Pursuant to an earlier chat, this is one of the people who leapt out of my early cinema experiences as a kindred spirit. Idgie from Fried Green Tomatoes. No labels, just vibes.

Today I was thinking about how many films of that era, like Steel Magnolias, normalized a stark gender binary that always felt more like SF than actual SF to me.

But there have always been liminal characters. *People* have been nuanced in every era. Current discourse sometimes forgets this & tries to reinvent the wheel.

Relatedly, this is also why I adore the film Carol. Director Todd Haynes is extremely thoughtful in his portrayal of queerness. There are no "coming out" scenes, because even in the historical era under exploration, the idea of queerness *was not new*. People have always known human experience to have a range. That's why the Hays Code existed - to try to suppress it. To write it out of media, when early cinema proved "too" open about human range. (Watch Marlene Dietrich in Morocco if in doubt!)

@MLClark Gender identity and preference is pretty much an artificial human imposition, in my opinion.

I once discussed this with a veterinarian friend. Most creatures rut with any and all. We're the only ones who fret about gender identity -- which, I suspect, was imposed by religions to keep procreating more faithful to keep the coffers full.

I feel the same about monogamy, but that opinion is not shared in this household ...

@WordsmithFL

It's a fascinating topic! I feel *gendered*, but don't talk about it as much because the term "transgendered" fell out of vague when weaponized against trans folk - which is part and parcel of how the last 30 years of rights advocacy have struggled under the misguided idea that if we just get the language "right" people will stop being hateful. It's such a cute centrist-liberal approach to social reform. /x

@MLClark Heading out the door to lunch, so will reply later.

A cliffhanger!

(Going to Cocoa Beach ... I will let you know if I see any tits-up turtles ...)

@MLClark Okay, back from lunch ...

I've never been much into labels. I'll call (generic) you whatever (generic) you want to be called.

I've been told by many women that I'm "in touch with my feminine side." I prefer the company of women. I have few male friends. My intimacy tastes run towards women, but I have no problem with what others do, as long as it's consensual. (1/x)

@MLClark The 2004 "Kinsey" movie opened my eyes to a lot of this. The word "queer" seems wrong to me; as Kinsey points out, if much of the human population does it, is it really "queer"? His statistical studies showed that supposed "deviant" behavior was quite normal; it had been hidden from view to satisfy those with repressed religious views.

I often refer open-minded people to the Kinsey Institute web site. It's a real eye opener. (2/x)

https://kinseyinstitute.org/

@WordsmithFL

Oh, I love the part in Kinsey where everyone, upon finishing their interview, nervously asks if they're normal. 😄 Because that's the real worry at day's end. So many just want to know they belong.

I grew up with Dan Savage sex advice columns, where some people who identified as lesbian wrote in terrified that their occasional interest in 🍆 meant they couldn't use the ID anymore.

That was an early education in how much labels can be a prison. It's so much easier to be fluid. 😊

@MLClark John Colicos! The man could twirl a mustache ... He was in an episode of "The Starlost" (1973, Canadian production) at about age 45. It was interesting to see him so long, yet he was already chewing a scene. His scenes with Lorne Greene in the original BSG were my favorites.

I often wonder how much "experimenting" was going on in my college dorm that I was clueless about.