Iphis and Ianthe

Been reading Ovid. More Metamorphoses, more annoyance.

Iphis is born a girl but raised a boy and becomes a man and marries a woman. The gods say all this is cool. So far so good.

Iphis is raised a boy because her father says he doesn't want a girl baby so they'll kill the baby if it's a girl. Bad. Nasty.

The bit that annoys me though is the speech in the middle that Iphis makes. Their fathers have decided that Iphis should marry Ianthe. They think that's m/f and all simple. And Iphis and Ianthe are in love. So all good, right? But no. There's a long long speech about how horribly unnatural it is that Iphis, at this point a girl, should fall in love with a girl. Iphis is saying all this stuff about how always men fall for women, rams for ewes, etc etc. Very annoying. But then Iphis reckons that woman who fell in love with a bull (and had the half bull baby) was better off, because at least it was a boy bull! Grr, arrgh, and isn't that comparison just the oldest thing now. Yuck. Stupid.

So then instead of just having a girl marry a girl the gods turn Iphis into a man and it all works out happy ever after.

So I'm left being annoyed at it as a trans story (being a boy because girls get killed is a bit of a problem) and a queer story (because it was all about not wanting to be a queer story).

That's a lot of annoyed.


Earlier there was Hermaphrodite, and the pond that turns men into... I think it said not-whole-men, meaning like Hermaphrodite, part of each. Herm got that way by a girl grabbing a guy and praying they never be parted. Weird. Also earlier there was Tiresias. He hit a snake and turned into a woman and had kids that way and then went back and hit a snake again and turned back into a man. The gods asked him for sex advice cause he'd done some comparison testing.

Stories. That people found valuable for how long? Interesting.

Torchwood ad

:-D

... yeah, that's about all I got. ( Read more... )

Doctor Who - BFA - Forty Five

I really should start reading the backs of the CDs before I listen to these things. I was getting all interested in the first story and then it ended and I realised it was a set of shorts and not one big adventure. Which meant I was vaguely irritated about that, when I should have been expecting it.

Even taking that into account... not impressed. Anti-impressed really. I reckon only 1 out of 4 was a proper story. The first one had interesting parts but seemed more like a sketch and a summary, like someone telling us about an interesting story and showing us the stunt sequences. It was short on character, and what it did have was all guests. 2 and 4 seemed to be being very silly. Like, on purpose and in capital letters, We Are Being Very Silly. Blah. Only the one story was about Ace, Hex, and the Doctor, and that was the only story that worked.

So now I'm left with that feeling you get when you go out for dinner and only get nibbles, and most of them are stale, and there's only one vegetarian option. This was really not my thing. And now I feel like ordering another one to fill up on.