The Retelling of Men’s Stories with Women

 by Maddy Ross

Enola Holmes

In cinemas and bookstores alike, we’ve seen a huge trend of ‘gender flipping’ old books and films. The Ghostbusters remake in 2016 was arguably the start of a wave of stories written to ‘satisfy the feminists’. 2016 was obviously a time of heightened sensitivity surrounding gender considering the huge #metoo movement, so it wouldn't be surprising to some if Hollywood wanted to ‘politically correct’ their male-dominated spaces. I think it’s great that women are finally being cast in main roles as something other than the love interest or secretary. However, as I sat watching Ocean’s 8 last month, I couldn't help feeling frustrated. Why couldn’t women just have their own stories? 

I personally think lots of films and books get it right when it comes to filling in a female perspective where it has historically been left out. A Thousand Ships and The Penelopiad are two books which delve into the often ignored lives of the women involved in the Trojan War. Often all we hear of the women in The Iliad and The Odyssey is a loyal Penelope, the vain goddesses fighting over Paris’ attention for the golden apple, airhead Helen who gets dragged wherever men please, the sex trafficked women in the army camps and the many wives of the soldiers who, let’s face it, are basically irrelevant to the plot except for when there’s a cinematic shot of them screaming as the city burns down. 

It sends a message that women in literature are only artistic tools to further the man’s story and help him on his quest for eternal glory- an effect of the male gaze on books and TV. Leading to girls feeling as though their only value is through their association with men. 

A Thousand Ships is great as, because it’s written by a woman, the female characters are granted their own agency separate from their relationships with men (although a lot of the book focuses on problems and issues that were directly caused by the questionable decisions of men). I think this is where Natalie Haynes’ book gets it right. It gives a voice to the previously silenced and a platform to the shut away. It presents the characters away from the perfect idea of a woman and towards a realistic image of a flawed human. The book works separate from the original, male-dominated story as it can stand alone as a work of literature. It doesn’t rely on the already-told story of men. 

It works as the male characters of the original story aren’t just swapped out for female characters. However this can’t be said for recent ‘feminist’ films in Hollywood.

Ocean’s 8, an all-female take on the original 1960 and 2000s films, starred big names such as Rihanna and Sandra Bullock and was generally regarded as a win for the feminist movement. But I’m wondering if it actually was such a move forward. The protagonist is Debbie Ocean, Danny Ocean’s (the previous film’s main character) criminal sister, and also seems like a female version of Danny. A New York Times article by Amanda Hess puts it well: “So as Debbie mounts her own fantastical heist — lifting $150 million worth of Cartier diamonds off a celebrity neck at the Met Gala — she keeps one eye on her brother’s tomb, half-expecting him to crawl out. We spend the film anticipating his appearance, too. Even when Debbie is on screen, Danny is in the back of our minds. And even when a Hollywood franchise is retooled around women, it still revolves around men — the story lines they wrote, the characters they created, the worlds they built.” 

As a remake, the characters, stories and plot will be based on the first, often marketing these films as the “female version” of old films (funnily enough, the film has a male director and ⅔ of the producers are men). If women can only star in films about women then we have a problem. Essentially, when women are only in films as a consequence of their gender instead of multifaceted beings then the narrative still isn’t changing despite increased representation. It’s great that women can have such major roles, but if it is at the expense of the characters’ depth then I’m not so sure it’s good. 

Even worse, I think, is the issue of BAME or LGBTQ+ characters being shoved into stories as side roles like the ‘sassy black friend’ or the ‘stereotyped gay friend’. Other minority groups aren’t displayed as accurate and real individuals, having to live out very one-dimensional characters.

 A good example of where a film gets it right, in my opinion, is the new Netflix film Enola Holmes. While her brother Sherlock does play an important supporting role in the film, the storyline doesn’t centre around him. Enola Holmes is done so well as it’s telling a story that should be told, it sends a message that female stories have value too. Especially as a teenage girl who actually has thoughts and feelings and is feminine but also strong and brave, Enola is a great protagonist. ‘Strong women’ often aren’t written to be feminine and strong because society often tells girls that the two qualities are mutually exclusive, when in reality this isn’t true. 

Often these gender flip stories present the main characters as women first and foremost forgetting that women have the capacity to be human too. Forgetting that women aren’t a collective, a sole entity. Forgetting that women don’t all react the same way, that they have the capacity to also be bad people. Forgetting that women have roles and desires separate from their roles as mothers, wives, sisters and grandmothers to men. 

Or maybe they never forgot. Maybe they never realised.

Bibliography

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/movies/oceans-8-gender-swap.html