Today
gender and sexuality is constantly a topic brought up within society. What is
gender? How does it differ from sexual orientation? These questions along with
several others are asked by many as we dive into the topic of gender and
sexuality. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night happens
to spark those type of questions even though it was written centuries ago. For
instance, Viola is cross-dressing as a boy, yet the Duke falls in love with her
or is it her male persona. It is true that Viola is true to herself the entire
play even dressed as a guy, but there are several inclinations that it could be
possible that her relationship with the Duke more began when he was unaware of
her being a girl. I guess it honestly depends on how the reader interprets the
play. I feel like it doesn’t really matter. Regardless if the romance actually
started when Viola was pretending to be a man or not is irrelevant. For some,
this concept is difficult to understand. However, to me it is a very simple
one. Love is genderless. It should not make a difference if the love is between
two men it’s still love.
I
was lucky enough to take two interesting classes (which strangely coincided with
one another, not on purpose either) dealing with gender and sexuality last
semester, that I feel really helped me see this play in a different light. Last
semester we discussed in both my gender studies and LGBTQ theater class that
there is such thing as “the umbrella” where many of the labels we in society
give to ourselves and others fall under. There are many labels and often times
it is a little overwhelming to understand which each one means. There are a lot
of specific labels to truly capture one individual. Many people are not afraid
to explain their own identifiers though, and all you have to do is ask the
question. Choose not to be ignorant, instead ask questions and educate yourself
on those terms.
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