I am Attracted to Androgynous Men
And to women who can kick my ass
Every one of the many times I watched Labyrinth while growing up, I was always irresistibly drawn to and fascinated by the Goblin King, Jareth, as portrayed by David Bowie. I found him beautiful and alluring, and I could easily understand why Sarah was so enticed.
Jareth is beautiful, otherworldly, seductive, and very androgynous. Of course, he is also dangerous, manipulative, and probably abusive. I cheered when Sarah defeated him.
When Titanic was released, I wasn’t one of the crazy fans who watched it multiple times in the theatre (though I did do that with the LotR movies). However, I became low-key obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Young Leo as Jack Dawson in Titanic was beautiful, fun, and oddly androgynous. There have even been fan analyses of the movie exploring the “what if” of a female or trans masc Jack. I didn’t know of this back then, and I even would have denied having a crush on Leo, thinking myself too mature and sophisticated for anything so silly as celebrity crushes.
Speaking of Lord of the Rings, I found many characters in those movies to be compelling. I pretended my favourite was Éomer but I truly loved his sister Éowyn and the elf-prince Legolas the most.
While slender, long-haired Legolas fits the same mold as Jareth and Jack, Éowyn is also androgynous in her own way. She dresses as a man and fools everyone until she removes her helmet and declares herself — just before killing the evil witch king.
Did I want to be her or did I want to be with her? I don’t know.
Today, I am drawn to Barry Allen on The Flash, Sara Lance on Legends of Tomorrow, Peggy Carter in the MCU, and Magnus Bane on Shadowhunters. Each of these characters has an androgyny to them: Barry and Magnus are delicate-looking men and Sara and Peggy are strong women who can and will kick your ass.
It seems I have a type.
Esther learned to read when she was four years old, and began writing shortly thereafter. She is a queer Christian poet, crafting with words to create art and music.