#Yentl loves avigdor and Hadass

[penguicorns-are-cool]

I dissaprove of Yentl's ending

they should've all gotten together in a polyamorous relationship and sailed off together

#jewish #jumblr #yentl #yentl movie #polyamory #polyamourous #queer-coding #love triangle #like an actual love triangle #Yentl loves avigdor and Hadass #Hadass loves Yentl as Anshel and Avigdor #Avigdore loves Yentl as Anshel and as Yentl and Hadass #perfect for polyamory #should've just all run off together

[dykesynthezoid]

Had a dream last night that is making me think about Robby getting some sort of injury and later while everyone is at the LaRussos’, Sam is fussing over him and giving him lots of attention bc that’s what she does when someone she cares about is injured; and meanwhile Tory is going like. Crazy insane with jealousy and it’s got a similar vibe to that scene from Yentl where Hadass is waiting on Avigdor except it’s about the girl, not the guy. Tory suddenly has never wanted Sam to be paying attention to her more and she’s about to bite her own arm off about it.

She’s like “well I’d be in love with her too if she was doting on me like that 🙄” and Robby nearly starts choking on his dinner bc what

#cobra kai #samtory #samantha larusso #tory nichols #robby keene

[grendelsmilf]

Do you think Yentl/ Anchel has lesbian potential???? I know we’re supposed to believe she’s in love with Avigdor but sometimes when she’s singing about Hadass I’m like…..👀

they’re all bisexual tbqh

#literally the most bisexual movie of all time #ask #anon

[cruelsister-moved2]

i always see this post in the tags and it literally annoys me so much like thats kind of the whole point. like theres a reason she doesnt end up with avigdor it is literally not the romance of yentl and avigdor he is an asshole and the CHARACTER stating that is not the FILM stating that, like the film is literally using that to tell you that this man was attracted to someone who he was completely certain was a man & also his demeanour to her completely changes when he realises shes not and there is LESS intimacy between them.. the ‘guy falls in love with girl dressed as man and its not gay after all’ is literally such a long-running trope from shakespeare to folk songs and this film is making a conscious effort to like acknowledge the fact that the acceptance of that trope is sort of shaky and like maybe gender and attraction arent really that rigid after all...like if avigdor ISNT gay for finding anshel hot then doesnt that mean hadass IS? its literally asking its 1985 audience to think about like at what moment and for what reason do women become sexual beings and men intellectual ones and what intimacy does that prohibit etc etc its like seriously i dont know what you wanted from this film 😭 most 19th century rural polish men on realising they were attracted to another man WOULD have been like ‘there’s something wrong with me’ i dont see how that means the FILM is homophobic. any film that portrays bigotry is actually supporting that bigotry<3 so true

#also its like most of barbras films like explore the relationships between men and women within homosexuality #funny girl is the same where its kind of the story of a romance between a man and a woman but also hes sort of a horrible guy and she ends #up on her own at the climax which is always like a definitive statement to be making especially in those days #and its like at once parodying AND romanticising the gendered difference between them #like you are woman i am man is literally high camp... #i know she didnt make funny girl but like thats her background #it just annoys me im sorry i see these takes constantly and its like #please read the directorial intention come awn.. #also its just like 'tries to make some sort of feminist statement' like i find that wording so insulting idk #as though it was some kind of supergirl girl boss puff piece

[cruelsister-moved]

i feel like such a lesbian for just not giving a fuck about mandy patinkin in yentl but butch barbra streisand makes me feel weak and feverish and like i need to be taken to the seaside like fetch me my smelling salts im having a fit of delicacy.....

#the whole tag is always just him and people going crazy over him and it's like... #avigdor is the villain of the film!!! #i think there is also an interesting like mlm reading to be had but... its much less SAD if you take it as a butchfemme romance ngl... #otherwise like avigdor is a self hating and transphobic and misogynistic gay man #and yentl is a trans guy in love with someone who sees him as a. a woman and b. inferior #like from what I gather the book is dif #I read a bit of the Confession Scene and it seemed very different #whereas in the film like.. its distressing to watch #i dont know that the desired takeaway is yentl and avigdor are the height of romance #like obviously if u think mandy is hot that's understandable. dont personally relate but i support your self expression #but omg when i went in the tag after first watching and theres barely even any hadass at all #when she is for real the most beautiful woman who ever existed in earth ever

[dilfsisko]

the very very obvious tension between Hadass, Avigdor and Yentanshel is very,,

very frustrating 

#i really do agree with my friend's thought on the story through hadass's point of view #where she just 'god avigdor has a very stupid friend' but like endearingly #anyway #they're all queer and in love #a happy triad #ellie watches yentl

[brawlcloud]

listen. avigdor and yentl are definitely bisexual and probably hadass too. I know saying they should be a polycule is an easy out to an interesting love triangle but this time it would be soo good. and more importantly hot.

#ok the one problem is avigdor is kind of a misogynist still but they could change him #yentl

[genuineformality]

Tagged by @pyrrhlc. A very slightly different version than the last time this came around. 

Favourite colour: I love bright colors of all kinds and I’m not certain I have an actual favorite. (True story, when I was getting married, wedding vendors were constantly asking us what our colors were and I told them “riotous”.)

Currently reading: To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers, which I’m reading slowly to savor it. Like all of her work, it’s a study of the beautiful, glorious flaws of humanity, bittersweet and wistful and hilarious by turns. Do yourself a favor and go read Becky Chambers if you haven’t. 

Last TV series: I don’t watch a lot of television right now, so the answer to this is the same as last time: Ted Lasso, which is way better than it has any right to be. As partner @arbitraryimposition puts it, this was custom made for anyone who has ever lived in the US and the UK and has big feelings about being a fish out of water in either of those places.

Last film: I rewatched Yentl for the first time since I think I was a teenager, which is chock full of Big Gay Energy and wow do I have a lot of feelings about being Jewish and queer right now. 

Sweet, Savoury or Spicy: It depends on the context, but I love food, and I love all of those in different ways. I have a weird relationship with capsaicin peppers, though, so I don’t eat a lot of spicy food unless the spiciness comes from a different source (e.g., horseradish is spicy, but I don’t have an unfortunate reaction to it). My favorite sweet is marzipan in dark chocolate. My favorite savory/spicy is a particular combination of soy sauce, fake wasabi, and avocado.

Currently working on: Six of Crows I’m low-key working on my SOC minibang fic, although I feel like it’s pretty much done aside from some language tweaking at this point. I owe some additional comments to the people I’m beta reading for. I have half a story written for the next installment of Modern Business. I’m working on a fic about Wylan grieving his abuser (which is a big, ugly, complicated thing and I’m definitely processing some of my own shit there), and finally I decided to do Febuwhump, but instead of writing 28 disparate stories that have a whump element, I’ve gone completely rogue and I’m writing 28 connected stories with a shared narrative arc based on the prompts, because why can’t I do anything the easy way? 

Deus Ex I’m outlining a story about Adam Jensen having some big fucking feelings about being a cyborg (and that the process of becoming a cyborg isn’t exactly the plug and play experience that the games make it out to be)

Yentl I’ve very gently outlined an alternate ending fic, in which Yentl Anchel leans into being a transman, comes out first to Hadass, and then Anchel and Hadass come up with a plan to convince Avigdor that this is groovy, and then they all live happily ever after as queer Talmudic scholars, as they were always meant to be. 

Nonwriting: I have a pattern for a coat that’s been staring at me for months that I really need to get to; and I started on a new cross stitch project, but it’s been sidelined for a bit. 

#tag games #about the author

[ofpd]

For the fandom ask -- Yentl the Yeshiva Boy (I know there aren't that many characters so you can double dip lol)

blorbo - probably yentl/anshel lol.

scrunkly - . none of them i think 😭 these people are lovely but i would not describe them as cute

scrimblo bimblo - hadass! obv she isn't as major of a character as avigdor and anshel but she is a key part of their weird polyamorous thing they've got going on. and she's wonderful. i love the part in the movie where anshel is like "the talmud talks about everything, like sex, and—" and hadass is like "sex? 😳😏." i mean i dont like the choice the writers made to have anshel not want to fuck hadass but you know it's a fun scene.

glup shitto - anshel's dad!! what was his deal why did he teach his 'daughter' talmud like. whats his backstory where did he get learn that that was good...

poor little meow meow - hmm avigdor. especially in the movie

horse plinko - avigdor again . i think it would be good for him

eeby deeby - nobody i think like. nobody is particularly evil or hateable 🤷🏻‍♀️. besides the circumstances

ask game

#this was fun ty #asks #masha tag #yentl

[dykekeit]

me, standing on a table: YENTL IS A QUEER NARRATIVE! NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT! NO MATTER HOW YOU VIEW YENTL/ANSHEL, NO MATTER HOW YOU CONSIDER IT, HADASS IS IN LOVE WITH YENTL AND AVIGDOR, YENTL IS IN LOVE WITH AVIGDOR AND HADASS, AND AVIGDOR IS IN LOVE WITH YENTL AND HADASS! THAT'S TEXT! THAT'S TEXTUAL, BABY! "I WILL LOVE YOU BOTH, ALWAYS" LIKE HELLO! THEY'RE ALL IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER! IT'S QUEER NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT!

#yentl #al speaks

[the-knights-who-say-book]

Yentl (the Yeshiva Boy)

For those who don’t know, Yentl the Yeshiva Boy is a 1962 short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. It follows Yentl, a Jewish girl from a Polish shtetl who loves Torah study, as she disguises herself as a man named Anshel in order to study at a yeshiva. Yentl (1983) is the movie-musical adaptation of the story, directed by and starring Barbara Streisand.

Yeshiva Boy moves fluidly between referring to the main character as Yentl or Anshel depending on context, which is a great detail. The movie, not having third person narration, is a different beast. I take my cue from the story and use both names, depending on the context of what I’m talking about—for example, if Yentl is definitely seen as Yentl by the story in that moment, or as Anshel, or ambiguously as both.

I've seen Yentl the movie-musical several times, and of course there's so much gender play to unpack there, you could watch it a hundred times and have something new to talk about each time—whether it’s in the vein of despairing over the unnecessary heterosexuality of it all, or reveling in its grudging gayness.

But reading the story is a whole new area to analyze. It's so much less detailed in many areas (the movie has to flesh it out a lot to get it to two hours), but in other places it has glorious details that were totally excised from the movie (all the women in town have crushes on Anshel!) or completely changed in the movie. Notably, in Yeshiva Boy, Anshel finds a way to have some kind of un-described sex with Hadass, while the movie cowardly has Yentl entirely evade the situation. Yentl also has a happy ending for everyone, while in Yeshiva Boy Avigdor and Hadass are not entirely happy in their marriage, as both of them, you could argue, are still in love with Anshel/Yentl.

It's interesting and frustrating to see the ways in which the film worked to cis-normalize the story, and yet in other ways preserved the queerness of the story and allowed new ways for it to do queer readings. For example, the film takes Yeshiva Boy's ending, in which Anshel intends to continue dressing as a man to study in yeshivas, and turns it into Yentl heading to America to study as a woman. That’s an ending that throws out some of the story's ambiguity and unapologetic queerness in favor of, one might charitably say, a feminist ending, or one might say uncharitably and truthfully, a cisnormative ending.

Isaac Bashevis Singer was not a fan of the movie. He said about its ending,

“Miss Streisand [made] Yentl, whose greatest passion was the Torah, go on a ship to America, singing at the top of her lungs. Why would she decide to go to America? Weren't there enough yeshivas in Poland or in Lithuania where she could continue to study? Was going to America Miss Streisand's idea of a happy ending for Yentl? What would Yentl have done in America? Worked in a sweatshop 12 hours a day where there is no time for learning? Would she try to marry a salesman in New York, move to the Bronx or to Brooklyn and rent an apartment with an ice box and a dumbwaiter? This kitsch ending summarizes all the faults of the adaptation. It was done without any kinship to Yentl's character, her ideals, her sacrifice, her great passion for spiritual achievement. As it is, the whole splashy production has nothing but a commercial value.”

Now, here Singer is not mad at Yentl the film for cisnormifying his gender-ambiguous, interestingly queer Yentl, but rather for making the ending optimistic kitsch that ignored the reality of what America was for Jewish immigrants, especially for Jewish women. And in some ways I feel like rolling my eyes at him for that. Aside from the fact that it offends his artistic vision, why shouldn’t Jewish women get a film where—suspension of disbelief!—a Jew will study Torah, loudly and proudly, as a woman?

But then, as a queer Jewish woman, I agree that the ending of Yentl is supremely disappointing, especially compared to the unapologetic ending of Yeshiva Boy. “I’ll live out my time as I am,” Anshel says—and Anshel is the name she is referred to in this passage, even while also referred to as a woman and with she/her pronouns. (Yeshiva Boy often engages in this mixing of gender signifiers.) This is how Anshel is. A woman with a man’s soul, a man with she/her pronouns, a person with two names. It’s not couched in easily understandable modern terms, but no one who has heard of these modern terms would read Yentl as a cis woman playing dress up. It’s different than that. Queerer than that.

This genderqueerness is the simple fact of Yentl’s character in Yeshiva Boy, but totally painted over in Yentl.

Yet in other ways, because of the nature of telling a story through actors' subjective body language and voice rather than objective words on a page, I think Yentl the movie is possible to read as Yentl genuinely being in love with Hadass, rather than Yentl the Yeshiva Boy, which is more insistent that Anshel does not have those feelings. And that’s a lot of fun.

I'm not of Singer's opinion that the movie has no merit. I love Yentl's music and emotionality (the short story is more distant), and I think I'll always love it. But I do prefer Yeshiva Boy's ambivalence and ambiguity to the movie's heterosexual Hollywood polish.

#yentl the yeshiva boy #book review #Abi's Book Reviews

[theodorebasmanov]

I’ve watched “Yentl” and I liked it so much! I mean – it’s a musical with Barbara Streisand in the leading role which tells about a Jewish girl from Eastern Europe (why can’t you just say Latvia if there’s Riga?) who wants to study Talmud, but can’t do it openly, because she’s a woman, even though her father teaches her, so, (Spoilers!) when her father died she cut her hair, dressed as a man and went to the nearest town to study there. And then on her way, she meets a group of students and right away gets along with one man – Avigdor. And then they use the most fanfiction cliché – they came to the town and there was ONLY ONE BED. And then they were study partners. Well, the main problem was – she fell in love with him, and he got refused by his bride and so… He persuaded Yentl to marry his bride so that they can still spend time together. Yentl is very nervous, and at her bridal night, they drink wine and make a pillow fight. And then Hadass (the wife) falls in love with Yentl (her husband). Then Yentl finally decides to tell Avigdor. So, they leave to another town and proves to him that she’s a woman. At first, she freaks out but then, she tells that she loves him she kisses her and offers her to run away and live together but again he denies her the opportunity to study. Again. So, it all ended up like: She’s going to America for new opportunities, Hadass and Avigdor are married. I liked it so much! Firstly,– yes, Jewish aesthetics, I just can’t help myself. And secondly, even though Wikipedia says that one of the themes of the movie is “heterosexuality”, it’s so homoerotic! On the one hand, she’s dressed as a boy, and he seems to slowly fall in love with her… him. And on the other hand, she’s a woman married to a woman, who falls in love with her. So, yes – iconically bisexual and (don’t beat me) polyamorous. The great thing and Barbara Streisand sings amazingly.

#movie #musical #movie musical #yentl #barbara streisand #mandy patinkin #amy irving #yentl mendel #avigdor #hadass vishkower #bisexual #polyamory #jewish #jewish people #judaism #talmud #talmud studying #jewish tradition #jewish dance #jewish music #crossdressing #sexism #yentl movie #yentl musical

[mashatupitsyn]

On thursday night I rewatched Yentl. I’m still on my Barbra Streisand kick. When Yentl and Avigdor don’t end up together (their long awaited kiss is abruptly interrupted, like a needle scratching a non-diegetic record), I get upset and think, “She never gets the guy”. Not because getting the guy is the point, even though in Hollywood of course it is the point. But because a woman like her cannot (is not allowed to) get the guy—she is too remarkable, too strong, too passionate. There is no happy narrative for that.

When the male lead is exceptional (and even when he’s unexceptional) the whole point is he gets what he wants. He only has to prove his worth—have it tested—and the world is his (is his anyway). Can you imagine being exceptional in every way and learning that you have to be alone because of it? That when you’re a woman, being exceptional isolates you romantically. You will never get what you want. You will learn and transform and endure, but you will have to do it alone, because straight men cannot, will not do the same. This is what Streisand’s films have to teach us. That is why they’re valuable. And exceptional women know this when they watch her. They grow to learn these truths like Streisand’s female leads grow to learn them.

Yesterday, while I was still half-asleep, I woke up thinking about Yentl. I had the clearest understanding of the film, of Streisand, of my own life: her films—what is happening in every single one of them (she’s not simply chasing the male WASP, although that’s certainly part of it. Especially early on), and why Avigdor doesn’t/can’t kiss Yentl at the end of the movie. Why he doesn’t want to be with her. But now it’s hard to put it into words. It’s hard to explain what I know, what I see in Streisand’s work. Because it’s personal. It’s an accrued knowledge that comes from some place deeper, more lived. The stories that Streisand is telling about the trials and tribulations of female brilliance, the romantic pain it can create, cannot be fully appreciated until you are a woman in your 30s, or older. Until you’ve begun to experience this trajectory yourself.

Of course, Avigdor doesn’t/can’t didn’t kiss Yentl, I tell myself. Can you imagine kissing someone so remarkable? Can you imagine what it requires of you? The strength. What it committs you to once you have? Kisses like that activate and break spells. Avigdor would have to be remarkable to kiss Yentl. And not remarkable as a man amongst men. He is remarkable in that way, as a passionate Talmud scholar, but he does not want to change. He does not know how to merge love with knowledge. That is why Avigdor can only “love” Yentl as Anshel. Man to man. But Avigdor cannot be remarkable for her (Yentl). With her. As a man amongst women. Yentl, full of love and profound intelligence, is able to be remarkable with anyone and everyone (even Hadass’ parents immediately love Anshel). While Avigdor is merely average when it comes to being a man; with a limited, conventional, and misogynist understanding of love.

Streisand is smarter than to simply give us the ending we want and crave. The ending that we’ve been hoping for. She isn’t simply a fictional woman bringing fictions to the screen. She is a real woman in the world putting her experience and understanding of the world on the screen. The screen isn’t a hermetically sealed fantasy that is informing these diegetic stories. The world is real and that is why The Way We Were, constantly misread as a great love story, is so painful to watch. In Yentl, Streisand gives us the ending that is the truth of an exceptional woman’s life—at any given time. The solution doesn’t lie in a false screen ending because it is an ending that doesn’t yet exist for women like this. Like her (in real life, Streisand did not find true love until her mid-50s. And, coincidentally, this is when she stopped appearing as a lead in films).

So the fantasy of the kiss is ruptured. Suspended. Interrupted. Arrested. The moment is almost comedic. Shocking. Hasn’t everything—the entire film—been leading up to this moment? We want it so bad. I wanted it so bad. Instead, Streisand, who directed, co-wrote, and co-produced the film, insists: You need to see me not get the man I want (so bad) over and over. I don’t get him because that man doesn’t exist yet. And even I, with all my intelligence, power, and strength, can’t make him exist. This is not him. And if I stay with this him, the way I bent over backwards for two decades to stay with the mediocre Hubbell, I will be doomed. I will cease to be exceptional because these men can’t handle me the way I am. So I must change my own desire because of it.

What we are used to seeing on screen—and in life—is this female adjustment to male mediocrity in order to have love. An adjustment we habitually take for granted. A kiss in place of the truth. Hope in place of actual change. Streisand shows us—women—what it is like to be, to know, to understand. Not what it is like to have. Streisand is remarkable because while she chased the melancholic post-war male WASP over and over, she always knew that her life’s work was bigger than landing him. She knows this is not the answer. And we do too.

[sophia-helix]

Yuletide 2016

My WONDERFUL gift:

A Change of Season (3456 words) by lnhammer Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Táng Cháo | Tang Dynasty RPF Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Shàngguān Wǎnér & Wǔ Zétiān Characters: Shàngguān Wǎnér, Wǔ Zétiān Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge, Chromatic Source, Chromatic Yuletide, Palace Intrigue, strong women of history, corridors of power, Poetry, Love Poems, Mentor/Protégé Summary:

Shangguan Wan-er could think of no reason for the Empress to summon a palace slave to her presence. No good reason. It would be the first meeting of two of the most powerful women of Chinese history.

I swear I asked for this just because I ran across Shàngguān Wanér's name in an article and the wiki article was so fascinating. I desperately wanted women-focused historical fiction about her and this story more than delivered. It's about poetry and maturity and change and I just adored it.

My assignment:

Begin With Love (4123 words) by sophiahelix Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Yentl (1983) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Yentl Mendel | Anshel Mendel/Hadass Vishkower Characters: Hadass Vishkower, Yentl Mendel | Anshel Mendel Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Misses Clause Challenge, Menstruation, Judaism Summary:

Her husband had his monthly courses today.

I've been wanting to write Yentl fic the last few years, and I was going to treat this letter if I didn't get assigned it, heh.

If you're not familiar with the movie, it's about a young Jewish woman in turn of the century Eastern Europe who's been secretly studying Talmud with her father. After he dies, she cuts off her hair and goes to the big city to join a yeshiva, where she meets and becomes study partners with a man named Avigdor whom she quickly falls for. Avigdor is engaged to the beautiful, extremely feminine Hadass, but it gets called off for Reasons, and also for Reasons he convinces "Anschel" to marry her instead, so he can still see her.

Rewatching the movie was an experience; I recall being very into Yentl/Avigdor as a teenager, because I had/have a big thing for Mandy Patinkin, but now I found myself caring about Anschel/Hadass far more, because it turns out I had/have a big thing for Amy Irving I didn't realize at the time. Hadass loves Anschel for himself, as her husband, and the chemistry between them is strong.

Of course, in the movie Yentl isn't in love with Hadass, though she cares for her, and she reveals herself to Avigdor and goes off to America to be "free" (this is a departure from the original short story and the tone of the movie is much more superficially Feminist without much deeper examination). Luckily my recipient wanted a different ending and I was happy to write it.

And oh, the research on this! My first thought was, "How on earth does Yentl manage menstruation?" It's explicitly stated that Hadass is kept very innocent by her parents, so I thought Yentl might be able to talk her way through it like she does other things, but I also knew there was Jewish law on the subject. Cue days of research during which I had tabs on Talmudic law and Google books and the short story open; I had a feeling I was missing something big about actual normative cultural practices, and finally managed to run down references to a medieval commentary tract with much stricter rules than the Talmudic period of 12 days of no contact.

Anyway once I had the ground rules down the story came through on its own and I really loved writing it. I was in a very femslash mood this Yuletide and this was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to write.

I also wrote a Treat:

Get Real Get Right (Fuckin Right) (1040 words) by sophiahelix Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Riveyonce Cuoknowles Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Sufjan Stevens - Character, Aubrey Drake Graham, St. Vincent | Annie Clark Summary:

Sufjan Stevens: how much do you know about the rapper drake

Annie Clark: He seems nice

Sufjan Stevens: ok

Annie Clark: Why?

Sufjan Stevens: no reason

Sufjan Stevens: I just found this weird blog

Annie Clark: About Drake?

Sufjan Stevens: kind of

If you haven't seen Riveyonce Cuoknowles before, it's a Tumblr blog, semi-satirical, about the adventures of Sufjan Stevens and Drake in love, among other things. It's very funny and often sweet, and they came out with a fantastic crowd-sourced mashup mixtape a while back, which hilariously got a lot of attention in indie music blog circles (with a lot of confused commentary on the blog itself).

I had the sudden idea of playing around with the trope What If They Found The Fanfiction About Them, and this fic occupies a space somewhere between RYCK's satirical one and more straightforward RPF. I wrote it under extreme time pressure, after thinking about it for weeks but not having spare time to write it, and I was pretty happy with it (though I might write a sequel).

#my fic #yuletide #yuletide 2016 #yentl #riveyoncecuoknowles

[showmethesneer]

so i’m about to go to sleep but i need to vent my Yentl feels first cuz they are still weighing on me. 

let’s talk about Hadass and how utterly fucked over she was. this is killing me. this poor woman. like, first of all, she wasn’t in love with Avigdor. he wasn’t in love with her either. she was a pretty girl who waited on him. he didn’t converse with her. he didn’t care to learn her opinions about anything. he didn’t even believe she was capable of having opinions. so that’s not love.

but okay, the important thing here is that she didn’t love him. she said she trembled when he was around. she believed that was love. and maybe it stemmed from attraction- but i really think it was nerves and intimidation. and if this movie wasn’t so fucking heteronormative, it would recognize that her reaction was not really a positive one. and then there’s the thing with feeling at peace with Yentl. Yentl didn’t demand sex, and in fact, explained the importance of consent to her. Yentl respected her choice, her opinions, and encouraged her to learn.

their friendship, based in respect, developed into romantic and then even sexual feelings. Hadass got to the point where she actively wanted to sleep with Yentl. now Yentl kept soliloquizing about how it would be impossible to want Hadass in that way, and i’ll buy that. perhaps Yentl really is just THAT straight. but now Hadass, who has been taught that the most important thing in a marriage is that your husband find you desirable, is being rejected repeatedly by her husband. this poor woman. of course she internalizes this. and the movie doesn’t even delve into that so much.

then, the absolute worst thing happens, and something i cannot forgive this movie for. Hadass, who i don’t believe ever had true love for Avigdor declares that she is over him, but then ends up marrying him in the resolution of the film. she marries the guy who doesn’t believe in her right to learn about their religion, who believes she doesn’t have any opinions. the guy whose presence made her tense up so much, she trembled and spilled things. she ends up married to him. 

#rant #long post #toxic heteronormativity #yentl #hadass #sexism #female characters

[cruelsister-moved]

not to use fictional lore to justify itself etc but I was thinking today on my walk how in yentl when she argues with avigdor about eve being made from adams rib he brushes it off without paying any attention to her argument, then later he comically manipulates religious law to get yentl to marry hadass (so he can exploit both what he sees as a weaker man + the woman he sees as his property). yentl refuses on this basis but later agrees because of her feelings for hadass avigdor's power over her as a man and her desire to please him.

later he agrees it's not wrong in a hypothetical context to study anyway even if there's a law that forbids it (whether this is his true religious opinion, or just that he too would ignore laws to study if need be, is irrevelant to his hypocrisy here) and then changes his mind, irrationally, because she's a woman. like he is basically screaming nonsense at her because of his instinctive reaction to hate women in his space and see them as inferior. he asks if she's a demon because he doesn't believe a woman could possess her intellect... he's angry because he liked her more than he would've liked a woman!!

he's appeased by her confession of love which allows him to completely recompartmentalise their relationship to no longer seeing her as human but a subservient other who he immediately treats completely differently. like of course she acted crazy, she's a foolish woman in love and i am the centre of this situation again so im not emasculated here. he forgives her immediately, yet he doesn't want her to return to studying because that would still force him to confront his incorrect beliefs about women. if his discomfort was truly spiritual, he wouldn't immediately forgive her for this act of desecration just because she loved him.

meanwhile hadass is shown to be controlled by people who use religious law that they don't allow her access to. it's the uneven access that keeps her disenfranchised, and when she gains access she is quickly able to use it to advocate for her own rights. and yentl realises that 1. she had assumed hadass' work at home to be inferior to her study, when in fact it requires skill&patience&care that yentl herself doesn't have and 2. hadass is actually intelligent and insightful, she just obviously wouldn't know anything about something she has never been allowed to learn.

its just such an insightful and nuanced portrayal that doesn't absolve religious men of their misogyny but it also doesnt cheaply point the finger at the hazy concept of religion; but directly at male-dominated structures of power as well as individual men who CHOOSE to be misogynistic to serve their own needs, either passively or violently, when we are shown at the very start of the film that there is another way.

#aware only like 3 of u have seen yentl. #this won't stop me though x #yentl #he's also a gay misogynist for context #like. hes not really mad she studied Talmud hes mad that she COULD study it #bc he believed women weren't capable enough for his High Minded Man Studies #and has just had that factually disproven #like his behaviour would've been exactly the same if it was secular study #long post #sorry. sorry #also i wanted to talk abt how like. the rebbes in the film are all shown treating women v differently than avigdor does #but I didnt wanna make it more than 4 paragraphs n i kinda ran out of steam #but there is like very deliberately not a curve of like more religious = more misogynistic #ppl are misogynistic to yentl in secular contexts all throughout the film #and there's like no difference in how they act vs avigdor #etc etc #also must be an ahead of its time recognition of internalised misogyny