By: Isabel Aragon & Britney Cheung, 2021 Summer Collaborators at Power in Place
In celebration of Pride Month, we wanted to highlight some LGBTQ+ media that we recommend!
Those Who Wait by Haley Cass
Those Who Wait is a lesbian adult romance novel independently written and published by Haley Cass. The story follows Sutton Spencer, a literature graduate student and newly-out bisexual in her mid-twenties, and her relationship with twenty-eight-year-old Charlotte Thompson, a lesbian, who has aspirations of following her grandmother (who in this alternate U.S., was the first female president) into politics. Throughout the story, Charlotte is running for a vacant seat in the US House of Representatives against an older, female conservative candidate and feels she has to keep her sexuality hidden in order to win the election. Charlotte struggles with her growing romantic feelings towards Sutton against her need to keep her private life a secret and guard her heart. This book does an excellent job portraying some of the behind-the-scenes in politics and the fear LGBTQ+ politicians may feel when deciding whether or not to come out publicly. I recommend Those Who Wait to anyone interested in lesbian romance and in reading about how a queer politician’s relationship decisions can affect both their career and their own well-being. Those Who Wait is available online as an ebook, or it can be purchased from Amazon as a physical book. Please be advised that there are scenes with sexual content and this book is for 18+ only.
Isabel Aragon is a rising junior at Smith College. She is majoring in Women & Gender Studies and minoring in Film & Media Studies and hopes to pursue an Archives Concentration as well. Isabel is from Santa Barbara, CA, and is passionate about LGBTQ+ representation in media and reproductive justice. On campus, she is part of Groove A Cappella.
Portrait of A Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma
Céline Sciamma’s fourth feature film, Portrait of A Lady on Fire, presents a cinematic masterpiece, bringing life to the power, freedom, and passion that is represented by fire – the diegetic crackling and mild luminescence of fire brings warmth to the cold, bleak spaces of the seaside manor; it illuminates solidarity and strength onto those discriminated by oppressive social forces; it burns in declaration of an anguished love, setting the two women free, for a fleeting while, to come to a fearful revelation of their deep affection for each other.
Bathed in soft pastel colors, the movie is set in the late 18th century in the French countryside of Brittany. It first introduces us to Marianne, an artist tasked to paint a portrait of the unwitting Hélöise, which is to be sent to a noble Frenchman in Milan as a pre-marital tradition. Yet in Hélöise’s stubborn refusal to marry a stranger, her mother hires Marianne under the disguise of a “walking partner” and instructs her to observe Hélöise’s features during their strolls along the beach. The camera follows the pace of the characters and replicates their point of view as we see close-up shots of Marianne observing, with a fierce sense of intensity and determination, at the complexions and silhouettes of Heloise’s ears, neck, fingers. At first, she does so out of obligation, but as Hélöise begins to reciprocate an interest in their relationship, her stares shift from ones characterized by objective studies to impassioned gazes. Through their sparse exchanges of words, the two come to a profound understanding of each other – this is not a love story saturated with flowery expressions of romance; rather, it is in the mutual knowledge of their subtle changes in expression and intimate details in their thoughts that cements this forbidden love affair.
While the film strays far away from the traditional narrative arc, the story reaches its climax in a scene where fire becomes prominent. Marianne and Hélöise attend a gathering with about a dozen women at a bonfire, where they seek advice to deal with the unwanted child of Heloise’s young maid Sophie. This subplot bravely confronts the taboo subject of abortion as a representation of female power and camaraderie – in the face of cultural standards and expectations that constrain their autonomy, they arrive at the bonfire to support each other, to lift their spirits through rhythm and harmony as the motion of slow chanting erupts into a joyous celebration of the women who have come to fly[1]. The scene is largely similar to one from Sciamma’s previous movie Girlhood, where the four main characters, in an instant of pure joy and friendship, put aside their troubles in the real world as they sing and dance along to Rihanna’s “Diamonds”. In Girlhood, the lush blue hue of the hotel room slips the girls into an almost transcendental experience of empowerment; in Portrait of A Lady on Fire, the gentle glow of the bonfire emits an incandescent passion – the fire liberates the women, albeit momentarily, and allows them to soar above the earthly boundaries set forth by men. At the same time, Marianne and Hélöise look at each other, smiling for the first time, but with a pang of despair in the knowledge that their love will remain illegitimate. There is a gothic-esque quality to the sequence when Hélöise’s dress lights on fire. In the moment she is set free, but the fire is almost immediately put out, and the audience is reminded of the reality of their love. Despite these unfavorable circumstances, Portrait of A Lady on Fire is nonetheless a mesmerizing ballad of an unfeigned, exquisite romance, one that paints grand gestures of love with every delicate brushstroke on the portrait canvas.
[1] The lyrics to the song were written by Sciamma in Latin. “Fugere non possum” translates to “they come fly”, which was taken from a sentence in Fredrich Neitzche’s novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “the higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly”.
Britney Cheung is a rising third-year at the University of Virginia majoring in Political and Social Thought. She is interested in human rights, particularly those of women, racial minorities, and immigrants. On campus, Britney is involved in various classical music groups and volunteering organizations.