Hey M!
I'm so glad we got this thread going. The more I think about this subject, especially TTV, the more interesting some of the issues become. It's super fun to have someone to discuss all this with!
Couldn't agree with you more on this point.
When dressed in their elegant women's clothes, you couldn't tell by looking at any of the ladies: Kitty, Nan, Flo, Diana.. that they were "toms".
Diana was in a different league though. As respectable as she looked, she was clearly more open about her sexuality than the other ladies. She was frequently escorted to very public occasions by the "boy" in her life and she seemed to have absolutely no worries as to how that might be interpreted by others. My guess is that she must've also been known outside her household for her Sapphist gatherings as well (I would imagine her servants gossiped about it..). She probably didn't care what others thought of her because she was wealthy, independent (financially & otherwise) and didn't necessarily need anything from anybody to lead a comfortable life.. I am sure we'll discuss Diana to some length in the very near future..
Yes, I think you're absolutely right about Diana. I think part of the point of her character is to show what a difference class differences and money could make (to a certain extent) when it came to freedom of expression in terms of sexuality. Diana is so over-the-top in her decadent lifestyle. She's just amazing (in good and bad ways)... and I'll keep saying it... I totally, totally love Anna Chancellor's voice (especially when she's first introduced in the carriage). The way she speaks is sort of mesmerizing to me. Oh yes...
She's also an interesting figure in showing that there are competitive layers to lesbian society and that not all lesbians are necessarily benevolent towards other lesbians (given her abusiveness to Nan and Zelda, etc.).
I love that you used the word Sapphist! That's such an awesome word. Apparently, Virginia Woolf liked to refer to herself as a Sapphist. I think it's a totally elegant word for lesbian.
Back to Nan - I think she knew how to blend in when the situation/circumstances called for it. You had to back then, I would imagine.
I don't know if she was more comfortable in men's clothes or not... what do you think? She certainly looked good dressed either way..
Oh definitely, Rachel Stirling is gorgeous as Nan. I think her face looks like a porcelain doll. Just beautiful and perfect for this kind of period piece. It's also amazing how good she really does look dressed in both her boy's clothes and her girl's clothes. It's sort of surprising to realize how androgynous she can look. The androgynous look can be really sexy.
Yes, I think that when Flo and Nan are having their first real conversation walking through the streets together (when they're making plans to go to tea and the lecture)... I think Flo has that wonderful, no-big-deal response to Nan's revelation that she likes to wear men's clothing. When they talk about the advantages of being able to "change and change about" and the numerous times that Nan reflects on how much more freedom she felt dressed as a man... it seems clear that Nan probably slightly preferred wearing men's clothing. I think this is primarily a reaction against some of the oppressions she feels as a woman in terms of being hassled on the streets and other social/political constraints. I don't think it at all means that she wants to be a man. Also, once she settles in to being the "housekeeper" for Flo and Ralph she decides to start wearing pants again, etc. So, I do think there's a personal comfort level for her when she's wearing men's clothing.
This whole issue of switching back and forth between men's clothing and women's clothing is very interesting even at the very beginning when she meets Kitty in her dressing room. I love that when Kitty comes out in her purple dress she looks at Nan and asks "bit of a let down?" And, I love the look in Nan's eye when it's clear that she's still totally turned on by Kitty... in a dress or in a tux. Poor Kitty... I wish we knew a little bit more about how her life went after she married Walter. I think what she did to Nan is awful. But, I also feel very sorry for Kitty... because my sense is that she really is a lesbian who decided to marry Walter for stability. It's so tragic that she comes begging back to Nan at the end. I have a feeling that Kitty's circumstance probably happened to a lot of lesbians throughout history. And it makes me very sad.
Yeah, I'd love it if a pic of Kitty at the washstand could be found. I'm surprise that it's so hard given how prominent that image is in TTV (and how often it's replayed in Nan's mind). By the way... when doing image searched on yahoo and google for Keeley Hawes... you come up with a lot of
hot images! So, it's sort of fun doing this research. I'll keep looking for this image too.