In the wake of the Orlando massacre, most things are horrible but not every single thing. Mara Wilson, child actor, writer of a new memoir and Twitter genius, has opened up about her sexuality with some vague, and then less vague Tweets. The kicker:
.@__SonjaLouise__ I said I *used* to identify as mostly straight. I’ve embraced the Bi/Queer label lately
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) June 14, 2016
Us too, Mara. Us too.
Mara tweeted her support of the LGBT community and mentioned how welcome she felt at a gay club when she was an 18-year-old straight girl — even then, she said, it felt like home.
She calls herself a 2 on the Kinsey Scale, adding:
I know a lot of people don’t like the Kinsey scale, and that is fine by me. But I’m pragmatic at heart and find comfort in numbers.
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) June 13, 2016
So there we have it. Mara Wilson, who brought my favorite witch Matilda to the big screen and who has always seemed really queer on Twitter, is family. She stepped into a moment of community panic, grief and outrage and told the world that she is one of us.
She also said that she’ll keep being private about her relationships, which matters not at all to me — BI PEOPLE ARE BI NO MATTER WHO WE’RE DATING. Sorry, was I yelling? Bisexual people are bisexual regardless of the gender(s) of our partner(s), and if Mara’s coming out helps even one more Kinsey 2 realize they have the right to support and love among other queers, then that is the rich fruit borne of a celebrity making herself visible.
In the aftermath of the Pulse shooting, a hate crime that targeted Latinx and Black queer and trans people, it is more important than ever that we see each other and claim each other and protect each other. Mara’s coming out as Bi/Queer in this moment feels like a sliver of light in an impossibly dark week, and I’m left with only one question: was Miss Honey her root, like she was mine?
UPDATE: Mara Wilson DM’d me to say that although Embeth Davidtz, who played Miss Honey, is beautiful, it was actually another actress she worked with briefly who was her formative crush. Life is a highway, y’all.
MISS HONEY
TBH, Mara Wilson is probs the only reason I graduated from High School, I thought that Matilda’s whole reading outside your grade level and Meaningful Queer Eye contact was just how you were supposed to act with teachers, which it turns out makes them teach you *very* well.
comment award!
My god. This just made me realize that Miss Honey was totally my root. Omg.
My childhood fixation on this movie makes so much sense now!
Am I the only one who always has to look up the Kinsey scale because I don’t remember what’s 1 and what’s 6? :-)
I just had to google it, you’re not alone! And I am definitely proud to have her onboard as “more than incidentally homosexual”.
You aren’t the only one that had to look it up again. I kinda wish there was an urban dictionary version (super-straight to meh to super-gay).
I had to first grapple with guilt for wanting to know, because why should it matter *how* queer she is. But then I googled.
It’s really 0 to 6. But being in the middle makes things easy. You don’t have to remember which direction it goes, because half is half.
I will always remember because Emma Stone used the phrase Kinsey Six gay.
I told my parents I was bi whilst we were watching the rolling news coverage, I guess because I needed them to understand why I was so upset. (They were fine about it, and I knew they would be).
Yay for awesome parents!!! *fistbump*
All the Miss Honey feels!!!
The start of a decades worth of teacher crushes.
Still my fav book, it gave me hope as a nerdy 8 year old that maybe what made me different made me special … and not just a freak.
Woohoo, let’s hear it for the 2s!
Yay for solidarity! And yay for bisexual representation! This is a little bit of sunshine in an otherwise dreary week. <3
Aaagh, Miss Honey was 100% my first crush ever too!
Matilda has been/will always be my favorite movie. I’m so happy to see that I was’t the only one with Miss Honey as their root.
Not to be a downer, but this feels weirdly exploitative or at least uncomfortable.
that she came out now or that we’re talking about it here?
I appreciate the timing, personally. A friend was also moved to publicly come out yesterday. For me, it’s encouraging to see people refuse to be invisible right now (though I understand that for many of us, there are any number of reasons why they can’t take that step now and should feel no shame at being closeted while they need to be).
I think a lot of queer people have been moved to come out in the past few days. Mara also speaks personally quite often on her twitter feed, so this is not out of character. I’m glad she feels comfortable standing up and standing with her community.
I am deeply jealous she messaged you directly. Also really pleased that I have such super cool friends.
So here’s a lil story about 6-year-old baby queer me. Actually though Mara Wilson was my first crush when I was 6 when Matilda the movie came out. Like Miss Honey was great but I really just wanted to hang out with Matilda and read and move things with our minds together and I thought she was cute– to the point of writing it in my American Girl Pages and Pockets journal on my list of favorite actresses. When my friends came to sleep over and I was reading this journal to them I came to the list and ALL OF A SUDDEN felt SO WEIRD about it because she was maybe a little bit of a unconventional choice to be my FAVE because she was only in one movieso I got WEIRD and crossed it out and wouldn’t let them see because obviously my friends were gonna ask me WHY and I couldn’t explain why I liked her THAT much.
Actually that is my root though.
I love this story.
I also just want to point out you were writing Linds/Matlida fan fiction before Tumblr even existed!
Dear Mara,
So there’s this mountain in California where once a year queers from all over the Kinsey scale come to be with family and tell our stories. Its called A-Camp and i reckon would be just your style. See you next year maybe?
Lots of love
One you your many gay cousins.
One of us! One of us! One of us!
MARA WILSON DM’ed you!!! Audrey this is sincerely everything. Thanks to the baby queer Jesus for you.
Of course the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home is bisexual
SHE’S LITERALLY INVISIBLE
(Not now she ain’t, though! Welcome aboard, Mara! :3)
Thanks for posting this! I was trying to figure out why I knew her name, and it definitely wasn’t Matilda!
Comment award
MARA WILSON <3 <3 <3
thank you. I needed this. I came here hoping to find this. Anything to ease my nerves which are extremely queer which are rarely ever voiced in a meaningful way. i have always been so afraid of the losing a friend or having the validity of who I am dismissed from all sides. But here I am wishing I could embrace all of you. Full of gratitude for your virtual embraces. Your visibility has given me strength and a place to mourn.
PS. I do not even want you to publish my comment. Don’t. Take it as a message to the mods expressing at length and in full how alienating some of the increasingly disrespectful treatment of bisexuals really is.
I will right away take hold of your rss as I can’t in finding
your e-mail subscription hyperlink or newsletter service.
Do you’ve any? Kindly allow me know in order that I may subscribe.
Thanks.