rachelmanija | (Reply)

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I think the thing that bugs me about the book's treatment of homosexuality is that it can't seem to commit to whether it's normal/common or not. Like on the one hand no one seems fussed about the various lesbian relationships we see (well, no one's fussed about them being lesbians, there are dynastic and class issues, as you say), so you'd think homosexuality was much more common than in our world . . . but on the other hand the Belles have all these very gender-specific rules about Not Being Alone With Boys, but no one seems to care about about how much time they spend alone with women. Which only makes sense to me in a world where heterosexuality is the ironclad norm and the people making the rules can't even imagine women getting Up To Something together.