I do not play about Jackie being a lesbian who experiences severe compulsory heterosexuality. That is 100% canon to me. She looks absolutely miserable when Jeff asks her to go down on him, she finds every excuse to avoid having sex with him, and when she finally does have sex with a man it’s when she’s passively suicidal, no longer believes in love, and wants to lash out against Shauna. The catalyst for Jackie’s despair and complete loss of hope is discovering Shauna’s betrayal, and when she learns that Shauna and Jeff slept together, her devastation is focused solely on Shauna.
Any time Jackie is with a man it feels like self-punishment or destruction. It’s something she’s doing to herself, not for herself. She is a character suffocated by expectations of perfection and social influence, forced to perform a version of femininity and romance that doesn’t actually fit her. Jackie as a closeted lesbian makes so much sense for her story and her tragic end. Those slumber party make outs were definitely happening.
one of my favorite things about Van as a character is that she CAN be catty and mean and tease the other yellowjackets but when push comes to shove she is consistently one of the FIRST people to jump to the defense of the other yj if someone is treating them poorly. she teases mel for latching on to Shauna but is also the first person to cover her up from the eyes of the team when Shauna scares her so bad she pisses her pants.
We talk a lot about the duality of the characters (Nat caring deeply for everyone but also being deeply selfish, Shauna refusing motherhood but it still being one of the few things that brings her true joy that we see, tai rejecting violence to the point of creating an alternate personality that craves it, Jackie pretending to be straight when we all know she’s gay) but I think that van’s duality of being someone who can be mean at times while still being one of the kindest characters on the show is one of the best contradictions the writers have built
When Jeff was talking to Callie about how lonely it is to be Shauna's husband I realized that they were showing him doing things /with/ Callie that Shauna was doing in secret without her. Like we see Shauna being creepy in Callie's bed in the pilot and her sleepover with Tai was in Callie's bed too but here we see Jeff actually sitting with Callie in her room, being present. Or instead of stealing her weed to smoke in secret, Jeff decided to smoke with her. it really highlighted how absent and emotionally unavailable Shauna is even when she is home with them.
so many of callie and shaunas solo conversations being shauna trying desperately to connect to callie over whatevers for dinner and callie completely uninterested and walled off at the prospect of connecting over what she perceives as shallow because SHE is desperate to connect over the plane crash and everything that followed. to then have shauna walk in on callie joyously making DINNER (shaunas attempt at connection) with LOTTIE (someone willing to engage with callies desired connection) does anyone else feel sosick
cw: discussions of slutshaming, sexual assault, classism and racism
i've been thinking about how tai's and jackie's slutshaming of nat give insight into the complex influence of classism on their personal relationships and what this reveals about the social hierachy between the yellowjackets.
both tai and jackie use nat as a sort of punching bag to improve their social standing. tai tries to deflect nat's reasonable criticism about the situation with allie by insulting her, while jackie attempts to distract from her own fears and insecurities in the wilderness by going against nat. even though it's pretty unprovoked in both situations, they both choose to not only attack nat, but also bring slutshaming into it, which imo is directly tied to classism (more on this in a moment). i think it's interesting to see how the social hierachy in the team is influenced by classism and how this developes in the wilderness.
your class position can influence your sexual activity in many ways and i think you can see examples of this in nat. @softantlers has made a really good post about nat, poverty and gender a while ago that i think everbody should read. among other things they argue that the misogyny nat experiences often intersects with classism. for example both tai and jackie combine their slutshaming with somewhat classist insults. tai tells nat she "smells like a wino", a term that is specifically associated with homelessness (source) and jackie calls her a "burnout", which is associated with addiction and lazyness (source).
furthermore, nat's sexual experiences themselves might be influenced by her experience with poverty. for example, richer families are more likely to have the capacity to surveil their children's free time, including their sexual encounters. we see nat's dad get specifically mad, because her mom failed to keep an eye on her due to her alcoholism (something obviously not inherent, but connected to poverty). on the other hand, it seems logical that someone with "less to lose" regarding their social standing also cares less about their reputation and is more open to different sexual experiences.
it is also important to note that poor women and girls are far more vulnerable to sexual assault, since poverty increases the risk of getting caught up in dangerous situations and once in that situation, it's more difficult to get out due to lack of social/economic power (source). women in poverty are also less likely to receive help in abuse situations due to the belief that they can take it (more on this here). of course this is really simplified and generalized, but it seems to fit nat's experiences in some ways. while nat generally seems to enjoy sex, she also recounts having a negative (possibly non-consensual) experience with an older guy at a show and jackie hints at nat being mistreated by men. in short, a connection between nat's sexuality and her class status can definitely be assumed and this also shapes the way others see her.
tai and jackie definitely have a different class position than nat, but i'd argue that there's also a clear distinction between tai and jackie themselves. jackie is heavily implied to be upper class, while we don't really see hints at this position for tai. she's definitely well-off, but her living situation reads more like a stable middle class household to me. but of course, this is only speculation. i think the difference becomes more obvious when you look at the way jackie and tai are navigating their class status.
it's often shown that jackie grew up sheltered, making it difficult for her to adapt to living in the wilderness. i think this also goes hand in hand with a kind of classblindness. to me it seems that jackie wasn't really aware of her privileged situation until the crash. she never had to worry about her social standing, naturally having a strong influence on the team and all her needs met. before the crash, she seemed to have a good relationship with nat and i don't think jackie consciously looked down on her. this changes when jackie suddenly loses her influence in the wilderness. her attack on nat seems like an attempt to reinforce the previous social hierachy, clinging to her former privilege of "upper-class girl".
meanwhile, tai seems to be aware of the insecurity of her social status. she's puts in hard (and if necessary ugly) work for her goals and things aren't just given to her the way they are to jackie - even though tai is a better player than jackie, she isn't made captain etc.
due to her sexuality tai's social position is unstable and her attempts to keep it secret mean that she constantly has to watch her words and actions. even though she brushes it off as "just not being interested in the drama" when talking to van, it's clear that she's very aware of the social risks of "being found out" which is also acknowledged by coach ben in the trial and obviously van in the adult timeline.
her Blackness also forces tai to constantly navigate different forms of respectability politics. i'm white so i obviously don't have the best understanding of this, if you're Black and have another/better understanding of this please chime in!! generally, i think these rules she has to follow are pretty obvious in the adult timeline, especially in s1ep4 when she's at that rich people event talking to diane rafelson.
but even in the teen timeline tai often takes on a mediating role (e.g. between jackie & nat, shauna & lottie etc... she pretty much intervenes in every conflict) and i think she constantly feels the need to be in control of the group and herself, only allowing some parts of herself to show.
in this interview (starting 2:15) the interviewer asks jasmin if other tai could be an allegory for codeswitching with "regular" tai being the side of her that has to adhere to respectability politics and other tai representing her repressed Black rage, which i think is a really intriguing way to see other tai. and in this interview (starting 17:20) jasmin says that she believes tai would have pretended to eat jackie if other tai hadn't taken over, so that she wouldn't be ostracized by the group.
tldr, i think taissa is very aware of her instable and vulnerable position in the group and puts in a lot of effort to be accepted by the people around her.
and in that sense i think tai's slutshaming behaviour can not only be read as a deflection from her own mistakes, but also shows tai's deeper understanding of the social hierachy. since she knows her own position is unsteady, she goes against someone whose position is even less secure. her choice to use nat's sexual experience against her is interesting since she has to know that her own sexuality isn't really more socially accepted. moreover, she's also kind of doing the same things she shames nat for doing (smoking and sex), just in private. i wonder if tai's issue with nat partially comes from a bitterness that nat is able to these things so openly, while she can't really afford to do that.
tai's conflict with nat pretty much stops in the wilderness. this obviously has to do with a lot of factors, mainly them having bigger problems (and imo tai has pretty reasonable priorities). but i also think the fact that tai is granted more freedoms regarding her sexuality allows her to be more forgiving towards nat.
meanwhile jackie's conflict with nat starts in the wilderness. jackie can't adapt to the new situation leading to her losing her influence on the group. this prompts her to reflect her position more and i'd argue that she developes some kind of class consciousness. to her, privileges that she didn't have to abuse before, now seem like the only power she has left.
“callie shipman” “callie taylor” “callie taylor-shipman” well no actually because the tragedy of callie sadecki is that she is not a taylor, and she is not a shipman, and she will never be either. she will always live in the shadow of a girl she never met and a baby she never knew, she will always be a reminder to her mother of the things she lost and the mistakes she made and the life she’ll never get to have.
her name is callie sadecki. because no matter how hard she tries, she will never be anything more to shauna than the unwanted child of a man she never loved.
Perhaps the wilderness in Yellowjackets is not just a symbol of death. Perhaps it is also—in its own way—freedom.
In the wilderness, Lottie didn’t have to hide her visions for fear of being called crazy. She was exalted as a leader and a prophet. But when she returned, they called her crazy and locked her up.
In the wilderness, Misty didn’t have to be ashamed of her intensity and eccentricity. She was helpful, she was needed, she was important. But when she returned, they called her a freak and exiled her once again.
In the wilderness, Tai didn’t have to pretend to be something she’s not. Her other self was not a weakness but a strength, it gave her power, and kept her alive. But when she returned she had to suppress her urges and hide her other self, or lose everything.
In the wilderness, Shauna didn’t have to be small, and hide the fire inside her. She was angry, and violent, and powerful. But when she returned, she was forced back into a supporting role, forced to contain her darkness and her drive in order to fit a role she never wanted to play.
In the wilderness, Travis didn’t have to put on an act to fit the societal expectations of masculinity. He was feminine, and emotional, and soft—not the man of the group, but just another Yellowjacket in the hive. But when he returned, he was forced back into the cage—back into the closet—isolated, hardened, closed off and separated from the girls once more.
In the wilderness, Natalie didn’t have to feel guilty for surviving. She was the hunter, the provider, and the gun in her hands made her a savior, and a leader, not a killer. But when she returned, she was a killer once again, haunted by guilt, and outcast by society for the things she did to stay alive.
The wilderness gave them the freedom to be their truest and most authentic selves, but the cost was the blood spilled. The cost was their old selves. The cost was a place in the world upon their return.
Maybe the wilderness did not destroy them; it simply changed them into something new, something irrevocably different, something that would never—could never—fit back inside the narrow box of their old lives, and because they could no longer fit, society called them broken.
The wilderness freed them, but it never let them go. Because once you’ve tasted flesh and blood, once you’ve stared death in the face and overcame, once you’ve been to the very brink and seen the true depth of your own capacity for violence, once all the former markers of morality and success have become meaningless, in a world where survival at all costs is the only law, how can you ever go back to a world ruled by pointless, hollow, conventions? Once you’ve shed every remnant of your humanity, once you’ve run with the wolves, and howled at the moon, and become one with the ancient wild gods, how can you ever be a human again? Once you’ve had a taste of complete freedom, how can you ever be satisfied with a fake, insignificant, half-life, made up entirely of half-truths and haunting?
