Gender reversal in movies is a thought-provoking idea. In class we discussed the concept of the female fight club. While it is entertaining to speculate how that version of the film would be received, I decided to look at a movie that did switch commonly held gender roles. Let Me In is a perfect example of a film that challenges preconceived notions of male and female relationships.
In many of the famous vampire movies, the vampire is played by a man: Dracula, Interview with a Vampire, and yes, Twilight. The stories do not change much. There is a vampire and a girl that falls under his spell. Let Me In challenges this set routine. Let Me In is about a young boy who develops a relationship with his neighbor, a young girl who is also a vampire. This differs from the norm in two main ways. First the vampire is a girl and the human is a boy. While this is not unprecedented, it is rare to find a movie with a lead vampire as female. The second way is the young ages of the characters. The boy, Owen, is twelve. The vampire, Abby, is forever trapped in a body of around the same age.
There are several reasons why the traditional model of a vampire story has lasted so long. Our culture stereotypes men as always being the stronger of the two sexes. The vampires in the stories must be male in order for this to be true. Society has always given power to men over women. By changing the sex of the vampire to female, a story would give the female the upper hand. Let Me In handles this issue in a remarkable way. By reducing the age of the characters, it balances the reversal of power. A twelve-year-old boy does not have to be the strongest. He relies on his parents for almost everything. Consequently, Abby being stronger is not as major of a concern.
The clip below is from the Swedish version of the film (Let The Right One In). However, the storyline is almost identical. Throughout the movie, Owen is bullied by several of his classmates. Matters finally come to a head one day after school in the swimming pool.
This scene shows just how far the story takes the reversal of the gender roles. In the scene Owen is the classic “damsel in distress” while Abby is the hero coming to the rescue. This movie is a fascinating look at what movies could be if we were open to the idea of gender role reversals.
Fun Fact: Let Me In was filmed in Los Alamos. :)
ReplyDeleteFilmed in LA :) Wow--I have been in that pool many times! Thanks for that extra factoid. This film is one that I had not heard of, and thanks, Veronica, for bringing it into the blog. Your analaysis about gender roles and the adjustments that are made to both challenge those roles and still make them acceptable for the audience is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe ethical implications of the swimming pool theme are also very interesting. The other boys seem helpless even though they know that the bully's actions are wrong.
This is a really interesting topic. Another point I though of is that typically vampires are not only more powerful, but hyper-sexualized in the media (Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Underworld). Hyper-sexual female characters are definitely outside of the realm of societal acceptance. Society is just beginning to accept normally sexual women in film, without always judging them as promiscuous. So in solving the issue of a stronger female character and weaker male, the problem of a highly sexual woman was also solved. They made the characters young enough to be relatively asexual.
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