"Marjorie Sholes With Studio Cat In The Window" Early 20th Century. Source.

Saw this on reddit, stealing it for the tumblrinas to see

here’s the screenshot if anybody’s looking

#me at grrm

#come on girlypop tell us what you think about the other episodes #they literally could have just aged down maelor and used a doll for blood and chress #i was already over it long ago so at this point it jusjt fucking hilarious #more lesbianism make it sooooo much gayer but keep allll the dead todlers

grrm: I don't care how gay you make my books, just make sure you keep in all the dead toddlers

excerpt from “what the well dressed dyke will wear” in dyke: a quarterly no. 1, winter 1975

☽ 𝔊𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔠 𝔞𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔠 (x) ☾

“I’ve always had a terrible weakness for beautiful but sad things.”

— Sylvia Plath.

no but NOT ONLY does the Dracula novel explicitly show that the men's well-intentioned but extremely sexist decision to exclude mina because she is a woman makes her more afraid and unhappy and also puts her at risk BUT ALSO it shows that after they realize their mistake and start including her again she is actually noticeably happier, despite the dire circumstances, less worried AND she is able to meaningfully contribute to their efforts as a valuable member of the group, thus making them all stronger

it's so striking. many of the characters display very typical attitudes for the time that the book was written but the narrative...kinda doesn't. yes it was written in the 1890s so it's still dated by modern standards, but it makes a very conscious effort to question a lot of traditionalist attitudes and views that would have been prevalent at the time. like, the male characters all think that it makes sense that a woman's nerves would be too sensitive to participate in a vampire hunting mission...but the narrative does not validate this and in fact shows them to be wrong. and only when they change their behavior are they able to succeed.

Also notable that Jonathan is the first one to be able to injure the Count, and is ultimately the one who kills him. And he is the least traditionally masculine and most gender nonconforming of the male characters.

tldr lowkey in the books dracula was defeated with the powers of friendship feminism and gender nonconformity and I think we should talk about that more