Feminizing Violence: The Female Rage and The Femefatal
So this is more of a thought that came to mind when I was forced to think te core themes of my S&S Nutcracker, and also thinking back on a lot of concepts that was mentioned in Shaylalaloo's "Clara and the Below" thoughts.
I had been leaning into the "Supporting the Woman's Wrongs" stories, but also the want to fight back and women being violent in some compacity. A trait that is "unbecomming" of women in soceity.
A lot of narratives of women picking up swords in recent for some reason feel like they are turning the women into "men" when it should be more of an empowering moment. But having Read "Unholy with Eyes like Wolves", Some short stories within the Dresden Files following the female cast, "Mortal Follies", "Deerskin" and even "Bringer of the Scourge", it has me realizing that there are ways to make the violence the woman's without turning her feeling like a man.
In a lot of ways, femisists have been fighting back the "the Maiden and the Whore" depiction of women. The hapless Maid being rescued by the gallent Knight, and the Whore who is more worldly and more likely to doom the man in her grasps because of her womanly wiles. The Princess in the Tower or of the dragon is the maiden trope. Crying out to be rescued by her gallent knight in shining armor. She is the prize. The Object of Desire. The Maiden is more of a thing to win than the person to know. The "Femefatal" falls under the Whore depiction because she seduces the men into loving her before their deaths. She's active. The one to holds the power with her sexuality and grace. Eve and Lillith. Lillith the Willful woman who becomes a demon and Eve, the deceptive woman that gets them both kicked out from the Garden of Eden.
But it's just that, A trope. Another form of Objectfication.
At least… that's how we usually view it.
Unholy with Eyes like Wolves follow a Sapphic Vampire story talking about the turbulant emotions of womanhood during the time of Elizabeth Bathory. A woman who is seen as a villian because she was Protenstant during a Catholic regiem, but also she was trying to work with the people within her lands. It also shows other aspects of womanhood, such as Naomi, The newest handmadien of Bathory, and also our POV charater. She loved her former husband but there's a point about her pregancy and how she was treated after her husband's death and before her working for Bathory that paints a different picture of what we expect of feelings about these things. It turns into a story about regaining that power when you hadn't had anything, and the vampirism actually works well in it's favor within that. And it sounds to me Unholy with Eyes like Wolves did it better than "Buried these Bones within the Midnight Soild" (from what I'm hearing from reviews anyways. Eventually I will probably try to read it since I've also read Interview with a Vampire and would happily do a compare and contrast.) Having read this which hit such an itch which I wanted more like it, It made me absolutely more disappointed with how something like "No Better than Beasts" handle it with Drakne.
And I think I realized why. Naomi's Violence was far more "feminine", far more "viseral", More "Feral in it's rage". in it's revenge than Drakne's. It was only felt right when she let her "violence" become more Feminine with the danceing.
Which then brought me to realizing why some other depictions fell flat: They were trying to make women into men as soon as they pick up a sword. You can make the violence feminine, you just have to change how you do it.
The reason why the Dresden Files makes charaters like Karin Merphy, Molly Carpenter, and and Charaity Carpenter far more intresting than say… Game of Thrones women. Karin falls into the similar argument of "The Daddy's Girl" situation that the post "Clara and the Below" falls under where she feels like she has to live up to her father's legancy as a cop, but also as a woman within a very masculine job, she has to make herself more masculine to be taken seriously. She Bristles when Harry comments "I don't hit girls" and all that because it's tied to her idenity. Same with some actions that may be seen as belittling the "fairer sex" but when Harry learns to navigates this and Merphy is given the ability to actually be seen as a woman, she drops the bravado. She allows herself to cry, she allows herself to actually say "I'm scared", only for her to put up her guards up again when the end of Changes happens. Molly is very "Femefatal" coded but when you get inside her POV in her story story, you realize she's a broken woman who was also an Empath… forced to do a thing she didn't want to do. Her violence isn't to use physical harm, but to use the minds and illusions. And Molly's mother is a blend of both, but her husband was once one of the Knights of the Cross so she had to learn to be able to help him any way she can. Including sword fighting to spar with him. And you can argue that Charity is the "Manilest of women" due to it, but when you first meet her… she's a mother of 5, she's weary of Harry, and she cooks and cleans and goes to the grocery store. Just just happens to also know how to brandish a broadsword as well as a mace and make chainmail to put under bullet proof vests. It's the same with the other two.
Violence can be used to take power back. It can be used to strip away the Objecfication of a person and give back that personhood. It's why a lot of the Hunger Games felt so cathartic for so many people because it felt like the charaters were regaining their personhood after being consumed and commodified within those games.
So you're probably wondering "Why talk long and hard about this about a Nutcracker Telling of all things?"
It's because I realized that the reason why my version of Clara picks up the Chakarams and actually fights, because she's protecting herself, she taking back the power that she wasn't allowed to have for so long. Sure Bojin tried to give her freedom, but he was taken away from her due to Markos. Drosselmeyer and Alameth try to protect her through not telling her everything, Jadolf (her ex Fiancee before Bojin) tried to control her for his own gain because he thought she was from Drosselmeyer's bloodline, Markos only saw her as a thing he wanted because Hansel had her… and Soceity scorns her for braking it off with Jadolf instead of him breaking it off. It wasn't until the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Stalbrahms, Alice, and people who saw women as equals that really gave Clara the want to actually be more than the object. She always had it, but these people (mostly women) are the ones who solidified it in her. Which in turn gives her the strength to not only be her own knight, but also Hansel's.
Funny how people forget that Clara was the one who saves the day with her slipper to the Mouse King's head in the origonal. It's there, everyoen remembers it, but they don't realize that… that is Feminine Revenge/Rage taking action. In the origonal, you can argue that the 7 headed Mouse King was the facets of Masculinity trying to squash the Nutcracker who never fitted the mold of that Masculinity. He tried, but the Mouse King overpowered him. Clara, using her slipper to kill him was what saved the situation and helped break the curse. An Act of Feminine Violence in rebellion to the Masculine regime. And in term helps Hansel through his own objectfication that his mother did to him and Markos of making them into her image. Deconstructing his attempt to be masculine all the time and allow himself be softer when he realizes what Markos done to Clara and how much harm it caused.
So the reason why making Clara "not like other girls" in "Clara and the Below" felt off because she's taking up that Masculine mantle instead of defining herself. I'm sure it may be a deconstution of that, but usually the "Not like other girls" falls into that trap of making the woman less about that and more about living up to your father's image because he loved your "spark".
I loved Xena the Warrior Princess growing up. I loved the Chakarams. I loved the them in Tales of Symphonia, I loved them in Kingdom Hearts with Axel, I loved them even in Kingdom of Alaumar. So when Dancer as a Job came out for Final Fantasy 14, I was estatic. The grace and beauty of the fighting style always gave me joy and there's always that feeling of dance to it in other places. And it worked so well with Clara being a Ballerina. It gave me more of a exploration on how things can change the dyamic when it's not just the typical weapons. But it's also seen as extreamly feminine even though the origonal users of them were actually royal guards in Inda and were men. They were also used differently as well.
So that's pretty much where I get my thoughts.
Sometimes the best way to be listened to is if you have a blade in hand.
