Films Where The Male and Female Leading Roles Are Reversed: Jurassic World

Is that too lengthy a title? Yes? I know, I thought so too. Oh well. It gets the point across.

This is just a bit of fun, a bit of an experiment, to see what would happen really.

 

Jurassic World, (2015). Dir. Colin Trevorrow.

This film features two main protagonists; a female, called Claire and a male, named Owen.

Owen is a busy workaholic, and begins the film as an ignorant, uptight, but well-dressed park operations manager. He is focused on pursuing both sponsorship for the ever-expanding park and the next latest and biggest attraction. He ruthlessly pushes for profit and development of the park and appears oblivious to the moral cost of genetically manufacturing animals for the purpose of entertainment.

Claire is a headstrong, Navy veteran, who trains and looks after a pack of four Velociraptors. She is their Alpha; they listen to her and obey her commands. She knows the park well, the terrain, the dangers, she knows how to track the animals and humans alike, rides a motor cycle and is well-acquainted with fire arms. She is a physical person and totally owns herself with her charisma and self-assured demeanour.

In the plot, the pair are brought together when Claire is asked to examine the park’s latest attraction; the genetically manufactured Indominus Rex, before this particular beast is unveiled to the public. Claire lectures Owen on the dangers of raising Indominus in complete isolation, such as the lack of socialisation with other animals.

The story progresses, as you may or may not know; Indominus escapes and Owen’s nephews – who came to the park to enjoy some quality time with their uncle – are put in danger when they take their gyroscope into a restricted area. Owen is almost hysterical with worry and insists on going out to find them. He persuades Claire to take him into the valley, to look for and rescue his estranged nephews.

When they reach the valley, they find a dying brontosaurus. Claire orders Owen to remain in the car, but he ignores her and follows her to the animal. Claire helps Owen to see the creatures as beautiful animals, who feel pain. After that, they abandon the vehicle and continue on foot. Claire leads Owen through the forest, keeping him safe and protecting him. She is in charge and leads the operation. When a flock of pterosaurs escape the aviary, Claire shouts to run and Owen doesn’t hesitate.

Back at the resort, after a brief firefight between Claire – and the rest of her team – and the pterosaurs who are terrorising the guests, Owen manages to save Claire from being attacked by one of the angry prehistoric birds. He hits it in the head with a butt of a tranquiliser gun and shoots it a few times for good measure. Claire jumps up, completely unhurt, gazes at Owen with a strange intensity and then forcefully pulls him to her and kisses him impulsively. Owen is left a little staggered; but here starts their love affair. He appears to fall hopelessly in love with her after this, despite their difference of opinion and clashing personalities just moments before.

Hoskins, the InGen security chief, orders the use of Claire’s raptors to hunt down and kill Indominus. Claire resists at first, but in the end, she has no choice but to comply. As their Alpha, Claire leads the raptors on the hunt. As she embarks on this mission, Owen remains at base camp with his nephews, watching the team’s progress nervously via a video link on an iPad. He shows emotion clearly and is certainly not ashamed to show fear for his and his nephew’s safety when shortly after, there are rouge raptors chasing his vehicle through the jungle.

Soon after this, Claire, Owen and the children, find themselves surrounded and threatened on all sides by the raptors, whose allegiance has changed to that of Indominus, due to their shared DNA (like, is this even a thing?). Claire takes absolute control of the situation and steps forward, putting herself physically between Owen, the children and the imminent threat to their lives. She talks to the raptors, holds her hands out authoritatively to them and manages to calm the beasts down, re-establishing her unique bond with them. A simply whistle from her and the raptors turn immediately to attach the nearby Indominus.

Right at the end, after Indominus has been killed (it took a T-Rex, a raptor and a colossal underwater dinosaur named Mosasaurus to finish the job), the nephews are reunited with their distraught parents and Owen goes to Claire, who waits for him. Owen poses a searching question to Claire; ‘what now?’. Claire looks at him a moment and replies self-assuredly, confidently. She then turns to walk out of the door and Owen follows, as if there’s nothing else for him to do.

Owen appears to have changed; become less uptight, more relaxed and has put more value on his family. At the start of the film, he didn’t seem too concerned about spending any time (quality or otherwise) with his estranged nephews. Claire, however, has not changed. She is still the same person she was at the beginning of the film, an ancient monolith or foundation stone.

And that’s the end of the film.

Although in all honesty, I believe that big, fuck-off Mosasaurus is the star of the show, like, that thing has the most impeccable timing.

 

Picture credit.

A Step Too Far…?

Original article posted 2 July 2015.

Dear Trentham High School,

I saw the article the Guardian wrote about you. I see you’ve been demonized a little for the ban you’ve put on school skirts. I saw the arguments from both sides, but I’ll admit I resonated most with those of the girls in your school, who voiced views which ranged from incensed complaints about free choice and expression, to practical arguments such as the heat in summer being unbearable in trousers.

I want to say first, I see where you’re coming from Trentham High School. I see the same problem you do; we had it in our own school. Girls who wore skirts that didn’t leave much to the imagination, walking with a little swagger and managing to hitch them up even just a few milimetres more by first break. It’s a common problem in all schools.

But I think you’ve missed a few points.

You haven’t gone to the root of the problem, you’ve only addressed one of the symptoms.

Pre-teen and teenage girls are just beginning to explore, understand and express their sexuality. The media tells them that this is in the form of attractiveness to the opposite sex and gives them a very slim understanding of what this actually is or could involve. Unfortunately, many young girls fall prey and subscribe to this narrow standard of beauty.

But addressing the entirety of Western media is virtually impossible. For one secondary school, it’s not an option. So where instead do you turn?

I suggest the simple solution of education. As a school, you should specialize in this. Educate boys in self-control and educate girls about the way in which the expression of their sexuality affects boys. It’s a little known (or little recognized) fact that males are generally turned on by what they see and girls are more sexually aroused by another’s touch.

This is not something taught in your average sex ed class where the kids are taught the bare essentials of sexual intercourse, but in any detail, never mind the emotional aspect of it. In years 6-8, the years where sex education is most likely to be taught, many young people are just too young to understand practically what sex is and how it works, not only the act itself, but their own sexuality and how it can have an impact on those around them, boys and girls.

Most of what I know about sex wasn’t taught to me in a sex ed class by my blushing teacher who was too embarrassed to answer fully all the questions we had. She skimmed over the basic details and let us out to break early. Not helpful.

It was a few years later when I began to understand better for myself what sex was and what my sexuality had to do with it – two completely different things. I don’t doubt that this is a similar story for many young girls.

So, Trentham High School, I understand where you’re coming from. I understand that many boys (and teachers so you say) claim to be distracted by your female students wearing short skirts. My argument would be that they wouldn’t be so distracted if they were taught appropriate sexual conduct, i.e. that women are not to be objects to be gazed at. Similarly, if girls were taught appropriate sexual conduct, they might better understand how a male’s sexuality works and how they can best keep from arousing it.

I don’t think the onus lies with either female or male in cases like this. But Trentham, please understand this.

Restricting young girl’s expression through their clothing choices will not solve your problem. There are other ways to ‘edit’ school uniform to appear more attractive, believe me, it’s been done. Making young girls and boys fit into a very strict, regulated uniform image will only aggravate your problem further, I believe.

Through education, transparency and a little more freedom of expression, (there’s no doubt of the benefits some sort of uniform have on an institution like secondary schools) there’s a high chance that equality and respect for each other’s sexuality and expression of will increase. Banning skirts is an quick, immediate and easy option to a culture wide issue that won’t go away. It’s become lodged in our generation.

Trentham, as an education institute with no doubt an abundance of young people in attendance, you, as well as other schools up and down the country, have an opportunity and the resources to educate and start to turn the tide in our generation. Not many people can say that. You have teachers who have taught your students multiple times, built up friendships and trust networks between pupils and teachers. You have the resources in place, but it’s your responsibility to use them.

You may not see results instantly. It may be awkward; for some reason sexuality has become a sort of taboo among young people nowadays. But by hell it’ll be worth it, to see young men and women to grow up respecting each other and respecting each other’s bodies, each other’s sexuality, each other’s expressions and preferences. And in my experience, that’s something that’s really lacking in today’s culture.

Regards,

Esther.