Interesting… and you raise a valid point (in fact the more I think about it, the more I think about it) – but the historical evidence is slender either way, excepting the fact that she was part of a newly daring 1920s exploratory culture; ‘bobbed hair, bathtub gin and wild, wild ways’ as Marion Meade puts it.
I certainly don’t discount the possibility and an actor might choose to bring that onboard in their performance and attitude to the role. But I am wary of being definitive with so opaque an icon. Icons are forever being claimed and reclaimed – that’s the function of myth after all to become a screen for our own projected information and desires.
If Jane Mendlesohn has written a classic piece of hetero Earhart/Noonan shippage fiction with her novel ‘I was Amelia Earhart’ then I have no doubt that Earhart femme-slash abounds elsewhere. And if it can happen to Sherlock Holmes in the movies then someone will seize the notion of a ‘gay’* Amelia in a similar way. If I was Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson or Sarah Waters then I could do something maybe – and Ali Smith may yet! I can easily imagine Earhart as a female Captain Jack from Torchwood too.
But, ultimately, I’m not sure that Amelia’s sexuality is very important, indeed it was the sort of life baggage she could leave behind every time she got on a plane, along with her dysfunctional childhood, her cluster headaches and her husband.
Sorry for such a long reply – and thank you for pointing out a possible island to land on and find fuel, one I could all too easily have overlooked or foolishly discounted.
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Re: Amelia was gay
Date: 2011-07-30 11:35 am (UTC)but the historical evidence is slender either way, excepting the fact that she was part of a newly daring 1920s exploratory culture; ‘bobbed hair, bathtub gin and wild, wild ways’ as Marion Meade puts it.
I certainly don’t discount the possibility and an actor might choose to bring that onboard in their performance and attitude to the role. But I am wary of being definitive with so opaque an icon. Icons are forever being claimed and reclaimed – that’s the function of myth after all to become a screen for our own projected information and desires.
If Jane Mendlesohn has written a classic piece of hetero Earhart/Noonan shippage fiction with her novel ‘I was Amelia Earhart’ then I have no doubt that Earhart femme-slash abounds elsewhere. And if it can happen to Sherlock Holmes in the movies then someone will seize the notion of a ‘gay’* Amelia in a similar way. If I was Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson or Sarah Waters then I could do something maybe – and Ali Smith may yet! I can easily imagine Earhart as a female Captain Jack from Torchwood too.
But, ultimately, I’m not sure that Amelia’s sexuality is very important, indeed it was the sort of life baggage she could leave behind every time she got on a plane, along with her dysfunctional childhood, her cluster headaches and her husband.
Sorry for such a long reply – and thank you for pointing out a possible island to land on and find fuel, one I could all too easily have overlooked or foolishly discounted.
*I’m never comfortable with labels.