Born and raised in Kansas (as the series endlessly tells us), Mary Ann is probably the most submissive and eager to please of the female castaways. Yet her occasional letting-go suggests that sometimes she longs for something more.
*Unquestionably, Mary Ann displays her desire for Gilligan most overtly. Most often, she sublimates this desire by offering Gilligan endless supplies of coconut-cream pies. However: In Episode 6, when the castaways are electing a president for the island, Mary Ann submits a write-in vote for Gilligan and encourages the efforts of two other castaways to do the same. In Episode 8, Mary Ann declares some tree sap to be "sweet--just like you, Gilligan." In Episode 47, Mary Ann encourages Gilligan to take charge of the island in the Skipper's absence. In Episodes 21 and 76, Mary Ann goes so far as to play Ginger's usual role as Gilligan's seductress. And Episode 25 is the most overt demonstration of her affection for Gilligan, when Mrs. Howell plays matchmaker between the two of them.
* Mary Ann is so eager to sublimate her own desires in order to please males, she deludes herself about men she knows back in Kansas. In Episode 54, she carries on about her boyfriend back home getting married--to the point that the male castaways act as potential suitors for her--until episode's end, where she admits that she thought the boyfriend was a "creep" all along. And in the later TV-movie Rescue from Gilligan's Island, Mary Ann nearly allows herself to be married to a completely different man who waited 15 years for her return!
*Apparently, Mary Ann isn't quite as chaste as she lets on. In Episode 21, when Ginger rejects a visiting surfer for being too fresh, Mary Ann is quite willing to accept "sloppy seconds." In Episode 48, she and Ginger are reduced to ersatz Beatlemania in the presence of the rock group The Mosquitoes. In Episode 53, when Mary Ann attempts a rescue message on a phone line that has washed ashore, she causes the female on the line to think that her boyfriend (also on the line) is having an affair with her. And in Episode 88, Mary Ann allows herself to be used as "bait" to capture an "ape man."
* Finally, Mary Ann displays latent lesbianism--mostly to Ginger (although in Episode 72, where the castaways perform their musical version of Hamlet, Mary Ann takes the usual male role of Laertes). The most overt evidence of Mary Ann's desire for Ginger is their sharing the same living quarters and their consistent sleepwear of only oversized men's shirts. Also: In Episode 14, Mary Ann allows Ginger to distract Gilligan so that she (M.A.) can extract some precious water for herself and Ginger; in Episode 95, Ginger does the same routine in order for her and Mary Ann to attach a jet-pack to Gilligan; and in Episode 79, Ginger attempts a similar seduction on the Professor so that Mary Ann can extract a supposedly valuable briefcase from the Professor's grasp. Finally, Episode 92 overtly expresses Mary Ann's desire to "do" Ginger, when a blow to Mary Ann's head causes her to assume Ginger's identity.
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