gender swapped like minds is really a horror movie
like minds places a lot of emphasis on familial duty and destiny. for men, thats a little more “noble”: upholding the family’s pride through influence and power. for women, a huge role is to uphold the family’s legacy by having more children while remaining pure and loyal. its 2006 so things are different than the templar-era expectations of women, but we do see that many men in this movie place quite a lot of emphasis on tradition and “the good old days”
if alex and nigel were women, how would things have changed? nigel is shown to be obsessed with the order because of the ideas of duty, power, and belonging he sees in it as a man. would he still love the idea as a woman? would she see eternity through alex the same? nigel is also shown to love the idea of maraclea, but would he still see it with the same amount of adoration as a woman? would she see what the story of maraclea really is — a woman being used for her body to satisfy a man and protect a lineage (a bloodline of knights, specifically)? what would a female nigel do to her own body if she still subscribes to the maraclea idea? how would she act with a male helen? how would a female john see her husband and daughter together in bed differently from the male john? what kind of expectations would female john place on female nigel, shaping their relationship and nigel’s comfort with pain? if male nigel is willing to kill himself to help male alex evolve into who he wants him to be, would female nigel sacrifice her body in a different way for a female alex? how would nigel’s parents meddle with his relationships if he was a woman? theres clear neglect but, well, women are "dainty" and need to be monitored more than men according to tradition
alex, meanwhile, has his closest interaction to gender and duty with his father. this man wholly subscribes to the idea of power that comes with shutting up and falling into rank — a slight concession to the idea that men should always control others, but power exists in a pyramid instead of a circle. he tries to exert this power over sally (threatening her) and mckenzie (attempting to appeal to his sense of duty as a part of the order through the man is his life). with alex, though, he works harder to receive his obedience. with a female alex, this expectation would likely triple in strength just because of the gender roles demanding obedient women. alex acting up in class would likely have been treated even worse (because boys can be loud and annoying, but god forbid a girl is). would a female dr forbes expect female alex to fulfill her duty through marriage and childbirth? maybe she would need to marry another order member’s child? if alex were the only genderswapped character in the movie, im sure dr forbes would be delighted to have his daughter in a union with his grandmaster’s son. though… im not sure female dr forbes would be headmaster. or even alive. how would alex as a woman treat the people around her differently due to the different expectations placed on her? would she become more rebellious and violent, because “bad women” get the most attention? would she be more uncomfortable with nigel’s ideas of destiny? how would she see the violence intertwined with sx throughout the movie (the death of alexs mother in childbirth, whatever is happening with nigel and helen, and the events in the morgue)?
like minds is also just a pretty sexist movie. susan is fridged. helen is fridged. alex’s mother is fridged. sally, the main female character, is supposed to be a trained psychologist who we can assume is also very experienced. she gets tricked by alex anyway so the men always win. theres plenty of things she believes from his story without tangible proof. how do these things change (inevitably changing the plot) if these characters were men? most importantly for sally, the one who really drives the events of the movie oh, the horror of being a woman
