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| Girlfriends, circa 1600s |
Like Antonio and Bassanio of Merchant of Venice, Rosalind and Celia portray the liberal love between two (usually) heterosexual friends. These two women of As You Like It exemplify the loyalty of true friendship. We see their relationship and admire the ways that they look out for each other and partake in mischievous schemes together. If we look a little closer, though, we might detect some homoerotic or homosocial behavior in their relationship. Some people would say that the "friendship" between Celia and Rosalind is actually a true love affair. Whether or not there is any actual homosexual desire between the two women, it is undeniable that they are at the least very devoted friends:
"The Duke's daughter [Celia] her cousin so loves her, being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have followed her [Rosalind's] exile, or have died to stay behind her…Never two ladies loved as they do" (1.1.93-97)
"If [Rosalind] be a traitor, / Why so am I [Celia]. We still have slept together, / Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together, / And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans / Still we went coupled and inseparable" (1.3.66-70)
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| Girlfriends, circa 2000s |
But let's be honest, is their relationship that much different from best friends' today? Think about some of those Buzzfeed lists you see on social media and immediately forward to your friends, with titles like, "19 Signs Your Best Friend is Actually Your Soulmate," "16 Times You Realized You and Your BFF Have No Boundaries," "18 Female Friendship Truths, as Told by
Bridesmaids." We admit to all the really weird things we do with our best friends: peeing, sleeping, and cuddling together, swapping clothes and personal items with each other, inadvertently dressing and acting the same, etc. You've probably seen your best friend naked, experienced her most personal habits, learned every nasty detail about her life, and maybe even (drunkenly?) made out with her. Also, you've probably responded to such incidents with some kind of brush-off "No homo" remark. But it is pretty "homo." And it's also okay.
The problem is that we strive to label everything as black and white, straight or gay. Maybe critics are genuinely shocked by the relationship of Celia and Rosalind because they find the liberality of such a feminine relationship of that time strange. Or maybe they are oblivious to how homoerotic or homosocial their own relationships and the relationships of people around them actually are. On the other hand, maybe there is something deeper between Celia and Rosalind. Celia
could be in love with Rosalind, but we'll never really know. Personally, I read their relationship and mischief as
Sex and the City-esque: two friends sticking together with the idea that "maybe our girlfriends are our soul mates and guys are just people to have fun with."
Here are the links to those lists… In case you need to gush about them with your BFF.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kristinharris/21-signs-your-best-friend-is-actually-your-soulmate#.dcMvBKd9V
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/no-boundaries-with-my-gal-pals#.denZ8AnPw
http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/18-female-friendship-truths-as-told-by-bridesmaids#.yaGLkxZlp
Meg,
ReplyDeleteI'm 100% sure almost all of us can relate to this topic whether we're male or female if we have friends we hang out with on a regular basis. When you mentioned that we strive to label everything black and white I literally said "yes" out loud. In our society, and definitely in Shakespeare's time, everything has to have a label or some sort of meaning. Whether or not these two plays really do have some homosocial activity is really up to who's reading or seeing the plays, I think, just like many things are in everyday life. I think times have certainly changed and these sorts of relationships are more accepted in the twenty first century but it's definitely interesting that we discuss the possibility of these characters being homosexual/social but have no problem having these sorts of relationships in our own lives. If it comes down to it, I can certainly see how one might find some of the comments Celia and Rosalind exchange and the actions and dialogue between Antonio and Bassanio could be somewhat homosexual but who's to say it's not like our going in to the same stall kind of relationship today! I guess to each their own interpretation of these situations! Loved the blog post and really got me thinking in a twenty first century kind of way!
Meg,
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that we all love to laugh at movies, such as Bridesmaids, but we still draw a fine line between close friends and homosexual behavior. One of my roommates recently returned from a study abroad experience in China and described to me the first time one of her Chinese friends attempted to hold her hand, she somewhat freaked out. Her Chinese friend explained holding another girl’s hand does not signify lesbianism but is an honorable representation of deep friendship. It is not to say that the United States does not treasure the gift of friendship—after all, I did have my fair share of friendship bracelets and necklaces. However, China and much of Asian culture to my understanding, places significance on the female friendship in an affectionate way. It astounds me how we view gender differently in Western culture.
Meg,
ReplyDeleteYour post was really interesting. I read Rosalind and Celia's relationship as very homosexual and full of homosexual desire and love, so your perspective gave me some new views of how we read certain acts as "black or white". I think it is pretty clear that the homosocial bonding that was so important to Shakespeare's contemporaries still pervades today's society. Many friendships are very homosocial, and I think that we as a culture even glorify these sorts of relationships (with Buzzfeed articles and movies like you listed). Clearly, that type of friendship is an ideal, so maybe Rosalind and Celia were just adhering to those structures. Either way, I really liked your post and it was nice to get a new perspective on my own reading of their relationship.