It is hilarious and weird that short, plump, “old maid” Lizzie Borden has been eroticized and fetishized in American culture. I think she’d probably get a kick out of it. She did have a sharp tongue, apparently and was funny. As a Lizzie Borden obsessive, I have always wanted to see someone tell the real story, the whole story, from minute to minute of what could have happened. So far, no one has done it. This looks as sensationalized as the Ed Gein story. In that case, poor, sad, short and deranged Ed Gein was turned into a hot sex symbol. I mean, I guess the idea is to get people to watch and no one is going to watch if they aren’t made into something sensational.
Here, we have yet again the theory that the Irish maid that Lizzie and her sister called “Maggie,” whose real name was Bridget (they called all the maids “Maggie”), was Lizzie’s lover. If you wanted to offend everyone you could call this The Lezzie Borden Story. She probably was a lesbian but she was not interested in Bridget and, in fact, wasn’t very nice to her. Bridget and Abbie (the stepmother) were close and Bridget was scared of Lizzie and fled. She might know that Lizzie did it and was bribed to leave town and never say a word. But it’s a stretch to have seen them as lovers. A big stretch. But Ryan Murphy is gonna Ryan Murphy. He has mastered the genre of True Crime and Soft Core Porn.
But the true story of Lizzie Borden is fascinating on its own, but you’d have to also be interested in history to be interested in it, I guess. I will still watch this thing. You bet I will. And though the Nepo Baby revolution is getting a little ridiculous, Ella Beatty does a face the camera loves.
