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This is because, unlike queer identity in real life, this tension serves as an accessory masquerading as authentic representation, easily erased with a simple change in plot. She draws attention to the origins of queerbaiting and how its meaning has evolved from homophobic harassment in American legal courts to “the practice of intentionally adding homoerotic tension between characters in order to lure in an extended audience without any intention of turning the homoerotic tension to overt homosexual action” (Nordin 4, 8), noting that what upsets audiences most about this practice is how it exploits and appropriates queer identity. As much of my essay will be devoted to the rhetoric used in framing different understandings of Marnie, Nordin’s text will provide me a linguistic foundation upon which I will build my analysis. In order to fully establish the parameters of my approach, I will be turning to Emma Nordin’s “From Queer Reading to Queerbaiting: The Battle over the Polysemic Text and the Power of Hermeneutics,” which aims to deconstruct the concept of queerbaiting and investigate, from a scholarly perspective, how arguments pertaining to the subject are developed, supported, and contested.
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While I would not go so far as to say that Marnie contains queerbaiting, I do see queer influences within its portrayal of Anna and Marnie’s relationship, regardless of the plot twist. Is there a reading of the film that allows room for conflict and contradiction, without necessarily negating either side of the debate? Perhaps this may be construed as an attempt to quell the naysayers, or to pacify those who were offended by the film, but, all in all, I only want to suggest that Marnie’s cinematic canon and concerns regarding queerbaiting can coexist. As someone who had also expected Marnie to be a queer romance, this academic investigation poses an opportunity for me to seek a more balanced perspective. Others, however, have refuted this allegation, insisting that the film’s plot negates the critics’ interpretations. Because of this, these same viewers have accused Studio Ghibli of “queerbaiting” (a term I will be defining in the following paragraph). According to audience reviews online, many were caught off-guard by this revelation, having thought that Anna and Marnie were a lesbian couple. Once there, Anna meets the mysterious Marnie, a tenant of the seemingly abandoned mansion across a nearby salt marsh.Īs the film’s events unfold, Anna comes to realize the true depth of their bond when she discovers that Marnie is a younger incarnation of her maternal grandmother. Studio Ghibli’s When Marnie Was There (henceforth referred to as Marnie) tells the story of Anna, whose foster mother sends her away to stay with distant relatives in Hokkaido after a severe asthma attack, in hopes that the change of pace, scenery, and air quality will coax Anna out of her shell.