Amelia

The language in this novel is so beautiful and complex. I used to teach a simplified version for ESL and it always bothered me how much meaning was lost when the story was paraphrased out of Mary Shelley’s carefully chosen words.

It is interesting to note that nature, specifically the way it is represented in The Old Forest, transcends morality. Tolkien’s works are sometimes accused of black-and-white depictions of good and evil, and nature is generally “good”. However, it is also formidable, so subtleties like these really paint a more nuanced picture of Middle Earth.

I loved this show when I was in middle school, and at the time I definitely had a very black and while view of Panty as the slutty one and Stocking as the virtuous one. I was always very interested in the way they coded this — the most obvious way being Panty’s physical appearance with the red dress and blonde hair which is often stereotyped a certain way, but I also though it was interesting that their food preferences seemed tied to their sexuality. Stocking is sweet and she likes sweets, which are arguably on the feminine side, whereas Panty is vulgar and she likes more masculine foods such as chips, and particularly beer. Perhaps this suggests that being as sexually active as Panty is a masculine quality in a woman. So while Panty is empowered in her sexuality in the sense that she is confident and shows that she can do whatever she wants, the show still presents her as un-feminine. I think the point is that she is allowed to be that way, but it is interesting to me that they code it like that.