Yukio Mishima Learns Joan of Arc Was a Woman

children's book: *has a picture of Joan of Arc* yukio mishima as a literal 4-year-old: “Does little master know this picture’s story?” “No, I don’t.” “This looks like a man, but it’s a woman. Honestly. Her name was Joan of Arc. The story is that she went to war wearing a man’s clothes and served her coun- try.” “A woman . . . ?” I felt as though I had been knocked flat. The person I had thought a he was a she. If this beautiful knight was a woman and not a man, what was there left? (Even today I feel a repugnance, deep rooted and hard to ex- plain, toward women in male attire.) This was the first “revenge by reality” that I had met in life, and it seemed a cruel one, particularly upon the sweet fan- tasies I had cherished concerning his death. From that day on I turned my back on that picture book. I would never so much as take it in my hands again. Years later I was to discover a glorification of the death of a beauti- ful knight in a verse by Oscar Wilde: YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT A CLUMSY SOLDIER FEMBOY TWINK? I can't believe I was in love with a chick

Мем сопоставляет отрывок из детской книги о Жанне д’Арк с реакцией Юкио Мисимы в четыре года и сценой из «Мулан». Шутка основана на том, что ребёнок воспринимает Жанну как прекрасного мужчину-воина, а затем с ужасом узнаёт, что она женщина; это реакция на неожиданное разрушение романтической или гендерной фантазии. EN: The meme juxtaposes an excerpt from a children’s book about Joan of Arc with Yukio Mishima’s reaction at age four and a scene from Mulan. The joke is that the child imagines Joan as a beautiful male warrior, then reacts with horror upon learning that she is a woman, making it a reaction to an unexpected collapse of a romantic or gendered fantasy.

• @eternalclassic / 54341 2024-07-18