Something about Miranda I’ve that’s just really interesting and heartbreaking is way that, despite all of the ways that she’s ahead of her time and sexually liberated, she has this tendency to categorize certain things that are very much universal as exclusively male. Like her conversation with Eleanor where she talks about how “every man has his torments…” as if that whole description she gives doesn’t very much apply to both women in that room as well as every other woman in this show. And her speech about “being in the presence of the truly great men”, which is a lovely speech that completely i adore, BUT it seems like a deliberate choice that she says “the great men” not “great people”. Because as much as she defies the gender roles of the time in certain ways Miranda still has a tragic tendency to box herself in (when it comes to her life in nassau a literal, puritan community, cottage shaped box) in ways that deny her ability to fully express her feelings or reach her full potential.
But I’ve also noticed that every line she has that does this is explicitly echoed back later on in the form of Madi. Madi’s speech about the “chorus of voices” in her head explicitly parallels Miranda’s line about James’ “chorus of torments” and the “voice in his head”. And it’s impossible not to think about Miranda’s speech about “being in the presence of truly great men” every single time Madi walks into a room and just radiates a kind of presence that really is indescribable, and leaves other characters awestruck (and serious kudos to Zethu Dlomo for pulling that off, because you never for a second don’t buy it). And especially that bit about “the relentless pursuit of a better world”; that is Madi. Madi is kind of the embodiment of what Miranda means when she describes Great Men, just… minus the man part.
We have one woman who had so much potential, but came from a world that told her she didn’t have a right to be one of the Truly Great people and didn’t have a right to give expression to all of the feeling and voices in her head clamoring to be let out. And she’s such a strong and defiant person, but I feel like she still internalized those ideas to an extent, it would have been impossible for her not to. And then we have this woman raised outside of civilization and therefore allowed to actually be those things; to be a visionary leader, to answer those voices in her head rather than bottle them up, try to change the world, to wage war against civilization for being against her on principle and for hurting the people close to her rather than hiding away and accepting her lot in life. And it’s just tragic that they never had the chance to meet, and that Miranda died the moment she finally lost any remaining shred of desire to be a part of that civilization.
Thank you friend! I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this – I’ve been mentally and physically exhausted the past three weeks, but I appreciate hearing this more than I can say. Best of luck with all your deadlines – you can do this! Also, I’m always so, so happy to hear that someone likes my little rowboat Madi/Vane pairing!
White girls dancing in fields wearing a long patterned skirt and crop top
It is:
A RACIAL SLUR.
JUST as bad as the “n” slur, the “k” slur, or the “r” slur.
G*psy is a term used to derogatorily describe an ethnicity/people that everybody apparently forgets exists: the Romani.
Stop using this slur on your shirts, jewellery, and in your metaphysical shops.
Stop using a terrible slur against a thriving people for your own profit or benefit.
Stop using a slur against a thriving people to describe yourself as “Adventurous uwu”.
Stop using this word.
You are not a “g*psy”
You are a fucking asshole.
Reblogging because I’ve been ignorant of this in the past as well, and I’d rather others don’t have to learn the hard way like I did.
Relatedly, “g*pped” (used to mean “cheated” or “ripped off”) is derived from the g-slur, and is not okay to say.
(I always spelled it with a “ji” in my head and had no idea they were connected until friends called me out. If you didn’t know that doesn’t make you a bad person, but now you DO know, and you can do better!)
Yup. I made this mistake as well (and I think even in the same way) until someone pointed it out to me, including that its derivation is predicated upon racist stereotypes of Roma as swindlers and cheats. I was angry with myself because by then I’d become well aware of the level of systemic, institutionalized hate Roma face, especially in Europe.
Meg's Mumbles 