[ SECRET POST #3294 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3294 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 072 secrets from Secret Submission Post #471.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[tabaqui]

This makes me think of a season three story line on Downton Abbey. One of the characters is gay, and another is making a fuss, involving the police. The Lord of the house says that 'everyone knows anyway', meaning the entire household, and his valet agrees. Then the Lord says that if he 'shouted blue murder' every time someone 'tried to kiss me at Eaton' he'd have been hoarse in a month. He and the valet both think poorly of the young man who is calling the police (and the woman who is urging him to it), and the Lord does eventually step in and make the police think it's all been a mistake and makes the trouble go away.

BUT - despite this, no one is encouraging the gay character to act upon his desires or trying to set him up or anything. They mostly don't discuss it or seem to think about it, and no one treats him differently as far as being capable of doing his job, etc. Very interesting and, to my mind, a good way to present something like that. It's against the law and not 'acceptable', but many people know, have family who is 'that way', and don't make much of a fuss about it.

[sparrow_lately]

Exactly!

(Also, hi! I don't think we've rubbed shoulders since the SPN days)

[tabaqui]

*waves*
Hi!!
I don't think we have. :)

[sparrow_lately]

:)

How's it hanging?! ;)

[tabaqui]

Heeee!
Well, pretty good. I'm still in love with Show, still writing (though I'm slower now than i was), still enjoying the hell out of fandom in general.

Life in the 'real' is not bad. Working, the Monstrous Bebe's shenanigans, just stuff in general are not bad at all. :)

How about you?

[sparrow_lately]

Bless the Show--I still rewatch old eps, but just fell too far behind on new ones. What're they up to these days?

Real life is mostly the madness of getting my master's, so that's fun(?)!...

[tabaqui]

Oh, my - so many things, heh. I dunno when you stopped watching, but I have been enjoying the newer seasons just as much as the old. Some awesome episodes, and moments, and characters.... Still rockin' it. :)

Ah ha ha - i'll bet. What is it in (on?)? What, as they say, is your major?

[(Anonymous)]

I like the way they handled that.

[tabaqui]

I did, too. The character in question can be a big of a jerk, so they could have gotten a bit nasty with it, but they defended him and it was actually very cool.

The very first episode of the show established his orientation, which was nice.

[(Anonymous)]

I mostly agree with the secret but oddly enough I really disliked how they handled that one, making one guy an evil bigot and all the regulars completely accepting (IIRC the butler grumbled a bit but wasn't all that adamant about it). Especially in the context of the gay character later attempting to "cure" himself. Why would he need to mess with his health like that if everyone is basically fine with him? Oh, you know those gays, always being overdramatic and suffering from persecution complexes and needing constant reassurance from the normal folk that they are, in fact, okay.
There's been an article on the-toast that sums up my views on Downton and gay people very well, part of a series of watching period shows with a historian I think.

[tabaqui]

Wow, I totally did not get that from what Thomas did *at all*. He *never* acted like he needed 'constant reassurance' or anything else. Him looking for a 'cure' was, to me, perfectly in step with the times. Hell, some people *now* still feel they need 'cured', though that's mostly due to religious browbeating.

But then? When people thought being gay was either a perversion or that it meant something was 'wrong' with you? Thomas feeling that way made sense. Being gay *had* got him into trouble, and it would put him in jail if he was more open about it. And while the family and the servants were mostly okay with it, it was pretty clear, to me at least, they were *only* okay if he was careful to not talk about it, or make any kind of 'moves' on anyone, and indeed, Carson acted as if Thomas might just leap bodily onto any half-way attractive young man 'below stairs'.

The 'fine' with him only existed if he kept that part of himself strictly *to* himself, and didn't act on it at all, or talk about it, or allude to it. I can see why he'd want a 'cure' - he could fall in love, have a family, not have the suspicious eyes of some people on him at all times if he were 'normal'.

And that guy wasn't really even an 'evil bigot', he was just young and confused and scared, and being egged on by O'Brian. (And considering you could go to jail or even be executed for being gay, not to mention attacked and brutalized by the locals) well - his actions weren't all that surprising, either, since she kept insisting everyone would think he was also gay if he didn't push it to the limit.

[(Anonymous)]

"Why would he need to mess with his health like that if everyone is basically fine with him?"

Uh... because even if the immediate family and his employers were fine with it, it was still illegal and he could be thrown in prison for it like Oscar Wilde was even though he was a famous and relatively wealthy playwright? Because society at large still considered it deviant and if he didn't have the family's protection he'd be extremely vulnerable? Because even though the family was accepting, he'd still internalized a lot of homophobia that led to self loathing?