It's such a tiny detail, but as an intersex person, your decision to say "all sexes" rather than "both sexes" was a subtle but painfully rare nod to my existence, and I am very grateful for that. Overall, another great instance of Summer of Shakespeare, and a delightful introductory exploration of queer theory and Shakespeare. Thank you very much!!

Kyle: "You're hot. Sorry about the penis." That needs to be a clip/reply video by itself.

(7:29-8:40) Your discussion of Twelfth Night reminded me of this production I saw back in high school, performed by a “vaudevillian Shakespeare” company. The cast was made up of five actors - three men and two women - and each member portrayed at least two characters, signified by changing their hat or wig. So the actress playing Viola/Cesario also played her twin. As Viola, she wore a tutu over pants and suspenders; when she was Cesario, she wore a newsboy cap, and as Sebastian she wore a bowler. The play ended with her throwing away both hats, Orsino and Olivia coming up on either side of her to kiss her cheeks, and three of them left the stage together linking arms. It was adorable!

57 academics just punched the air.

I never knew how much I wanted to have you two collab. This will be informative and gay, my favourite combination.

Surprised y’all didn’t bring up Antonio and Sebastian from Twelfth Night...my teacher (who’s a Shakespearean scholar) said he believes they were bangin’

I was lucky enough to see Emma Rice's A Midsummer Night's Dream, at Shakespeare's Globe last year, Helena had been made into Helenus to create a very effective coming out story for Demetrius. Also, you might be interested to know that in Peter Ackroyd's Queer City, he says Elizabethan theatres where well known pickup spots for gay sex.

“I’m happy to say that I’m-“ Wait wait wait.... was Kyle about to come out as bi before Rantasmo cut him off???

According to the OED, the earliest known use of 'fairy' meaning homosexual is from 1895. So it seems you're right. From American Journal of Psychology: "This coincides with what is known of the peculiar societies of inverts. Coffee-clatches, where the members dress themselves with aprons, etc., and knit, gossip and crotchet; balls, where men adopt the ladies' evening dress, are well known in Europe. ‘The Fairies’ of New York are said to be a similar secret organization." www.jstor.org/stable/1411581?seq=64

I WAS THE ONE WHO REQUESTED THIS ON TWITTER :D:D!! I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!

Back in high school, I drafted a play called "Romeo and Julio". Romeo discovering his bisexuality with his new love, Julio. The families get along just fine; they just can't handle their kids' sexuality.

Anyone else watching this after Kyle came out as bi?

And just to add fuel to the fire, let's not forget the royalty for whom the plays were written. A snide little Latin saying from Shakespeare's lifetime translates to "Elizabeth was our king; now James is our queen."

Good timing, we just legalized same sex marriage in Germany. Greetings 🤗

An absolutely wonderful video to end Pride Month on! And you uploaded this on the day we FINALLY got marriage equality in Germany! :D ❤ 🏳️‍🌈 Double perfect timing, good sir!

I love Twelfth Night and have no issue with Orsino and Viola ending up together but I've always thought Olivia's cop out romance with some dude she technically doesn't care about was such an insult to a character who really wasn't that much of an idiot that all she cared about was looks. If anything Olivia should have got to be independent.

I'm currently in a Shakespeare class and I made the case that Hotspur was like Frederick the Great; genius military leader but gay. When I was reading the scene between him and his wife I could see him blocking her with pieces of furniture and grudgingly agreeing to perform his dynastic duty.

This is why Shakespeare is so awesome. I've seen Shakespeare adaptations encompassing all sorts of people, places, traditions, themes, situations (as Kyle's Shakespeare Months have so often shown.) It seems like Shakespeare can literally be for anyone. The plots are the same, but the context can be changed to resonate with any audience.

When two of my favourite KZfaq channels combine... I am Captain Planet? Look, forget that. Rantasmo and Kyle have done a video together. Today is a good day.

8:44 Also, Ganymede is LITERALLY the most queer-coded name possible (well, except Sappho, I guess), given its mythological significance

"Has existed for always" has to be one of my new favourite phrases, Thank you Kyle and Rantasmo. Also great idea for a crossover. LOVE IT.

I just rewatched the beginning 5 times cuz everything needs more gay crossovers and Rantasmo’s 8D is the best thing on KZfaq. Please do more!

You're missing a huge example of genderfluidity in this video, I was honestly surprised it wasn't included: Richard II! Richard's "womanliness" is constantly contrasted with Henry Bolingbroke's "manliness." An interesting addition to this is how Richard is very openly affectionate to his wife, proving that as of the 1590s gender expression =/= sexuality as we see it stereotyped today. Then of course there are Richard's "favorites" and his spectacular breakdown during the deposition scene. I really wish there was a copy of Fiona Shaw's Richard II could watch...

omg my two favorite internet guys together...is this the real like or is this just fantassyyyyy

The BBC and the RSC did queer adaptations of The Merchant of Venice in which Antonio was most definitely gay and Bassanio was hella bi. They were great! 👌❤

Ah excellent and great timing - I saw Twelfth Night at Globe this week. It was played broad and silly with little room for overt examination of gender and sexuality but given the production is led by Le Gateau Chocolat as a bearded sequinned-kaftan-wearing Feste and the company is the habitually cross-casting Kneehigh, it observes that last point of implicitly playing with gender and sexuality. Great to see two of my fave video essayists team up, hope you do again!

Shakespeare just created every single storyline for soap operas.

I've been waiting for this for ages! Thank you so much for making this!

This was absolutely delightful! Thank you so much for this lovely collaboration :) A fantastic collaboration from two equally fantastic content creators

I have been waiting my entire life for this video!

This reminds me of when we went to see Twelfth Night at the Globe in London (featuring 70s punk music and a benevolent drag queen. ) My parents hated it, but I actually found it pretty entertaining

Did anyone see Twelfth Night at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theater? Because their version was absolutely amazing. They definitely ran with the queer interpretation, Violas face when she finds out they are twins is just perfect. Also the actors were flippin amazing ^_^

To say that Viola is, essentially, a trans man because she is a woman in disguise is... a complete misinterpretation of what being trans is and falls under ye olde "Transgender People Here To Trick The Cis Straights..." trope. Was a bit odd to see such out-dated notions in an otherwise rather informed vid. Other than that, great video!

i saw this video in my recommendations; one look at the title and i knew i had to watch it! freshly subscribed, thank you for your work!

So much to think about from two awesome reviewers. Thank you.

This was too short, I could have watched this for hours!

12 minutes of Rantasmo oh yes

I never even realized I wanted you two to colab, but here it s and I am sooooooo happy.

Quite interesting and fun to watch. Bonus points for clips from Were the World Mine. Well done!

A whole video on LGBT & Shakespeare and not one mention of Mercutio!

You know how long I wished for this video?!?! You deserve an award!!

Two of my favorite reviewers, I love it!

I really liked this video. Good job, you two.

I've always found the genderbending characters interesting because even normal women crossdressing was men playing women pretending to be men.

Interesting! When we talked about The Merchant of Venice in my Race in Shakespeare class, we did talk about how much Antonio goes on about how much he loves Basanio and would do anything for him. Also, how the men are closer to each other than to the women... and the same pattern holds true for the women. As for the sonnets... In the one you read, yeah, that does sound very much like it's not just platonic love. I mean, in a lot of early English poetry, you do see that, where love for your warlord and brothers in arms is considered the ultimate love. It's not sexual, but it is couched in terms that we consider romantic today. Tolkein used this in Lord of the Rings, which is why so many get the impression that Sam is gay for Frodo. But here... I mean, Shakespeare compares the youth to a woman, and a woman's attractiveness is emphacized. "By addition me of thee defeated," pretty obviously means, nature gave you something extra that makes it so I can't have you. "By adding one thing to my purpose nothing," is especially interesting, since... Not only was "thing" slang for penis, as it is today, "nothing" was slang for vagina. But then with "But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure/mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure," you see that, though he loves him like a woman, he's not going to have sex with him (nice double entendre on the word "prick" there). So it's a romantic but sexless love. I think it's pretty clear that this love is presented as abberant, because otherwise... If it were similar to the platonic love between men held up by early English poetry, why would Shakespeare be comparing the youth to a woman? Why would he be so preoccupied with genitalia?

I was just thinking yesterday that you should make a video about this and you did not disappoint

I couldn't click on this fast enough! When I played Rosalind back in my acting days I decided she was bi because, damn. ;)

oh rantasmo made another video...wait that's Kyle...and their doing Shakespeare...YES! Three of my favourite film review/study things in one

I have been watching my way thru Rantasmo's playlist this last week. Strange coincidence.

stay awsome you two!! can't wait for the next crossover!

I'm like a year late but "As You Like It" has some undertones with Orlando falling for Rosalinda as a woman and as Ganymede

I was so charmed by the opening of this video

Though weren't most of the female roles in the period played by teenage boys rather than men, Which would cast a bit of a different light. Another relevant detail which I'm sure plenty of scholars would have mentioned would have been the possible influence of Italian culture at the time which in certain city states like Florence homoerotic relationships were quite common if not an accepted norm socially if not legally and religiously.

Congrats to Germany

great video guys! i recently saw a performance of two gentlemen of verona, and based on some spiffy staging decisions, portrayed Silvia and Julia falling in love and running off to live together at the end. it was an all-around great performance, but that ending was nothing short of perfect!

Hell yeah! That's how you do a crossover!

Thanks now I don't have to research the internet hell for my essay! ; )

lookong at the title I'm going: "fabulous!"

Antony & Cleopatra deserves special mention, every aspect of the play is dominated by sexuality and gender. It's a really intense play, but also really good.

Accidentally great timing despite the planend one, Germany finally just passed an equal marriage act after having an unequal marriage option since 2007 due to consservative resistance in the secound chamber.

it feels weird to hear that club-ish music and see kyle on the screen. I associate you with more classic stuff, because that's what you usually have playing in the background XD

If it interests you, the TV Danish / BBC co-poduction "Hamlet at Elsinore" (1964) features one of the most overt homoromantic interpretations of Hamlet and Horatio's relationship I've ever seen, and it was intentional according to Horatio's Michael Cain.

Two of my favorite video pop-culture analysts doing a crossover? Oh hell yes! This was everything I hoped. :D

My two review fixations for the summer crossing over? with fucking impressive conversational editing????? dope

haven't watched kyle in a while. He's beard looks so awesome here

*ehem* YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Love this! :D

And now I have to look up all the movies used in this vid

YESSSSSS THANK YOU

I'm so happy you used the Were the World Mine soundtrack. Not a perfect film, but certainly underrated.

Crossover!

as usual, awesome

okay but the relationships in twelfth night are anything but completely straight. the central romance makes absolutely no sense if orsino isn't bi. he and cesario clearly have a lot of affection for each other anyway, and as soon as orsino finds out that “cesario” is actually female he immediately wants to marry her. but if this love story is supposed to be believable and developed, if orsino actually loves viola, he would have had to have loved cesario too. even if he wasn’t completely aware of this, the point still stands that as soon as his love for viola becomes socially acceptable, his first course of action is to start an actual relationship with her. also there's antonio who's not even coded he's just gay

Sonnet 20 is some serious call me by your name stuff

This is one of my favorite videos of both of you. And its very fitting that it came out today, since Germany (the country I live in) has just passed a law to open marriage to same sex couples. Happy Pride!

I want to like this more! I love it! And I'm going to watch it again and again

I think the most gay relationship in the canon is the one between Achilles and Patroclus in Troilus & Cressida. It is still ambiguous (as is any discussion of homosexuality in the canon), but their relationship is very affectionate.

...the minute I saw this on my subscription feed, I squealed lile when Rantasmo found out The Comeback was being revived AND JUST THE OPENING WITH KYLE'S GLORIOUS EYEBROWS AND JAMIE'S EXPECTANT SMILE FULFILLED MY EXPECTATIONS. IT'S A PRIDE MONTH MIRACLE.

Why do I find Rantasmo's oddly calico beard so hypnotizing? :Y

So, a male actor played the role of a woman whose twin brother is dead. That woman, impersonated by a male actor, impersonates a male servant who is courted by a male duke who believe her to be a man and end by marrying her as a woman. ooo-keyyy

CROSS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, it's awesome to see two of my Fav content creators working together.

Beautiful.

Rantasmo looks like Jay from Marble Hornets after being lost at sea for a few years.

Of course the really, REALLY gay character in Twelfth Night is Antonio. I mean, besides the obvious sexual puns ("I could not stay behind you: my desire, /More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth"), there's a lot to support the idea that he's in (possibly unrequited) love for Sebastian. "This youth that you see here/I snatch'd one half out of the jaws of death,/Relieved him with such sanctity of love,/And to his image, which methought did promise/Most venerable worth, did I devotion." I once saw a production that not only made the subtext between them incredibly obvious, but ended with the happy couples walking off and leaving Antonio (still imprisoned because of his past deeds) alone. It was so well-acted that my friends and I were actually SAD at the end.

Kyle, you have been the driving force behind my interest in Shakespeare after high school, considering my English teacher was shit at explaining his plays

I was waiting for "Were the World Mine" I really hope you do a full review of it sometime...either of you

Great video, both of you. :) Have you ever thought of reviewing Erleuchtung Garantiert?

You have one last Kurosawa directed Shakespeare film to cover. We await it, next year...

I MISS YOU BOTH!!!!

Also, can we talk about Ariel being neither male nor female?

YES!

It's my understanding that the play Troilus and Cressida even had canonically gay characters in Achilles and Patroclus. While historically, the legends are a bit iffy, Shakespeare's take seems more clear. And by clear I mean gay.

I know bedmates were a thing back then, at least among women, and that it was often platonic/familial (see: Beatrice & Hero in Much Ado), but it also seems like one of those things that uptight academics insist was TOTALLY 100% straight 200 years later. Does anyone have any information on whether it was ever acknowledged to be potentially romantic/sexual back then, or whether or not later academics tried to scrub the queerness out of it?

Of course this is the video that comes out after I watch The Goodbye Girl. Of course.

Just saw Glenda Jackson in King Lear. By no means am I a Shakespearean scholar, but I was thinking about this subject after seeing the production. Your analysis was very educational and entertaining.

Would love to see you two talk about RENT.

still want to see a between the lines about magick. please go all out too.

I'm surprised people try to see Shakespeare and his work as 100 per cent gay. Even as a little girl, and without knowing anything about gay people, I knew that Antonio had more than just friendly affection for Sebastian in Twelfth Night. And ever since then I've read Shakespeare with the lens thay while it wasn't DEFINITELY gay, the possibility was there

0:17 Whaaa, no video on Julius Caesar, and possibly the history of putting modern figures in Shakespeare plays? But right now those two things are pretty relevant and worth discussing

Awesome!!!! I love this. Will you being another crossover soon?