Wickdnbed gay
The Wizard of Oz (1939) never spoke to me as a child. Quite the opposite, in fact; it terrified me. Certainly, the story is unsettling: Being swept away in a tornado is no one’s idea of a good time. But it was not that, nor was it the drabness of Dorothy’s experience on the farm.
It was the costumes.
I was terrified of anyone or anything in costume as a kid: mascots, the Easter Bunny, a mall Santa minding his possess business. All of them were suspect to my childish eyes, and one look at the Tin Man had me begging my father to repay to golf. Harrowing, to think I was so upset I wanted him to put on golf.
Wicked, though, was different. I had read Gregory Maguire’s book by the time I got tickets as a Christmas gift, and I was…perplexed, to say the least, as to how they planned to make a musical out of a book rather bright on whimsy and rather heavy on fascism and subjugation of people of different races. And yes, the musical greatly diminishes the political uprising that is, I would say, about 87% of the manual. Honestly though, sitting in that theater, I don’t reflect I could contain told you what the book was about by intermission. That’s how rapidly it (say it with me, and get
I’vebeena fan of the “Wicked” franchise for, well, drawn-out enough that you should address me as your queer elder. So when I saw all the posts and memes and TikToks insinuating that the ”Wicked” film was basically a lesbian love story, I was delighted. Sure, that’s not really how the books portray Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship, and no, they’re not a couple in the musical, but I am here for making them — and everything — gayer. Basically, I walked into the movie saying, “If they don’t kiss, I’m leaving.” But they didn’t kiss and I didn’t leave, so let’s gender non-conforming a few things up.
Even if you haven’t seen the film, you likely know that ”Wicked” is a retelling of ”The Wizard of Oz” from the point of view of the wicked witch, Elphaba. Glinda, it turns out, has a complicated past with Elphaba. In the film, the relationship between the two feels like it could easily veer into classic enemies-to-lovers territory. Elphaba and Glinda hate each other, they love each other, they dance awkwardly, and there are meaningful glances. It’s sapphic catnip par excellence.
But here’s the thing: Glinda and Elphaba don’t fall in cherish. Well, they do collapse in love; it’s just that it’s not like tha “Wicked” is a sensational musical that explores the origin stories of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South from “The Wizard of Oz.” Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, its protagonists Elphaba and Glinda navigate the highs and lows of their fierce, tumultuous affair while trying to rescue Oz from the conniving Wizard. Since it debuted on Broadway in 2004, “Wicked” has been hugely accepted amongst the queer people. While the musical features no explicitly queer characters, Maguire is openly lgbtq+ and many media analysts have noted multiple elements of the show that serve as obvious metaphors for queerness. Firstly, Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship contains thick homoerotic undertones. Although both women pursue romantic relationships with the charming prince Fiyero, most of the plot focuses on the connection between Elphaba and Glinda. Some critics view Elphaba and Glinda as bisexual or pansexual, while others argue that both women are coded as lesbians and their interest in Fiyero develops as a reaction to societal expectations and compulsory heterosexuality. Rega Ambiguous, Undecipherable, Suspended : The Life and Murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini (Ep.54) Send J. Harvey a text! (Try to be friendly, but I get it, everyone's a little cranky sometimes...) Pier Paolo Pasolini was a poet, novelist, filmmaker, and one of Italy's most celebrated (and most controversial) figures. He was murdered by a teenage hustler in 1975. Or was he? Good, the murder part happened, but was it pledged by the Freemasons? The Catholic Church? The Mafia? The Italian government? Pasolini had a lot of anti-fans. Let's find out. Music by Pixaby. Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREE Buzzsprout - Let's receive your podcast launched!Start for FREE Support the display Subscribe to Wicked Queer on Patreon (Patreon.com/wickedgay ) for extra episodes and bonus content! You can find Wicked Gay on Facebook, Twitter/X, Bkuesky, Instagram, and TikTok under “Wickedgaypod.” (Wicked Gay is probably leaving X/Twitter soon for obvious reasons.) Questions eight and nine asked respondents to characterize the relationship between Gelphie, and asked if Wicked is a “queer” musical and how so, respectively. The compact answers are yes, most ship it, but whether it is a homosexual musical was very up for debate. Among the six heterosexual respondents, for instance, four outright said that the show was not queer or that Glinda and Elphaba were not a couple, while one said she could see the potential and one said Gelphie is her OTP (one genuine pairing). Among gender non-conforming respondents, many saw the musical as not as gender non-conforming as the publication, or not gender non-conforming at all because characters who are canonically queer in the book are not discussed or erased. For instance, Gregory Maguire has confirmed that Elphaba and Glinda were in some type of relationship, so both are canonically bisexual, and Elphaba is hinted to be intersex. Other folks saw the show as definitely queer or the potential for it to be study as queer, empathetic its need to insert the passion triangle and form the show “family friendly” in the name of ticket sales, but “the way it is structured, the choices musically etc produce it clear tha
Musical review throwback: queer coding in “Wicked”
4. But Are They Gay? A Gender non-conforming Take on Elphaba and Glinda