Filking away the gender binary

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

My cousin has the complete fourth season of Ellen. I don't really care for sitcoms, especially American ones, and while Ellen is of above-average quality, I don't think it's especially good. Still, I am delighted to watch it.

Curiously delighted. This is strange.

For my birthday, my cousin also gave me a copy of Disney's Robin Hood, which, during my childhood, was hands-down my favorite movie. I still think it's a blast but watching it, and reflecting on other variations on Robin hood myths, be they in cinema or text, I feel a mix of enthusiasm and disconnect.

Why?

Context: it's true that I really needed to watch a comedy, and that I also am surprised at just how much has changed since my childhood.

But I think that most of it has to do with the fact that the most striking loss of privilege I've experienced is the lack of role models, especially fictitious ones.

Robin hood is like most Cambellian heroes.
1. His cultural/ethical and ancestral origins are the local culture. This allows him to represent local cultural values.
2. He's quick-minded, physically capable and confident. This allows him to get things done under adverse circumstances.
3. He has his sights on a fair maiden. This allows him to pursue classical notions of purity
4. He's a "he." I guess it makes going after the maiden more acceptable in public, but I can't seem to wrap my head around this.

Is it because he comes from a culture that sees the masculine/male as the do-er and the feminine/female as support. Or is it because a culture in our species can maintain its numbers when stand to see more men die due to situational deficiencies in point 2 (above) than women? Or is the fact that I can't explain point 4 just because I'm not a "he" anymore and am too busy wrapping my head around it.

That's certainly what's causing the disconnect. These stories are no longer written for me and I have a harder time projecting myself onto any of the characters. The lack of stories fuel the hunger to watch Ellen, Starbuck, Ripley and so on - I want some kind of character who is a gender-variant female (similar age, class, race and so on helps).

So I tried switching the genders around in some songs. This produced odd results.

I'm told that the all-male band of The Nylons changed my "boyfriend's back" to "my girlfriend's back."
This sounds strange for two reasons:

1. A narrative that runs "You spread false rumours that I was a guy who slept around, and as a consequence, my girlfriend is going to beat the crap out of you" doesn't really fly in this culture
2. The Nylons are GENERALLY SPEAKING, RATHER GAY

Bob Ricci has also done this, but he changed other lyrics as well.


I tried it with The Witch of the Westmorlands. Ah, but' that's just silly, I thought. A female knight might be chique in our culture, but such a thing would not exist in European history. And then, I realized that while a female knight would be odd, it would be decidedly less odd than subaquatic centaur witch with miraculous healing powers.


Or you can do it to pop music. Before he cheats is catchy if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, and realize that, despite what is implied in the video, vandalism-on-suspicion-of-infidelity makes you less empowered, and more of a stalker. But think of it with the genders switched. Or with some of the genders switched. More creepy, or less?


Try this yourself. It's punchy. Extend it to stories. You can change all the genders, or just some.

You can just change the pronouns or names

Or you can dig into it and change the details around to explore it a bit, fleshing out the backstory. What have the life experiences of the aforementioned female knight been? Did she get teased a lot? Wanna add that into the verse? Is the witch (as either sex) into getting it on with a female (mortal) knight (I mean who wouldn't want to get busy after getting chased down with dog, hawk and mounted knight?), or does s/he say "how about I just heal you and we cuddle a bit."

Or you can keep the genders and vary the details to change the gender expressions. with or without changing the genders.

And she stood in a gown shoes of the velvet suede of blue, bound round with a silver chain.

And you can do this with other identity-categories.

White Jesus anyone? Black Madonna?

Improvisation, alteration and personalization is what makes storytelling an art.

Comments

[mocks.livejournal.com]

One thing I've always liked about Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" is that when sung by a woman it means something different but equally valid (within the frame of heterosexuality, even), and interestingly similar: the story of two closely intertwined couples instead of a love triangle.

http://www.leonardcohen.com/music.cgi?album_id=20&song_id=6

[plaidalicious.livejournal.com]

We need more non-gender-normative fictions in general, and tv/ other media are always somehow behind the written word when it comes to pushing those barriers.

I used to flip the genders on songs I'd sing, or not, whichever felt most appropriate, as a teenager all the time. It's fun. Older songs are somehow easier to flip than newer ones. Maybe teh cultural trappings are easier for me to twist.