fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4630 ]

[ SECRET POST #4630 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4630 ⌋

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

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Notes:

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03. https://66.media.tumblr.com/3d0f291de0b2b6c0861a8c1b0cce7a26/tumblr_px8caa0N5x1rpvuv2o3_500.jpg

lol

I honestly can't remember. Did she really never have any sexual encounters with women in the books?

In the first book a masseuse in a bathhouse basically offers her a happy ending and she declines. That's pretty much it.

Really?

I can see this. She's the kind of person that if she wanted something besides the D, she would have gotten it.

Yeah, I'd believe she tried it out of curiosity, but if she was into women she'd say so. Instead there's some kind of dated "some of my best friends are gay, NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT" crap in a few of the books, that thing that was progressive thirty years ago but hasn't aged well.

Why her and not other characters?

And why am I guessing you mean straight characters are actually bi and not that lesbian characters are actually bi?

Not OP, but basically, like... If Phryne was interested in women, she'd one hundred percent be getting women. It's the combination of her own sexual confidence and the fact that she does not give a fuck about social norms and mores. When I first got into the series I assumed I'd be shipping her with another woman and pretty quickly also felt like... oh, no. A shame, perhaps, but... /shrug

(I can't speak to why not other characters, of course)

Yeah, this. She's very open about her sexuality and she goes for what she wants, so like you said, if she wanted women she'd be getting them.

DA Yes, same. If Phryne (book or TV) was interested in women, she would be having sex with women. There's other queer characters in the series, and I would be astonished if Phryne hadn't tried it, but yeah. She's really, really straight.

OP didn't say every other character is bi. They said they can't see any other character as 100% straight, but not that they can't see any character as 100% gay.

"And why am I guessing you mean straight characters are actually bi and not that lesbian characters are actually bi?"

Possibly, you're assuming something about the views/intentions of the OP? Especially since they didn't say they saw every character as bi, just "not straight," which could mean bi, lesbian, or gay(male).

OP: Well... the books are from her point of view - they're 3rd person, but limited to Phryne's perspective, so her thoughts are on display constantly.
She never expresses any attraction to any women - the closest she comes is thinking a woman is pretty (but not as pretty as her), or something along the lines of, 'she's good looking, I can see why men are attracted'. There's never any sense of Phryne actually being into them at all.
She is well into adulthood, has had a lot of sex with a lot of people, and reminisces fondly about her time in the Latin Quarter in Paris after the war, when she spent a lot of time in politically, socially, and artistically liberal circles. This included lots of lesbians, some of whom she made friends with, and at least a few of whom made offers. She turned them all down.
Finally, in the books, Phryne's sister is a communist lesbian, and Phryne's comment on this is that she's happy that her sister is happy.

So arguments that she hasn't had the opportunity to get it on with a woman, or that she just hasn't realised it yet, or that she's got some sort of deeply-buried biphobia/lesbophobia going on? None of those hold any water for me.

As for why her and NOT other characters... you really want me to explain why I could buy a reading of hundreds of other characters as some degree of not-straight? Yikes.
Well, here's a quick overview: in any work that isn't from the perspective of that character, you can imagine what you'd like for their inner thoughts, and I don't think I need to explain how quickly that can get super gay.
There are also a lot of works which are from the perspective of a given character who describes themself as straight, but where it's *really* easy to not believe them. Anita Blake spends a lot of time talking about other women's cleavage, and Harry Dresden will go on (and on, and on) about broad shoulders and chiseled jawlines. Though Anita Blake has added some women to her ever-growing harem in the last few books, there was about 20 years there where both the character and her writer would have told you, hand on heart, that Anita was 100% straight.
So, yeah.

I've only watched the series and not read the books -- is Doctor MacMillan not in the books?

She's in the books, but TVMac is more of a blending of bookMac and Phryne's sister--book Mac is a significantly older Scottish woman Phryne met during or post-war (there's some line about flying medicine into a remote location, but honestly the books contradict themselves all the time), rather than Phryne's oldest friend. Still a butch lesbian doctor though, so more recognisable between mediums than Phryne herself is.

I see! Thank you.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2019-09-10 02:13 (UTC) - Expand

Wait, Phryne's sister is alive in the books?

Janey was a complete construction for the show. In the books she has a brother, Thomas, the lesbian activist sister, Elizabeth (called by different nicknames between books at one point), and at least one other sister that died in childhood but wasn't murdered. Book Phryne and TV Phryne are, honestly, two different characters with very little commonality beyond "Poor child made rich and sexually liberated by the events of WW1"

Fair

Caveat: I haven't read the books or seen the show.

But I have a friend who reads the books and has said she finds it hard to buy that Phryne is straight despite her saying so and not getting involved with women. It sounds like she talks about several women in her narration as if she's attracted to them, and to my friend it's weird that she'd think about them that way and not pursue them.

Hmm, I've only watched a few episodes of the show, so I honestly thought this was a joke secret. Is her character that much different in the book versus the show? She's very loose from what I gathered. I have a hard time imagining her saying 'no' to sex, be it from a man or woman. She seems the type to specifically find a woman simply for the thrill, and adventure of trying something new.

And yet, despite all the dudes she gets down with, she never so much as snogs a single solitary woman.
Wow.
Almost like she's straight or something.

"Loose" sounds pretty judgey and sex-shaming, anon. It's a very sex-positive show, Phryne enjoys sex and isn't ashamed of it. And why should she be? She's a grown woman, in relationships with consenting adults. That doesn't mean she's not discriminating, however. You're wrong in thinking that she wouldn't say no to anyone, but you're half right in thinking that if she wanted to, she would have sex with a woman.

But she doesn't. So that to me suggests she's straight.

"I only have the vaguest familiarity with the topic at hand, but I think you're wrong because obviously a woman who has sex with lots of men would also have sex with women!"

That's... that not how that works. That's not how any of this works.

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