So, without further ado, in honor of formative crush Connie Allenbury, I present to you: An Incomplete List of Hot Tomboy Characters of Early 20th Century Hollywood Who Either Were Or Should Have Been Gay. I lose sight entirely of these male love interests, because I’m right there beside them, in their shoes, falling in love with these charismatic, charming, incredible characters. But, loving these movies as I do regardless, the smallest and most sidelong glimpse of tomboyness, of mascness, of scrappy gender-fuckery, feels electrifying. On the surface, there isn’t much representation of us to be found in these films, stocked as they are with thin cishet white women. Plus, after the enactment of the Hays Code, no actual gay shit was permitted onscreen - all of our heroines, however obviously-dykey, had to be bundled off into a heterosexual partnership. Feminine presentation was demanded both onscreen and off by film studios’ strict contracts with actresses, and it was newsworthy when an actress like Hepburn expected to be allowed her trousers. I’d always had a thing for old movies and Golden Age Hollywood, but Loy’s character in Libeled Lady was the first time I found one of those 1930s wisecracking-but-glamorous heroines who was willing to get dirty.
The gay test a feircly fabulous movie#
Seeing this movie for the first time as a middle schooler was a bolt from the blue. Here, rid of her ballgowns and diamonds, the leading lady reveals something else entirely: a tomboy at heart. But what sets Libeled Lady apart for me is what happens when the film takes Loy’s snarky heiress character Connie Allenbury off of her luxurious ocean liner, out of Manhattan, and to her family’s cabin upstate. The Thin Man films? I Love You Again? Double Wedding? All of it. I’m a simple gal.įirst of all, I love Myrna Loy in everything. I can’t love anyone who doesn’t love screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s. But in return, with every person I fancy, I have to show them Libeled Lady to see whether things between us will progress. If it happened after 1970, the likelihood of me having seen it plummets, and I appreciate it when hot people show me movies I should already have seen.
The gay test a feircly fabulous free#
(feel free to throw fruit at me in the comments for having missed such pop culture touchstones).
There are so many iconic movies I hadn’t seen until various crushes introduced me: Back to the Future, Donnie Darko, Charlie’s Angels, Austin Powers, that one with Bowie, etc. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All TimeĮveryone has that one movie that is theirs, and mine is Libeled Lady (1937) starring Myrna Loy, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow.LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.