Genderbending in Tights and Cloaks
Jennifer Fallon pointed out this article on the lack of female superheroes in recent pop culture, as well as some intriguing gender issues to do with the Batman film franchise. I'll skip past the gay Batman stuff, because it's been said lots before. What caught my eye was that, the author, Dr Yvette Blackwood, points out something I've always noticed, which is the deeply uninteresting role of the love interest in the Batman films.
While Kim Basinger's Vicky Vale and Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle were quite dynamic characters who contributed something to the overall Batman story, the later films featured a series of dull, unbelievable female characters whose only role seemed to be to reassure the audience that Batman was not gay. And of course, to get a female celebrity name attached to the film. The Elle McPherson character in Batman and Robin was an all time low, though I also count Nicole Kidman's weird therapist and Katie Holmes' Rachel Somebody in that category (I haven't seen the latest film, but assume that Maggie Gyllenhaal is given less to work with than an actress of her calibre deserves - feel free to let me know if this isn't the case but no spoilers please, I do plan to see it soon).
Part of the reason why this has been so disappointing is because the Batman universe is so rich with amazing, interesting and dynamic female characters who have so much to offer a story beyond being a potential Batbonk. I'd rather have an Oracle, a Huntress or a Renee Montoya turn up in the Batman movies as a supporting but unromantic character than see yet another attempt to show that, shock horror, Batman is unlikely to ever have a stable, healthy relationship.
[No, I haven't made any mention of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. It requires too much pointing and laughing. Do I lose all credibility if I admit that I kind of liked Alicia Silverstone's cheesy Batgirl? All wrong, of course, but so cute... yep, okay there went my credibility, whoosh out the window]
Anyway there was I, all het up by thoughts of gender and superheroes, and I thought I'd check out what other articles Yvette (who teaches gender & pop culture at the Uni of Tasmania, and once got me in to do a lecture on women in SF fandom history for one of her courses) had written over on ABC Unleashed.
Why can't boys wear pink? was one that grabbed my attention, mainly because the discussion of boys wearing fairy dresses struck a chord with me (Raeli has a boy friend who was so impressed with her fairy dress he requested one of his own, and the two of them play adorably together). I was particularly intrigued by Yvette's discussion of villains in pop culture (summed up by examples from Disney films) and how commonly villains are "coded queer" in order to appear threatening and strange.
All crunchy gender-bending thoughts, which come at a good time for me as I am currently writing a paranormal romance novella which has accidentally turned into a substantial exercise in traditional role reversal. My hero is a female character who is old, damaged and bitter, in true hardboiled detective style, and the supporting "love interest" male character is younger, an object of desire fought over between hero and villains, and the plot only started really flying for me when I gave into the inevitable and "damselled him up," that is - put him in a dangerous situation so the hero can rescue him.
Possibly I should admit that I am still giving my boy more interesting things to contribute to the story than at least three Batman love interests put together. So not complete role reversal!
While Kim Basinger's Vicky Vale and Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle were quite dynamic characters who contributed something to the overall Batman story, the later films featured a series of dull, unbelievable female characters whose only role seemed to be to reassure the audience that Batman was not gay. And of course, to get a female celebrity name attached to the film. The Elle McPherson character in Batman and Robin was an all time low, though I also count Nicole Kidman's weird therapist and Katie Holmes' Rachel Somebody in that category (I haven't seen the latest film, but assume that Maggie Gyllenhaal is given less to work with than an actress of her calibre deserves - feel free to let me know if this isn't the case but no spoilers please, I do plan to see it soon).
Part of the reason why this has been so disappointing is because the Batman universe is so rich with amazing, interesting and dynamic female characters who have so much to offer a story beyond being a potential Batbonk. I'd rather have an Oracle, a Huntress or a Renee Montoya turn up in the Batman movies as a supporting but unromantic character than see yet another attempt to show that, shock horror, Batman is unlikely to ever have a stable, healthy relationship.
[No, I haven't made any mention of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. It requires too much pointing and laughing. Do I lose all credibility if I admit that I kind of liked Alicia Silverstone's cheesy Batgirl? All wrong, of course, but so cute... yep, okay there went my credibility, whoosh out the window]
Anyway there was I, all het up by thoughts of gender and superheroes, and I thought I'd check out what other articles Yvette (who teaches gender & pop culture at the Uni of Tasmania, and once got me in to do a lecture on women in SF fandom history for one of her courses) had written over on ABC Unleashed.
Why can't boys wear pink? was one that grabbed my attention, mainly because the discussion of boys wearing fairy dresses struck a chord with me (Raeli has a boy friend who was so impressed with her fairy dress he requested one of his own, and the two of them play adorably together). I was particularly intrigued by Yvette's discussion of villains in pop culture (summed up by examples from Disney films) and how commonly villains are "coded queer" in order to appear threatening and strange.
All crunchy gender-bending thoughts, which come at a good time for me as I am currently writing a paranormal romance novella which has accidentally turned into a substantial exercise in traditional role reversal. My hero is a female character who is old, damaged and bitter, in true hardboiled detective style, and the supporting "love interest" male character is younger, an object of desire fought over between hero and villains, and the plot only started really flying for me when I gave into the inevitable and "damselled him up," that is - put him in a dangerous situation so the hero can rescue him.
Possibly I should admit that I am still giving my boy more interesting things to contribute to the story than at least three Batman love interests put together. So not complete role reversal!