[apparently I was innocent once. huh.]

[tellitslant]

Watching the wonder woman movie a couple of days ago made the tiny five-year-old fangirl inside me wake up and take notice, so I've been re-reading - in my spare time - the Wonder Woman comics from the beginning of volume 2. Oh, the Perez run! It set the standard for all the fabulousness to come - so dark! so mythological! so political!

So gay!

Man, it never ceases to amaze me both that Perez got away with the level of queerness he put into these comics and that I never picked up on it as a child. I mean, fine, there's nothing tremendously overt about it, but that's maybe what's most amazing. It's just there - the Amazon oracle, waking up in the middle of the night with a premonition, in bed with her female lover, who calls her "my beloved." One of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons demands to be allowed to have vengeance for the death of her female consort (granted, these are the same Amazons who have breeding pens full of male slaves, but WHATEVS). Or my personal favourite, when the Amazons allow humans on their island for the first time and someone asks whether they miss men, and Mnemosyne replies that some devote themselves to their faith, "others choose the way of Narcissus, but most of us find satisfaction in each other."

That may in fact be my favourite euphemism for masturbation ever. What, I like Classics jokes.

The fact is, I notice these things on re-reads, but I don't remember noticing them at all, which kind of both amuses and perplexes me. And granted, most of these characters die, or fade away and are replaced as new writers bring on their own supporting casts, and it's a loooong time before we get this level of awesome queerness again. But it makes me happy that it's there.

I miss the Amazons - hopefully whatever is going on with them will be resolved soonish, because boy would I love to see what Gail Simone could do with them long-term...

Comments

[fullycompletely.livejournal.com]

But why would you notice it? That's the great part about being a kid, you just accept everything at face value. It's a complete non-issue, and isn't that a good thing?

[sensaes.livejournal.com]

Suddenly all those chicks wearing "Rot in Hell, Steve Trevor!" t-shirts at conventions make perfect sense.

[smallblakflower.livejournal.com]

Another gaping hole in my pop culture knowledge.

How old were you when you first read there comments because queerness is somewhat nuanced - exactly the sort of hit-you-over-the-head-subtlty which completely escapes kids. Same as blue jokes and innuendos in kids films...that or the queerness in those comics didn't register, but it did influence you - perverted by WW...

[so-lily-briscoe.livejournal.com]

Aaaaand you think breeding pens full of male slaves isn't tremendously queer?

MAN, are your standards whack.