defending thomas tallis

[the_grynne]

"If Thomas Tallis was not a homosexual then why portray him as such?"

I've been reading different versions of this sentiment on various blogs and boards for the last few weeks, and I thought it was time that I came up with an answer to satisfy myself.

~

Comments

[kenorland]

I don't like slash (for the most part) or the sensationalistic gaying up of characters. When I first heard about this Tallis/Compton thing, I thought: whatever, there goes Showtime, trying to titillate again.

But it was well-handled; it was a love story, not just people crazily fucking, like all the other pairings on that show.

You know, I hadn't known about Thomas Tallis until I watched this show, so I'm just speculating here. But if he is a composer remembered for his sacred music, I feel like that's a large part of the indignation, the idea that this composer of music that spoke directly to the divine was gay.

Anyway, his sexuality aside, the Tallis character is, you know, well-done, as opposed to the WILD LOBOTOMIZING of the female characters much more remembered by popular history. Fine, I can accept that no one apparently objects to the fact that Anne Boleyn is being portrayed as being a complete pawn in her family's plans, but that the Mary-Margaret construct is literally a murderous, drunken whore...! (Did they try to create an Atia-equivalent here? JESUS, they failed.)