Author: moranl2

Within the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, we are introduced to Éowyn in The Two Towers as a noble woman from the house of Rohan, and a damsel in distress. Gríma, the advisor to the king of Rohan, has been manipulating King Théoden while he is under the spell of Saruman in exchange for Éowyn, whom he cares for only for her beauty. Once the spell was broken, and Gríma was chased off the land, Éowyn talks with the protagonists during their preparations for an upcoming battle, she speaks of how she has experience with a sword and calls herself a shield maiden.

In The Return of the King, she mentions fearing “A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.” While her brother is the Chief Marshal, actively fighting to defend the people, Éowyn is left with the women and children away from the conflicts and prevented from having her chance of valor. This fear was also compounded by the treatment she would receive from Gríma as an unwilling recipient of his gaze, yet powerless to stop him due to his position and control over the king.

Even with Gríma gone, she was still subjected to being caged by the gendered norms of her society. Because she is a woman, she is looked down upon as a fighter, but as a noble, she has the added pressure of upholding her image and taking on a more reactionary position than one that takes any initiative. This fear can also be reflected in how she was treated when Gríma was influencing the king, and how she was treated as a reward to be earned through his loyalty to Saruman, an object much akin to a bargaining chip. Following this, she was then sent into the caves along with all of the women, children, and elderly, while all the men and boys capable of wielding a sword took up arms to defend the keep from the incoming siege.

Éowyn mentioned how the women of Rohan had learned how to wield a sword to better protect themselves, but for her, it was also a point of confidence as it represented her chance at valor and independence. Then, when she saw the same treatment that she was facing being done to him, she stood up for him by stating how it was the size of the heart that makes for a good soldier, something she saw within herself and in Merry.

When the knights of Rohan marched to defend Minas Tirith, the capital city of the kingdom of Gondor, Éowyn decides to join the army under disguise, along with the hobbit Merry, who was also meant to be left behind. Together they charged against the enemy while riding on horseback, and when they separated Éowyn fought against the witch-king of Angmar and kills his mount, she faced him off in a duel while defending the Théoden, but when she got knocked back Merry came in and provided an opening for Éowyn to deliver the killing blow. The witch-king can then be viewed as a representation of the gendered norms that have been holding Éowyn back, and through his defeat, she has broken free from the norms and can now move forward toward a more progressive future.

Within the emotion picture Dirty Computer, we watch as the main character Jane undergoes a process of having all of her memories erased as part of a cleaning process for being a dirty computer. The various memories are alluded to be dreams, making it ambiguous as to whether or not they were real memories. In one such memory, we watch as Jane and her partner, Zen, walk into a club and meet up with someone who appears to also be Jane’s partner, Ché, as they dance and enjoy their time together in the club.

The memory ends with one of the two white men viewing the memories of Jane deleting the memory and moving onto the next one.

Following the deleted memory, we see Jane dressed in white, wearing golden bracelets, seated on what looks like a medical bed, while Zen, who is in a similar attire, along with a golden cage around her head, looks over her tattoo of a naked woman on a cross. Jane mentions how she can’t discern whether her memories of them together were real or not, but wishes not to lose them regardless, and to continue remembering her time with Zen. Zen comments that she does not remember how they met, that thinking about it will make the process harder, and that it’s better to enjoy the cleaning process and forget.

Within the memories, while Jane is in constant need of avoiding the police while ultimately getting captured, she’s happy and gets to act freely. In her memories, Jane can love who she wants to love, dress as flamboyant as she likes, and dance with no restrictions. In contrast, while on the medical table, she is put into a modest white outfit with her hair tied in a ponytail, has no feeling in her legs, and is subjected to a removal of her memories and any individuality she once possessed to have the privilege to live within the facility. Therefore, for Jane to be accepted into their society, she would have to first conform to the norms and accept the cleaning process, just as Zen suggested. This struggle between maintaining independence and personality versus being socially accepted becomes more apparent when considering Jane’s queer relationship between Zen and Ché, and the fact that they are all black while those in power are all white. Throughout the emotion picture, the state of the memories is repeatedly questioned between being real or a dream, which can be interpreted as a potential utopia. This notion of a utopia then ties in with the reading Feeling Utopia by Munoz, about the idea of queerness being an ideality, a future that is to be longed for, yet out of reach. So, when Jane decides to break out of the facility along with her partners, it is because of this hope for utopia and their unwillingness to settle for the present that pushes them to move toward the future, to reach utopia.

In Stars and Time, you play as Siffrin, a nonbinary rogue within a party of heroes just before they face the main villain known as the King. Siffrin is set up as a support character for Mirabelle, a housemaiden for the religion of Change, and the hero who has been exploring the land, gathering all the people within the party, and leading the charge against the King and saving the world. However, upon the final day when the party reaches the King’s castle, Siffrin learns that they can loop to the start of the day and is the only one who remembers anything before the loop. Siffrin uses their newfound power to guide the group through the traps and enemies in the castle to help them defeat the king, but this takes numerous loops to achieve this, and Siffrin continues to try various means of saving the world. On top of each loop, Siffrin would hold conversations with their party members, and during one such conversation before their party reaches the castle, decides to hang out with Mirabelle to talk about her dilemma. 

As a housemaiden of Change, Mirabelle has a duty to her faith, a faith that she loves and believes in immensely. However, as part of her belief, she is needed to undergo changes to herself, which is normally fine with her as she enjoys trying new things, although there is one part of her that she doesn’t want to change. 

“ I’m not. . . Interested in that dating stuff.”

As part of her faith, Mirabelle feels pressured into needing to date someone to be a good housemaiden, needing to love a person romantically, as it is believed to be the best way of changing oneself. To Mirabelle, the idea of loving someone romantically and to “Do things with them” makes her uncomfortable, as well as a mistake.

“And it makes me feel like a mistake”

“That I must be broken for not being able to want these things. B-because everyone else can.”

Within this discussion, two parts of Mirabelle’s identity conflict with each other: the first being her faith, whereas the other is her sexuality. To Mirabelle, for her to follow her faith, she would need to move past her sexuality, but to keep her sexuality would mean not changing and not following her faith. This conflict is a major point of insecurity for her, and makes her question her own identity as a housemaiden, causing her to doubt whether or not she is truly the hero that everyone deserves.

After Mirabelle laid out her struggles, Siffrin mentions how they too are not interested in doing things with people as well, to which Mirabelle was relieved to know that she was not the only one. Furthermore, Siffrin mentioned an alternative in which Mirabelle enacts change by breaking the social norms and choosing not to change. While initially rejecting the idea, not believing that is how change works, Mirabelle comes to welcome the idea, which not only brings her comfort and joy, but also gives her a newfound confidence in herself.