Be honest: if the world was ending right now, wouldn’t you want your mama? Me too. That’s why as much as I love a gritty apocalyptic narrative, chalked full of survival, death and destruction. I can’t help but think there is room for a more feminine side.
I’m disappointed with the lack of strong female characters in the genre. As the world ends, women seem stuck in their most ancient of roles: whining, useless, and in need of saving. Feminine weakness is a tradition of the drama. Case in point: Night of the Living Dead. The women are so frantic, I was glad when they finally died. As the genre grows in popularity, will it’s portrayal of women also expand? I’ve been watching with interest.
I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, hoping,
like many that the zombie/love story mash up would be even better than the
original. This could be awesome: adventure, zombies, and Elizabeth Bennett. Of
course, as you know if you read it, you remember, that the mash-up is more
mockery than innovation. Zombies are
haphazardly added to the original text with little effort to even fit in with
the plot. The gimmick was funny simply because of the assumption that zombies
were much cooler than the “girl stuff” (i.e. love,
family, and the internal struggles created by external conflict).
Since the Jane Austin re-write, action packed
zombie adventures abound. Yet, most of these versions of the end similarly
leave little room for the feminine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that girls are all emotion and men are all action. I'm all about a strong female and a man who can express himself. I just want a drama to explore the power of both: emotion and action.
I’ve gone along for the ride on some of these apocalyptic adventures. I trudged through part of World War Z, which leads all the way through like the intro scenes to law and order. The text tells about the apocalyptic zombie infested world through brief interviews with survivors. The author describes, in detail, the world post-zombies, through short poignant interviews. There is disaster at every page turn. There are interesting political issues and plenty of commentary. I was disappointed, though with the lack of female voices in the text. Further, the voices present, are mostly weak. Men run the country, eat people, and save lives, while women cry. Female nurses hyperventilate while male doctor’s take out zombies. Further, the book, like the world it depicts, lacks femininity. Where is the heart? The character development? The apocalypse doesn’t just cause physical damage, there had to be emotional turmoil, personal growth, even. Just because zombies don’t have feelings doesn’t mean a book about zombies should go without.
A sharp contrast to World War Z, The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, is an apocalyptic narrative with a woman’s touch. The novel tells the story of earth beginning to slow, and society and nature falling apart incrementally, day by day. There is little gore here. Instead of zombies eating people, the catastrophe is subtle--the breakdown of relationships caused by the environmental change. In one poignant scene, whales begin to die because the earth’s magnetic field is disrupted. The protagonist, a 12 year old loner, and her new boyfriend run back and forth up the beach with buckets, watering a beached whale, only to find it is already dead. The detail and emotion in this book are masterful. The breakdown of the family structure and the emotions of disaster are satisfyingly explored. This book is stirring.
I’ve gone along for the ride on some of these apocalyptic adventures. I trudged through part of World War Z, which leads all the way through like the intro scenes to law and order. The text tells about the apocalyptic zombie infested world through brief interviews with survivors. The author describes, in detail, the world post-zombies, through short poignant interviews. There is disaster at every page turn. There are interesting political issues and plenty of commentary. I was disappointed, though with the lack of female voices in the text. Further, the voices present, are mostly weak. Men run the country, eat people, and save lives, while women cry. Female nurses hyperventilate while male doctor’s take out zombies. Further, the book, like the world it depicts, lacks femininity. Where is the heart? The character development? The apocalypse doesn’t just cause physical damage, there had to be emotional turmoil, personal growth, even. Just because zombies don’t have feelings doesn’t mean a book about zombies should go without.
A sharp contrast to World War Z, The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, is an apocalyptic narrative with a woman’s touch. The novel tells the story of earth beginning to slow, and society and nature falling apart incrementally, day by day. There is little gore here. Instead of zombies eating people, the catastrophe is subtle--the breakdown of relationships caused by the environmental change. In one poignant scene, whales begin to die because the earth’s magnetic field is disrupted. The protagonist, a 12 year old loner, and her new boyfriend run back and forth up the beach with buckets, watering a beached whale, only to find it is already dead. The detail and emotion in this book are masterful. The breakdown of the family structure and the emotions of disaster are satisfyingly explored. This book is stirring.
I have
to admit-- like the turning of the earth in the text, the plot is painfully
slow. Perhaps the incremental flow of the book was by design, but if I had one
request, it would have been more action. Some more people crushed, gory deaths,
and fear mongering. I’m depressed to think the end of the world might just be
like any other day, just worse. This text adds the feminine, but seeming at the
expense of the guts of the genre.
The genre
seems to be asking the same question as our society: can men and women coexist
equally? One show seems to be dealing with the issue head on, and the resulting
drama is highly satisfying.
The
Walking Dead,
A&E’s series about a zombie infested America, is struggling with this issue
almost as fiercely as the humans battle the zombies. In this zombie infested
world, there is emotional as well as physical drama. What’s more important, the
show asks repeatedly: man’s survival or in a softer sense, our humanity? In one
poignant scene, two female characters, Lori and Andrea
fight in their farm house hideout. You leave more work for the other
women: doing laundry, and cooking while you are out shooting zombies with the
boys. Traditional women's work is important too, Lori reminds Andrea. Andrea
is offended. Why clean up when zombies are on the loose? Then again, isn't clean laundry and a farm house one of the few things separating these characters from the chaos of the outside world? None of the females in the show are simple or perfect. In this world, nothing makes sense. No answers come easy. No one's role is set in stone. But at least, they are having the conversation.
When Lori becomes pregnant, she focuses on her family. Rick rejects this emotional bond, focusing on survival. When Lori dies, though, Rick begins to lose his soul
and his mind. He battles hallucination in the dungeons of his prison hide out, and is brought out by the voice of his dead wife. As Rick emerges and joins his group of survivors, he holds his baby for the first time. Now, he is the only parent his baby will have, both role of nurturer and care taker fall to him. With the loss of his wife, he seems to now value her role more. Without relationships, without
love, he begins to realize, what is the point of staying alive? It seems we all need a little action and a little heart to survive the apocalypse.
I can’t wait to
see how this show continues to weave in the emotional and the action. I,
personally, think a great apocalypse thriller, like real life, needs grit and
heart. Without men and women of action, we’d all die. Without a touch of the
softer side, aren’t we all just zombies anyway?
