Biglaw, In-House Counsel

On Transphobic And Homophobic Authors

We criticize historical figures who held different beliefs than we do today. What should we do about writers?

By  
on

I went to a play recently, and it startled me.

A cisgender man — Orlando — and a cisgender woman — Rosalind — fall in love. Orlando is sent into the forest. Rosalind and a female companion also go into the forest. For protection in the forest, Rosalind disguises herself as a man.

This is where it gets transphobic. How could anyone think that it’s funny to have a woman dress as a man?

It gets worse: While Rosalind is dressed as a man, she encounters Orlando.  Disguised as a man, Rosalind teaches Orlando how to woo a woman. Orlando of course could have no feelings for Rosalind while she’s disguised as a man; that would be unnatural.

See what I mean?

Separately, another woman, taken in by Rosalind’s disguise, falls in love with Rosalind. This is thought to be funny, because a woman could fall in love only with a man. Surely, if the disguise were removed, the woman would never fall in love with a woman.

Despicable.

Sponsored

Near the end of the play, Rosalind makes several promises. Among those promises, Rosalind commits to marry the woman who has fallen in love with her, on one condition: “I will marry you if I ever marry a woman” — as though the thought of two women marrying each other were preposterous.

In the last scene, Rosalind has removed her disguise, and the various gender-conforming couples all wed.

This is supposedly a comedy, despite all of the heteronormative biases that the play displays.

Unbelievably, the author of this play is celebrated.

This must stop.

Sponsored

The author should be cancelled, and his plays banned.

I understand that the author was a creature of his times, and maybe things were a little different when this author was writing. But we’re tearing down statues of many people who were creatures of their times because the mere explanation that “they were creatures of their times” is insufficient. We must cancel the memory of all people who don’t reflect today’s values.

Let’s ban this playwright, too.

I don’t care if “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” This is a bridge too far.

We should no longer perform “As You Like It,” and we should ban William Shakespeare.

Maybe something good will come of this.  After all, “sweet are the uses of adversity.”

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

Topics

,