Tomboy Heroes of the Cinema
Using some of my recent insomniac energy, I thought I'd make a little piece of art, but then felt that I'd like to write a bit about the subject matter. The following paragraphs are some 3AM thoughts about a film trope that I find endearing and appealing, in relation to my own development and bias.
I am often asked which comics I liked as a child, to turn me into the adult who spends her days bent over a comics desk. I nearly always cite Archie and Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes. I was a serious tomboy as a kid, and the truth is that I identified comfortably with Calvin and Tintin and Jughead for a long time. Jughead, especially. I didn't have any interest in dating until I was around 13, much like Jughead, only he never really caught on. Plus I really love hamburgers.
I got older, and discovered things like Strangers in Paradise, Lynda Barry and Maira Kalman, developing access to more specific, female-centric or lady-created work. I gradually became less horrified by dresses, learned how to use a comb to make my cowlick less ridiculous, and learned to love the girly along with the tomboyish. But I have a lifelong love for cowgirls and overalls and, oh lord, the secret lady tomboy.
By virtue of necessity and interest, I do spend time thinking about gender in relation to comics. By virtue of noticing which movies are my favorites, I've recently been thinking about the lure of the secret-lady, and its relation to my own gender and emotional triggers.
I've always loved these movies. As a curious tomboy and developing bisexual, I think the appeal was clear as to why I specifically adored characters who passed themselves off as men for various reasons;
I like the idea of someone loving someone regardless of their clothing or even perceived gender. I love the idea that you could choose how your gender was perceived, while keeping it to yourself. Who wouldn't love the hero who tampers with gender norms?
I love the underlying feminist message behind quite a few of these stories, that women are able to prove wrong the preconceptions of male superiority by enacting a citable ruse.
I like the reveal, the point at the end when the lies unravelled and someone inevitably ripped open their shirt to prove to an unbelieving friend-or-something-more-perhaps that they were, indeed, female. As if tits are the undisputed deciding factor! Hah.(Admittedly, Hollywood is, perhaps, not best at creating nuanced tales of gender subversion. Usually drag comes in for laughs, but some of us get more than what's on sale.)
And to be fair, many MANY of these ladies look gorgeous in their tuxes and spats.
I'm uncomfortable with the spate of transexual fetishization that seems to have become acceptable practice nowadays, so I want to make it clear that I'm not droolingly celebrating the objectified-in-between. Gender is very personal, and not to be prodded with kink-sticks unless a mutually agreed-upon safeword is in practice. I'm one of those irritating bisexuals (pansexuals, omni-whathaveyou) who legitimately believes that attraction lies in the individual, and not in that person's gender. So be as you will, I'm not talking about that. That's only a peripheral aspect, as I believe most references to a person's sexuality should be-- a sidenote and not the headline.
I'm talking about how I love stories where ladies secretly pass themselves off as dudes. I have loved them since I read Twelfth Night as a kid and spent a week wandering the hill behind my house, pretending to be shipwrecked and forced to disguise myself as a page to Count Orsino.
I've loved them since I was a kid, and I love them still. Someday I'll make that comic I've been writing for years that includes this (admittedly popular) plotpoint (spoiler alert). But for now, I'll just calm myself from a fit of temper this evening by watching Victor/Victoria and drawing little watercolor sketches of some of my favorite heroes.
To be fair, not all of these are secret-ladies. But quite a few of them are!
Points for naming all the individual actresses!
Viola is excluded because I actually loathe most 12th Night movie adaptations, so I cheated and used Emily Watson from the BAM production.
She's a film actress, so I felt it counted.
Buy it as a print!