[ SECRET POST #4630 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4630 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #663.
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)]

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.

[silverr]

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

[(Anonymous)]

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.

[silverr]

I see! Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

Lol, the books can't even keep Dot's surname consistent, forget Phryne's "I want to fit as much swashbuckling and sex in as possible" backstory

[(Anonymous)]

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

[(Anonymous)]

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"