"Mister, I'll make a man out of you" (Damon Salvatore and gender performance)

[upupa_epops]

(I'm not here. Just posting this quickly, because vergoldung wanted to read this meta before she goes on hiatus, and then I'm running away again. I'm so laaaaaaate!)

bellonablack requested a meta about how Damon's and Stefan's background influences gender roles they perform. That's not exactly what I'm going to do. It's not a Brothers post, it's a Damon post, because I

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[novin_ha]

...I wrote a lengthy response and I accidentally deleted it, which I guess is the universe's way of telling me to get on with my work rather than get involved in talking about a show I'm not extremely passionate about, tbh.

But to sum up what I wrote and deleted (;_____;): I think that there is a point to be made for Damon's femininity. Vampires are liminal, both masculine and feminine (phallic and menstrual), and Damon's association with emotions may code him as somewhat feminine (or as I would put it, appropriating femininity). I don't think it makes sense to forget that his use of femininity is NEVER strictly feminine, because he is never disempowered the way actual women are - and his use of it does not undermine the System of patriarchy, it reaffirms it. In fact, his appropriation of femininity perhaps does not subvert gender binary because of all the ways in which his masculinity is reaffirmed, most prominently, his being a sexual predator. As far as I know, Tania Modleski has been writing about the ways in which men displace women in fiction for a while and are valued for their femininity in a way that is denied to women in the same position. That's not subversive, that's backlash. Damon's femininity is not something divorced from his masculinity being reaffirmed by him raping women, it is a reason for him doing it so often on screen.

sorry for going off on a tangent. Apparently I have all the feelings. I realize there are probably equally valid contrary readings to be argued for.

[kwritten]

Oh geez, I completely thought that I responded to this days ago! #iz a bum

I want to quote this all back to you, because I think it is wonderful.

I made a very similar argument to my Thesis Chair (G-Sir), basically stating that Damon is the Feminine reflection of Elena - and his response was very similar to yours. It is a frustrating fact of literary history that Male characters are allowed/encouraged to occupy or appropriate Femininity - what I love about tVD is that (I feel) the actual Female characters are operating so far beyond stereotypes and are actually occupying their own subjectivity, versus many of the Male characters who seem to be struggling - almost grasping at straws.

Also - I tend, without meaning to, to think about male/female in Lacanian terms, in which the "female" designates that space within the System that fights and operates in spite of the System, proves the System in spite of being somewhat outside it - which I think in many ways, Damon does. Or - that Damon in many ways expresses, points out, and forces us to examine the System that allows him to exist the ways he does. This: "Damon's femininity is not something divorced from his masculinity being reaffirmed by him raping women, it is a reason for him doing it so often on screen." IS TRUTH. What I guess I cling to - or find interesting - is .... something that I just am incapable of expressing the way I want to.

In some ways, I find him interesting because his masculinity is always in flux and has to be reaffirmed in such violent ways. I think it calls attention to the fact that Masculinity itself is a violent process that relies on re-affirmation all the time. It is NOT a "given" - the System operates only by because it is reaffirmed over and over. I find that process fascinating. Especially when television takes it on and makes it an emotional commitment for the audience. Viewers don't want Damon to rape women - and yet there is a thrill in it - when he falls, it is an emotional fall: a personal flaw that we, the audience, are expected to be invested in.

Maybe ... either I've lost my mind or Maybe Damon is the space where the System has to be proven, and Stefan is the space where the System is perceived to be a "given" .... ?????