I noticed these stories feature a lot of decisions about which man should get a woman. From a cultural perspective it makes sense, but as a feminist I'm bothered by it. I was toying with the idea of gender-swapping both the external and internal story, but I also think it would be fun to just make it all lesbians. I feel like I'll get some comments on that from some disgruntled straight people, but it's my story and I'll make everyone gay if I want to. If you can't do it on your own little blog, then where can you do it? We're starving for representation anyway.
So, if I do this, it's just a matter of what specific riddle story I choose, and what I do with the king and the vetala. I definitely want the king to be a woman, because men are making enough decisions about women as it is, and I'm kind of picturing Laverne Cox as the strong, wise, badass woman who knows the answers to all the riddles and determinedly goes back for the vetala over and over again. Honestly, I might leave the story with all of the original names except for Laverne Cox as Laverne Cox, haha. Maybe. As for which riddle story to do, I'm currently thinking about the one where the girl says she'll marry a brave, wise, or clever man, and change it either to brave, wise, and clever women. It could be fun to add femme/butch dynamics in there as well, or perhaps a different conflict. I think that the stories featuring lesbian representation out there often have a main conflict or subplot that revolves around the gayness of the character and coming out or something like that, and while those stories can be important, I also would love to write something where the character is explicitly lesbian and it's important, but not a centrally defining fact of her identity or a main source of conflict.
Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.
Image: Vetala. Source.
So, if I do this, it's just a matter of what specific riddle story I choose, and what I do with the king and the vetala. I definitely want the king to be a woman, because men are making enough decisions about women as it is, and I'm kind of picturing Laverne Cox as the strong, wise, badass woman who knows the answers to all the riddles and determinedly goes back for the vetala over and over again. Honestly, I might leave the story with all of the original names except for Laverne Cox as Laverne Cox, haha. Maybe. As for which riddle story to do, I'm currently thinking about the one where the girl says she'll marry a brave, wise, or clever man, and change it either to brave, wise, and clever women. It could be fun to add femme/butch dynamics in there as well, or perhaps a different conflict. I think that the stories featuring lesbian representation out there often have a main conflict or subplot that revolves around the gayness of the character and coming out or something like that, and while those stories can be important, I also would love to write something where the character is explicitly lesbian and it's important, but not a centrally defining fact of her identity or a main source of conflict.
Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.
Image: Vetala. Source.
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