Being Human UK vs. US Part II: Now With Male Gaze!
Sometimes it's difficult for me to pinpoint exactly the way a director or a show is doing something visually that is bothering me. If they do a shot that starts at a woman's legs and pans up her body, it's pretty easy to pick that out and say "there be my problem with this shit!" But when things are more subtle than that it can be tough.
When I started watching US!Being Human I kept feeling... frustrated and angry with the way women were being treated by the directors. But I couldn't draw out one moment or one thing. It was everywhere and nowhere. But! Then in episode 4 and episode 5 they redid scenes that occurred in the original and comparing the two makes it REALLY REALLY obvious.
So I am picspamming you for comparison & contrast. Unlike when I normally picspam, I haven't altered the color levels or saturization, or done other tricks to make any of these prettier. The only photoshopping was brightening and it was done to all the images about the same.
OKAY! On with the show.
Okay. So the first one is the scene where Lauren/Rebecca makes Mitchell/Aidan a vampire porn film. She's been ordered by the vampire boss dude to lure him back in with the promise of sex and blood. So she films herself fucking and then killing a man.
Here's the original:
In UK!BH, vampires are invisible to cameras and mirrors. So we only see Lauren's bloody footprints at the end. The whole focus is on the male body of her victim. His vulnerability. His nudity. His victimization.
Here's what the US version did:
Male gazed up a fuck ton, right? The focus is almost entirely on Rebecca's body. She is the object of the gaze. Her victim is Sir Barely Appearing in this picture. Certainly his vulnerability and victimhood is not foregrounded. Her sexiness is instead. And the US!BH team actually changed the rules of vampires in order to make it possible to turn this into a blatant appeal-to-the-male-18-24-demo moment.
FFS
Okay. The other scene comes when Lauren/Rebecca has decided to quit drinking people. She's having a tough time and Mitchell/Aidan lets her feed from him to help her stave off the hunger.
Original:
Here it's Mitchell's idea. He takes his hospital badge and uses the metal clip to cut his wrist. Lauren grabs it, bites in. He seems pained. She kisses him, then goes back to feeding. And he seems to be experiencing a pleasure/pain combo. Notice that they're both on the floor together, on the same level.
Okay. Now look what the US team did:
They turned it into a thinly veiled metaphor of a blowjob, basically. It starts out with Rebecca having the idea and then having to beg Aidan to go along. She goes down on her knees and then for the rest of the scene he's either standing or sitting above her as she kneels. The relative equality of their positions in the original is completely rewritten. And his expression is all pleasure, very little or no pain.
So, yeah.
These are two excellent examples why I feel like the directors are taking a sexist visual approach on US!BH that I FUCKING HATE a good 80% of the time. An approach that just wasn't there originally, but that they've brought in and imposed on scenes that were, IMO, far more interesting in the original. Certainly far less male gaze-y.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH
When I started watching US!Being Human I kept feeling... frustrated and angry with the way women were being treated by the directors. But I couldn't draw out one moment or one thing. It was everywhere and nowhere. But! Then in episode 4 and episode 5 they redid scenes that occurred in the original and comparing the two makes it REALLY REALLY obvious.
So I am picspamming you for comparison & contrast. Unlike when I normally picspam, I haven't altered the color levels or saturization, or done other tricks to make any of these prettier. The only photoshopping was brightening and it was done to all the images about the same.
OKAY! On with the show.
Okay. So the first one is the scene where Lauren/Rebecca makes Mitchell/Aidan a vampire porn film. She's been ordered by the vampire boss dude to lure him back in with the promise of sex and blood. So she films herself fucking and then killing a man.
Here's the original:
In UK!BH, vampires are invisible to cameras and mirrors. So we only see Lauren's bloody footprints at the end. The whole focus is on the male body of her victim. His vulnerability. His nudity. His victimization.
Here's what the US version did:
Male gazed up a fuck ton, right? The focus is almost entirely on Rebecca's body. She is the object of the gaze. Her victim is Sir Barely Appearing in this picture. Certainly his vulnerability and victimhood is not foregrounded. Her sexiness is instead. And the US!BH team actually changed the rules of vampires in order to make it possible to turn this into a blatant appeal-to-the-male-18-24-demo moment.
FFS
Okay. The other scene comes when Lauren/Rebecca has decided to quit drinking people. She's having a tough time and Mitchell/Aidan lets her feed from him to help her stave off the hunger.
Original:
Here it's Mitchell's idea. He takes his hospital badge and uses the metal clip to cut his wrist. Lauren grabs it, bites in. He seems pained. She kisses him, then goes back to feeding. And he seems to be experiencing a pleasure/pain combo. Notice that they're both on the floor together, on the same level.
Okay. Now look what the US team did:
They turned it into a thinly veiled metaphor of a blowjob, basically. It starts out with Rebecca having the idea and then having to beg Aidan to go along. She goes down on her knees and then for the rest of the scene he's either standing or sitting above her as she kneels. The relative equality of their positions in the original is completely rewritten. And his expression is all pleasure, very little or no pain.
So, yeah.
These are two excellent examples why I feel like the directors are taking a sexist visual approach on US!BH that I FUCKING HATE a good 80% of the time. An approach that just wasn't there originally, but that they've brought in and imposed on scenes that were, IMO, far more interesting in the original. Certainly far less male gaze-y.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH