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Viral Cordelia Poster Proves We Want the Victorian Romance With Pegging That We Thought We Were Getting

Johnny Flynn and Antonia Campbell-Hughes in Cordelia (2019)

Yesterday, the poster for the movie Cordelia hit the internet, and on a brief glance, the coloring and pose made people think we were in for an erotic period drama, but the truth is slightly disappointing.

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Once you increase the saturation, you realize that this is modern-day attire, and once people got hold of the trailer, we realized that Cordelia has Antonia Campbell Hughes playing a woman named Cordelia who is struggling with fear and paranoia. She’s worried she’s being stalked and takes some refuge in her neighbor, Frank—played by Mr. Knightly himself, Johnny Flynn—who ends up being a slightly creepy neighbor.

So … not an erotic period drama with some pegging.

The trailer for Cordelia is also fine. I do love a horror thriller, but what this made all of us realize is that we really want some femdom period dramas.

Period dramas have slowly become the realm of book adaptations and white lesbian longing movies, which is fine but takes limited advantage of a setting that makes up a huge portion of the romance genre. Romances are not as popular as they once were, and the genre has been getting a second life in the form of Netflix shows and movies, but we miss a romcom.

Especially because there are now so many LGBTQ stories in romance. While there is still plenty of longing, they also come with the pre-established happily ever after that romances are known for, which is reassuring. We don’t need every queer movie be filled with angst. It can be fun and sexy and be set in other time periods because gay people have always existed. True story.

Basically, while this thriller horror movie looks good, the hype around what we thought the poster was just made for a slightly more interesting film. We need romance to look as interesting, progressive, and erotic as it can now. While I was reading Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon, one of the things I loved about it was that yes, it was very spicy (pegging and fisting and eating, oh my), but it also treated those things in a fun, fully consensual, and engaging way.

After the Fifty Shades of Grey movies totally consumed the genre, they should have been a way to make room for good, non-abusive erotic dramas, but instead, we have been dealing with the same old stuff over and over again.

So, producers out there, take note: The people have made their mighty needs very clear, and you have a lot of talented writers all over the romance genre who you can pay good money to bring their work to life—including women of color, because, another fun fact: We did exist and live gay lives before the 1960s.

(via The Daily Dot, image: StudioPOW, Twickenham Studios)

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Princess Weekes
Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.

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