32 thoughts on “Gentleman Jack Recap, Part 1

    1. I love seeing queer stories that aren’t just “oh woe is me, must hide my true self.” And this is real & true to Lister’s diaries, she was actually like this. Same with Emily Dickinson & the movie I reviewed yesterday — there’s more queer history out there that’s either been lost or erased, & I’m so glad scholars are digging it up & filmmakers are bringing it to light.

    1. Yep, that’s why I said ‘seen as a member of a more socially accepted class when you are actually part of a socially inferior class.’ Seen as ‘white’ which can be more socially accepted & privileged than a person of color.

    2. I have a bit of a problem with that personally. How do we decide somebody with a light skin is ‘really’ black? Because their parents are darker? The One Drop Rule? Was my olive skinned grandfather ‘passing’ because he identified as Dutch rather than with his fraction of African ancestry?

        1. My own opinion is if you’re light skinned enough to pass you are white. Others feel the same. I remember reading a long article by a black journalist in which she reluctantly accepts that a cousin of hers is a white girl exactly as the cousin and her entire community say she is, though knowing all about her light skinned black father.
          Race is a social construct and one that should die. Culture of course is another matter. There is certainly an African American culture and one well worth belonging to.

          1. Roxana, I am Black, Cherokee and German. When people look at me- they know I am a mixed sort of Something….. they usually can not put their finger on quite What though. I am also considered “White Passing”. I am Very tied to the black and Cherokee community. I consider myself more of a woman of color than anything else. There are so many argements in the black community about where dark vs light skinned people fit- and I am sick of the colorism.

      1. Dutch is a nationality, not a “race” category so to speak. “Africans” were the first people to settle Europe and every other continent on Earth. It’s not surprising for me to hear about a “olive-skinned” Dutchman b/c I don’t believe what American & English TV tells me nor do I believe what 1600’s era race hierarchy theories tell me.

        This kind of brainwashed thinking has led to people questioning whether Alicia Vikander is really Swedish and/or Scandinavian and whether Catherine Zeta Jones is really just Welsh, although I’ve read that the Welsh are some of the darkest people in Europe. The whitewashing of human history that supports this brainwashing is really a plain crime against humanity and human dignity – it’s ethnocide. I think anybody who’s not afraid of the truth will TRULY be the ones willing to let go of race theory or the idea that the black people in Europe became depigmented. It takes a certain strength of character to admit the truth, even if you don’t like what it means. Others will continue to try to call any & all depictions of black or dark skinned people they see in Europe (or pretty much anywhere outside of Africa) a slave, servant, or ambassador or a descendant of one of the three, which is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.

      2. And I have to say, I don’t think the pool of people willing to admit the truth is very large right now. It would threaten the line (i.e. the unequal ranks and hierarchy) they like to maintain between “black” and “white” – the true underpinning of the social construct of “race”.

  1. I am waiting for more episodes, of this and GOT before adding HBO to my Amazon Prime channels.

    Anne Lister is fascinating. Mr. Pye’s costumes are amazing for Anne and Miss Walker. The sister seems to be a bit of a ‘pill’ and her costumes seem to hint at this.

    When is HBO going to show more?

  2. I seriously love Anne’s tailored suits.
    Anne doesn’t need to get married, she’s clearly got her own money. For most women, to quote Jane Austen, marriage was the pleasantest hedge against want. Jobs available to women were few and ill paid.

    1. Those suits are SO good. And yes, Lister has property so while she’s a bit cash poor, she’s not in need of a man for money like a lot of typical 19th-c. heroines. That gives her some privilege.

      1. It gives her the freedom to be herself. There will still be consequences but she’s got financial security and if she doesn’t care about talk she’s home free.

  3. This looks really good. I love that they’re being true to the historical figures and not dumbing things down to make it “relatable”

  4. OMG! I totally want Anne Leister’s costumes! I need to find the patterns used to make them by Dragoncon or Dicken’s Festival. Because I need to look better than my hunny bunny.

  5. There’s no question tailored suits look GOOD, hence their popularity in the later nineteenth c. but does our love for Anne’s suits have anything to do with the fact she is surrounded by women fashionably dressed according to the rules of one of the more unfortunate periods in costume history.

    1. Yep, as Tom Pye said in our interview (linked above) he wanted to really emphasize the contrast between the OTT 1830s ladies fashions & Lister’s severe all-black menswear-inspired styles.

        1. I know, I hate them also! I usually dress as a Ladies maid and 10 years out of fashion because unless you were the Housekeeper, you would never be allowed to look better then the family. Also, 1820’s fashions are less yucky.

          1. What Were Women THINKING????
            Anne Lister looks so good in her suits that straight though I am I might give any advances from her serious consideration. It doesn’t sound like she got rebuffed often. Of course she was probably smart and sensitive enough not to make moves on anybody who hadn’t telegraphed interest. I’m sure she wouldn’t be thinking about making Anne Walker her wife if she hadn’t picked up on a certain mutuality to the attraction.

  6. This just started showing on the BBC here in the UK; I watched the first episode last night. I like it so far, apart from a few slightly on-the-nose bits where they overexplain The Way Things Are in a bit of an “as you know” style.

  7. I read about Anne Lister years ago, and she was more than just a class snob, she was a class snob who used women of more socially marginalized race (Eliza Raine) and class statuses (Elizabeth Brown) for her own sexual gratification & then discarded them. She was also a fortune hunter who ended up having an unhappy marriage with the wealthy Ann Walker, the woman she had a commitment ceremony with.

    That being said, this fictionalized version of Anne Lister on Gentleman Jack, while class snob, is engaging, charming, not as mercenary. And the buildup of the relationship between her and Ann Walker was very romantic and cute. I have mixed feelings about the discrepancies in who she is on the show vs who she was in real life knowing that she was sexually exploitative to socially marginalized females…when the main sticking point of the show is about her sexuality. Idk. What I don’t like about the show is how insecure, weak, and just ‘put upon’ Ann Walker’s character is. It’s just…odd. Idk if she was that insecure in real life, but on the show her insecurity became annoying. All in all, I watch the show every week. It’s interesting.

  8. Ok, big questions…. The duster jacket she wore coming off the carriage looks to be of medium weight linen. The skirt she has on- seems to be a bit shiny- is it Also linen, or is it a wool? I have a black linen that has that same bit of gloss…

  9. I figured Anne’s comments about the doctor ans his”mincing walk” were a reaction to seeing his interest in Miss Walker and Miss Walker’s clear discomfort at being treated by a man who is attracted to her. She’s belittling him so he will not be seen as a contender of any sort for Miss Walker’s affections.

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