 |
| Even the strongest fighters can get tied up in the traps of heteronormative society. |
I guess this is a new installment of the projection onto fictional 'villains', continued from the Dalek metaphor post.
Disclaimer. My total knowledge of Godzilla is totally limited, I'll admit this. But I'm completely committed to watching the terrible old movies and learning all I can. Instead, I've done a little research online, and thought I'd share it all here. We all know sex and gender are very different, but I feel like Godzilla has bigger issues than that, so for the purposes of this post, I am discussing pronouns in direct connection to biological clues.
So, back in the early days, it appears the creator intended Godzilla to be female, though the Japanese narrations used neutral pronouns, which is super considerate. There are several instances wherein Godzilla is pregnant and has adorable babies, yet American dubs began using male.
As Moony pointed out when I said I was writing this, it shouldn't matter. And that's totally true, but I'm amazed at how big the confusion around all this is. It is as if the American narrators thought it would be cooler or more realistic to have a masculine radioactive creature emerge from the ocean and attack cities, ignoring the obvious signs that some form of explanation should maybe be given at least.
(It's kinda like how when Otachi was discovered to be pregnant in Pacific Rim, it changed how we understood the Kaiju, and since then it's been sort of understood that all the Kaiju must be female, if they're clones of each other.
Objectively, Godzilla probably doesn't give a fuck if we use an extra letter when referring to them, but I can't help but wonder if maybe there is some immense misgendering happening here that nobody is noticing. Which sums up trans* awareness perfectly.
I'm likely projecting massively, after an incident when a hetero guy on the train this week loudly asked his friends if I was a girl or a boy, and it still makes me uncomfortable. But it's a consideration.
There is a popular theory that there are hermaphroditic concepts as at work, allowing Godzilla to reproduce without another being, which would make sense given how nobody expected one, let alone two of these things to be created after years of toxic waste and planetary abuse of the oceans.
Either way, I adore this thing, and it was refreshing to see the focus be on how heroic this character is in the latest movie, so I didn't have to feel alone in my sympathies.
My hope is that one day, someone like precious Nick the worm guy of the '98 movie will ask 'wait, pregnant?' and we'll get some sort of closure, because nothing makes me more uncomfortable than getting things like pronouns wrong. As it is, I'm more confident with 'she', and I will fucking fight you about it.
 |
| Regardless of the sex of Godzilla, clearly producing model kids. Don't share, just take the whole damn bag. |
