The awesome Toshiko Sato
Aug. 4th, 2009 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tencrushA QUESTION FOR MY TORCHWOOD PALS REGARDING TOSH IN GREEKS BEARING GIFTS
[Poll #1439526]
The reason I ask is because I am reasonably familiar with old skool lesbian pulp fiction novels (umm... here, have a brief introduction), the gist of which is usually something along the lines of an innocent girl being Tempted Into Lesbian Experimentation by an Evil Lesbian, 100+ pages of reasonably tame sex ensue until finally the innocent girl is rescued from the Evils of Sapphic Desire by a Manly Man who Forgives her her Disgusting Aberration and maybe even decides to touch her down there if the thought of it doesn't gross him out him too much. The End. Anyway, that's what Greeks Bearing Gifts was to me, a lesbian pulp novel. And I wonder if one has to be familiar with the genre in order to see it that way, or if it struck more people just generally as kind of a squicky storyline. Feel free to comment and let me know.
[Poll #1439526]
The reason I ask is because I am reasonably familiar with old skool lesbian pulp fiction novels (umm... here, have a brief introduction), the gist of which is usually something along the lines of an innocent girl being Tempted Into Lesbian Experimentation by an Evil Lesbian, 100+ pages of reasonably tame sex ensue until finally the innocent girl is rescued from the Evils of Sapphic Desire by a Manly Man who Forgives her her Disgusting Aberration and maybe even decides to touch her down there if the thought of it doesn't gross him out him too much. The End. Anyway, that's what Greeks Bearing Gifts was to me, a lesbian pulp novel. And I wonder if one has to be familiar with the genre in order to see it that way, or if it struck more people just generally as kind of a squicky storyline. Feel free to comment and let me know.
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Date: 2009-08-04 09:40 pm (UTC)But, to me, the original storyline, untainted by Rusty's revisionist work, hinted of the idea in TW of fluid sexuality. Mary was evil--but atypical of her species, a criminal; the implication was that a normal representative would be extremely beautiful and attractive, qualities Mary exploited.
Tosh always came across as very repressed--but not wanting to be so. Therefore, she would think of herself as hetereosexual, because that would be, by her thinking, the norm. But the original TW was about questioning assumptions and norms and opening one's mind to possibilities. Hence, Tosh's willingness to experiment--but also her upset at crossing her own preconceived boundaries....exacerbated by the fact that Mary was manipulating/using her.
If I erase CoE from my mind, "Greeks" becomes part of an overall message to free one's mind and overcome "quaint little categories"....post CoE, with its anti-gay subtext, "Greeks" also promotes stereotyping.
How sad.