Jake LaMotta/Robert DeNiro
The author identifies Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, Raging Bull, as one of the truest and most honest representations of male masculinity ever put on screen. The identification of masculinity as having a built-in connection not to masochism rather than sadism is analyzed through the dual perspective LaMotta’s fights against Sugar Ray Robinson having connective tissue to Robert DeNiro’s acting going up against Marlon Brando since the film itself makes this connect explicit itself. Character and actor thus become inseparable as representations of male masculinity being forever identified with the conflict and battles in which he can take the beating and still stand on his feet is declared the manly.
Radclyffe Hall
This is the name that the author of the novel The Well of Loneliness went by but who was born Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall. That work is described by the author as a “novel of inversion” and along with her personal letters detailing her own personal experiences with gender conventions and sexuality has made her an iconic figure in the study of the subject. She often presented a mannish appearance and was given to calling herself John.
Anne Lister
Over the course of her life, Lister wrote a diary which eventually exceeded five million words. These diaries were recorded between 1806 and only ended with her death in 1840. Due to the content of much of the journals, she has been conferred with the unofficial title of “first modern lesbian.” In 2019 her fame increased substantially as a result of popular BBC series based on her life titled Gentleman Jack.
Frankie Addams/Julie Harris
Frankie Addams is the protagonist of Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding who was portrayed by actress Julie Harris in the original 1953 film adaptation. Frankie is singled out by the author as the definitive iconic figure of the “Tomboy” in American pop culture aided and abetted to significant extent by Harris’ universally acclaimed Oscar-nominated performance.
