When I wrote that initial tweetstorm, I hadn’t finished all my research into her. It’s important to not leave out: Marie Equi was physically abusive and she almost certainly either cheated on her wife or went outside the bounds of their non-monogamous agreements. She was a deeply difficult, very flawed, very human person and one shouldn’t lose sight of that when talking about her.
Fuckboy: Tolkien–a conservative, Catholic, white man in the early 20th century who has been dead for forty years–would not approve of you shipping his two same sex characters.
Me:
Tolkien – a reluctant Modernist, British Catholic, white, middle-class and highly educated Language Professor from the first half of the 20th century who has been dead since 1973 – was a long-time friend of W. H. Auden, a known homosexual poet, who wrote the first and enthusiastic review of The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien who in his Letters (fn 110) praised the work of British novelist Mary Renault, who at this point in her career had already written the Gay classic The Charioteer.
Both The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea feature positive male characters who loved and lived with men.
Tolkien who, as a medievalist, was intimately acquainted with legends of intense male warrior friendships, such as the one of Amicus and Amelius, friendships that transcend the distinction between platonic friendship and sexual love. While Tolkien’s depiction of Sam and Frodo was ostensibly modelled on the relationship of a gentleman officer and his batman in WWI (in itself not a resoundingly heterosexual relationship), the theme of the ultimate sacrifice
points towards medieval models of male-male warrior friendships.
Tolkien who, other than his close friend C.S. Lewis, never felt the need to (however humble) publicly condemn homosexuality.
Certainly, Tolkien would not have liked the sexualisation of his characters in fanfiction. But that goes for Aragorn/Arwen as much as for Sam/Frodo. There is nothing in Tolkien’s writings and life that indicates that he would have been especially appalled about fanwriters shipping same-sex characters.
Man human imprinting is crazy. My friend’s roomba zoomed by me and I got this intense urge to reach down and pat it. Like it’s just a machine? But it’s a good boy? It spends all day cleaning and sleeping and exploring the house and never complains and it’s just so good little robot? Pet robot?? Pet the robot????? Why am I like this???
When I bought my roomba the lady at the store told me that if it breaks within warranty and I send it back to the manufacturer, I can request that they fix and send back the same roomba instead of just sending back a new one. I gave her a confused look and she explained that people get attached to Their Roomba and don’t want them to just be replaced because they’re like part of the family. Humans are pretty great.
We all are stardust 