Philippos Fourty-Two ([info]philippos42) wrote,
@ 2009-11-08 23:25:00
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Entry tags:wonder woman

Disexuality
Inspired to write this by the CBR boards discussion of Diana's arguable bisexuality. Pretty much my take on Diana's sexuality, though I started it not convinced it works as a scene. So consider this my crap attempt at exposition, with thoughts while writing or editing interspersed in italics.

Tracy leaned in & kissed Diana.
"Oh no. This is bad," Diana said.
"You're not interested?"
"No, I'm not."

That should be the end of it, right? Hey, she's not your type, go on.

"Are you not into me, or you are into me, but something else is in the way?"
"You're not what I'm looking for. Like REALLY not." Diana looked meaningfully downward.
"Really? I'm sorry, I just assumed that Amazons were...you know."
"Lesbian by default, with no individual personalities?" Diana winked, & narrowed her eyes, in a way that somehow reassured Tracy that she wasn't trying to be mocking, just gently correcting.
"Yeah. I see what you mean. It's just, you hear of this island full of women, & you figure, um, something something..."
"There's a difference between being open to something & preferring it over the alternative."

I meant there to be another line or two here but I don't know what.

"Here's the thing. I like women. Most of my good friendships are with women. I form closer bonds with women than with men for the most part. Men are hard to get to know. Women are chicken soup for me. Men are bacon."

Yeah, Rucka, she's making carnivore metaphors, you stupid self-loathing git.

"And it's important to me that women stay chicken soup for me."

NO THAT IS A HORRIBLE SENTENCE I THOUGHT IT WAS CLEVER BUT IT MAKES DIANA AN INANE GENERALIZER ARRRGH

"Men are difficult, but they're a challenge. And if I'm in Patriarch's World but retreat to the comfort of women, then I'm a coward."
"So you're straight because you'd think less of yourself for behaving--"
"--Normally for my homeland?" Diana laughed. "Well, sort of. It's like, you grew up in Iowa & ate hamburgers & corn on the cob all your life, then you moved to Hong Kong. Would you really refuse to eat dim sum, which is the most normal thing in the world? It's not like, hey, I've got to eat thousand-year eggs, or baby octopodes--it's just regular food in a new place. And honestly, there's something about men. I didn't exactly get them for the longest time, but I always--there's this pheromone, you see, & I respond to it. So I guess I got to Hong Kong & realized I really like dim sum."
"But hamburgers & corn on the cob are still good too, right?"
Here Diana narrowed her eyes even more, & looked at her for a long time, trying to read what Tracy was thinking, until Tracy was getting very self-conscious of every tic of her face. Then Diana relaxed a bit, & said, "Is that what you want, Tracy? To be the hamburgers & corn on the cob once in a while?"
Tracy thought about it. "That would be nice, yeah."
"I'm not really...polyamorous, despite what some people seem to think." Here Diana's whole face smiled. "I do notice what people think of me, & imagine about me, & wish I were. But I'm just who I am, & a bisexual monster-slaying Amazon who likes being naked can still be a bigger prude than people in your country expect."

OK, having written this, I now feel like I should explain that I appreciate takes on Wonder Woman that are more promiscuous, polyamorous, or what have you. I'm not saying they're wrong. The above interpretation seems to fit what we've been shown so far in the comic, & it's an idea I find sympathetic enough & interesting enough to write about. Diana isn't coming from a conventional Yankee sexuality, or a traditional patriarchal sexuality; but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own principles & traditions.




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[info]bluefall
2009-11-10 04:30 am UTC (link)
Hrm, doesn't quite wash. If she's talking food, and talking in terms of "while I'm in Man's World," she's not looking for a mate, she's looking for a diversion, a variety of temporary playmates for the purposes of exploration. She's sampling the culture, being a tourist, trying to have "the Man's World experience." You don't go to Asia and say "okay, I'm going to eat dim sum and only dim sum." You try the dim sum, you try the sushi and the kung pao and hunan beef and twice-cooked pork. And since Asian McDonalds is absolutely nothing like American McDonalds, you're going to stop in and see what they're trying to pass off as a burger, too. Which doesn't necessarily demand polyamory, but certainly is indicative of casual liaisons and no kind of commitment or exclusivity about either Man's World men or women (or intersex or other varieties of genderqueer).

And when you do that, you do it as a tourist; when you go back home to Iowa, you're going to go right back to the hamburgers and corn on the cob, since in the end, that's your culture, and the dim sum was just a thing you tried. If you really liked it, sure, you'll order out now and then now that you're back in the States, or learn to make it yourself, but the bulk of your meals are going to continue to be bog-standard Iowa fare. You're not going to overwrite your entire normal life for something fun you did on vacation - no matter how fun it was, it will never be more than an addition to your hometown routine.

Unless, of course, you're painting Diana as an expatriate, who actually emigrates from Themyscira, but in that case, she'd bring her Themysciran culture with her, as all immigrants do, which is why you can get dim sum in America in the first place.

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[info]philippos42
2009-11-10 11:26 pm UTC (link)
See, this is the nagging idea that undermines what I was thinking--even as I wrote it.

I was coming from my biases & working from stories that came from the biases of previous writers. But if you stipulate (as you do) that monogamy is not a strong Themie virtue, than the thing seems to fall apart.

Edited at 2009-11-10 11:27 pm UTC

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