviously Spanish - but the Barthez Battalion are a little trickier.
My gut instinct - and the one that the evidence seems to back up - is that they're French. After all, their trainer is Jean-Paul Barthez, and their names suggest the same thing. Claude, obviously, and Eric (Éric?), and Mathilda (Mathilde?). The only one who doesn't fit in is Miguel, which is Spanish, but it wouldn't surprise me if his name was actually Michel, altered so that the kids (who we all know are imbeciles, incapable of understanding names in other languages) wouldn't think he was called Michelle.
That's backed up for me by the fact that his bitbeast is a gargoyle, since the history and mythology of gargoyles is quite closely associated with France; even the name gargoyle is of French origin. Though unfortunately, from its appearance and the fact that it uses a firey attack, his gargoyle doesn't seem to be the original water-spewing dragon Gargouille. That would've been cool.
As for the other three, well, Mathilda's bitbeast is a hedgehog, and those are pretty ubiquitous throughout much of Europe, so that doesn't reveal much. I haven't seen Eric's bitbeast yet, but I've missed a couple of episodes - does anyone know what his is? Claude's two-headed eagle is the most difficult, because for all that Claude is a French name, the two-headed eagle is mostly an Eastern European symbol, originally associated with the Byzantine Empire, and since then used as the symbol of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and on the flag of Albania. In fact, in heraldry the two-headed eagle is known as the Byzantine Eagle.
In the Byzantine Empire it represented the empire itself, looking to the east and the west. It has also been used in a religious context, with the two heads symbolising secular and ecclestiastical power. However, the two-headed eagle was imported into Western Europe from the Byzantine Empire, and was adopted into family crests, so more than likely the powers that be picked it up from some Western European (possibly French?) coat-of-arms, or from heraldry. So until I find evidence to the contrary, I'm going to go with the entire team being French - though I'd love to get some confirmation on what their names originally were.
Or maybe I should just stop analysing the minute details of European culture as represented in Japanese animation. ^^;
The character I personally consider Most Likely To Engage In Homosexual Activities is, in fact, a mercenary - warrior, informant and leader of a vicious band of soldiers. His manner of dress is quite flamboyant, admittedly, but to me that's a deliberate outward sign of how he distances himself from the society around him, rather than a penchant for fashion. What makes me think he's gay? His interaction with another male character, which - while only in its early stages - shows some rather promising slashy vibes.
I found it interesting, how my friend sees "gay" in a neat-and-tidy, clothes-obsessed, snippy character, while I see something altogether different; and I'm quite certain that, if we asked the author his intent, he'd be more likely to agree with my friend's reading than mine. I'm not sure if this means that I tend to disregard this gay stereotype, or if I'm going too far and deliberately avoiding the stereotype, albeit subconsciously.
Because, when it comes down to it, most of the openly gay men I know do fit the fashion-conscious, bitchy, fussy stereotype, to varying extents. Or maybe it's because I haven't seen that character interact with another male in the way I've seen my "gay" character do; i.e. I need to see the slash between two characters, rather than just seeing them as gay. *shrugs* I don't know. Just thinking out loud, really.
And, because I have a problem with over-analysis and an obsession with mythology, further ramblings:
The Barthez Battalion niggle at me in the same way Ralph of the Majestics did in the first season, begging the question: just where the hell are they from? The other new team, F Dynasty, are simple - their names and manner of dress mark them out as obviously Spanish - but the Barthez Battalion are a little trickier.
My gut instinct - and the one that the evidence seems to back up - is that they're French. After all, their trainer is Jean-Paul Barthez, and their names suggest the same thing. Claude, obviously, and Eric (Éric?), and Mathilda (Mathilde?). The only one who doesn't fit in is Miguel, which is Spanish, but it wouldn't surprise me if his name was actually Michel, altered so that the kids (who we all know are imbeciles, incapable of understanding names in other languages) wouldn't think he was called Michelle.
That's backed up for me by the fact that his bitbeast is a gargoyle, since the history and mythology of gargoyles is quite closely associated with France; even the name gargoyle is of French origin. Though unfortunately, from its appearance and the fact that it uses a firey attack, his gargoyle doesn't seem to be the original water-spewing dragon Gargouille. That would've been cool.
As for the other three, well, Mathilda's bitbeast is a hedgehog, and those are pretty ubiquitous throughout much of Europe, so that doesn't reveal much. I haven't seen Eric's bitbeast yet, but I've missed a couple of episodes - does anyone know what his is? Claude's two-headed eagle is the most difficult, because for all that Claude is a French name, the two-headed eagle is mostly an Eastern European symbol, originally associated with the Byzantine Empire, and since then used as the symbol of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and on the flag of Albania. In fact, in heraldry the two-headed eagle is known as the Byzantine Eagle.
In the Byzantine Empire it represented the empire itself, looking to the east and the west. It has also been used in a religious context, with the two heads symbolising secular and ecclestiastical power. However, the two-headed eagle was imported into Western Europe from the Byzantine Empire, and was adopted into family crests, so more than likely the powers that be picked it up from some Western European (possibly French?) coat-of-arms, or from heraldry. So until I find evidence to the contrary, I'm going to go with the entire team being French - though I'd love to get some confirmation on what their names originally were.
Or maybe I should just stop analysing the minute details of European culture as represented in Japanese animation. ^^;