#cyrano 2021

[warriorxena]

CYRANO (2021) dir. Joe Wright + blue

[a-little-revolution]

I'm really really sorry if this question is too personal. you seem to be outspoken on better representation involving this subject that I thought I could ask: do you have any tips on writing the sex life of a little person? I've learned little people are stigmatized on both ends, either being seen as taboo or being fetishized. due to that, I'm worried of how either too much or too little information could come across. I want to know what a good balance would be or if I should simply avoid writing about it. they're also polyamorous which I know also carries a lot of sexual stigma. being polyamorous myself I feel solidarity in being seen as promiscuous for no good reason and want to shed a more positive light on communities like ours about the subject.

Hello! This is an excellent question, and I am well and comfortable to discuss topics surrounding sex when it comes to dwarfism! It's a topic that hasn't been explored much in media, since we rarely see representation of little people with spouses, lovers, etc. The times I've seen it have been in the films Willow (1988) and Cyrano (2021):

As well as in Francesca Mills' performances of Midsummer Night's Dream (2023) and The Duchess of Malfi (2024):

It is true that when it comes to intimacy, little people are stigmatized on both ends - either seen as taboo and unloved, or as a fetish and subhuman. One of the ways this shows up in media is that we are not shown having healthy and loving relationships of any kind, which can be detrimental to young LPs coming into the dating sphere (making us more susceptible to accepting abuse or neglect right off the bat).

Some of the earliest "relationships" I saw little people having were that of Mini Me being mocked and abused by Dr. Evil who claimed to love him, and Gidget in Bones (Dwarf in the Dirt, 2009) being interviewed about her murdered lover. But I digress.

If I could ask one thing of LP representation, it would be to show that little people live full and loving lives. Our sexuality is just as vibrant and dynamic as that of able bodied folk.

Anyway lol here's some of my thoughts on writing about the sex lives of little people, in no particular order:

In my experience (with non-little partners), my dwarfism can be an elephant in the room that myself and my partner either stigmatize or embrace. The sex is good when my partner goes at it from a place of problem solving, listening to my needs, and and not making a big deal out of my height. Know that how the situation flows is dependent on how each partner interacts with accommodating for dwarfism - is the LP self-conscious or confident? Does the non-LP feel awkward or inspired? Like all sex there will be moments where positions don't work, transitions are awkward, or things don't go smoothly - it is okay for your characters not to know what to do at first, but show them overcoming it.

To answer your specific questions - no, don't avoid writing Little sex unless you truly feel unequipped! Your disabled characters deserve sex scenes! And yes, polyamory can come with some added stigma, but plenty of disabled folks are also queer, kinky, and non-monogamous - it is deeply interwoven in disabled culture.

It's hard for me to say what a "good balance" would be for writing disabled sex - since there isn't really one for able bodied folk. Able bodied characters wax and wane from Pride and Prejudice to Fifty Shades of Grey, so it really just depends what kind of piece you're writing. On the one end, loving committed relationships can really centre disabled characters in community, while power and autonomy can also come from reclaiming sexuality.

I hope this has been helpful, my autistic mind really struggles with broad questions - if you have any specific asks on LP sexuality and writing Little sex, do send them my way! - Elliot (they/them)

[theroseinthedarkness]

HALEY BENNETT as Roxanne in Cyrano (2021), dir. Joe Wright

[oldshrewsburyian]

So I'm still brooding about (Peter Dinklage's performance in) the 2021 Cyrano film, and I think a significant part of what bothers me about the film as adaptation -- maybe the main thing besides some of the language; no one should say "okay" in the seventeenth century -- is that it reduces Cyrano.

In this film, Cyrano is a man who pines. And it is, to be fair, true that no one pines like Rostand's Cyrano ("Et je suis et serai jusque dans l'autre monde, celui qui vous aima sans mesure, celui..." Put me in the GROUND.) But my point is: that isn't all he is. He is, of course, a poet. He's a virtuosic fencer. He's a scientist. He's a lover of art, and a playwright. He is, in a very seventeenth-century way, a patriot, and his fellow Gascons adore him for it. He is, and I say this with profound admiration and affection, an asshole to those in power. And from curtailing the "Non, merci" speech to omitting "Ce sont les cadets de Gascon" and the hilarious and heartbreaking "I just fell from the moon!!!" delaying tactic, the film just makes him less. And I object to that! I love this character for all he is. And we should be able to see the man whom Roxane both loves as a friend and comes to desire through his letters.

[behindfairytales]

Peter Dinklage in Cyrano (2021) as Cyrano de Bergerac

[emilydickinsane]

favorite character type: female lead in a musical about whether or not a physically unattractive frenchman can be loved

and then she has to choose between him and a more conventionally attractive dude and i’m always like “you can choose neither girlie!!”

[gigantomachy1916]

Speaking of Cyrano de Bergerac, I recently saw the movie musical version of it released last year, with Peter Dinklage in the lead role. And I already thought it was an incredible casting choice, but today I found out that the screenplay (and the stage version) was written by Dinklage's wife, Erica Schmidt, and I just. Holy shit.

Is there not something so fucking romantic and intimate about loving your partner so much that you rewrite one of the most iconic and classic stories in the world to be about them, about the way they are overlooked for having a stigmatized physical trait, and portraying them as a sexy, compelling romantic lead so that the world can fall in love with them like you have? And making that classic story better, more meaningful and personal, because you put your own love for this person into it?

I'm just, I'm losing my shit over here, you guys. Now the whole movie just feels like we're seeing this man through his wife's eyes and I'm genuinely crying over this revelation.

[daincrediblegg]

really dangerous to listen to the cyrano soundtrack when you're in love with some kind of self-loathing creature