Maude Adams and the LGBTQ History of Peter Pan

Comments · 1.3K

• KA

  @KazRowe · 3 years ago · pinned

  Go to <a href="https://www.piavpn.com/KazRowe">https://www.piavpn.com/KazRowe</a> to grab an 82% discount on Private Internet Access! That&apos;s just $2.03 a month, with 4 extra months completely for free! :]

  163

• HA

  @hannahbrown2728 · 3 years ago

  Getting a friend to trawl around the rocks in a floofy dress just for the gag of her saying &quot;Yeah&quot; is peak

  4K

• OO

  @oomflem · 3 years ago

  As a five year old, I fiercely insisted on having &quot;peter pan hair&quot;, aka a pixie cut, despite obviously having no concept of the genderbending and LGBTQ history of the character. I guess you can say it was a foreshadowing of things to come.

  799

• KI

  @kindofcl · 3 years ago

  I really relate to that queer/neurodivergent/mentally ill feeling of feeling more like an adult when you&apos;re a kid and more like a kid when you&apos;re an adult

  1.5K

• JU

  @juliajensen6612 · 3 years ago

  I studied Peter Pan in college, and this quote about Hook has stuck with me for more than 25 years: <br>“In the dark nature there was a touch of the feminine, as in all the great pirates, and it sometimes gave him intuitions.” <br> &nbsp;– Peter Pan, Chapter 8: “The Mermaid’s Lagoon”

  663

• IG

  @iggysmice3087 · 3 years ago (edited)

  It&apos;s very unfortunate that men who just genuinely like to hang out with kids are viewed as so suspect. My dad is one such man, and he&apos;s honestly one of the nicest people I&apos;ve ever met and would never hurt a kid. My mom also loves children, of course she&apos;d marry a guy who felt the same way! <br>Edit to add another funfact: My mom is a black woman, and grew up in rural Oregon, so she was very keenly aware of what racism is and how harmful it can be. Therefore, whenever my brother and I would watch Disney&apos;s Peter Pan, my mom would jump up and fast-forward through the parts with the racist caricatures. As a result, I didn&apos;t see any of those parts until I was a teenager watching the movie at my friend&apos;s house at a sleepover, and I was shocked. A few years later my brother had the same experience but as a 20 year old adult. When you&apos;re older and know what racism is, old cartoons like that are just... something else.

  1.8K

• YS

  @ysodora8030 · 3 years ago

  I totally relate to your experience of watching Peter Pan 2003 as a child. However the feelings of wanting to be like Peter and loving Wendy were also contrasted with the conflicting feelings of wanting to be Wendy and loving Peter. It seems I had a very bisexual experience. Figures.

  480

• EI

  @eireduchess · 3 years ago (edited)

  For me the “secret sinister darkness” in Peter Pan is what happened to poor Bobbie Driscoll and &nbsp;how Disney was more or less responsible for ruining his life. It’s so interesting to hear about the original stage play and Barrie’s original vision for the work itself and the history of the play since it’s inception

  511

• NE

  @nekkidnora · 3 years ago

  Thank you SO much for addressing the rumours of pedophilia- as an asexual who adored Peter Pan as a kid, I cling to him perhaps a bit more than I should, and I&apos;ve always taken those with a grain of salt, because it seems to boil down to &quot;well he didn&apos;t have lovers&quot; and &quot;well he liked being around kids&quot;, both of which apply to myself as well, and it&apos;s just- it&apos;s so dehumanizing to me, to see people who literally can&apos;t imagine that there wasn&apos;t some sex scandal. They&apos;d rather imagine him as some monster than try to imagine a life of asexuality, too. (obviously it&apos;s problematic to apply labels to historical figures, but I&apos;m using it to illustrate how I see him, and how I identify with him).

  1.8K

• SU

  @sundownsahara · 3 years ago

  Interesting take on Peter Pan, a story I love very much. You did forget that J.M. Barrie&apos;s brother, who was his mother&apos;s favorite, died in childhood. His mother sank into depression and basically ignored Barrie, telling him &quot;you will grow up and become a man, but your brother will always be a little boy&quot;. I always thought the story of Peter and everyone idolizing him/ his love and fear of motherly love was based on this time in Barrie&apos;s life. I&apos;m sure his sexuality played some role, but there&apos;s never just one influence in the creation of a classic.

  1K

• TE

  @teapotsoup2851 · 3 years ago

  Am trans guy, definitely relate to the &apos;never growing up&apos; aspect of Peter pan. I remember being 8 and realising that my options for growing up were &apos;lady&apos; or &apos;woman&apos; and was horrified by my choices.

  219

• DY

  @dylanthehopelessrema · 3 years ago (edited)

  Wow, I didn’t know about any of this before your video! Queer history really does seem to go totally unnoticed by the general public, or at least it feels that way to me.

  1.1K