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kay. 18. she/her. i hate tombs.

nyogu:

so, i think about queer girl much ado about nothing a lot? in various iterations: queer girl much ado wherein hero’s great crime is not only that she would have sex but that she would have sex with a girl (which is a movement away from text, i know, i don’t care) but mostly i think about queer girl beatrice and benedick.

i think about what 4.1 (“oh god that i were a man!”) would mean as a conversation between two women - feminine beatrice, “my lady tongue”, she of the many words who is unable to say anything to defend hero; benedick who is accepted by the prince and by all the men around her as a physical force, as something to be reckoned with. beatrice and benedick who operate in completely different spheres of power, both of them transgressive because beatrice is so loud and so much, and benedick shouldn’t occupy her place at all.

beatrice says “it is a man’s office, but not yours”, and if benedick is a woman that means “even you are not held enough of a man to defend my cousin, because you are fundamentally a woman still”

“by my sword, beatrice, thou lovest me” by the thing that sets me apart from you, because i am a woman with a sword

and then beatrice demands that benedick kills claudio: demands that benedick, who can kill claudio, kill not only her friend but also her link to the power structures that she’s tapping into to set her apart from beatrice. beatrice says someone has DISHONORED HER KINSWOMAN and then demands that benedick should be a man for her?  ”that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.” 

if benedick is a woman this isn’t about being manly, about being brave - this is literally about occupying the societal role of “man”, this is a conversation between two women about negotiating femininity when surrounded by powerful men

and beatrice, lady tongue, says “if i were a man i would eat his heart in the marketplace”

and benedick swears to love her by benedick’s own hand and benedick challenges claudio and benedick has kissed beatrice

qUEER GIRL MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!!