The Huffington Post
The BBC ’s most recent Austen remagining, The Other Bennet Sister , has left fans and experts alike pretty happy. The series focuses on the bookish, quiet, and often-ignored Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri, who previously played sister Mary on Call The Midwife ). Her mother ( Ruth Jones ) is overbearing and obsessed with her looks and marriageability, which she finds insufficient compared to her other kids’. It takes a journey to London for the overlooked sister to find her spark; viable romantic interests follow. I found the 10-part series enjoyable partly because of how well it fits into the novel’s themes. But let’s be real here: the show’s appeal isn’t just academic. In a viral Instagram post , historical fiction author Samantha Blok celebrated its appeal to the “female gaze” over a video of love interest Mr Hayward rolling up his sleeve. She added a sweating emoji after writing, “The tension, the yearning, the slow forearm reveal as he rolls up his sleeve...” In other words, as comments like “WHY ARE FOREARMS SO HOT?!?” confirm, The Other Bennet Sister is horny in a way a lot of women find – cough – refreshing. View this post on Instagram In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ella Bruccoleri said that she felt Austen was great at finding the core of characters, beyond their immediate facade. “People are still obsessed with appearances and materialism. I just find all of that stuff quite farcical,” she shared. Ella added, laughingly , that her “multifaceted” character was capable of both feeling teeth-chatteringly nervous at a ball and “getting turned on looking at Mr Hayward’s forearms”. But ultimately, the actor said , Mary wasn’t looking for any of that when she freed herself from her marriage-obsessed home environment. “I think she’s just in London to make friends... It’s disguised as a love story. I personally just don’t see it that way. I think it’s a love story between Mary and herself.” In a follow-up to her original Instagram post, Blok said that in the “male gaze... the viewer is positioned from the perspective of the man, thereby positioning women as objects to be consumed; and the female gaze is the subversion of this, wherein women are positions are subjects with interiority and agency.” Many have argued that there is no female equivalent of the “male gaze,” which involves a position of systemic power that changes how another group sees itself. But whatever you choose to call it, commenters seemed to agree that the lead’s lack of passivity – a major moment in the show, and a line often repeated in it, is when Mary realises she can make her own happiness – adds to the “emotional” eroticism of her romances. In a lot of ways, The Other Bennet Sister – the plot of which is at least partly, “Turns out I’m not as ugly as my mum says, and I guess nicely-forearmed men could actually like me back!” – is a bit of a wish-fulfilment watch. That doesn’t mean it can’t be clever, funny, subversive, and interesting too. I mean, Austen’s Persuasion plot is basically, “The one that got away is rich now, and turns out he’s been pining over you for years! Btw, you look soooo much younger than you think”. In my opinion, The Other Bennet Sister’s success is in capturing this element of steamy, slow-build, highly emotional hotness just as well as the Pride And Prejudice author did. We can imagine ourselves as Mary because she is relatable and complex; a full-fledged person who expresses desire on her own terms. The privilege of choice (all her sisters had to marry to keep the family afloat, but Mary was so OK with remain single, she was able to turn down rich suitor Mr Ryder) adds a thrilling intensity to the bids for her affection. Then, there’s the yearning, the romantic flush of discovering you’re more than your supposed “marketability” for marriage, and yes, the forearms of it all. No wonder one fan wrote , “We have another Jane Austen ‘hand scene’, people!” Related... If You Loved The Other Bennet Sister, There's Plenty More To Come For Austen Fans The Other Bennet Sister Is Faithful To Pride And Prejudice Where It Matters Most The Lesser-Known Women Authors Jane Austen Loved
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