GENDERFLIPPED OTHELLOS: MY FIC VS. THE OFFICIAL NOVEL

 https://www.google.com/search?q=debra+chapoton+othello+retelling&rlz=1C1ONGR_esES968ES968&oq=debra+chapoton+othello+retelling&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l2.11598j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Now on to compare and contrast To Die Upon a Kiss with my own unofficial fanfic/playlist retelling, Daily Beauty...

Overview of my own genderflipped Othello postmodern AU.

AURÈLE (Othello)

Age: 28

Body Type: T (Physically fit, war orphan and child soldier)

Ethnic Group: Yoruba

Star Sign: Scorpio

Tutelar Deity: Ares (Ogun)

Siblings: None

Hair colour: raven, tips dyed crimson

Eye colour: black

Skin colour: latte or milk chocolate

Desmond & Cathy (Ruslana is below)

DESMOND (Desdemona)

Age: 25

Body Type: I 

Ethnic Group: Celtic

Star Sign: Libra

Tutelar Deity: Hephaestus

Siblings: None

Hair colour: ash blond

Eye colour: green

Skin colour: white rosy

Childhood Friends with:

 

CATHERINE "CATHY" (Cassio)

Age: 25

Body Type: 8 (moderately fit nerd/Speculative Fiction Geek)

Ethnic Group: Celtic

Star Sign: Aquarius

Tutelar Deity: Hera

Siblings: None

Hair colour: strawberry/Titian blond

Eye colour: honey

Skin colour: white with freckles

Yara (Iara), Emílio, & Branca - the de Souza siblings (orphans after a tram accident/terrorist attack)

EMÍLIO (Emilia)

Age: 29

Body Type: T 

Ethnic Group: Mixed

Star Sign: Virgo

Tutelar Deity: Demeter (Oshun)

Siblings: Yara and Branca (eldest brother)

Hair colour: raven

Eye colour: black

Skin colour: latte macchiato

YARA/IARA (Iago)

Age: 25

Body Type: I

Ethnic Group: Mixed

Star Sign: Gemini

Tutelar Deity: Apollo (Eshu)

Siblings: Emílio and Branca (middle sister)

Hair colour: raven, tips dyed platinum

Eye colour: black

Skin colour: latte macchiato

BRANCA (Bianca)

Age: 18

Body Type: 8 (naturally attractive, without any bodily enhancements)

Ethnic Group: Mixed

Star Sign: Leo

Tutelar Deity: Zeus (Shango)

Siblings: Emílio and Yara (youngest sister)

Hair colour: raven, tips dyed rainbow

Eye colour: black

Skin colour: latte macchiato

RUSLANA (Roderigo)

Age: 20

Body Type: 0/8 (spoiled/fit)

Ethnic Group: Slavic

Star Sign: Cancer

Tutelar Deity: Hermes 

Siblings: None

Hair colour: wheat blond, tips dyed pink

Eye colour: icy blue

Skin colour: rosy

Sensei and the setting - inspiration from my all-female self-defense classes

The main setting is an all-female self-defense class in a coastal urban area inspired by Valencia, which serves as the home of the whole cast.

The themes of body image and coming out in my retelling - there's nothing wrong with looking or loving this way; in fact these themes outweigh race in my fic.  This is related to "Beauty-and-the-Beast" type of tales (even those where the Beast is female and the Beau is male, or queer retellings), and the issue of outer vs. inner beauty - see below. The relationship can only blossom if both partners put inner before outer beauty and love one another warts and all (after all, we decorate evergreen conifers, not rosebushes, for Christmas!); inner beauty is the "daily beauty" in my title and Cathy & Branca bond over British comedy (Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Monty Python...); as Desmond & Aurèle do over absent parents...

Outer Beauty vs. Inner Beauty (ie intelligence, wit, wisdom, kindness, sense of humour... inner beauty is the "daily beauty" in my title!). Most versions of Beauty and the Beast have, as counterpoint to the princely Beast, a brother-in-law or a suitor (if she is an only child, like Gaston in the animated musical) who is physically attractive yet dimwitted and shallow and in love with himself. Long story short a narcissist. //// Both Ruslana and Aurèle fear that they fit this character stereotype and are not acknowlegded for their depths (both suffer trauma because Aurèle was a child soldier in a revolution; Ruslana is a mafia clan heiress)...

Ruslana is manipulated by Yara because of Ruslana's insecurities about her own body image and the fact that she sees herself as a whale or hippo and that she feels Desmond will not like her and will prefer a girl who is more fit (even if darker like Aurèle)... in the end it proves her downfall  --- MORE ON RUSLANA AND HER POISONING SHOVED DOWN THE BRIDGE LATER ON!!!!

In the meantime Cathy comes out with Branca and accepts herself as what she is, instead of what her mum and dad want her to be burning calories and striving to become... partly 'cause her new ladylove accepts her warts and all!!! and Cathy is all she has left with Emílio hospitalised in the ER and Yara on the lam... so Daily Beauty was all about Cathy's and Branca's daily beauty and not anyone else's... awwwww awwwww awwwww awwww awwww awwwww awwww caught in a queer romance (anyone else?)...

OBSERVE THE MASTER OF THE STRINGS!!! Yara as Spider in the (WW)Web and the weight of social media is real in making both Aurèle and (nearly) Branca embrace the scandal of Desmond and Cathy being in allegedly a carnal relationship... in our days, the element of the social network, added to the gris-gris (charm which replaces the handkerchief in this version), was something that did not exist in the seventeenth century and that adds more complexity to this Othello retelling.  If everyone in an online peer group is convinced from photos uploaded on social media that Desmond and Cathy are together, what a Pandora's Box is opened for everyone (even the childhood friends and alleged "lovers" question their relationship at one point).... YARA is a master user of social media, with the rest of the cast as "insects" on her WWWeb.