one thing to my purpose nothing

[angevin2]

Thing that annoys me greatly: this article, which argues that the sonnets prove that Shakespeare was gay and found women repulsive

Thing that annoys me equally greatly: comments to said article which are all "ZOMG NO SHAKESPEARE WASN'T GAY ELIZABETHANS WERE JUST LIKE THAT ABOUT MALE FRIENDSHIP."

*slaps everybody with fish*THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THE

Comments

[curtana]

WTF is "Arguably he was bisexual, of sorts..." Of sorts? OF SORTS?
"I'm sorry, Will, I see here on your resume that you have boned some ladies and some dudes, but if there is any chance you might have liked one more, even slightly more, than the other, you are INSUFFICIENTLY BI." FFFFFFFFF, rage!

[curtana]

Maybe he was just experimenting with heterosexuality, you know the way kids do in college.

[gehayi]

Okay, this wins everything. How would you like your internets?

[tempestsarekind]

These are the sorts of things that occasionally make me want to go "NO. This is why you can't have nice things" and then take away certain people's Shakespeare until they learn to behave. :/

I don't think Shakespeare's a misogynist, either--not that his ideas about women are necessarily feminist, but it's possible to confuse Shakespeare with his characters. And also, the misogyny on display in The Revenger's Tragedy felt to me like being slapped in the face (at least until it got so predictable that it started to be funny), so I can at least say, "well, Shakespeare doesn't feel like that."

Er. I apologize for this comment. My brain is in run-on mood today.

[angevin2]

I have to admit that The Revenger's Tragedy doesn't bother me that much because the whole thing is so OTT it's basically impossible to take seriously!

And I also think that the argument that "well, obviously Shakespeare was able to completely 100% set aside his TOTAL LOATHING OF WOMEN to write a Beatrice or a Rosalind" is stupid, whether or not Shakespeare was gay (and of course even the terminology is anachronistic, though that might lead down the "sexual orientation didn't exist until it was invented in the 19th century" path).

[tempestsarekind]

Are you saying that being a gay man is not the same thing as hating all women? Now you're just talking crazy talk!

The first time I read The Revenger's Tragedy I was expecting something very different from what I got, so I took it all seriously at first! And then the penny finally dropped.

[txanne]

I had the very great advantage of seeing the Eccleston/Jacobi version with a bottle of wine and a scholar of the late English Middle Ages. So I knew pretty much from the first scene that it was going to provide endless WTFery. And it DID! \o/

[tempestsarekind]

ALSO:

Arguably he was bisexual, of sorts, but his heart was never on his straight side. Now is not the time to rehearse them all, but the arguments against his homosexuality are complex and sophistical

So..."I don't want to have to talk about anyone who disagrees with me," then?

[executrix]

Dear Article Writer: Sophistical: a word that does not mean what you think it means.

Oh, and in addition to what everyone else has pointed out: S130 isn't misogynistic junk, it's a very loving and tender expression of fondness for a real woman who doesn't conform to the then-current mass media stereotypes.

As for Fifth Act silence, I wonder if by then a small company (I've seen an estimate that Shakespeare's company numbered eight men and four boys) was out of boy actors by the time everyone's on stage for the finale--so they just had to stuff the smallest apprentice into Viola's dress and have her face upstage and hope nobody noticed, while the actor who played Viola doubled someone else who actually had lines?

[likeadeuce]

Ahhh the invisible bisexual. Sigh.

*tongue firmly in cheek*

[curtana]

Oh, no, totally not invisible. I mean, he says right there in the article, "arguably" and "of sorts"! That's some top-quality non-erasure right there!

(I may still be feeling the residual rage from the poster in a fan comm I'm in who argued that a particular character could not possibly be queer because he has slept with women and has children. NEVER MIND THAT IT SAYS IN BLACK AND WHITE THAT HE SLEEPS WITH BOTH MEN AND WOMEN. And when that minor detail was pointed out to her, said "oh lol, I forgot about that, well, it's okay because it's hot." Grr.)

[arcadiaego]

Ah, the 'there are many arguments to prove my point but I am not actually going to use any of them in this article and instead just state my opinions' approach. Always a fave.