Disney+'s Renegade Nell utilizes a stifling time period to tell both explicit and implicit queer stories in delightful fashion.
, Polly Honeycombe quickly and painlessly discovers that she is, in fact, gayer than originally planned. The episode features fantasy sequences and slow-motion shots that feel straight out of a romance novel, turning the titular Nell into the white-shirted, rose-throwing heartthrob of both Polly and the audience’s dreams.
Her supernatural ability to smash through societal expectations and standards mirrors the ways in which queerness, but most particularly, challenges our patriarchal society, and acts as the ultimate enemy to toxic masculinity and a man-favored world. The toffs—namely the Earl of Poynton and his cohort of would-be usurpers—see Nell as the ultimate threat: a woman who has both the power and the confidence to make tangible changes within England, all without the help of a man.
Nell’s implicit lesbianism doesn’t just stem from the coded magic she wields, but also from her relationship with gender as shown throughout the series. While she almost always wears pants, she also dons dresses on multiple occasions, with the same nonchalant attitude that she throws on a fake mustache or a periwig. She’s constantly referred to as both “she” and “he,” and never bats an eye at the fluidity with which she’s able to wield and command both gender and performance.
And even outside of Nell, the series continually showcases queer experiences and themes, whether implicitly or explicitly. Polly barely blinks when Nell’s sister George corrects her mooning over this mysterious highwayman ; Sofia’s shares similar beats with Nell’s more overt lesbian-coding, only with a stronger sense of repression and denial ; nearly every main character in this series cross-dresses at least once; and the very existence of both Eularia and her fashionable, non-binary toady Valerian bring camp excellence to the upper echelon of this society.
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