Lowri's Agender

Tag: History

  • ~☆♥A Trans Icon To Die For!!!♥☆~

    ~☆♥A Trans Icon To Die For!!!♥☆~

    Content Notes: Spoilers For Black Butler and Discussion of Child Death, Mutilation, Sexism and Transphobia

    I am a massive Black Butler fan. It was the first anime I ever watched, it is one of the few mangas I keep on top of and the series has been somewhat of a preoccupation since I was a teenager. The unapologetic zaniness is captivating to me, whilst still being stylistically gorgeous and allowing for profound moments. But one character, more than any, has had a immense influence on me. So, let’s discuss Grelle Sutcliff and her many shades of red.

    A Brief History of Black Butler

    Black Butler is an ongoing manga that began in 2006, created by Yana Toboso.[1] The story is set in Victorian London, following the escapades of Ciel Phantomhive, a 12 year old Earl, tasked with solving the supernatural crimes that no one else can. Alongside him is his butler, Sebastian Michealas, a demon he has secured a contract with to seek revenge on those who murdered his parents.

    As much as I would like recapping the entirety of Black Butler in excruciating detail, I will gather us to the focus of this essay. First introduced in Chapter 6 Page 7, Grelle is the seemingly male butler of Ciel’s aunt, Madame Red.[1] They are both introduced to us when Ciel visits London, on the orders of the Queen herself to investigate the serial killer de jour himself, Jack The Ripper.

    Madame Red is shown to be a somewhat of a vapid socialite, despite being a medical doctor. Although she exhibits a ferocious protectiveness for her nephew. In contrast, Grelle is a bumbling foil of a butler to Sebastian’s hyper competence.

    Chapter 6 Page 7 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: For those unfamilar with manga, you should read from right to left and top to bottom

    Their investigations, including a madman Undertaker with a love of jokes, lead to Ciel and Sebastian setting up a sting for The Ripper. And they are revealed to be none other than…Grelle Sutcliff![1] And also Madame Red. It is at this point Grelle’s design changes from hapless butler boy to fabulous scarlet women.

    She is also revealed to be a Shinigami, a Japanese folkloric figure meant to carry the dead into the afterlife. In Black Butler, the duty of Shinigami is to look at a person’s Cinematic Record that showcases their entire life. And to intervene should they have died too early or in an otherwise unacceptable fashion.

    The sanguine duo had been killing sex workers for marginally different although similar reasons.[1] Madame Red was driven mad by the death of her sister. As well as suffering in all senses from an accident that killed her own husband and child, on top of rendering her sterile. In her capacity a doctor, she consulted for sex workers seeking hysterectomies, which infused her with jealous spite that boiled over into murderous rage.

    Initially, she was alone in slaying these women and taking their wombs as a form of prize. However, this rampage captured the attention of Grelle, who had been assigned to these murders and became sympathetic to Madame Red. For she too could not bear children due to the inconvenience of her natal male biology.

    Madame Red eventually backs out when confronted by Ciel, unable to execute her own nephew, resulting in Grelle executing her former assistant. Sebastian then promptly defeats her and the crimson delight is taken away by another Shinigami.[1] That is the only arc so far to truly focus on Grelle to some degree, but she does appear in other sections.

    Chapter 55 Page 30 and 31 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: Red line added to mark the page break

    In Chapter 54 she makes a return on the luxury ship Campania, which is being overrun by zombies. Ostensibly created by Rian Stoker (yes it’s not even subtle), Ciel and Sebastian are pursuing the company behind Rian that sponsored the technology, whereas Grelle is trying to discover how the dead are still walking.

    It is revealed that our comical Undertaker is the puppetmaster behind the living dead.[1] Sebastian and Grelle try apprehending the Undertaker but both fail. They then escape the sinking Campania separately.

    The final section of note that Grelle appears in is Chapter 124. Sebastian and Ciel are investigating people stealing blood through the Victorian version of k-pop idols; I swear I cannot explain it more succinctly than that.[1] They run into Grelle once more who is researching people who were predestined to die of renal failure but manage to delay their deaths. Grelle mysteriously intimates to Sebastian that they will see each other soon. And then in Chapter 128 she does.

    To explain the scene a little before I reveal the panels, since Chapter 14, there has been recurring pair of characters.[1] The naïve but cheerfully effervescent Prince Soma of Bengal and his sober but ever loyal butler Agni. The pair are foils to Ciel and Sebastian respectively, showcasing more innocent but also kinder personalities. They remain beloved staples in the fandom. Yet in Chapter 128, Agni dies protecting Prince Soma from attackers. And above it all, Grelle appears recording his death.

    Chapter 128 Page 4 and 5 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: Red Line added to mark the page break

    Remember these panels they’ll become significant later.

    Grelle does briefly appear later in Chapter 141 and 142 to try an apprehend the Undertaker but there is little of note for my purposes.[1] And I don’t feel like dissecting the Ciel twin reveal here. But what is important to further analyse is a curious question of Grelle’s gender identity. More specifically, if she is designed as a transgender woman?

    Meta-Textually Transitioning

    There has been a long debated topic in the anglophone fanbase as to whether or not Grelle Sutcliff is really transgender. No academic articles on this topic exist and through my own research it seems Toboso herself has never explicitly used queer terms for Grelle post 2014.

    So a little interpretation is required and I am relying on amateur sources. Though I do trust their translations as I have separate corroboration that they are not veering wildly from the text.

    The earliest examples of meta-textual gender references is a 2010 blog post by Toboso. In it she states, as translated by user akumadeshitsumon:

    “ Yes, Grell is a man, but has the heart of a maiden. […]Women understand that sort of thing, right~ Grell is a boy, but has the heart of a maiden (laughs)”[2]

    This alone suggests Grelle is trans in Yana Toboso’s eyes. As she is employing extremely similar terminology to the common cisgender narrative surrounding Japanese discouse. There was a very strong emphasis on the “sex of the heart” akin to the idea of a woman trapped inside a man’s body.

    Therefore any reference to Grelle being a boy could be more to do with her assigned gender at birth than her authentic identity. However, this does get more complex with the following quote from Toboso’s blog in 2014, again translated by akumadeshitsumon:

    “I think this time (actually not only this time but on other occasions, too), this okama[referring to Grelle] has benefitted most, don’t you think so as well!!?? (lol)”[4]

    In addition there is the following 2010 image drawn by Yana Toboso.

    Unnamed Sketch By Yana Toboso
    Note: User Akumadeenglish translated the following section in the top left “それにねえ オカマにだって人” to “Even Okama have human rights”

    So there are direct referrals to okama, which many believe to indicate that Grelle is meant to be seen as a homosexual man. I did try to obtain a focused history of the word okama. But the only paper available to me was written by someone who’s bigotry kept leaking out of the essay.[5] Consequently, I believe the best way to precede is to present you a slightly more piecemeal but less biased account.

    Okama as a phrase has its origins in the late Edo Period (1600-1868), being used as a catch all term for any effeminate sexual deviants.[6] It is slang for buttocks, deliberately alluding to anal sex and meant to also evoke a passive femininity to the bearer of the word.

    It continued to be routinely used in the 1960s and 70s as a title for effeminate kinksters and sex workers.[6] As well as being used by transgender women and gender non-conforming men as a self-identifier. It is a very messy word.

    Although in 2010 the label used by Japanese mass media was Eidōitsuseishōgai (Gender Identity Disorder) common self-descriptors for transgender women remained nyū-hāfu (New Half) and okama, amongst others.[7] Moreover, there had been relatively recent move by sexual minority activism groups like OCCUR, to distance gay people from the label okama. In 1993, OCCUR won a harassment case against a governmental hostel where they cited receiving homophobic slurs including okama.[3]

    OCCUR Logo
    Retrieved From: OCCUR.jp

    More broadly, homosexual male activists had tried to move past terms like okama because they were infused with ideas of effeminacy, deviancy and sex work.[3] I’m not saying this is a prudent move. But rather that, by 2010, gay people weren’t really using okama as a phrase to describe themselves in an effort to be seen as more socially acceptable.

    It was a title reserved for the effeminate and especially those who were transgender or otherwise gender nonconforming. As a result, it’s feasible to say that Toboso was using this term to refer to a transgender woman rather than a homosexual male. But it is hard to tell her specific intentions and how up to date she really was.

    However, there is some more recent evidence to back up a trans reading of Grelle, such as a 2018 Twitter post by Toboso, translated by akumadeshitsumon:

    “[…] I had a request to Grell’s actor Mr. Uehara. “Could you please [play her] as a strong woman”, […] So I asked  [Mr. Uehara] to please portray her as a career woman in front of her kouhai (younger colleague)”[2][8]

    The terms applied here are specifically gendered, and Toboso even states Grelle and Madame Red are like sisters in another twitter post.[2] All things considered, the most reasonable interpretation is that she views Grelle as a woman and at worst, utilised outdated terminology to speak about her.

    It seems unlikely for a writer to meta-textually reference a sex of the heart and to call someone a woman, in order to get across that a character is an effiminate gay man. However, it is likely for a cisgender person to call transgender people more ambigious terminology, which is why I was often called a cigarette/delicious British dish for wearing feminine clothes. That and the fact I—

    Transitioning In Glasses

    If you have engaged with the English translations of the series, you have likely gained the impression that Grelle is gendered as male. This is not to start a protracted debate about the validity of translations on canon. But I think its fair to say that we should at least examine how she is gendered in the original version. And that is, barely at all.

    Japanese is a subject null language, that means it can work deftly without the necessity for direct referrals to individuals, unlike English.[9][10] We have to use subjects, that is to say, we require explicit reference to the thing that a sentence is about. This is ordinarily achieved through nouns or pronouns. However, Japanese doesn’t need to. As far as I can tell, in the native version, no one genders Grelle as male. In fact, she explicit refers to herself as female.

    Panels From Chapter 9 Page 15, Chapter 11 Page 22, Chapter 60 Page 21 and Chapter 56 Page 10 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From and Edited Together By: chibimyumi

    Chibimyumi argues these four panels show how Grelle genders herself.[9] The first uses Atashi, a feminine first-person pronoun usually employed to explicitly call attention to the speaker’s femininity. Additionally, she calls herself a joyuu (女優), a literal actress and not the more gender neutral yakusha (役者) . The second literally is just her calling herself a lady ( レディ), plain and simple.

    The third is her describing herself as an otome (乙女) meaning maiden.[9] Huh. So that’s why they’re called otome games? They’re for virgins! Finally, bringing on the camp as all transgender people should, she refers to herself as a daijoyuu (大女優) or a great actress. Grelle constantly, explicitly, self identifies as a woman.

    And those around Grelle never explicitly challenge this or misgender her. The sole example that would come close is the Undertaker referring to her with the honorific prefix -kun.[11] Although this is often used as a male honorific, it is equally implemented to women in the workplace. And the Shinigami are clearly business orientated in aesthetics and manner, hence the idea of Grelle as a business woman.

    So, it could be seen as a modernised gender neutral term, meant to reflect the aesthetics of the Shinigami as a whole rather than a deliberate misgendering. There is still some misogyny because -kun is used for all women in industry regardless of position.[11] As a result, this is essentially sexist trans affirmation.

    If you want to explore this further, I recommend the deep dive linked here by akumadeshitsumon, but overall, no-one textually misgenders or questions Grelle’s femininity. She is explicitly positioned as hyper-feminine, on par with Madame Red, a cis woman.

    So despite what I would deem transphobic renditions by Yen Press and Funimation, rightly known for totally 100% accurate translations, Grelle is meant to be a trans woman. But even if she is trans. Is she good transgender representation?

    Murder Most Camp

    To ask what makes good transgender representation or indeed what is good representation of anything is to invariably reveal your own taste. It is effortless to point to things which are bad portrayals. Such as Silence of The Lamb’s Buffalo Bill, a psuedo transgender woman who skins women to enact transforming their gender.

    But, if you ask the type of character someone enjoys, that causes them feel seen, it is personal to their own journey and identity. So keep in mind this analysis is somewhat contingent on my own tastes.I want to start with the negatives because it is critical to highlight the failures of Grelle as representation before mentioning the parts which appeal to me.

    Firstly is the…well murderous lunatic of it all. Grelle does conform to a Buffalo Bill stereotype, murdering cis women for the crime of having wombs. An act of lunatic barbarity that, at least to Western audiences, fits a trope meant to insinuate that to be transgender is to have a detachment from reality. To be an outcast and dangerous to the innocent frail cisgender heterosexual women.

    Chapter 9 Page 28 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso

    Now, I am not outright defending this. But this genre cliche is less relevant to Japanese audiences than it is to UK and US audiences. Stereotyping for Japanese transgender women leans less onto them as psychotic and more as forms of comedy.[7]

    Nyū-hāfu and Blue Boy as terms for trans women (amongst other gender identities) that were literally founded by entertainers.[3][7] There is a long, long history of Japanese effeminate gay bars being used by heterosexual audiences as forms of amusement, as a lesser that soley exists for cis people to laugh at.

    Additionally, the deliberate paralleling of Madame Red and Grelle, makes me feel like this is less a lazy stereotype and more of an interesting dichotomy.The two are not treated equally in their traumatic reaction, Madame Red is portrayed as more sympathetic. But she is the beginning of the murder spree, she is the instigator, and that means you can’t really view Grelle as uniquely a transphobic caricature. Because she is dyadically paired in goals and action to a cis woman.

    Futhermore, there is something hauntingly powerful to me about the representation of transgender pain that frequently isn’t seen. I don’t witness many transgender women characters or even media figures discussing the sorrow you feel at always being incomplete.

    It is not something that preoccupies my mind too much in this specific regard, I’ve never wanted kids nor to be pregnant. But having known transgender women for who that reality is agony. The portrayal of this as equal to that of a cis woman is undeniably beautiful in a torturous manner.

    To have accidental sterilisation and sterilisation by genetic whim as equals in motive is a daring comparison. To highlight the shared experience of helplessly watching your body continue to betray you each day. It really could have been something uniquely poignant.

    But the beauty of this horror is rather undercut by the stereotypical portrayal of Grelle. She is often relegated to a comedic side character, who although powerful and malevolent, is lacking in substance. I adore her campiness, but it feels like she is never allowed to be serious for longer than a fleeting moment. Leading to her initial impression being both a comedic transgender failure and a murderous psychopath.

    Chapter 12 Page 20 of Black Butler by Yana Toboso
    Note: This is immediately after the climactic fight between Grelle and Sebastian.

    This is exacerbated by her being the only openly transgender character in Black Butler. There are moments of gender deviancy, like Ciel dressing as a girl, as well as general effeminacy from the male characters. But Grelle is the only one who could be argued to actually identify outside of cishet ideals.

    Although she identifies as a woman Grelle is, nevertheless, gender deviant in how she acts. The shinigami is loud, uncouth, wildly sexual and very unlike other female characters such as the tragic socialite, Madame Red.

    I cherish this about her. But because she is the sole transgender character, all of the good and bad of her ends up feeling extrapolated as part of her gender identity. We don’t get to see variance in the portrayal of transgender experiences. Though it would be deceitful of me to pretend I only see the bad.

    Here, Queer and In The Clear

    You know that scene I asked you to remember. The two page spread. That is why I ended up loving Grelle. Because in this scene, she showcases depth and seriousness. There had been glimpses previously in the Campania arc, but here it is in full view.

    She’s smiling, but with bitterness. Her eyes are down and slightly squinted as she leans against her chainsaw scythe. The rain drips down as even the Heaven’s themselves weep. And there is no joke. There is no comedy. Just the haunting acknowledgement that she knew this was coming and that nothing could have prevented it.

    The scene genuinely tears me up even now. My eyes started misting up re-reading the chapter. And the first time I read it, the twist devastated me like a freight train. It’s still one of the most impactful moments of Black Butler in my eyes.

    And yes, whilst the focus is on the death of Agni, the allowance for Grelle, a literal drama queen to be this serious is genuinely touching. It shows that Toboso did genuinely enjoy her as a character, a narrative person, and not just a stereotyped cluster of transphobic cliches.

    Grell’s Character Sheet From The 2nd Kuroshitsuji Musical: The Most Beautiful Death in the World by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From:Tumblr

    But adding to this, more than anything, I like Grelle as she’s pretty unique character. Not merely due to her ties to Japanese queerness and gender deviance. Not only because she is one of a select few of fantasy shonen trans women. But because, at least in my experience of media, she is one of the only transgender women who gets to be continuously happy.

    In his excellent academic review of Wandering Son, Kieren Wiley argues that one of the most pivotal parts of transgender representation is trans joy.[12] So many stories portray the horrors of being trans, our pain at our bodies, families, society, and more. But so very few allow for the glee of new clothes, of medical care, of love and community. And even less demonstrate the joy that Grelle showcases.

    The joy of extravagant queerness.

    If we see transgender joy it is ordinarily through the assimilation to the cisgender framework. The idea that trans women are happy when wearing a dress or applying makeup. When they are akin to a stereotype of cis women. But Grelle constantly showcases a level of overwhelming personality that is not afforded to the other females in Black Butler. She’s not just a woman; she’s The Woman. The most feminine, flirtatious, effervescent personality to ever exist. She quite literally outdoes everyone on femininity with effortless ease.

    Pivot (2018) by Yana Toboso
    Retrieved From: Twitter
    Note: According to Akumadeenglish, Grelle is saying “(You are a) pathetic woman” in reference to comedienne Blouson Chiemi

    To me, that is a valuable form of transgender representation and joy. That even if Grelle endures the pain of her biology, she is still self-confident, dazzling and artistic to a fault. She loves herself so completely and adores who she is even without medical care.

    And Grelle isn’t afraid of her masculine past, relishing in a level of gay queerness reserved only for the campiest of men. She remains an iconoclast of femininity and manifests a degree of self-love, confidence and happiness that I enviously aspire to. It’s difficult to overstate how much this height of radical acceptance touches my heart.

    And how time and again I have found it comforting to embody such characteristics.

    Becoming Ourselves

    In the reading for this essay, the conclusion of Kieren Wiley’s dissertation struck me:

    “I remember crying underneath my blankets as I watched the first episodes of the Wandering Son anime as a closeted transgender junior high student…It spoke to me like nothing had. I also cannot forget the betrayal I felt with Yoshino – the disappointment that he decided never to go to school in a men’s uniform again.”[12]

    This is a pain I remember all too well when watching Fruits Basket, seeing Momiji and Ritsu both return to their natal gender expression. The triumphant self-congratulatory reversal stating that to be truly whole is to deny any form of deviant gender manifestation.

    It was a crushing blow for me as a transgender teenager, to see how other people viewed my own actualisation. But with characters like Grelle, all I feel is spoken to.

    It has been onerous to be someone like Grelle in the UK. To be campy, queer, and incredibly gay. Even more so when seeking to medically transition, which requires you to hide away any part of yourself that doesn’t conform to an idealised form of a cisgender heterosexual. But I don’t have to suppress that now. And quite frankly I can’t be bothered anymore.

    As a dear friend once informed me, the more I transitioned the more androgynous I became. This wasn’t deliberate to be honest with you. I just became free; able to live outside of binaries. To transcend conformist notions of what it is to be an achillean man or a sapphic woman. Because I’ve been both. I’ve loved as both. And I don’t want to get rid of either part, even now when I identify as non-binary and asexual. Transitioning isn’t solely for transgender people in my experience.

    As people explore shifts in their identity, it feels like there is internal communal pressure as well as external societal compression, to relocate from your old sexuality to your new one. A gay man realising they also like women must cast aside their old community and transform into The Bisexual.

    But with characters like Grelle, you get to see continuity. Although undeniably a woman (as I am undeniably agender), there is a continuation of the femininity only seen in gay men. A sense of brash queerness that cis women often avoid, but that I relish in.

    Even if it wasn’t deliberate, I want more characters like her. Trans and gender non-conforming people in media who aren’t afraid of their past. Those who love their past and themselves in every form. There is nothing more queer, more transgender, more transgressive, than a joy born from a love of your entirety and whole.

    Although I have witnessed this in real life and in research, it is desperately difficult to find in media. Sometimes because cisgender writers fear getting it wrong. But I think the primary reason is because if we embrace parts of us that were male or female, or anything else, then transgender people can’t assimilate into cisgender identities.

    We become something more than that simplistic conceptualisation of humanity. A beautiful complexity unable to be captured by any binary or form of language. Something unique to ourselves, born of us and changing as we do.

    We become ourself. And nothing less.

    Thank you all so much for reading. I will be back to discuss video game addiction and online gambling. Until then, I wish you all the happiness in the world. And stay queer.

    References

    1. Toboso, Y.(2007-2025) Black Butler (Vols.2,3,12-14, 22-28) Square Enix Translation by Yen Press.
    2. :akumadeshitsumon. (2019). Hey everyone, I’d like to drop a quick side note about Grell Sutcliffe, as I’ve had a couple of questions about her by now. Retrieved From: Tumblr
    3. Hitoshi, I., & Takanori, M. (2006). The process of divergence between ‘men who love men’ and ‘feminised men’ in postwar Japanese media. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, 12.
    4. Toboso, Y,. (2014) Archived Blog. Retrieved From:Web Archive
    5. Lunsing, W. (2005). The politics of okama and onabe: Uses and abuses of terminology regarding homosexuality and transgender. In Genders, transgenders and sexualities in Japan (pp. 97-111). Routledge.
    6. McLelland, M. (2004). From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan. In Japan Forum (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-20). Taylor & Francis Ltd.
    7. Dale, S. P. (2012). An introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a new gender identity in Japan. Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 31.
    8. Toboso, Y,. (2018). あ、でも今回は脚本完成時、グレル役植原[…]. Retrieved From: Twitter
    9. Chibimyumi (2021). Man!Greller Debunking Series Retrieved From: Tumblr
    10. Tsubomoto, A. (1989). Null subject phenomena in Japanese: Incorporation, null expletives, and topic-agreement. English Linguistics, 6, 130-149.
    11. Chibuyumi. (2019) I have a question about THE TOPIC. How is Grell being referred to by other shinigami in the original manga? Retrieved From:Tumblr
    12. Wiley, K. (2024). Wandering Son’s Negative View of the Transgender Experience: An Emphasis on Pain and the Marked Absence of the Transition. Minnesota Undergraduate Research & Academic Journal, 6(1).
  • The Land Of Rising Gender Diversity

    The Land Of Rising Gender Diversity

    Content Notes: Artistic Rendition of Topless Nudity and Discussions of Acephobia, Homophobia, Pathologisation, Sexism, Transphobia, TERFs and Xenophobia

    I know I promised last time to discuss trans representation in a manga. And we will get there. But before that, I think it’s only fair to dedicate an essay to attempting a brief 4,500+ word explanation about the intricate history of transgender people in Japan. Because without it we will be helpless to understand the context a character grows from. And because this pride, I can’t help but be thinking of my trans community at home and abroad. So together, lets see how gender diversity developed in Japan.

    The Beginnings Of Having Fun

    From the early Meiji period (1868-1912) there was already a seedling of transgender adjacent history. Men and women were understood to exhibit a variety of sexual behaviours including dressing and living as the opposite gender.[1][2] However, there is no evidence of a strong internal identification.

    The modern use of the term transgender often relies on personal knowledge. Someone is transgender because they identify with a gender that is different to the one they were assigned at birth. Those who are cisgender identify with their birth gender. But there is often alot of grey area between transgender and cisgender, especially when looking to the past.

    Therefore when we look at historical cases, even if they appeared as another gender, there is usually little record of an internal identification. This is not to definitively say they were or weren’t transgender, but rather that any such attribution cannot be solidly stated. And that such complexity of gender identity and deviancy should not be compressed to conventional modern understanding.

    From the 1920s onwards sexology began to sprout in Japan. This resulted in a quick boom of research around perverse desire, including transvestism (crossdressing), sadomasochism (pleasure from pain), fetishism (unusual sexual interests) and homosexuality.[1]

    But in the lead up to WW2, such studies were banned and it wasn’t until the 1950s that there was a new wave of sexological research. This was due to US occupation ending, which resulted in many of the restrictions on the purveying of pornographic material being lifted. [3]

    Collection of Kasutori Zashi Magazines photographed by darkamyy
    Retrieved From: Reddit

    Of note are two similar genres of pornographic material. Hentai magazines (not the kind you are expecting) and kasutori zasshi or pulp magazines.[1][3] The latter is essentially just your run of the mill romance and kinkster periodicals, though these often included transvestite, transgender and homosexual content, alongside more familiar kinky spreads.[3]

    The former are pervert publications, which utilized a unique process of creation. These magazines were produced, ran by and read by both sexologist academics and queer people alongside kinksters.[1] Essentially both those deemed perverse and those who study the perverse interacted, theorised and researched together within columns.

    And these magazines were very progressive even by modern day standards. Some rejected the view of perversion as a medical disorder stating:

    ‘Sodomites, you must have pride! You are definitely not abnormal!’ [1]

    And as stated by Mark J. McLelland:

    “These publications were considerably more supportive of sexual and gender variety than any publications existing in English at this time…the paranoia about ‘the homosexual menace’ in 1950s America being absent in Japan.”[3]

    However, some parts do not align cleanly with modern sensibilities.[1] There was a common understanding of perversion as taking traditionally male or female attributes and slightly subverting them. The paradigm was good for the time, but still relied on notions of masculinity as inherently sadistic and femininity as inherently masochistic. It’s just feminine bodies sometimes behaved masculine and vice versa.

    The simple binary of attributes began to break down in the 1960s. This was due to an increased national attention on “feminised men”, who comprised a mix of camp gay men, crossdressers and transgender women.[1] First through the propagation of gei bās (a transliteration of gay bars) where effeminate gei bōi servers, who wore Western women’s clothing and makeup, captured heterosexual imagination. [3] This was to the point that so called tourist gei bās popped up exclusively to cater to a heterosexual clientèle.

    Photo of Le Carousel’s Blue Boys (e. 1960-1964) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved From: Digital Transgender Archive

    And second through the Blue Boy Boom. The term Blue Boy was implemented by a variety of gender diverse people who were Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB).[1] Originating from a group of transgender and transvestite Parisian performers called The Blue Boys featured in Europa Di Notte by Alessandro Blasetti in 1959.[3]

    The interest for Japanese audiences started in 1961 when Europa Di Notte was released in Japan, followed by Blue Boy performances in Tokyo in 1963.[3] This led to an unique blend of AMAB people who usually desired surgical enhancement to their femininity but identified as anything from homosexual man to heterosexual woman.

    But the most influential part of the Blue Boy Boom was The Blue Boy Trial.[1][3] A doctor was arrested in 1965 for performing Genital Reassignment Surgery (GRS) on three people, who were later charged with prostitution. In 1969, the doctor was tried under the Eugenic Protection Law for sterilisation.

    GRS is the surgical procedure to turn penises and testicles into vaginas (vaginoplasty) and vaginas into penises (phalloplasty). These are complicated procedures and have undergone major revisions since they were first recorded in 1930 and in 1946 respectively.[4] Neither procedure makes anatomy that functions similar to cisgender genitalia, but it does make anatomy that functions for urological and sexual activity.

    The Blue Boy Trial led to SRS being banned in Japan until 1998 and so anyone desiring transgender care had to go abroad. But, it’s not like laws ever stopped the trans community from flourishing on home-soil either.

    Separation Between Gay and Trans

    The 1970s saw transgender people and transvestites discussing their own relationship with gender. Carrousel Maki commented on openly experiencing a masculine nature even after having GRS.[1] Others viewed themselves as both homosexual male and transgender woman with some even conceptualising themselves outside the gender binary. However, cisgender consensus was shifting towards understanding of transgender people as possessing “a sex of the heart” that was different from their bodily anatomy.

    The 80s saw even further gender complication with the introduction of the term Nyūhāfu or Newhalf.[1][3] Initially created by Betty of the Osaka show bar Betty’s Mayonnaise, the label gained popularity after Keisuke Kuwata produced a hit single employing the phrase. It became more recognized by cisgender heterosexual audiences after model Rumiko Matsubara released an album called Nyūhāfu and openly identified as such.

    Cover for Rumiko Matsubara’s Nyūhāfu Album (1981)
    Retrieved From: Tumblr

    This cemented within the broader public a distinction between gay men and transgender people.[1] Although it should be noted, such a distinction was not necessarily retained within the community. Many individuals still view their gender identity as tied to their homosexuality. As well, others who crossdressed or otherwise appear as another gender, identify solely with their natal gender.

    Through the mid 80s and into the 90s, there was a boom in transgender and more broadly queer activism. Transgender activists specifically began to lean into pathological labels.[3] In 1995 when four doctors at Saitama Medical College submitted an application to their ethics committee to prescribe GRS to trans patients. This was approved in 1998, with the provision of stringent guidelines to get around the Eugenics Protection Act.

    Photograph of Saitama Medical School (2019) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved by: Ondotorism
    Note: Please appreciate my upmost maturity in having resisted the temptation to put a One Punch Man panel here

    Torai Masae, a trans man and founder of FtM Nippon was active in redefining transgender identity as a disability.[3] The tactic was successful in no small part due to a fortuitous coincidence between the Japanese term for Gender Identity Disorder (seidōitsuseishōgai) and disability (shōgai).[5] This inspired a sympathetic public that, amongst other gains, supported transgender people’s right to change their legal sex. And in 2004, spearheaded by Masae and other transgender activists, such recognition was passed into law providing the person was:[6]

    • Over 19 years old.
    • Unmarried.
    • Had no children.
    • Had no reproductive glands or had reproductive glands with a permanent lost of function.
    • Had a body which appears to comprise of parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender.

    The no children rule was amended to only count progeny who were minors in 2008[5] and the requirement for sterilisation was deemed unconstitutional in 2023.[7][8] There is still ongoing judicial action regarding the requirement to possess genital organs aesthetically resembling the opposite sex.[7] But although the public at large and governmental institutions only recognise trans women and men, it does not mean genders outside the binary stopped existing. In fact, they were becoming more popular than ever.

    X-Jendā? I Hardly Know Them!

    X-Jendā is a Japanese umbrella term for genders outside of the binary whilst additionally representing an identity itself.[9] Although akin to the English word non-binary, it is significant to state x-jendā is a unique category with its own complexity.

    Part of this is due to the Japanese language blurring the distinctions between gender and sex that exist in English. Seibetsu means both biological sex and gender in Japanese and the suffix -sei is applied to gender and sexual identifiers.[9] This can be seen in ryōsei which describes intersex people and those who’s gender is fluid. Therefore in utilizing an English loan word, x-jendā explicitly decouples sex and gender whilst showcasing not just gender identity but ones perspective on gender itself.

    Cover of X-Gender Vol 1. (2022) by Asuka Miyazaki
    Retrieved From:Bleeding Cool

    The word x-jendā originated in the Kansai queer communities of the 1990s, with Sonja Dale specifying Osaka and Kyoto being the most probable areas to have spread the term.[9] The first textual reference to x-jendā appeared in a 2000 gay rights magazine Poco a Poco, ran by G-Front Kansai. They included it in a glossary of useful terms with the following definition x-jendā :

    “As the narrow definition of MtF[Male to Female]/FtM[Female to Male] strongly indicates a desire to move towards the opposite sex, [x-jendā] is used by individuals who do not fit under the existing categories of male (dansei)/female (josei), or who are unsure of their sex/gender.”[9]

    Shinichi Morita, a founding member of G-Front Kansai, would be instrumental in the spread of x-jendā as a term.[9] On top of that, they would later identify as MtFtX in the G-Front and PESFIS documentary ♀？♂？※？. Put differently, they transitioned from male to female to x-jendā.

    More specifically, Morita states that their gender is close to female internally but they are attracted to gay men. [9] This leads to them enjoying an internal feminine experience but an external presentation that allures homosexual men. Morita even advocated for the removal of gender roles in the workplace and an end to gendered discrimination, siding with the now contentious jendā-furī (gender-free) movement.

    X-Jendā would subsequently appear in a variety of texts within the early 2000s, both by academic and by queer people themselves. The 2007 Rockdom of Sexuality text Toransu ga wakarimasen!! (I don’t understand trans!!), included essays by FtX individuals.[9] There were even televisual appearances by FtX people to discuss their gender on talk shows although outside of such programs there was little representation. However, it is with the advent of the internet that x-jendā skyrocketed into popular use.

    Blog spaces long housed personal stories and tales for x-jendā individuals to converse about their identities and their own issues.[9] Mixi, an anonymous social media somewhat akin to Facebook has x-jendā specific groups like Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei (The Sex That is Neither Male Nor Female) and Seibetsu no Nai Seka (A World Without Sex/Gender). Both of these have over 4500 members.

    Furthermore, gender diverse groups allow folks to discover their x-jendā identity,[9] similar to how some Western transgender and non-binary people start in Butch sapphic circles or femboy Twitter. Speaking of, even Twitter has allowed for x-jendā individuals to connect and follow specific friends or creators. Though I’m not sure how truthful that is presently in the year of our Devil 2025.

    Image of Nuriko from Fushigi Yûgi by Yuu Watase
    Retrieved From: Mini Tokyo
    Note: Although Fushigi Yûgi is not my favourite anime, it occupies my mind so much because of the really good music and NURIKO MY BELOVED!

    And there have been examples of celebrities in Japan coming out as x-jendā. Mangaka for Fushigi Yûgi, Yuu Watase, disclosed she is x-jendā in 2019.[10] And based on the specific tweet she opened up in, there is evidence of at least some doctors becoming more receptive to gender diverse identities outside of the binary. But sadly, there is a more broad move to preserving the history of pathological control in Japanese medical establishments.

    Sterilising Fun

    Pathologisation has long remained an issue with the treatment of transgender individuals. Since the rise of sexology in 19th century Western Europe, medical practitioners with little actual knowledge of the community have tried to be the gatekeepers of our bodies.[11]

    In the 1960s, psychiatrists tried to develop transexual models of disease to decide who was worthy of hormone treatment and surgical intervention.[11] They prioritised a stable binary identity, aversion to our own bodies, adherence to gender roles and heterosexuality as the defining traits of “genuine” transgender people.

    As we know seidōitsuseishōgai or Gender Identity Disorder became the key diagnosis for trans individuals in Japan, to the point it developed into a term of self-identification for some.[3][6][11] It is moreover the phrase most prominently used to describe transgender people in Japanese media. Whilst this leaning into pathologisation did allow for some to gain new rights and recognition, there was criticism early on.

    In 2002, academic discourse argued that such a move meant transgender people would be viewed as inherently needing treatment. As a result they would have to portray themselves as traumatised or distressed to gain access to healthcare.[3][9] This leaves those who live outside the binary like Nyūhāfu and X-Jendā to be legally, socially and medically ignored. Anyone who does not conform to cisgendered views of gender identity is ignored as assimilation is prioritised over care.[3]

    My favourite example of assimilationist tactics is in a study by Elroi Waszkiewicz, a paper I will never stop recommending to friends.[12] In it, he documents transgender men’s experiences in US institutions designed to help people transition. He notes a phenomenon called Gender Profiling, whereby gender stereotypes are used to decide if someone is truly trans. Specifically, the gendered biases of an individual medical professional become hoops for a trans patient to jump through in order to access medical care.

    Image of James Dean Smoking (1955) by an Unknown Photographer
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    This exists because of the vague rules of the DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnosis. Since it is impossible to definitively define what makes someone any gender, the clinician is left to their own devices to assess if a patient is undoubtedly suffering from The TransTM. And cisgender clinicians suck at understanding gender.

    Some of my favourite examples relayed by Waszkiewicz include clinical judgement of: the right way to hold a cigarette, the correct underwear to use and the appropriate type of people to be attracted to (cisgender heterosexual women). [11]

    Adding to this, in the Japanese context, there is an awful twist. As transgender people are only allowed to legally change gender if they first fail to reach the standards of their natal sex.[9] In other words, there is active emphasis on the assimilation and inferiority of transgender people, as pitiable failures of traditional gender, whose disabled heart must be accommodated.

    To delve a little into my own personal experience, since this post comes out on the second anniversary of my GRS. When I was seeing psychiatrists in 2020-2022 to get surgery, the fact I wore makeup and dresses was noted down multiple times as valid reasons for surgical intervention.

    One psychiatrist rebuked me for saying I didn’t mind appearing masculine some days. A thing that was a relatively ordinary occurrence in my humble village in the North East, never mind a common experience for queer people. But because I am transgender, any enjoyment or acceptance of my natal masculine characteristics is seen as proof of deception.

    Additionally, after I went through with the GRS, there was a strange frequency to which specialist nurses and even the surgeon assumed my goal was to provide pleasure for a partner. More specifically, that I underwent treatment, aftercare and now constant dilations to make sure a hypothetical future cisgender heterosexual man received pleasure.

    Generic Man from The Heckler (1992) by Keith Giffen
    Retrieved From: Write Ups

    I even know of trans women being denied GRS on the grounds that they were asexual, leading to me hiding my asexuality. Not once did the idea I might enjoy being with someone without a penis, or the concept of my own personal satisfaction, seem to enter their minds. It shows how dehumanising clinical staff can be. Our needs are second to that of the presumed future partners.

    Even if a trans person is seeking medical care, the power being in the hands of ignorant clinicians leads to us having to contort to cisgender expectations. Further worsening this though, if people desire only certain parts of medical care, if they have an atypical gender identity or merely want to be their own brand of person, there are systematic barriers and legal vulnerabilities for such deviation.

    The system in Japan, as well as in other countries like the UK and US, hamper and strangle the trans community. It impairs our ability to be our authentic selves freely and to gain equal status with our cisgender counterparts. And this gets even worse with the rise of ultraconservatism and transphobia within Japan.

    TERFs Are A Mould That Infests Everywhere

    Since the early 2000s in Japan, there has been what Kazuyoshi Kawasaka calls a growing Anti-Gender movement.[13] This crusade is pioneered by ultraconservatives, emboldened by the popularity of Shinzo Abe during his two runs as Prime Minister of Japan. It has attacked both feminist scholarship and LGBTQIA activism within the 21st century, focusing on the subversion and supposed removal traditional gender roles.

    Official Portrait of Shinzo Abe (2012)
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    The feminists of the 90s and 00s promoted the concept of jendā-furī, the idea of a gender free society, where cis Japanese women would be liberated.[13] These activists relied on bureaucratic relationships to enact their policies and had little to no grassroots organisation to exert political pressure in a more bottom up manner. As such, when there was a rise of ultraconservative politicians that deliberately manipulated the idea of jendā-furī as a:

    “soft fascism of sexual perverts”[13]

    The feminists of the time struggled to develop a resistance to this rhetoric.[13] A struggle that was exacerbated by prominent feminists inability to counteract against the calculated misinformation, instead treating it as innocent ignorance. However, as you can expect, it was not only cis Japanese women who were targeted. In fact queer people and Korean women were especially vilified in this modern ultraconservative movement.

    A vilification that was made worse by a lack of intersectional intercommunity practice amongst activist groups, who all seemed to despise each other. Feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno commented that:

    “…if someone asks me if feminism can forge a coalition with gay men, I would answer ‘yes, if they are not misogynistic’. Gay activists would harshly criticise me if I talk like this, but I cannot imagine gay men who are not misogynistic. The gay men who are not misogynistic would be those who do not romanticise masculinity; if they exist, I want to meet them”[13]

    Conversely gay writer and activist, Noriaki Fushimi, argued that jendā-furī denied the inherent differences in sexual desire based on biological sex.[13] As well he suggested that gay people should focus on pleasure, not activism. It seems not everyone can be as presciently intelligent as Shinchi Morita.

    This backlash led to the deprivation of the rights for Korean residents in Japan, queer people in poverty, and the strengthening of xenophobia often lobbied at queer refugees.[13] And although it died down when Abe first resigned, after his re-election there was a whole new wave of ultraconservatives.

    This time it directly targeted transgender people, especially women. The late 2010s, saw Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) be shipped from the UK into Japan. TERF represents both a movement and signifier of individuals that seek to exclude trans people, especially those who are AMAB, from feminist discourse. The central proposition is that transgender women are perverse males who obtain sexual titillation from transitioning. Whilst trans men are innocent soft girls cruelly tricked into removing their divine femininity. I wish I was overstating this.

    Photograph of Ochanomizu University (2018)
    Retrieved From: Zero Hora

    Ochanomizu University, a women’s only university, stated they would admit trans women by 2020.[13] In response Twitter TERFs in Japan decried the move and were routinely challenged. This led to a prominent Japanese feminist group, Women Action Network (WAN), to publish an article by an anonymous user.

    In it, the writer stated that TERF is a slur (it is not) and that trans people being allowed into women’s only spaces will cause a wave of misogynistic violence.[13] Furthermore, it spewed rhetoric similar to UK transphobic discourse and even name dropped Queen of Mould herself, JK Rowling.

    WAN decided against retracting the hate piece after there was understandable outcry, resulting in TERF politics gaining a large platform in Japanese feminist circles.[13] So not only did traditional liberal feminism once again fail to help marginalised individuals, in certain circles it actively made it worse. All the while, lessons of the past about intercommunal connections were never learned.

    On top of this, the modern era has seen a roll back on securities for queer people, like the blocking of a bill to enshrine protection from discrimination for the LGBTQIA community.[13] As, well there has been an increased movement in Japan to make transgender and gender non-conforming individuals feel uncomfortably alienated from single-sex spaces.[6] There has even been discourse around transgender athletes, with them being framed as dangerous to women’s sports.[14]

    Overall, like in the UK, the US, France and other countries in the West, Japan has moved towards the removal of trans people from public life. But that does not mean there is no hope.

    Progress Marches Onwards

    In 2017, Tomoya Hosoda became the first open trans man in the world to be elected into a public office.[15] He became the councillor for the Kanto city of Iruma on a platform to increase the rights of LGBTQIA people, the disabled and the elderly. He is the second transgender person admitted into a political position in Japan after Aya Kamikawa was elected to the Tokyo municipal office in 2003.

    Photograph of Tomoya Hosoda (2017) by Nerelle Harper
    Retrieved From: QNews

    In 2019, Yokosuka City became the first municipality to allow partnerships between x-jendā individuals and legally enshrines equal protections for them under the law.[16] There is a general trend in Japan for districts allowing marriage between same-sex couples and growing pressure on current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government to nationally recognise equal marriage for all.[17]

    Transgender employees are successfully suing governmental and private workplaces for harassment and discrimination, marking the beginnings of protection from bigotry for queer people.[18][19] There are and continue to be, legitimate strides being made to protect, uplift and dignify the LGBTQIA community in Japan.

    Furthermore, in reading about the rise, the continued resistance and ever-present queerness of the Japanese transgender and gender non-conforming community, I ended up feeling genuine trans joy. By reading about individuals whose gender is just homosexual, with the creation of terms to challenge pathologising traditionalism and witnessing the words of transgender Japanese people express their unbridled self-love. Even whilst acknowledging the horrors the community is currently facing, the unabashed communal love and self-confidence is moving.

    I know that Pride this month is mired by the horrors of the world. For as long as I’ve been aware I was a little queer, there has been a pervading sense in the UK of hatred towards me and people like me. Of governmental machinations seeking to crush my community. Made all the worse by recent decisions in the UK to offer protection only on the basis of chromosomal sex.[20] But as we can see in Japan and in other countries there are movements against this. Activists, politicians, celebrities and everyday people fighting in ways big and small to stop the repealing of progress.

    We might not be able to do a lot. All I feel I can do is write. But sometimes even the small things, like educating a friend or talking about your queerness can have a big impact. We as trans people, non-binary people, queers all around, need to maintain our presence in life. It’s hard. Even scary, and I will never judge someone for retreating. But the more we are open in the face of adversity, the more we openly challenge the narratives of pathologisation, politicisation and hatred. The more we become immovable to any force. Allowing our community to be out and proud.

    And allowing ourselves to be happy, if but for a moment.

    Happy Pride to everyone reading, no matter who or where you are. You’re amazing. Don’t stop being amazing.

    References

    1. Hitoshi, I., & Takanori, M. (2006). The process of divergence between ‘men who love men’ and ‘feminised men’ in postwar Japanese media. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, 12.
    2. Wieringa, S., Blackwood, E., & Bhaiya, A. (Eds.). (2007). Women’s sexualities and masculinities in a globalizing Asia. Springer.
    3. McLelland, M. (2004). From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan. In Japan Forum (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-20). Taylor & Francis Ltd.
    4. Beemyn, G.(2013). A presence in the past: a transgender historiography. Journal of Women’s History, 25(4), 113-121
    5. Konishi, Y. (2024). Trans depathologisation and gender identity disorder in Japan: A critical discourse analysis of medical literature, 2010–2022. Social Science & Medicine, 353, 117039.
    6. Dale, S. P. F. (2022). Transitioning through the toilet: Changing transgender discourse and the recognition of transgender identities in Japan. In Rethinking Transgender Identities (pp. 163-181). Routledge.
    7. Doi, K., & Knight, K. (2023, October 25). Victory for Transgender Rights in Japan | Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watch
    8. Khalil , S., & Tan, Y. (2023, October 25). Japan’s top court says trans sterilisation requirement unconstitutional. BBC News. Retrieved from BBC News
    9. Dale, S. P. (2012). An introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a new gender identity in Japan. Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 31.
    10. Watase, Y. [@wataseyuu] (2019, May 20)ブログでもここでも呟いたけど、再度。 漫画にも影響してると思うから。 私はXジェンダーと医師に診断されてて、中身は、男にも女にも寄れるし男でも女でもない。 見た目はちゃんと(20代後半から社会に合わせて)どうせやるならやるでメイクもオシャレもする、それだけ。 女性の身体は否定しないが . Retrieved From: Web Archive
    11. Konishi, Y. (2024). Trans depathologisation and gender identity disorder in Japan: A critical discourse analysis of medical literature, 2010–2022. Social Science & Medicine, 353, 117039.
    12. Waszkiewicz, E. (2006). Getting by gatekeepers: Transmen’s dialectical negotiations within psychomedical institutions.
    13. Kawasaka, K. (2023). Queers and national anxiety: Discourses on gender and sexuality from anti-gender backlash movements in Japan since the 2000s. Global Perspectives on Anti-Feminism: Far-Right and Religious Attacks on Equality and Diversity, 182-201.
    14. Tanimoto, C., & Miwa, K. (2021). Factors influencing acceptance of transgender athletes. Sport Management Review, 24(3), 452-474.
    15. Farand, C. (2017, March 18). Japan becomes first country in the world to elect a transgender man to a public office | The Independent. Retrieved from The Independent website: The Independent
    16. Tokoi , M., & Mochizuki, M. (2019, June 12). Pushing for “X-gender” recognition | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News. Retrieved from NHK WORLD website: NHK World
    17. Khalil, S. (2023, October 2). Marriage equality eludes Japan’s same-sex couples. BBC News. Retrieved from BBC News
    18. Doi, K., & Reid, G. (2023, July 18). Japan Supreme Court Ruling a Victory for Transgender Employees. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watchruling-victory-transgender-employees
    19. Doi, K., & Knight, K. (2022, November 29). Japanese Trans Woman Wins Workplace Harassment Case. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: Human Rights Watch
    20. Fox, A. (2025, April 16). What does the Supreme Court ruling on definition of a “woman” mean?. Retrieved June 21, 2025, from The Independent website: Independent
  • I Still Am A Dark Romantic Teenager

    I Still Am A Dark Romantic Teenager

    Content Notes: Images of Torture and Discussions of Consumption, Death, Sexual Abuse and Suicide

    I have talked at length about the origins of SCP -166 as well as how the community responded to the article. And although there were positive moments, my reviews have primarily been a downer. Therefore, to round off this trilogy in a joyous fanfare, let’s talk about one of the most depressing pieces of fiction I have read and why it works so well!

    0166 License to Kill

    SCP-0166 is not actually an SCP article. It is from the Tales Series, essentially the fan fiction section of the SCP wiki. This format allows for more conventional narrative stories as well as lore building by creators outside of the official articles. Often it is employed by writers to put their own spin on the lore or allow a more personalised look at different characters. Which is exactly what UraniumEmpire was hoping to do when they posted SCP-0166 on 20/9/2019. [1]

    I frequently state you should read the original literature, but for this story it is rather necessary. This is a extensive piece of work and I will not be capable of doing the details justice in a brief overview. We begin with Epon’s (the name I’m using for SCP-166) Containment Procedures which say she is to be managed by the Pataphysics Department.[1] They are a research division which handles anomalies that treat the universe as if it is materially fiction.[2] Furthering this narrative interplay, changes to Epon are to be examined for “Romantic Repercussions” referencing the Romantic literary movement.

    She is to be housed in an unfurnished containment cell, fed 19th century vegetarian food and to be moved to a new housing unit every week.[1] She is to be contained in Site 166, a set of disposable concrete buildings containing empty holding compartments that are not allowed to exist for more than a year. Asexual or neurotypical personnel are strongly preferred and all feminine attracted employees are denied access to Epon.

    Moving onto the description section, we are informed Epon’s primary anomaly. She is the centre of a reality warping field that transforms the surrounding matter to conform to literary ideals.[1] However she exhibits some control of this as there is a deliberate manifestation of 19th Century Dark Romanticist conventions. Extended exposure to this field is inhospitable due to hostile architecture and pollution. As well, the more things change to these conventions the more the field grows, hence needing to switch where she lives.

    The Cathedral Of Blood from Code Vein (2019) by Bandai Namco
    Retrieved From: Facebook

    After all this preamble we are conveyed some history, in the form of two separate streams. One recounts Epon’s personal history and the other is a set of interviews with a Dr Sophia Whateley. I will try covering all this chronologically but in the story itself, the two sets of information are alternated between.

    Paraphrasing the tale to hell, we begin with Epon in her former teenage succubus form.[1] She is examined by a male doctor, Dr James Dantensen with allusions of sexual malfeasance on the doctor’s part. Eventually, Epon escapes containment and neutralizes him before being re-contained. After this, Epon exhibits signs of recalcitrance, disavowed Catholicism, suicidality and becomes hostile to all personnel.

    However, once she began suffering from malnutrition due to not eating and cellulitis, her hostility lessens. She escapes for a second time but hands herself back into containment six months later, with little discussion as to what she did on her outing. Only that she seems worse mentally.

    We subsequently obtain the interviews with Dr Sophia Whateley. The first is predominantly Epon stonewalling the psychologist, as well as lamenting being emotionally stunted and perceiving a lack of control in her own life.[1]

    In the following interview we find out Dr Whateley was trying to be reassigned due to developing romantic feelings for her patient. But because of anomalous interference she is forced to interact with Epon anyway. Epon monologues about how Dr Dantensen perceived her as a fetish piece, so after his death the teenage succubus transformed into a mid-20s dark romantic. In addition, she blames Whateley, as proxy for the entire Foundation, for their culpability in her abuse. This section ends with Epon recounting a male staffer breaking into containment to elope with her. In response, she told the staffer to kill himself.

    The third interview is primarily Whateley and Epon arguing.[1] The former contends she is trying her best to help. But the latter views the doctor as being impersonal, lacking any care and solely representing another in a extensive line of researchers attempting to control her. To Epon, Whateley is no better than the men who came before her.

    The final interview is the most tragic. Whateley rushes into Epon’s containment cell, her fingers covered in blood. She tries talking but coughs up blood as her words are choked.[1] The doctor pleads to Epon that she wanted to do more and still loves her, as the effects of tuberculosis consume her lungs. Epon monologues that it was inevitable, that this is a terrible way to go, and in response to the declaration of love, tells Whateley to kill herself. Whateley dies in an instant. And Epon retreats to her bed, her back to the camera in her room. With only the sounds of crying disturbing the stillness.

    Transcending American Literature

    There are many directions to take this story, a plethora of things that can be said about it. But I think one of the most important avenues is to discuss the ties to Anti-Transcendentalism or Dark Romanticism. Dark Romanticism is a combination of the Transcendentalist and Gothic literary movements, often typified by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.[3][4][5] Transcendentalism is excellently described by Olgahan Bakşi Yalçin in her essay on Moby Dick as:

    “ Briefly, transcendentalism stresses the importance of individualism, intuition, nature, and self-reliance as opposed to Calvinism, or the doctrine of predestination practiced by the Puritans at that time”[5]

    The Gothic movement was based on Romanticism (itself based on Transcendentalism), and focused on the more sordid side of individualism and nature. It often relies on secrecy, illness and horror in everyday occurrences.[3] These genres were uniquely from the United States, as Transcendentalism itself came from the desire of American writers to produce their own literary movement outside of European writing conventions.[4] However, although Dark Romanticism was born of Americana, it ended up less conventional that the other offshoots.

    Depending on the writer, you get a different severity of critiques against Transcendentalism. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter does depict Anti-Transcendentalist themes but ultimately seems to side with Transcendentalism as the path for humanity.[4] Melville’s Moby Dick has Ishmael gradually lose his Transcendentalist beliefs due to the horrors of Ahab’s lust for revenge. Suggesting Transcendentalisms idyllic picture is not inevitably reflected in reality.[5] And Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum focuses on the horror people inflict on others, how disgustingly torturous we can naturally be.[6]

    Illustration for The Pit and The Pendulum (1919) by Harry Clarke
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    All of these counter the Transcendentalist idea that humans are innately good and virtuous, but their conviction behind it ranges wildly. Ultimately however, all Dark Romanticism believes in the innate sinfulness of humanity and desires to explore the internal world of the sinner.[4] Furthermore, there is a focus on revenge and sadism, the desire to injure others for “righteous” reasons or simply out of pure anger.[4][5]

    The point is not to create an edge-lord paradise but rather to reveal the lies behind the naively optimistic view of human nature as always good. To demonstrate not only mortal complexity but inherent evil in a psychological and spiritual capacity. And what better way to illustrate the horrific tragedy of a girl trapped in the stories of others than the genre built to reveal the darkness in us all.

    Twinning With 1851

    Although Poe is the King of Dark Romanticism, I believe the best starting point for comparison is Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In the story we follow Ishmael, a optimistic Transcendentalist whaler signed onto the Pequod.[7] The ship is captained by the monomaniacal Ahab, who lost his leg to the titular whale and desires revenge at all cost. We witness Ishmael’s naive hope for humanity and nature battle against the whirlpool of illogical hatred.

    It is interesting to note that Melville originally wrote this as a simple fictional account of his own experience whaling. That is until he met with Hawthorne who seemed to inspire a shift in tone.[5] In a similar way, UraniumEmpire took a simple account of erotica disguised as horror and turned it into an existential nightmare. But I think the most important comparison t is to note the similarities and differences between Captain Ahab and Epon, especially within the interactions of their transcendentalist characters.

    Moby Dick Commission (2017) by Daniel Warren Johnson
    Retrieved From: Comic Art Fans

    Both Ahab and Epon are consumed by the desire for cathartic revenge. The world has treated them horribly, and they have been wronged by an individual, although one is an animal and the other is all too human. Because of this, they see the world as filled with the horrors of sin and hatred. But the more compelling connection is how both show awareness of the futility of their pursuit. Ahab reflects on his wife and kids, knowing he and others may never see their family because of his monomania. [5] And Epon states:

    “Maybe you were like me, the keystone macguffin in a shitty plot. Titillation for the reader. Be thankful yours wasn’t as big a pervert as mine.”[1]

    Epon is aware of her position as a MacGuffin, a fictional puppet to entice and entertain the reader, with little to no control over her own story. Even as we read her killing Whateley, as cries echo for the loss of love, one cannot help but feel she is still confined in the conventions of a story. Like Ahab feels compelled to hunt the titular whale by an indescribable force,[5] Epon is moved to weaponise her trauma by the conventions around her. The narrative itself warps the world around her but also reflects how she is trapped in the confines of fiction. Never able to be fully realised.

    And even the knowledge of this predicament does not bring any hope of change. As Transcendentalism challenged the Doctrine of Pre-ordination,[5] there is irony therefore in using Dark Romanticism to suggest Epon too has little free will. Even with all her power, Epon does not choose where she lives, who she interacts with, what she eats or how she is seen. The narrative around her dictates how others interact with her. A narrative that only exists so she can avoid the leering of men. A narrative which she does not fully control in terms of how it effects others.

    Perhaps most tragically of all is how Epon destroys any hint of Transcendentalism in Whateley. For all intents and purposes, Whateley is our Ishmael. She genuinely believes in the inherent good of her patient, that she is someone who can be helped and is not a literal demon. As well as Epon’s ability to choose a new life for herself. But just as Ahab’s cruelty transforms Ishmael’s philosophy,[5] Epon’s literal genre bending transforms Whateley. Her kindness is unbelievable to the traumatised Epon, and therefore the latter forces the darker aggression out of the former. Confirming the worst suspicions of Epon that everyone, no matter how kind, has sin in their heart.

    The Scarlet E

    The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne is perhaps the most hopeful of the Dark Romantic tales. In it, a woman called Hester is caught cheating with a man due to getting pregnant whilst her husband is lost at sea.[8] She is punished with shame as the letter A for adulterer is emblazoned on her chest. But even through the mocking and isolation, Hester gains the strength to be a good person and alter the meaning of the A. From Adulterer to Able. Hester is an exemplary Transcendentalist, surrounded by Anti-Transcendentalists like her returned husband seeking revenge and the Reverend she committed adultery with. [4]

    The Scarlet Letter (1861) by Hugues Merle
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    It is thought-provoking how some parts of The Scarlet Letter contrast and mirror Epon’s own descent. For example, both Hester and Epon show self-reliance exemplifying the transcendentalist iconography of individualism.[4] They are bastions of independence with no need for institutions or society. But in Hester’s case, this is to present her transformation and reveal her innate goodness. In being solitary, Hester is allowed to acknowledge her “sin”, to forgive those who treated her poorly and move on. However, Epon’s case reveals her desire for revenge and catharsis, to enact the pain she experienced onto others for some semblance of emotional relief.

    Moreover, both Pearl (Hester’s bastard daughter) and Epon are intuitive, understanding the world through inner truths and spiritual intellect rather than scientific rationality.[4] Showing the brilliance of emotional intelligence and interconnectivity with the world around them. However once again there is a split. Pearl’s intuitiveness comes from her innocence and connection to nature, allowing her to reconnect with the Edenic past of humanity. But Epon’s life is permeated with disposable concrete buildings and detached perverts. Her intuitiveness is from her trauma, a lack of innocence and arguably outright rejection of it. Hypervigilance manifesting into a need to defend the self above all else.

    It’s fascinating how Epon is so close to representing a transcendental character. But due to the trauma and horrors she experiences, she is never able to have that hope for humanity again. Paradoxically it is the institution forsaking her that results in her Dark Romanticism.

    Epon does not arrive at the conclusion of many early writers from the United States. That to be truly good one needs to be an individual attuned with nature away from society.[4] Instead, she believes that humans are innately corrupted and evil. Likely because unlike Transcendentalist and Romantic writers, she was directly defiled and exploited by these systems.

    But there is one more part of the Scarlet Letter I would like to explore. Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband who makes it his mission to torture Reverend Dimmsadale for the cheating with his wife.[4] He torments Dimmsadale relentlessly, until the bad Reverend confesses to his congregation, then promptly dies. Chillingworth dies a year later, now with no one to abuse. There are two parallels in my opinion to produce between Epon and him, though I wish to note she is clearly a more sympathetic character.

    The Leech and His Patient (1878) from The Scarlet Letter by Mary Hallock Foote and
    L. S. Ipsen
    Retrieved From: Gutenberg

    To begin with, Chillingworth is compared to and stated to be the devil incarnate.[4] In his conquest for revenge, his sadistic sinfulness and need to seek retribution for a slight results in him devolving into unrefined evil. I find this an interesting parallel to Epon, who escaped sexual demonisation by embodying sadistic demonisation. She becomes a figure of revenge, hatred and spite, unable to let anyone close to her. And those who do become even slightly close to her wind up dead. With this framing it is intriguing that although Epon eluded sexual exploitation, she never evaded othering itself.

    However, the more compelling parallel is how Chillingworth’s revenge comes to be what sustains him. Without someone to victimise, to hurt for what they have done to him, he simply gives up and dies. As noted shrewdley by Ramti Mahini and Erin Barth:

    “Dimmesdale is right in noting that relentless revenge is a sin that is worse than any other sin committed by human beings. It causes the pain and sufferings in people to perpetuate in eternity with no ending. Against humanity, revenge can kill the human heart, restricting the ability to love and to forgive.”[4]

    Chillingworth’s quest for revenge ends up with him neglecting his wife and being unable to move on.[4] In a more tragic fashion so too does Epon’s. It’s never textually stated but is quite clear sub-textually that Epon did love or care for Whateley. Why else would she cry at her death? Or engage in a flirtatious manner? Or keep Whateley around after she falls in love?

    But Epon’s need for revenge to sustain her, her desire for catharsis against the institution that wronged her leaves no room for love. It is understandable that Epon never chooses to forgive those who tortured her. But it is tragic she never chooses to love those she cares for.

    Pretty Privilege For Diseases

    The final part I wish to focus on is the choice to use tuberculosis as the manner of death for Whateley. For anyone familiar with gothic novels, the death of the fair maiden by consumption is something you’ve come across. Although it should be noted that consumption was never a one to one with tuberculosis.[9]

    Rather it was the name for a range of lung diseases that caused the person’s body to waste away.[9] To be consumed into nothingness. To give a basis for understanding Clark Lawlor and Akihito Suzuki provided this description of the 18th Century medical literature on consumption:

    “The model of the process of the disease was the accumulation of putrid blood in the lungs, the corrosion of the organ by ulcerous pus and the subsequent emaciation of the body. The essential image employed here was that of foul decay.”[9]

    For an extensive discussion on the history of consumption culturally and in literature I would recommend perusing their paper. But for our purposes, I want to focus on the Romanticisation of the disease. Despite the preceding description at the beginning of the 1700s, there was a shift in how the public and the poet viewed consumption.[9]

    The public, especially the privileged classes, deemed this as a disease of the aristocrat.[9] A sign of languishing emotionality, as the dainty frame of the afflicted could not keep up with the roaring passions of the soul. In other words, a disease for the rich tortured lover.

    Camille Monet sur son lit de mort (1879) by Claude Monet
    Retrieved From: Wikipedia

    This was especially appealing for the upper classes as it was a disease that brought about thinness and delicate constitution, something desirable for all genders within the 1700s.[9] Some even viewed love as the cure for consumption, as it was lovesickness that was thought to be the primary aetiology, especially for women. The disease was aestheticised to a peaceful, tranquil slip into the pool of endless nothingness. The dying tubercular maiden is perhaps not better emphasised than in this quote from a 1764 diary:

    “a beautiful bride of heaven, an angel too pure and spiritualised to abide long in the material world of the crude body and less refined minds”[9]

    And for the poet, scientist or otherwise intellectual, consumption, especially for males, was seen as a sign of their genius.[9] Akin to the 27 club of the 1700s and 1800s, to die of tuberculosis was seen as to prove your intellectual and poetic genius. You were merely a candle that burned to brightly, and so had to die young.

    Ironically, Poe of all people would expound critically on this notion, stating that the creation of the archetype caused their death to be more important than their prose.[9] Essentially, they were sold on brand rather than artistic merit. Though to be fair, I’d be further willing to entertain modern mediocrity in artists if they committed to dying of consumption.

    Consuming Partners

    With all this said, it is an curious contrast that Whateley’s death is so visceral. Her fall into tubercular death is not so much gentle angel or tortured intellectual as well, vicious misery:

    “SCP-166 averts its gaze towards the ceiling as Dr. Whateley undergoes a violent coughing fit. By the time Dr. Whateley finally recovers her breath, much of her blouse has been stained with blood and phlegm.”[1]

    There is no dainty slow departure, no poetic monologue, for the proclamations of love are choked by the impending toll of death. And yet, it is this act more than anything that makes me convinced that Epon loved Whateley. To choose the death of lovers and poets is a deliberate act. One I believe is brilliantly subverted and yet integrated by UraniumEmpire.

    Here we behold no beauty in death as Poe would have done. Instead, we are exposed to the violence of retribution and the pain of trauma, externalised into the sole loving connection Epon had left.

    The horrifying coldness Epon embodies in Whateley’s final moments are not just her acting out cruel reprisal to any who gets close. It’s the active choice to embrace pain over love. To not move on. She is stranded in a cycle she never wanted to start, moved by the intangible forces of narrative conventions and writers to suffer even more. Her tragedy could not be represented by the Romantic ideals of tubercular angels, nor by the Dark Romantic ideals of beauty in death. Only in unflinching agony, do we understand the Ouroboros of Pain she can never leave.

    Untitled 27 (2013) by KwangHo Shin
    Retrieved From: Bechance

    Because Epon and Whateley are the same. I’m sure you recall the line previously where Epon compares herself to a MacGuffin. In it she is also comparing herself to Whateley. The two are both victims of their writers, although UraniumEmpire’s victimisation is at least deliberate meta-commentary. The two are not ardent tortured souls and the power of love cannot liberate them from narrative beings who wish to play with their creations for entertainment.

    Death by consumption was often deemed as The Good Death.[9] Unlike diseases such as smallpox or death by war, it was comparatively peaceful in the social consciousness. In a uncanny way, Epon could be right. Maybe Whateley should be thankful that the writer chose consumptive death instead of abusive stasis. It is a more peaceful alternative than the myriad of other ways one could die in the SCP universe. And at least with this, Whateley gets to be free. And she will finally know a peace never afforded to Epon.

    Conclusion

    SCP-0166 has been one of the few SCP tales that has stuck with me since I initially read it. I’ve revisited the story often and have even recited it to friends. The tale is by no means perfect writing, but it has always struck a chord with me. Part of that is the visceral emotions of Epon are ones I have borne and continue to bear as someone who experienced relatively similar abuse. The raw emotionality captivated and expressed concepts I could not . But as well, more than anything, I was happy to have horror that was humanising.

    Throughout reading the tale alongside the SCP-166 article, what always strikes me is regardless of Epon’s actions, the tragedy of her situation is front and centre. She is not a archetypal good person. But I defy anyone to read the story and be able to condemn her actions or act as if they would be virtuous. It accepts and allows for the imperfections and maladaptive behaviours of an abuse victim. She is allowed to be a threat to herself and people around her, without a meta-textual patronising saviour narrative.

    But it is in researching Dark Romanticism and consumption that I finally reckoned with Epon’s humanity. That I got to witness buried in the tale the glimmers of how she could have been a different person. As well as how even with all the power Epon is purported to have, she’s still as much a victim of the labyrinthine narrative as she was at the outset. But this time, it was done as purposeful commentary by the writer, rather than sadistic or ignorant carelessness. The depth of the creation by UraniumEmpire is utterly astounding. And I never will stop thinking of this tale.

    Thank you all for reading this. Next up will be an essay dissecting the history of the Japanese transgender community. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this and let me know what you think of SCP-0166.

    References

    1. UraniumEmpire.(2024). SCP-0166. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
    2. Jerden.(2024). Departments. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
    3. Howard, M. (2015). A new genre emerges: The creation and impact of dark romanticism.
    4. Mahini, R. N.-T. (Noor), & Barth, E. (2018). The Scarlet Letter: Embroidering Transcendentalism and Anti-transcendentalism Thread for an Early American World. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(3), 474. DOI
    5. Yalçin, O. B. (2019). The dichotomy of Melville’s Moby Dick: American transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism. Atatürk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, (63), 263-278.
    6. Ballengee, J. R. (2008). Torture, Modern Experience, and Beauty in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Modern Language Studies, 38(1), 26–43.
    7. Melville, H.(1851) Moby Dick. New York, Dodd, Mead and company
    8. Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. New York: Applause.
    9. Lawlor, C., & Suzuki, A. (2000). The Disease of the Self: Representing Consumption, 1700-1830. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 74(3), 458–494.
  • Feasting on The Goblin Juices

    Feasting on The Goblin Juices

    Content Notes: Discussions of Anorexia, Child Death, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Corrective Rape, Incest, Orthorexia, Starvation and Sexual Predation

    We have previously covered both the historical context behind Goblin Market and the religious interpretations bursting from its prose. But now we turn to a more universal experience. Hunger. Hunger for food, for others and for love. As well as the hunger to rebuke our desires.

    Divine Sapphic Triads

    In her essay, Mona Reed argues that historical sapphic literature should not be confined to obvious erotic acts.[1] Paralleling Adrienne Rich, she supports the examination of disguised love, such as shared feminine joy, sisterhood and intimate friendship.[2] In this case, we can consider the relationship between Laura and Lizzie as not just one of biological sisterhood, but as a sapphic joining of the two girls.

    Using this foundation, Reed states that the Goblin Market itself purveys the destruction of women through the coercive nature of compulsory heterosexuality.[1] Compulsory heterosexuality (hereafter referred to as comphet), is a sociological phenomenon first posited by Rich.[2] She asserts that all children are brought up to believe that straightness is not only the default, but an essential requirement. Put differently, society is built around the sublimation of any experiences outside of the dominant straight lens. Like young girls can be lured by the promises of delicious fruit, so too are children disciplined into the delights of a purely heterosexual lifestyle.

    But just as the fruit leaves dear Laura destitute, so too does heterosexual dominance rely on the destitution of women. In a strictly straight (and albeit Western) paradigm, the agency, power and control are consistently given to the man, whereas the woman is expected to submit to their authority. Now, this isn’t true of every heterosexual relationship, trust me I live in the North East. More precisely, it is the societal standard by which other relationships are measured. Especially within Victorian England.

    Stained glass depiction of a crowned female figure holding a book and a flower, symbolizing purity and wisdom.
    Stain Glass Image of Saint Æthelthryth , Photographed by Fr. Lawrence Lew
    Retrieved From: Flickr

    This idea is supported historically as Christina Rossetti never married, and in fact, denied three suitors. [3] Although it should be stated, the first was denied because he converted to Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Christina Rossetti admired Saint Æthelthryth for her ability to maintain her virginity despite being married twice.[2] In rebuking the standard to bear children and accept intimate relations, she challenged the heteronormative dynamics of the time. In a similar vein, one can view Lizzie and Laura’s castigation of the Goblin Market as their rebuking of heterosexual ideals, although taken a step further.

    Whilst it might not be a full on celebration of sexual sapphicness, Reed presents a compelling alternative to a standard dyadic pairing of the girls. She states that:

    “Rossetti [suggests] that women should form queer, homo-social triad unions with Christ so they can abandon the institution of heterosexual marriage that leaves women feeling unfulfilled and emotionally depleted.”[1]

    The reason we can view this as queer is twofold. Firstly any undermining of the traditional heterosexual dynamic, especially that which involves same gender relations, allows itself to be viewed as inherently queer. For they are considered outside the norms of the society. But, even more so, Reed argues that Christ (and to some extent Lizzie) can be viewed as gender subversive. According to Reed, Rossetti regarded God as neither male nor female, instead containing an essence of both and yet beyond our conceptualisations of gender.[1]

    Additionally, she put forward that if one accepts Laura as Eve, then one must view Lizzie as Adam. She too is tempted and tested to see if her heart waives from God, through the fruit of the Goblin Market.[1] However, Lizzie never strays, and she takes on the pain of her Eve-like figure. In this way, Lizzie can seen as a bigender figure, taking on both aspects of male and female whilst never renouncing either. A deliberate countering of bimodal sex based ideals. Through this, we could see Rossetti as glorifying a homosocial order devoid of masculine interference. A place where women can take on the roles of both binary genders, whilst communing with God in a vaster capacity than ever before.

    I genuinely enjoy this interpretation presented by Reed, but we should ground it slightly. Whilst I believe that authorial intent should never be considered the official version of analysis. It is critical to state that this framing was likely not Rossetti’s intention and, at best, she intended a more religiously orientated view of sisterhood. Although Reed’s viewpoint is equally valid, we should not allow it warp our view of Rossetti. She was unequivocally a racist, classist and anti-Semitic poet, views which do not support the interpretation of her as a lesbian ally. Any reading of Goblin Market as sapphic happens in spite of, not because of, her own beliefs.

    The Sanguine Made Sweet

    As stated in my first Goblin Market post, Christina Rossetti had deep ties to the gothic literature movement. As researched by David Morrill, her uncle John Polidori wrote The Vampyre, one of the oldest works of Western vampire literature.[4] Additionally, her grandfather was a noted admirer of the gothic romantics, and Rossetti invested much time in her antecedent’s library. Her environment being inundated with gothic horror seems to have bled into Goblin Market too.

    On a purely aesthetic level, there are many similarities to gothic vampire novels of the time. Fair maidens tempted by the allure of unusual animalistic men, delighting in their own logic to ensnare victims in a way that drains the body until it wastes away. Additionally there is the focus on biting, sucking and consuming as the cause of the wasting away. Although Goblin Market arguably uses proxy vampirism through the fruits. Even the trickling of juices seems like a stand in for a more sanguine liquid.

    An illustrated portrayal of a ruggedly handsome man with curly hair and a determined expression, dressed in historical clothing, against a warm, textured background.
    Cover for The Vampyre by David Rabitte
    Retrieved From: Black Coat Press

    But in the details, Morrill argues there are clear comparisons to Polidori’s The Vampyre. Firstly, in how the vampire Lord Ruthven entices his victims. It is not merely in his honey words and rakish demeanour, but importantly in his charitable acts which always led to those cursed by it to sink into misery.[4] Put simpler, in giving to others Lord Ruthven ensured that they would become vulnerable, so he can feast upon them. Similarly, the charity of Rossetti’s goblins results in the downfall of Laura. By offering her fruits for the simple prize of a lock of hair, they make certain their corruption spreads and that they are able feed on her youth.

    The offering of her lock of hair also mirrors another vampiric tradition in Morrill’s view. Just as Lord Ruthven has to be invited into an abode, so too must the goblins be invited into Laura’s body.[4] Morrill explicitly links this to religious themes, that the vampire represents the devil, that evil incarnate cannot enter a person’s soul unless they consent to it. The consent can be achieved through trickery or deceit, but irregardless, the power rests inside the individual to rebuke or court evil within their heart. Even more so, the goblins never seem capable of leaving the glen to enter the girls’ house, as if they are barred from the Edenic gardens. And therefore can only feast on the innocent good when invited to.

    Building on this, both Lord Ruthven and the goblins can be seen as stand ins for the men who would prey on young women. Lord Ruthven rather by design is a debonair predator that feasts on the youthful vitality of women until they are nothing more than monstrous husks which cannot be saved.[4] The goblin men similarly prey on young girls, causing Laura to also waste away into virtual nothingness. Laura even wakes up on the night after the market, desperately gnashing and gnawing, like she has been molded into a vampire and is desperate to feed. It is like she has become the goblins themselves and has been reduced to animalistic hunger.

    Whilst I would not go so far as to state that Goblin Market comprises a form of vampire literature, I would say there are clear inspirations drawn upon. Some of this could be similar cultural touchstones, after all Polidori and Rossetti were devout Anglicans and it is not unlikely both would comment on the nature of evil. But others such as the enticement through charity and predation seem to be at least indirectly inspired. However, Morrill’s comparison does seem to miss certain conventions of vampirism, like it being contagious. Though he is not the sole researcher to establish these connections.

    The Sanguine Made Sapphic

    Rebecca Little combines themes from the previous sections to attest that Goblin Market is an example of homoerotic vampirism, in a similar vein (pause for silent chuckles) to Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.[5] Carmilla is a tale of the titular vampire, and her unrepentant hunger for Laura, the fair maiden. At 18, she meets Carmilla and is exposed to a world of sensual temptations and delights. However, in one of the first cases of “Bury Your Gays”, the vampire is executed for her depraved sapphic nature. And Laura is returned to Christian heterosexuality.

    Conversely in Goblin Market, it is our Laura who performs the role of vampiress. In the scene where Laura eats the goblins fruits, Little points to this section as key to her vampirism:

    “Suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:

    Sweeter than honey from the rock,

    Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

    Clearer than water flow’d that juice;”[6]

    Here we can discern how the fruit starts as honey sweeter from the rock, a biblical reference to Psalm 81:16, wherein God would delivered those faithful to him honey from a rock.[7] Subsequently it becomes man rejoicing wine, seemingly distancing the juice from a more Eucharistic drink. And finally, it is like water, the essence of life itself.

    Little compares the taste journeying from sweet to intoxicating to necessary to that of a vampire’s first indulgence in blood.[5] Furthermore, I’d argue it becomes more basal. As it goes from God’s food, to an association with God’s food, to ordinary water necessary for survival. In this way, the possibly heavenly fruit becomes a simple consumable, an item for survival detached from the Lord’s grace.

    Little builds on this by paralleling the fruit to the Apple from The Tree of Knowledge. As Eve was cursed with the Knowledge of sin, so too does Laura become afflicted with the knowledge of heterosexuality.[5] By partaking in this erotic feast, Laura inherits a taste of heteronormative practice, indulging in the saccharine addiction of socially approved decadence. However, this indulgence comes at a cost. Her metaphorical virginity is taken, and she is transformed into a vampiric figure, a creature lacking the purity befitting a young girl.

    A woman with long hair sits against a tree, wearing a long dark dress, with a subdued and contemplative expression. A basket is visible nearby, and the scene conveys a sense of longing or introspection.
    Goblin Market (2011) by Jillian Tamaki
    Retrieved From: https://www.jilliantamaki.com/goblin-market/

    Laura is forsaken with no way to imbibe in heterosexual desire. As a result, she is a ravenous monster, gritting her teeth at night in a restless stupor for the echoes of delight.[5] And in the day she is static, practically asleep, allowing herself to wane away. Unable to handle even the trivial tasks that once presented her such nourishment both physically and spiritually. So to save her sister, Lizzie goes to the goblin men and braves their attempt to violently impose heterosexuality on her.

    Although never stated by Little, this scene could be seen as a form of corrective rape. This is where queer individuals are forced into sexual relations with the opposite sex to “cure” their queerness. Combined with the previous imagery of straightness siphoning Laura’s humanity from her, we could recognize Lizzie as actively resisting the draining.

    Resistance which is met by the Goblin Market punishing her for not succumbing to compulsory heterosexuality. Combined with the vampiric lens, Lizzie becomes our virtuous woman, resisting the parasitic wiles that seek to drain her body and soul. To put it concisely, she is able to defy both heterosexuality and vampirism through her fortitude.

    But it is the final feast with Lizzie covered in juices for Laura to suckle on that the vampiric elements are fully on display.[5] In this scene, Little argues the juices are a proxy for Lizzie’s blood, in a manner reminiscent of how wine is a stand-in for Christ’s essence. Therefore, we could regard Laura consuming this blood in an erotic manner as simple lesbian vampirism. This would be conceived as an incestuous relation by a cursory viewing. However writers used social taboos like incest to hide lesbian romance. Rossetti might be attempting something similar, or at the very least, is accidentally recreating the paradigm.

    A young woman with a thoughtful expression is seen biting into her finger while surrounded by fruit-laden branches. In the background, fantastical creatures and additional fruit are depicted, enhancing the sense of allure and temptation.
    Walking Through The Landscape of Faerie (2016) By Charles Vess
    Retrieved From: Enchanted Living Magazine

    More importantly though, is that Laura’s feasting seemingly cures her vampirism. Unlike more modern lesbian vampire stories, the sapphic relationship is not framed as the corruptive element but the panacea for the corruption of comphet infection. The wasting away caused by a life of heteronormative pining is cured by the redemptive power of “sisterly” affection.

    Although the feasting is painful for Laura, that is because the ideal of heterosexual bliss is being burned from her blood, and being replaced with a more pleasant alternative. With the caveats of the previous lesbian explanation in mind, Goblin Market could be interpreted as a narrative about the redemptive powers of queerness. And how queer love can liberate people.

    Secular or Spiritual Hunger​?

    Though many writers have focused on Laura’s descent into devouring, others have explored Lizzie’s refusal to eat. In particular, the parallels between her denial of sustenance and Anorexia Nervosa. After all, she is never seen eating within the poem and is framed as virtious, even spiritually enlightened, because of her defiance against the fruit. However, to explore if anorexia pertains to Lizzie, we first need to understand the condition and unravel the history behind it.

    Anorexia Nervosa is a mental health condition characterised by a refusal to ingest food resulting in a person becoming severely underweight.[7] This is typically accompanied by a warped perception of their body. Such as viewing themselves as fatter than they are otherwise perceived or hyper-aware of minor “flaws” in their appearance. Moreover, it results in a myriad of physical health conditions due to the starvation and a counter-intuitive obsession with food.

    Anorexia was first considered a medical condition in the 1870’s, originally termed Hysterical Anorexia as well as the currently used Anorexia Nervosa. [8] Although in the lead up to this, it was debated in Victorian medical circles for decades.

    Joan Brumberg connects this debate with the Fasting Girls, a movement of women and girls starving themselves (or faking starvation) to prove religious piety.[8] Such devotional deeds were not unique to the Victorian period and have a history in 13th century female saints, who refused to ingest anything but the Eucharist. According to Brumberg, this continued into the 16th and 17th century with ordinary women performing these acts as forms of miracles.

    Black and white engraving depicting a scene with a young girl sitting at a table, surrounded by a flower arrangement, while a woman observes her. In the background, a farmhouse and several people in Victorian attire are visible. The image is titled 'Sarah Jacobs in her Bed Room The Fasting Welsh Girl Case'.
    Contempary Drawing of Sarah Jacobs by an Unknown Artist
    Retrieved From: The Geneologist
    Note: Sarah Jacobs was one of the more famous Fasting Girls and died at age 12 due to starvation.

    These Fasting Girls represent just a limited part in a grander movement by medical institutions in the Victorian period to secularise and pathologise religious behaviours. However, it therefore needs to be noted that devotional denial was considered by the majority of Victorians to be a sane and reasonable act. Although not the norm, it was regarded by spiritual leaders and their congregations as proof of divine providence. Even Rossetti was known to starve herself for religious purposes. [9]

    Because of this, it is challenging to call Lizzie’s act of defiant starvation close to that of anorexia or even a similar comparison. Though both involve the act of deprivation, Lizzie’s (and the Fasting Girls) have religious connotations whereas anorexics seek control or to drastically reshaping their body.

    As well, the fact such fasting was not viewed as harmful by the individual or community stops such behaviours from being a disorder. Since most mental health issues depend upon an understanding of harm towards the person with it or those around them, which requires treatment. People are allowed to do risky things to their body, without constituting a disorder.

    Though Lizzie’s actions do not merit a direct comparison to anorexia, it would be erroneous to state Rossetti recognized no virtue in the act of tempered eating:

    “The balances suggest scarcity short of literal nullity: hunger, but not necessarily starvation. Scarcity imposes frugality, exactness . . . No waste, latitude, margin; self-pampering can be tolerated, but only a sustained self-denial: self must be stinted, selfishness starved, to give to him that needeth.”[10]

    As stated by Anna Silver, Rossetti truly believed in the ascetic refusal of nourishment as cleansing for the soul. She expressed a certain contempt for the body, specifically for its desire for food. [9] Or rather, when such hunger was indulged with ordinary earthly foods. Because satiating your appetite was tantamount to succumbing to bodily sin.

    Like inviting a vampire into your abode, by allowing for culinary decadence they were giving into the body’s greed. And as discussed previous, such bodily hunger should be used to lead a person to the Lord.[11] Only though achieving physical inanition like the virtuous Lizzie could one ever hope to attain spiritual health. Which is not like anorexia, but is strikingly similar to another eating disorder.

    Hunger for Health

    Orthorexia is a proposed eating disorder, first coined in 2000 by Steven Bratman and David Knight in their book Health Food Junkies. [12] The term is used to describe an unhealthy obsession with eating healthily. This is not purely a desire to be more nutritionally aware, but a ritualised restriction of nourishment to the point of malnutrition. This can be cutting out certain food groups necessary for bodily function such as sugar, carbs or meat, with no mitigating health reason. In addition, it mirrors anorexia with an obsessive consideration of food.

    I want to emphasise that I am not diagnosing Rossetti or anyone else as being orthorexic. Moreover, it is imperative to state that to the best of my knowledge, nobody links spiritual health to orthorexic behaviour.

    Instead, I wish to implement the framework that people can develop maladaptive obsessions with health, to explore Rossetti’s preoccupation with divine vigour. Simply put, what if we view the contrast of Lizzie and Laura as the argument for the prioritisation of the metaphysical over the physical? An argument Silver believes to be a cornerstone of the tale:

    “Goblin Market” juxtaposes sinful consumption with a virtuous renunciation of appetite to teach its readers a moral lesson about the world”[10]

    By itself this would not necessitate an issue, as people are allowed to have other priorities for their own health and well being. Some prioritise the physical, others the mental, so why not the spiritual? The issue is that Rossetti goes further by solely focusing on metaphysical health in Goblin Market and rebukes bodily satiation completely. It does not matter if Laura’s body burns like wormwood, for her spiritual health is being tended to.

    Furthermore, Laura is rebuked by Lizzie for being tempted by the sounds and sights of food at the Goblin Market. The temptation of food itself, of the material form’s desire to be satiated is to be controlled and ordered. One should not partake in fruits for the priority must always be in the spiritual.

    A young woman with long, flowing hair sits in a yellow dress, delicately holding fruit while goblin-like figures surround her, eagerly reaching out for her attention, set against a pastoral backdrop.
    Goblin Market (1910) by Florence Harrison
    Retrieved From: Instagram

    Adding to this, Silver argues that Rossetti views the hunger for Christ and spiritual satiation as taking effort.[10] Laura is allowed to easily feast by giving her lock of hair, whereas Lizzie must undergo a barrage of violation to achieve sanctified satiation. In essence, the argument becomes that those who are obsessed merely with bodily health are lazy. Not dissimilar to orthorexics who can monitor the nutritional intakes of others. Though it should be noted that most tend towards self-monitoring critique.

    Instead Rossetti’s external criticism is more akin to that of modern-day diet culture, the impetus behind many orthorexic issues. The fallacy that health and well-being can wholly be yours, if you stick to a strict, overly particular and unnecessary ritual of ingesting nourishment. A fad diet.

    Devoid of any scientific justification, except for how restriction leads to a placebo effect that causes you feel better in the short term. And to gain more health problems in the long term. Just try the Atkins diet the Carnivore diet the Stone Age diet the starvation diet. It’ll work this time.

    Although I do not believe it rises to the level of Orthorexia, I do think Lizzie’s exaltation is Rossetti’s authorial approval for the refusal of carnal pleasures. That such temperance will lead to experience spiritual satisfaction. A message tainted by social narratives at the time that caused young girls to starve themselves to death for spiritual closeness to God.[9]

    If not a symptom of medical malaise, Goblin Market could be seen as a propagator of social illness. It is spreading a narrative that people to this day are barraged with. A message that we should fixate on food to the point of mania to achieve a form of existential enlightenment, whether that enlightenment is social captial or religious salvation.

    Remembering The Market

    In writing these essays I have grown to both love and loathe the Goblin Market. There is so much beauty and connection to Anglican history that I never learned about, as well as deeply fascinating theological structuring. Even the interpretations that fall outside of Rossetti’s intentions have such wonderful explorations of human experience. Every paper I read I acquire another connection to the Bible or to queerness or mental health.

    But, with every paper I also discover another way that the grimmest fruits of British society are sold within the tale. I have said that I will not advise you how to feel about the Goblin Market. And I do not wish to take away from the sapphic and religious beauty of the poem. However, I need to state this.

    No matter how much you love the poem, remember what Christina Rossetti was really like. I, like many of the authors I have read for these essays, struggle with the whitewashing of Rossetti as a feminist and pseudo-queer poet. A narrative I held coming into the research and informing why I enjoyed the poem.

    I think that while she is progressive for her station and time, such a statement is damning with faint praise. Whilst you can enjoy Goblin Market as a testament to lesbian love, it is impossible to say that Rossetti ever would have approved of such ideas. And that somewhat dampens my enjoyment, especially when she is uplifted instead of actual sapphic writers.

    Therefore, I will leave you with a brief work by Jewish Victorian poet Amy Levy. A gift to her friend and unrequited lover, Violet Paget. An example of the writers left in the shadows of Christina Rossetti.

    New Love, New Life

    She, who so long has lain

    Stone-stiff with folded wings,

    Within my heart again

    The brown bird wakes and sings.

    Brown nightingale, whose strain

    Is heard by day, by night,

    She sings of joy and pain,

    Of sorrow and delight.

    ‘Tis true,—in other days

    Have I unbarred the door;

    He knows the walks and ways—

    Love has been here before.

    Love blest and love accurst

    Was here in days long past;

    This time is not the first,

    But this time is the last[13]

    References

    1. Reed, M. (2020).The Queer and Feminist Myth-Revision of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal, 113-117
    2. Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 5(4), 631-660.
    3. Duguid, L. (2004). Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830–1894), poet. Retrieved from: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    4. Morrill, D. F. (1990). “Twilight is Not Good for Maidens”: Uncle Polidori and the Psychodynamics of Vampirism in” Goblin Market. Victorian Poetry, 28(1), 1-16.
    5. Little, R. (2020). Homoerotic Vampirism in” Goblin Market” and Carmilla. Furman Humanities Review, 31(1), 69-80.
    6. Rossetti, C.G (1862). Goblin Market and other poems. Cambridge London. Macmillan.
    7. Silver, A. K. (2002). Victorian literature and the anorexic body (Vol. 36). Cambridge University Press.
    8. NHS. (2024). Overview – Anorexia. Retrieved From: NHS UK
    9. Brumberg, J. J. (1985). ” Fasting Girls”: Reflections on Writing the History of Anorexia Nervosa. Monographs of the Society for research in Child Development, 93-104.
    10. A. K. Silver. (2002). Victorian literature and the anorexic body (Vol. 36). Cambridge University Press.
    11. Rossetti, C. G. (1892). The Face of the Deep: A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
    12. Bratman, S., & Knight, D. (2000). Health food junkies : overcoming the obsession with healthful eating. New York: Broadway Books.
    13. Levy., A (1889). New Love, New Life. Retrieved From: Victorian Queer Archive
  • Transforming A Goblin’s Fruit

    Transforming A Goblin’s Fruit

    Content Notes: Discussions of Anti-Semitism, Classism, Colonisation, Misogyny and Rape

    Last time we discussed the history of Christina Rossetti as well as the period she grew up in. Now we will look at the way Anglican theology is baked into the foundations of Goblin Market. As well as the issues of Victorian Anglicanism that seeped into Rossetti’s work.

    Consuming Women

    Although pop culture of Victorian England regards the period as a time of almost hyperbolic prudishness, historical and literary analysis reveals a more contradictory picture. Mary Carpenter states there was a pervasive culture of sexually marketing women, whilst advising young girls to never become so slovenly and lustful.[1] She states that writing within this time period, as well as cultural consciousness generally, contrasted the women who fell to such desires against the pure untainted maidens. This becomes intriguing when we consider how Rossetti describes the sisters after Laura has partaken in the fruit of the goblin market:

    “Like two blossoms on one stem,

    Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow,

    Like two wands of ivory.”[2]

    Instead of viewing Laura as inherently tainted, weaker or more morally bankrupt, Rossetti chooses to emphasise the similarities between the two sisters. Furthermore, Carpenter compares Rossetti’s opinions on the fall of Eve with the “fall” of Laura. [1] She states that in both cases, it is to do with their virtues of boldness but lack of guile that results in their respective downfalls. This does lead to a essentialising of feminine behaviours, but still reflects a more empathetic lens and certainly better than the pervasive opinion (then and now) of women’s inherent feeble mindedness. Additionally, this suggests Laura’s issues are as much a trap of a vicious sexist society as they are a fault of her own personality traits. And she is not the only one entangled in the trap of misogyny.

    Whilst Laura’s peeping results in her succumbing to temptation, we can see how resisting the Goblin Market leads to issues for Lizzie. Initially, it is as straightforward as the denial of the hedonistic delights that Laura gets to indulge in. Lizzie must remain eternally vigilant against the notion of pleasure or else succumb to a stupor.[1] This plight of Lizzie is doubled down when she ventures to the market and her resistance is punished. The attack by the goblin men is vicious, even though it starts with mere insults. Soon it escalates to scratching, biting and attempted force feeding of fruits, in a scene of metaphorical rape.

    This assault all starts because Lizzie wishes to buy the fruit with a silver coin and refuses to partake in a feast with the goblins. One can regard this as an angering of the sexual market, the commodification of sexuality for the dispensation of women. Because Lizzie acts with temperance and is in some ways protected by possessing money, a representation of status and power, the alluring tricks of the Goblin Market fail. Lizzie is gifted with some guile and luck, therefore the market assails her, attempting to force her into a similar position as Laura. So that she may experience the emptiness her sister does.

    Goblin Market (2017) by Omar Rayyan
    Retrieved From: MV Times

    But we can take this on step further. The exotic fruits do not originate in Britain as there are “citrons from the south” and it is said “men sell not such in any town”. [2] These are colonial exports, luxuries unimaginable to the working class who would have raised a brow at a banana. These are fruits people could not access with a pittance and therefore would turn to other avenues. Carpenter interprets the act of Laura trading her golden locks as a stand in for how women, and girls, bargained their bodies for access to luxury. [1] In this light, it is a metaphorical stand in for sex work and the bartering of bodies to receive goods.

    So, we can understand Rossetti’s framing as favouring the redemption of fallen women. Specifically, she encourages the acceptance of destitute women, championing amelioration of their exploitation. And this does fit with the history, Rossetti was part of a sisterhood that catered to the lower class. [3] Even if All Saints Sisterhood did not exclusively cater to sex workers, it is likely that those who volunteered would come into contact with them. Because any long term help for the impoverished will inevitably have to help those who turn to selling their bodies. Rossetti was able to witness the victimisation and horror these women underwent to survive. And the power of sisterhood, to assist those in dire straits.

    Sisterhood and Rossetti

    The prevailing Anglican narrative in Rossetti’s time for men and women, consisted of an innate gender binary. Men were to save; women were to provide for those who saved. In some ways this was mirrored in one of the most vital relationships within the Bible, that of Jesus and his mother, Mary. Jesus, the man, is the closest to God and so only he can bring about the saving of those who have sinned. Whereas Mary can only support and nurture as a maternal figure.

    However, as Janet Casey points out, this dominant narrative did not go unchallenged. Many women of the time period saw themselves more in Jesus than in Mary because, due to the Fall of Eve, they too were born to suffer. [4] Florence Nightingale viewed herself as a female Christ, believing that women’s role as nurturers could take on heroic status. A belief shared by Rossetti, who said of maternal love that it makes a mother:

    “Not a giantess or heroine, but at once and full grown a hero and giant”.[5]

    We can see the heroism of feminity within Goblin Market, as Lizzie is motivated to act by Laura’s suffering and in turn suffers to redeem her sister. An act that usually would be seen as masculine instead leads to the exaltation of feminine care and love, especially when it is directed to other women in sisterhood. It is not a breaking down of these binaries in the modern sense but more of a restructuring. This was typical for feminist thought of the time period, emphasising that women’s roles did not mean they should be perceived as lesser in capability and dignity.[4]

    As well, we have talked about how both Laura and Lizzie are trapped within the confines of gendered expectation and the sexual market. But as Casey argues, both too offer redemption from this feminine suffering.[4] Lizzie through the Eucharistic redemption the fruit offers Laura, how sisterhood and togetherness can be healing. Laura through exhibiting courage that Lizzie replicates when venturing into the Goblin Market, which leads to spiritual prosperity. The pair work together to help foster growth in one another, showing the redeemer can be redeemed and vice versa. Thereby, breaking down the narrow expectations for women to be the passive role.

    The Goblin Market (1984) by John Bolton
    Retrieved From: Kristo Kai on Twitter

    However, I would like to explore a grimmer side to the ideal of sisterly redemption through suffering. Because this rhetoric inevitably leads to the glorification and acceptance of suffering as character growth. These are not horrific experiences that will scar the person for the rest of their life, but rather challenges to be overcome to gain inner strength. Rossetti never dwells on the violation that Lizzie and Laura experience throughout the course of the poem. Instead restoring both sisters to their former innocence and imagining a picturesque future for them.

    In isolation, this is not dreadful and makes sense given how much of the tale relies on the redemptive powers of the Eucharist and sisterhood.

    But considering how much of this tale is linked to the sisterhood where Rossetti worked at. To the idea of healing the spiritual ills of the impoverished and dispossessed. It inevitably comes across as rather detached and unhelpful. Though Casey argues that both sisters redeem each other, only Lizzie with the silver coin, a sign of wealth, takes on the Christ-like mantle. Which, in my opinion at least, ends up feeling like a classist saviour narrative that was all too common within English culture at the time. A narrative that extended to colonialist practices the country continues to enact.

    In this way, Rossetti is not challenging the stories of the time. Instead she feebly is stating that women can do it too, in an attempt to envelop richer white Anglican women into the dominant class that decide how and who to redeem. A tactic still in use to this day.

    Eroticism and The Eucharist

    As talked about in the previous post, the Oxford Movement within the Anglican Church was (amongst other things) pushing for a significant revision of how to understand the Eucharist. Both in terms of how tangible God’s presence was in the bread and wine, as well as the effects of the ritual itself. As Marylu Hill describes, writers of the movement believed the Eucharist led to a satiation of a spiritual hunger. [3]

    Within this framework, people are born with a innate yearning for a union with God, to be a part of his hallowed pasture and become one under him. Hill argues that our desire to satiate such starvation is central to Rossetti’s Goblin Market.[3] Laura especially hungers for the fruits of the market, but in turn finds they do not satiate her needs. It is only when taking communion with Lizzie, our Christ-like redeemer, that she becomes filled.

    But, in framing her story this way, Rossetti establishes a fundamental distinction to her peers. She never says women should not partake in any of the feasts they experience around them. Instead, she focuses on what would best satisfy the hungers they feel. [3] We can observe this in the contrast between the fruit of the Goblin Market and the partaking of Lizzie by Laura. In the former, the focus is on decadence and consuming until you can eat no more. Not out of satiation, but tiredness from the sheer act of irreverent ingestion. But when she partakes in the fruit of Lizzie, there is a bond between the devoured and the one devouring, a connection that stuffs and sustains. A tangible filling of the emotions and body, that results in a complete satisfying of desires and a return to former innocence.

    And this union is absolutely erotic. According to Hill and Casey, there is a deliberate intermingling of the transcendental experience of the Eucharist and the corporeal thrill of getting off. [3][4] Because writers at the time, like Edward Pusey, emphasised the eroticism of the Eucharist:

    “This Body hath he given to us both to hold and to eat; a thing appropriate to intense love. For those whom we kiss vehemently, we ofttimes even bite with our teeth…Even so Christ hath given to us to be filled with his Flesh, drawing us on to greater love.”[3]

    The emphasis on kissing and biting, as well as being filled with Christ as intense love is a particularly interesting mirror to Goblin Market. As it too focuses on the act of biting, suckling and other oral activities. This is to the point that many a psychoanalytic perspective on the nature of devouring under Freudian psychology has been written. But those, to me at least, miss the mark for a more clear and frankly kinkier interpretation.

    Rossetti is demonstrating the inextricable link between the divine and the mundane. Something necessitated by Oxford Movement doctrine, where God’s Word is transformed from unintelligible divinity into digestible material through the Eucharist. In creating the Eucharist, God is acknowledging the importance of earthly bodies and their tangible responses. Whilst Anglicans should seek to transcend their mortal forms, the desires of such bodies are integral to the religious experience.

    Goblin Market (1910) by Florence Harrison
    Retrieved From: Facebook

    In this way, the raw ecstasy of Laura feasting on Lizzie’s juices is about marrying the transcendental and the mundane. It is not by one or the other that a person such as Laura can commune with Christ (or Lizzie). But through the combination of both aspects that one will achieve an almost orgasmic height of a spiritual awakening and salvation. [3]

    As well, by focusing on the eruptive experience of Eucharistic redemption, Rossetti is describing the throws of ecstasy that can be offered on a spiritual level. But only when connected to a material form. The erotic undertones are not necessarily that of desire between the two sisters but rather bodily processing of spiritual experience. By presenting this, Rossetti is showing the link between the two parts of a person. Their body and spirit. As well as how both can influence one another.

    Through the devouring of mortal foods, both the body and soul are left barren, to waste away. Through divine food, ingested by the corporeal form, the incorporeal can experience enlightenment which translates into the physical as otherworldly delight. This allows the soul and the body to be rejuvenated, not just into a new superior form, but to return to past Edenic ideal. An ideal that has escaped mankind since the fall of Eve. It is esoteric and ephemeral to grasp, but there is genuine beauty in the ideas Rossetti is attempting to capture.

    It’s a shame it is only for certain groups of people.

    Anti-Semitism Is More Than Goblins

    To understand the antisemitism at play in Goblin Market, it is first important to comprehend the underlying bigotry in Victorian England and how it pertained to Christina Rossetti. As reported by Cynthia Scheinberg in her excellent book on the Jewish identity in Victorian poetry, the predominant Anglican interaction with Judaism, was appropriation of its texts.[6] And I do mean appropriation, the figures of Jewish scripture were transposed and warped to fit Anglican narratives.

    Mother of Moses (1860) by Simeon Solomon
    Retrieved From: ArtNet
    Note: This is an image of Jochebed (Left), Miriam (Right) and Moses (Baby). It was the only piece I could find containing Miriam painted by someone Jewish

    For example in Aurora Leigh, written by Rossetti’s peer Elizabeth Browning, there is use of the Hebrew figure Miriam.[6] Miriam is an prominent person within the Hebrew Bible, being the elder sister of Moses and a major prophetess, but possessing significantly less importance in Anglican theology. However, the poem transforms her from a leader of the Jewish women out of Egypt, to the proclaimer of virtuosity for Anglican women. In this way her religious and ethnic identity is wiped to bolster the ego of the dominant religion.

    This on it’s own sounds pretty harmful, but gets worse when you understand more historical context. Judaism was, and still is, a persecuted minority ethno-religion. That is a religious movement with inextricable ties to certain ethnic groups and cultures. At the time Rossetti and Browning were writing, Jewish people were not allowed to be representatives in parliament.[6] Additionally, they were constantly under pressure by Victorian culture to convert. Organisations like the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), were missionary agencies with the goal of promoting Anglican values. By which I mean coercing individuals to convert, including Jewish people. An organisation that Christina Rossetti was not only a part of but wrote for as her book, Seek and Find was published through it.

    Not only this, but there are two poems which Scheinberg points to as typifying Rossetti’s antisemitic views.[6] “By The Waters of Babylon. B.C. 570” and “Christian And Jew”. The former reimagines the Jewish narrative of their exile from Babylon, using the Book of Lamentations. In the original scripture the point of view figure, Jeremiah, weeps for his kinsmen as their plea to be saved is unheard by God. But he also provides hope and security in the knowledge that all will be forgiven and the Jewish people will be able to commune with God in time.

    The Lamentations of Jeremiah by
    Fritz Eichenberg
    Retrieved From: filozofskoteoloski

    However, in Rossetti’s version, there is no hope for their redemption in the eyes of God. Like the Babylonians, the Jewish culture not only has fallen into the annals of history but should remain there.[6] Because the scriptures of Judaism are superseded by that of the Christians. This goes so far, that Jeremiah (like Miriam) is transformed from a Jewish figure, into an Anglican one. Becoming a prophet for the eventual arrival of Christ as a Lord and saviour. A belief not held in traditional Jewish theology.

    This trend is maintained through, “Christian and Jew” which features a dialogic narrative between representations of the two religions. The Christian is viewed favourably, able to see and hear the beauty of Heaven, whilst having the agency to sing for the Lord himself and spread his word.[6] Whereas the Jewish stand-in is impotent in spirituality, unable to see paradise and relying on the Christian to truly recognize God. Moreover, the Jewish figure is passive, unable to act and simply is there to receive the proselytisation of the Christian. In other words, Rossetti views Christianity as the only possible connection to God.

    With all of this, we can see how Rossetti views Judaism and the Jewish people. As historic. A history that is best forgotten about or overwritten, with the more enlightened Anglican narrative guiding any and all scripture it can steal. As well as positioning the Jewish people as unable to commune with God, needing the patronising saviourship of the Anglicans to become true believers. And this belief bleeds into Goblin Market.

    A Closed Off Market

    Scheinberg contends that the fruits on offer at the Goblin Market, are not just stand ins for the sexual marketplace or the emptiness of mortal carnality.[6] But rather the words of the Hebrew Bible. The phrase that opens Goblin Market is a reference to Isaiah 55, where Isaiah implores the people to come buy the wine and honey of God. Suggesting a marketplace that offers spiritual sustenance for the Jewish people from God. And as shown previously, it would not be the first time Rossetti cribbed from Tanakh, to create warped comparisons.

    Goblin Market (1933) by Arthur Rackham
    Retrieved From: British Fairies

    In this interpretation, the fall of Laura is not an analogue to Eve, but rather a representation to a more contemporary issue for Rossetti. The temptation of the Jewish scriptures for poor innocent Anglican girls. A theology that promises succulent fruits and delights, but offers no spiritual satisfaction.[6] Abandoning those tempted by it to be eternally wanton. This can then be linked to our previous discussion on the Eucharist. As the hollow food offered by Victorian society is now replaced by the malnutrition of the Hebrew Bible.

    We can even witness how some of the effects of Laura’s torment reflect Rossetti’s view of Judaism:

    “Her hair grew thin and grey;

    She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn

    To swift decay and burn

    Her fire away.”[2]

    Laura ages quickly and dwindles as time passes, an echo of Rossetti’s view about Jewish beliefs. As decrepit and decayed, the fire that once ignited them with divine passion, now burnt out after their exile from the Lord. Furthermore, Laura dreams of a desert-like oasis, filled with luscious fruit she can at once imbibe.[2] A paradisal garden compared to her current state of complete desolation, yet still a barren dream, harkening back to imagery of Jewish exile. The description feels eerily reminiscent of those presented in Rossetti’s more blatantly anti-Semitic poems.

    Furthering this, the Eucharistic act between Laura and Lizzie, is not solely redemption from the ills of man. But can be viewed as scene where the carrier of Jewish religion is transformed into a state of innocent Anglicanism. As Scheinberg notes, the use of wormwood to describe the burning sensation Laura feels, has parallels to Lamentations.[6] In it, wormwood is used to allude to the pain suffered by wrath of God as well as the punishment of false prophets. Therefore, we can suppose Laura is experiencing the wrath of God and being punished for the consumption of erroneous beliefs. A belief that must be purged from her blood.

    And this redemption of Laura comes from Lizzie transforming the fruits of the goblin men, the scriptures of the Jewish faith, into Anglican evangelism. The fruits that drag her sister into unrecognisable cataplexy, become the antidote because Lizzie embodies an Anglican Christ. It’s hard not to interpret this as an almost masturbatory self-congratulation of Rossetti’s own work. Of her ability to transform the heathen Jewish scriptures into divine Christian panaceas. That Lizzie is a self-insert of Rossetti in more ways than one.

    But even if you do not buy Scheinberg’s framing, there is undeniable appropriation of Jewish theology for an Anglican poem. Even with the benefit of the doubt, a benefit I do not believe Rossetti worthy of, her poem extends Anglican writer’s general trend of reappropriating Jewish texts. Of using a marginalised people’s beliefs when convenient, then side-lining their opinions or humanity. Because even if we accept this as a more generalised Anglican narrative. It joins a litany of works like it, that frame Anglicanism as the sole legitimate redemptive religion. A marketplace of spirituality that will only save someone, if they revoked their deeply held beliefs and ethnic identity. All for the sake of pleasing a saviour complex.

    Combining a Dual Nature

    In the closing of this analysis, I wish to provide a relevant quote from Scheinberg, within her book:

    “This idea that anti-Semitism can be a tool for generating complex artistic texts is a useful way to move past the idea that so-called “great art” cannot contain deeply problematic ideological content.”[6]

    Rossetti’s Goblin Market, is not solely a tale of feminist emanciptation and the power of sisterhood. Rossetti’s proximity to power through her wealth and devoutness leads to her uncritically accepting some of the worst bigotry of her time. The fight of first wave feminism is in many ways, reflected in the dual nature of Goblin Market. There is an emphasis on women as equals to men, as able to help within society in their own unique way. But there is equally silent emphasis in those left out of such rhetoric, in the types of women considered to be worth redeeming.

    It is critical that we recognise the sisters left out of such sisterhood, in the exemption of the experiences that lay outside Anglican views. Rossetti deliberately leaves out the perspectives of those who she does not believe to be worthy of saving and instead writes of them disparagingly in her other works. Her devout religiosity is what lends this text such depth and beauty. As well as what makes it warped and disgusting.

    I will not advise you how to feel about this poem. My own feelings are incredibly complex, and I do not know if I will ever reach a resolution. But I implore you to sit with the ramifications of this and other pieces of art. To consider how these frameworks might alter your understanding of the most lauded creations. It is only in completely dismissing critique and analysis of the media we enjoy, that we fail to genuinely cherish and appreciate it. In idle acceptance of art, we deny ourselves the opportunity to satiate our curiosity and satisfy our souls with the complexities of human creation.

    Thank you for reading, I would love to see all your thoughts about the religious themes of Goblin Market. Tune in next fortnight, where we will be dissecting the more modern and sapphic interpretations of Goblin Market. Until next time.

    References

    1. Carpenter, M. W. (2017). ‘Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me’: The Consumable Female Body in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market. In Victorian Women Poets (pp. 212-232). Routledge.
    2. Rossetti, C.G (1862). Goblin Market and other poems. Cambridge London. Macmillan.
    3. Hill, M. (2005). “Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me”: Eucharist and the Erotic Body in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market. Victorian Poetry, 43(4), 455–472.
    4. Casey, J. G. (1991). The Potential of Sisterhood: Christina Rossetti’s” Goblin Market”. Victorian Poetry, 29(1), 63-78.
    5. Bell, M. (1898). Christina Rossetti: A biographical and critical study. T. Burleigh.
    6. Scheinberg, C. (2002). Women’s Poetry and Religion in Victorian England: Jewish identity and Christian culture. Cambridge, UK .