she's my man
I was thinking of genderswapped themes a while back, and one of the themes I wanted to have genderswapped was madness. I believe my exact words were: 'I wish that we could have a woman go violently insane over a man.' Now, I know we often have women going insane because of men, but I'm not sure how often I've seen them hit violently insane. (I was watching Phantom of the Opera as I was saying this.) Compare Ophelia to the Phantom and you'll see what I mean. Traditionally, women are made to go insane in self-destructive, internal ways, and when men sink into madness, they go out with an explosion. When the man goes insane over the woman, it's the woman who's the helpless victim of his madness. When the woman goes insane over the man, she is the helpless victim of her own madness.
So, yes. I really would love to see a well-done depiction of a woman engaging in the bloodthirsty, protective-obsessive, explosively violent kind of love/lust-fueled madness that is often coded male. Not because I endorse that behavior, but because it's a madness angle I haven't seen before. Conversely, the man going through the female-coded form of madness, wasting away self-destructively and slowly falling apart, is also attractive. I don't think it's necessarily anti-feminist to want the female character to go into a destructive lust-spiral over a man, either. I know there's a lot of horrible, squicky background to go with women throwing their lives away for men, but I think as long as the woman retains agency, we're golden. That means she doesn't get controlled by the man she's obsessing over, she is in control of whatever events she sets into motion. Until, of course, the ending.
And you know, if I'm following the female Phantom idea, the ideal way to end that would be for the other woman to come sailing out on a white steed and do battle with her while the male victim watches, entranced. I like this idea already.
So, yes. I really would love to see a well-done depiction of a woman engaging in the bloodthirsty, protective-obsessive, explosively violent kind of love/lust-fueled madness that is often coded male. Not because I endorse that behavior, but because it's a madness angle I haven't seen before. Conversely, the man going through the female-coded form of madness, wasting away self-destructively and slowly falling apart, is also attractive. I don't think it's necessarily anti-feminist to want the female character to go into a destructive lust-spiral over a man, either. I know there's a lot of horrible, squicky background to go with women throwing their lives away for men, but I think as long as the woman retains agency, we're golden. That means she doesn't get controlled by the man she's obsessing over, she is in control of whatever events she sets into motion. Until, of course, the ending.
And you know, if I'm following the female Phantom idea, the ideal way to end that would be for the other woman to come sailing out on a white steed and do battle with her while the male victim watches, entranced. I like this idea already.