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Lanna tends to help Morvern to get changed, always
“biting her lip,” apparently an indication of scarcely
concealed lust. When Morvern puts on her supermarket
uniform, Lanna, “smoothed the nylon onto me with her
palms.” Lanna also fastens Morvern’s suspenders before
a night out, then later on unrolls Morvern’s stockings to
reveal her glittery knee to the men in the pub. “Everyone
was watching,” and some men whistle at her exposed
thigh. When they finally end up at a party, they decide,
somewhat bizarrely, to have a shower together, “as per
usual … to save time.” This (naturally) allows plenty of
opportunity for soaping each other and so on. It is hardly
a surprise when at the end of the night a game of strip
poker turns into a menage à quatre. At first Morvern just
watches, but soon she joins in as well, “I let them do
anything to me and tried to make each as satisfied as I
could.” Although Morvern Callar is unusual and progressive
(for Scottish fiction) in that it has a first person
female narrator yet is written by a man, Warner goes
even further with The Sopranos; moving from subtext
to actually encompassing homosexuality within the plot.
Although any action between Morvern and Lanna is
heavily veiled, Fionnula and Kay first kiss in full view
of everyone in the Mantrap, in “clear and vivid” light.
Kylah gives Fionnula a chance to pretend nothing has
happened, “when yur wasted enough , you’ll snog,
that’s the way it goes, I’ve near snogged ma brother
out of boredom when ah’ve been pissed enough,” the
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implication being that a same sex kiss is along the same
lines as an incestuous kiss. “If Fionnula and Kay had
been willin to leave it at that, they might of had the
whole thing forgot, an put down to another drunken
night,” but it isn’t just another drunken night, it is a huge
stepping stone on Fionnula’s path to self-discovery.
She decides, “If You’re gonna burn your bridges burn
them,” and goes home with Kay.
Fionnula’s best friend Manda is the only one who
reacts badly to the situation, “Fionnula, ya can’t go
around doin that, people’ll think you were lezzie,” also
trying to deal with the information about Catriona, “ma
oh-so-fantastic sister is a pervy lesbian.” The next day,
Orla suggests that Manda is, “just jealous” and even
says to Fionnula, “telling you, she would go for it with
you now.” Then the other sopranos turn up and Fionnula’s
news is soon lost amid all the other things that
have happened; Orla losing her virginity and getting ill
again, Manda and the bouncer, the reprieve on being
expelled. Even Manda now behaves as though nothing
untoward has happened; her initial homophobia appears
to have been conquered.
So, in these examples of ‘satanic kailyard’ we
have seen a gay man with a female name and a
violent streak, a male central character with lots
of gay friends, another who has had a homosexual
experience, a female main character coming out and
several women with blurred sexual identities. These
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