[ 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

[(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?