out of curiousity, in your ways-of-coping-with-misogyny (emulation/acceptance/nominal refusal) where do you see TWEoS!Marinette falling in that spectrum? or is she a secret fourth thing (or all three)?
I personally see her as more aligned with nominal refusal (insofar as she is enabled to be a superhero, but that comes with acting in particular feminine ways/submitting to particular feminine expectations especially re: her dating Luka), but I can also see the argument for acceptance (given that Tikki is masterminding the whole thing, and Tikki is a conduit for certain fanon expectations that may skew misogynistic). maybe less emulation overall, but, hey, she called Adrien a bishie lol
That's such a good point to bring up... (Also I want to just take an aside and thank you for bringing that up yaaaaay I love getting the opportunity to engage with this theme of TWEoS!)
The thing with most of the girls in Adrien's general bracket is that they're usually a lot more nebulous as to what camp they fall into: They're not "women" yet, after all, so they haven't solidified what category they'll take on. For Kagami in particular, she'll unfortunately have a coming-of-age moment orchestrated her mother right before The Diamond Ball, but the rest of them could still be considered as struggling.
I said this ^^ a while ago while explaining the concept to a friend, but if I had to fit anyone into categories, Marinette is currently closest to an Emilie, and Kagami and Chloe are closest to a Tomoe. Claudia, on the other hand, will eventually show very clearly that she is none of these, and that's important. Of course she doesn't fit into any of these categories. She's never played by any of the rules! That's so important to her character.Â
Back on Marinette being closest to an Emilie (at least in my intention, I think you're right that as far as Lucky Lucky Ladybug is concerned her behavior can come off as Tomoe-esque), I tend to default to describing any instances of white associated with Marinette as "lily-white", and that's because of Emilie. This is because the white lily is a symbol of the Virgin Mary which I have in the back of my head as, like, a "connecting motif" between the two.
This is from a scene that might be buried in that old Ao3 Anthology fic, but Marinette trying to emulate Emilie in particular was something I played with a bit:Â
Unable to focus on what he was supposed to, Adrien instead noticed that Marinette was wearing that same familiar perfume again. It was the re-release of Aphrodite; A scent from Gabriel that his mother walked, talked, and nearly breathed advertisements for during the media's coverage of his parents' engagement. Old collections and prints in his father's collection always showed Emilie in blush pink silks and flower petals, and the most sensational was the one where his mother had her lips pursed into a deep red cherry, as the key ingredient was said to be "cherry hearts". Anybody with half a brain knew that cherries had a pit, and that they weren't exactly aromatic... but Adrien's mother could've sold the masses their own shit at the height of her popularity. Whether or not cherry hearts existed wasn't a concern anybody but Adrien had.
Of course, it's a whole thing that illocution and perlocution aren't the same, so my intentions and what the readers take away don't always line up all the time. You're right that me presenting her as hyperfeminine for male approval does not inherently make her an Emilie, but... If I can be completely honest, I think that execution gap is kind of cool so I'm not super broken up about it? If that makes sense? She is still, in some sense, sticking to her "roles" by pining after Adrien, but she's not cognizant of that.
Ugh, but then if I look back in TWEoS there's so many tiny pieces here and there where we can compare Emilie's "agency" through modeling to Marinette's superhero work.... Gabriel once specializing in power suits when Emilie was at the height of her career, Emilie's own goals of fame....
Émilie tucked herself close to Gabriel as the paparazzi swarmed them the moment they exited the building. The sparkling explosion of cameras was like watching the sun hit ocean waves, a million little flashes of white light out over an expanse that never seemed to end—Except Émilie was in the water, in the light, constantly drinking in the eyes and the watching and the clamoring for her... Gabriel would do the dirty work, Gabriel would put in the hours. Émilie would be made famous. (Show Business)
Wrapped around her torso like a book jacket was a scarlet corduroy blazer (double breasted, black buttons), the fabric’s wale catching a hint of diffused afternoon light from the window and weakening its color with the subtlest wash of a sterile, celestine blue. It was an offshoot of an old jacket his father had made in the late 80s: The power suits House Gabriel had exploded in popularly with, later pulled back into more demure ideals. Slimmer tailoring on the waist, brighter colors and smooth contours. What gave the alterations away were the seams in the shoulders—Shoulder pads had been taken out to fit a sloping shoulder and a quieter mien. (TWEoS Part 2 Chapter 8)
Man, does this shit get complicated. You really have to appreciate just how dense TWEoS is for analysis, I don't think you can say that about fanfics very often. my pretentious lit student swag ❤️
