Journal articles on the topic 'Tortured heroine'

Abstract Aware of her pupil’s plans to torture and kill a nest of birds, and with no authority to stop him based on her class, gender, and professional positions, the governess-heroine of Anne Brontë’s (2010/1847) Agnes Grey kills the nonhuman animals to keep them from needless suffering. Building on Brontë scholarship as well as animal studies understandings of violence and embodiment, this article considers expectations that Victorian sympathy will be a simplistic and pretty play on reader emotions to argue that nineteenth-century sympathetic feeling was more theoretically and ethically complex than we might imagine. Agnes Grey demonstrates how human-animal violence was thought to be an acceptable expression of middle- and upper-class masculinity, while proper women were expected to be complicit with this treatment of nonhumans. By looking at the close relationship between wanton and merciful embodied violence, the article shows how grotesque Victorian human-animal sympathy could be.

The independence achieved through the war of liberation is the best achievement of the Bengalis. Its range is wide and multidimensional. Crisis such as looting, arson, murder, genocide, torture, oppression of women, occupation, forced to emigrate, conversion, etc. are discussed facts about liberation war. However, about the post-war humanitarian crisis, the number of studies is low. This paper discusses the post-conflict humanitarian crisis of Cumilla Sadar, in Cumilla a traditional district of Bangladesh. Humanitarian crises such as war-related deaths, paralysis, food insecurity, mental imbalances, social harassment of heroines, refugee resettlement problems, mental anguish, etc. are directly and indirectly caused by war. This article represents post post-liberation humanitarian crisis not only particular area of Cumilla but also whole of Bangladesh.

AbstractThree types of heroism can be identified in 1 and 2 Maccabees: those of the warrior, the martyr and the suicide. While these concepts derive in part from the histories in the Hebrew Bible, they also display affinities with Greek ideas. Greek influence may be traced in vocabulary, in the manner of writing history, and in the emphasis on the motivation of the heroes. Greek history writing however occasionally appeals to universal values, whereas the Maccabaean literature does not look directly beyond the defence of the Jewish way of life. The martyrs were honoured by both Christians and Jews in times of persecution; and, although they never directly appealed to the suicide of Razis, Jews embraced suicide under the threat of torture or forced conversion as a legitimate way of 'sanctifying the name'. The example of Judas and his brothers may have been used to justify the Crusades: it has certainly helped to inspire Zionism and Israeli aspirations.

<p>No artigo é reconhecida a admiração que Olga Benario Prestes desperta junto a numerosos setores sociais, mas, por outro lado, obscurece, em certa medida, alguns aspectos das posições ideológicas e políticas por ela sempre adotadas. Revela-se que sua posição frente à chamada “questão democrática”, inspirada no conhecimento dos clássicos do marxismo, contribuiu para que tivesse comportamento heroico diante dos algozes que a torturam e assassinaram</p>

The history of Indian Freedom Struggle would be incomplete without mentioning the contribution of women. The sacrifice made by the women of India will occupy the foremost place. They fought with true spirit and undaunted courage and faced various tortures, exploitations and hardships to earn us freedom. When most of the men freedom fighters were in prison the women came forward and took charge of the struggle. The list of great women whose names have gone down in history for their dedication and undying devotion to the service of India is a long one. Woman's participation in India's freedom struggle began as early as in1817. Bhima Bai Holkar fought bravely against the British colonel Malcolm and defeated him in guerilla warfare. Many women including Rani Channama of Kittur, Rani Begum Hazrat Mahal of Avadh fought against British East India company in the 19th century; 30 years before the “First War of Independence 1857” The role played by women in the War of Independence (the Great Revolt) of 1857 was creditable and invited the admiration even leaders of the Revolt. Rani of Ramgarh, Rani Jindan Kaur, Rani Tace Bai, Baiza Bai, Chauhan Rani, Tapasvini Maharani daringly led their troops into the battlefield. Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi whose heroism and superb leadership laid an outstanding example of real patriotism .Indian women who joined the national movement belonged to educated and liberal families, as well as those from the rural areas and from all walk of life, all castes, religions and communities. Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Vijayalakmi Pundit and Annie Besant in the 20th century are the names which are remembered even today for their singular contribution both in battlefield and in political field.

In this paper, we consider the phenomenon of fictionalization of the theme of the Goli otok in novels (mostly written by women), as a kind of collective and ideological trauma, which has been a taboo topic in socialist Yugoslavia for more than 40th years. Biljana Jovanović (Duša, jedinica moja, 1984) and Boba Blagojević (Skerletna luda, 1991) started the topic of Goli otok in a women’s ideological novel and after that the topic of IB Resolution continued through different genres: publicist- memoir work (Ženi Lebl), autobiographical novel (Vera Cenić), or a real postmodern novel by Milka Žicina (Sve, sve, sve, 2002), all the way to a modern novel, with a fictional protagonist, which combines all the experiences of the Goli Otok`s victims (G. Zalad, Plava tišina, D. Grossman, Život se sa mnom mnogo poigrao). We divide the origin of these novels into the works of women writers who personally experienced torture of Goli otok (Ž. Lebl, V. Cenić, M. Žicina, Eva Panić), and those who were born much later, dealt with this topic completely through the fiction (G. Zalad, D. Ilić, D. Grosman). V. Cenić and M. Žicine also created several impressive literary heroines, whose degree of fictionalization we have specifically analyzed here as literary heroines (Brana Marković, Dragica Srzentić, Slavka Pogačarević, Eva Panić Nahir), as well as the type of antiheroine in the character of Marija Zelić, the warden of the camp on Goli Otok. These are works whose literary qualities should be much more present on our literary scene, and with a good film adaptation they should enter a much wider, public reception, especially since film as a medium is the main subtext of two modern novels about Goli Otok (G. Zalad, D. Grosman).

Abstract The 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation war is one of the most significant and phenomenal event in the history of twentieth century Indian subcontinent. This bloodstained historical event constantly lingers in the minds of Bangladeshi people while constructing the Bangladeshi sense of nationalism. Till today, the Liberation war has been in the centre of attention in both national and international media. It has been depicted in various mediums both in home and abroad. And in the traditional history of war and in the formation of any nation, women have always been depicted as passively exploited figures, merely a victim of war and doing nothing so actively to be recognized.Such traditional representation of the contribution of women in history has been reconstructed by Bangladeshi diasporic novelist, Tahmima Anam in her debut novel <em>A Golden Age</em> (2007) and in its sequel, <em>The Good Muslim</em> (2011). Anam has relocated the traditional presentation of women as exploited, tortured, raped, submissive and passive in the war history. Unlike the conventional passive victims, her heroines are active, liberal, brave and courageous women who not only defy the men controlled situations to live in it, but also shows the way for her contemporary women how to cope with the double colonization faced by every woman in their home and the society and thus contribute in the formation of nation and its identity. This proposed research seeks to explore the role of women in the formation of Bangladesh as a nation with the references to Tahmima Anam&rsquo;s fictions <em>A Golden Age</em> and <em>The Good Muslim</em>. <strong>Key Words: partition, 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation war, partition and gender, feminism, trans-nationalism</strong>

Background. As a notion, an opera theater led by a stage director has a strong presence in modern artistic practice, as it puts forward its own range of cognitive and evaluative tasks that undergo criticism. The fi rst task is related to compliance of the proposed rendition with the composer’s concept and music drama of a particular opera music piece. The second one is related to the director’s vision and understanding the peculiarities, which allows us to form an opinion about the comprehension degree of an author’s idea and the individuality of its implementation. The relevance of the designated semantic constants is reinforced by the variety of opera classics incarnation on famous opera stages. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to study and analyze the scenographic techniques that allow M. Marelli with his bright talent as a director to embody the opera plot and uncover incentive-psychological motifs that defi ne the deep content layer of G. Puccini’s “Turandot” opera. Methods. The study is based on a comparative method of analysis, with the help of which the validity of M. Marelli’s directorial concept by the dramatic concept and the semantic lines peculiarities of G. Puccini’s opera is revealed. Results. The stage performance of “Turandot” by G. Puccini on the famous opera stage of the Lake Constance was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Bregenz festival. For the implementation of this project, the Swiss stage director and designer Marco Arturo Marelli was invited for the fi rst time to organize it. The specifi c features of the huge stage forced all the natural conditions to be considered: wind, water, its level, and the weight of the theatrical scenery elements. Therefore, before creating the intended environment, M. Marelli built several preliminary models in search of the only solution that would combine the oriental fl avor and plot intrigue, hidden psychologism and bare emotions, intimacy and pompous mass scenes. The dramatic composition of the scenario, created by M. Marelli, makes it possible to tell how deep his comprehension of Puccini’s music is, as we observe its semantic components and the interaction of contrasting fi gurative lines, author’s remarks in the score, personal circumstances in the composer’s life, his letters, the conditions for creating an opera and a long search of ways to cut the knot of plot contradictions in the Finale part. The techniques he used reveal his artistic and aesthetic principles. This allowed him to create an organic fusion of intense musical and dramatic action, defused by ensemble, choral and dance scenes, visual effects that decode psychological subtext, and the theatrical scenery itself, which specifi es the exact place of events, complements the missing verbal commentary, allowing the stage area to look massive and versatile. As a result, the ideological concept of M. Marelli appears in the interdependence of the internal and external planes; their content is determined by his understanding and vision of the opera “here and now”, that is, as a single musical and theatrical piece. The internal plane is directly connected with the events of the fairy-tale plot, interpreted by the stage director’s individual consciousness. The external one forms the design of the performance through the variety of static and mobile forms, transformed according to the sequence of light effects, and the silent video by A. Kitzig, which gives a slight expressionistic taste. M. Marelli’s intellectual and emotional immersion in the “history” of the opera contributed to the formation of a symbolic by-plot through two fi gures: Puccini and Calaf (a character of the opera). It is played on a small platform at the bottom of the main stage, depicting the “blue room” (O. Schmitt), where you can see the instrument with the scores on the music stand, a table with a jewel-box on it, an armchair, and a bed. The man that appears clearly personifi es the composer, who “looks for” music ideas. As the events are unfolding, Calaf appears in the “room”; he is tormented by the desire to melt the cold heart of Turandot and feverishly looking for a way out of this situation. The novelty of interpreting a well-known fairy-tale plot lies in a fundamentally different motivation for the behavior of Turandot. She identifi es herself with Lou-Ling, who was tortured and murdered by a man long ago, so Turandot is driven by a thirst for revenge. The story about the cry of the miserable princess Turandot, which she constantly hears inside of her, looks differently as if she becomes one with her distant ancestor. By the end of the story, she appears as in a cocoon shell, unattainable and invincible. This is followed by a scene of puzzles that move events to a turning point in the plot twists and turns and mark a kind of a going-back fl ow of time. The director increases of effect of the symbolic line in the performance by adding the silent video by A. Kitzig. The parallel dynamics of the stage action and the metamorphosis of the masks visualizes the psychological component of Puccini’s opera. The whole set of plot and scenery means exists only with the purpose of revealing this psychological component. As a result, the scene of the test Calaf must pass acquires a different dimension, delineating the fate twists of both heroes. Again and again, the pieces of clothes fall down from Turandot like scales of a snake. This is accompanied by the transformation of the previously unfi red face of the mask, which ultimately cracks like a clay cast and fi nally collapses. The heroine remains in a thin silky dress shirt and tries to cover her bare shoulders with her hands. Her nakedness is akin to defenselessness, the loss of solid ground under your feet. This way, M. Marelli resolved not only the problem of the impossibility to show a psychological degeneration of personality on the huge stage by traditional acting techniques, but also contradictions of plot twists that haunted the composer. Conclusions. The experience of the Bregenz version shows that an important role played by the conditions of the stage space, which was used by a talented stage director and designer as a component of the multi-level system, where everything goes with accordance to the hierarchical subordination of the play. This seems to be the masterful combination of M. Marelli’s personal artistic and aesthetic philosophy, the features of the last opera by J. Puccini and all theatrical resources of a unique theatrical scene of the Lake Constance.

Grandcourt threw himself into a chair and said, with undertoned peremptoriness, “Sit down.” She, already in the expectation of something unpleasant, had thrown off her burnous with nervous unconsciousness, and immediately obeyed . . . “Oblige me in future by not showing whims like a mad woman in a play.” (502; ch. 36; emphasis added)NOVELISTIC HEROINES, like Gwendolen in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, become trapped in a complex network of social contradictions when they face the threat of marital violence in a world where such violence was thought not to exist — the middle and upper classes. Though increasing attention was paid to violence in the Victorian home as the century progressed, pamphlets, studies, and legislative inquiry significantly ommited sustained or systematic scrutiny of violence in the home that existed beyond the bounds of the working classes. Frances Power Cobbe’s important essay, “Wife Torture in England,” sought to raise public awareness about marital violence and to stimulate interest in protective legislation for the victims. Yet, in spite of Cobbe’s willingness to consider the possibility that some “gentlemen” might be guilty of abuse, she presents the phenomenon of wife abuse as safely distant from the comfortable quarters of the middle and upper classes, asserting that “the dangerous wife-beater belongs almost exclusively to the artisan and labouring classes” (55). In the debates surrounding the passage of the Divorce Act of 1857, Parliament repeatedly made apparent their belief that middle- and upper-class men could not be a danger to their wives by focusing exclusively on marital violence as a working-class issue. Only in “the humbler ranks of life [was] some prompt remedy” necessary; only “poor women” were conceived of as sufferers of violence at the hands of their husbands (Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., 145 [25 May 1857], col. 801–02).

The research focuses on depicting the life of two pivotal soldiers struggling to cope with the stress and horrors of war in terms of escapism and heroism which ensues from a comparative approach between Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage. The paper attempts to show how the main character, Billy Pilgrim, in Slaughterhouse-Five grapples while experiencing war incompetently and unpreparedly to ultimately discover his comfort zone through mental diversion from unpleasant aspects of his daily life instead of performing his duty to triumph over the enemy. Whereas in The Red Badge of Courage, the protagonist, Henry Fleming who is enlisted in the military service with his determination and heroic ambition tackles and escapes while seeking courage to fight in the battlefield in order to maintain a good reputation as a duty-bound, fearless and confident soldier. Furthermore, through the close-reading of key scenes and by relying on a thorough analysis of war experiences of the two protagonists in the addressed books, the characters’ aspirational endeavors, and the authors’ non-identical views of the war come to surface as they portray a soldier-like personality, one with idealized notions of glory and heroism whereas the other one representing the senselessness of war. The contrasting reactions of the two central characters towards the war offer stimulating areas for discussion and arouse controversial opinions about the behavior of the presuming war heroes and escapists and how they are attained. As a result of the characters’ dissimilar preferences in shaping their outer and inner personality in public and private life, the research demonstrates how they endeavour desperately to achieve this aim by feeding their brains with different ingredients. Billy, on the one hand, chooses to fight the pointless battle with his own imagination to ease his mind from the harsh reality, and on the other hand, Fleming tortures his mind with his heroic thoughts to win the battle while suffering from an internal conflict.

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; In recent years I have almost religiously gone to see something by or featuring Rafael Spregelburd whenever I visit Argentina, on stage or screen. On my last trip, this March, alongside two films(Florencia Percia’s debut Cetáceos and Lucrecia Martel’s historical drama Zama) and a talk, in conversation with the academic Gabriel Guz, it was his ambitious play La terquedad (Stubbornness). Spregelburd is widely acknowledged as one of Argentina’s most significant contemporary dramatists. His work appears regularly on European festival stages, and has won prizes worldwide. He has translated Harold Pinter, Sarah Kane, and other British playwrights for performance in Spanish. Yet it is a number of years now since The Argentine Moment appeared at London’s Royal Court, and his namewill hardly be familiar to British readers. Some may recognise him as a screen actor, playing the proverbially tortured political artist, gruff husband to the eponymous heroine, and love rival to SamHuntington’s lead in Nico Casavecchia’s Finding Sofia (2016).&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

RESUMEN En este trabajo se describe y analiza la escena representada en la pared norte del cuarto 2 del edificio de las pinturas de Bonampak. En este pasaje mural se representa la tortura y muerte de los vencidos en batalla por Chaan Muan II el 2 de agosto de 792. El derramamiento de sangre representado con enorme maestrí­a técnica se presenta en el mural como un acto heroico y ritual que garantiza el equilibrio cósmico; se expresa una sutil ideologí­a polí­tica que justifica la violencia como medio para conservar el orden social. ABSTRACT In this paper it is described and it analyzes the scene represented at the north wall in the Second Room of the Mural’s Building of Bonampak. In this mural it is represented the torture and death of the conquered ones in battle for Chaan Muan II in August 2, 792. The spill of blood represented with technical master shows up in the mural like a heroic and ritual act that it guarantees the cosmic balance; a political subtle ideology is expressed that justifies the violence like means to conserve the social order.

This book explores the notion of heroism from the feminist point of view by tackling notions such as curiosity and knowledge, deeds (masculine approach) vs stories (feminine approach), creativity (at the beginning limited to the domestic area) and inquisitiveness. It also reveals uncomfortable truths about how abuse, abduction, mutilation and torture forced women into silence. Moreover, the author points out that words have the power to resist injustice and that feminine heroism means the courage to break the silence and start telling ‘your’ story through different channels (weavings, books, social media etc).

In the Starz time-travel drama Outlander, World War II nurse Claire Randall is transported back to 1743 while visiting Scotland. While Claire initially tries to travel back to her husband Frank, she soon becomes caught up in rebellion and marries Scottish Jamie Fraser. Claire, an Englishwoman, is forced to acknowledge the harsh realities of British colonial rule in Scotland. Frank’s ancestor, British Captain “Black Jack” Randall, serves as a terrifying synecdoche for the colonization of Scotland. In this article, the author argues that Black Jack’s obsession with and eventual capture, torture, and rape of Jamie forces both Claire and the viewer to bear witness not only to Jamie’s own suffering but also to the devastating colonization of Scotland. Outlander constructs Jamie as a wild, romantic hero—paralleling Claire’s romanticization of Scotland—and then deconstructs this narrative as it forces its heroine to confront the devastation wrought by her own empire throughout history.

Political power, for individual women, was like a reputation for philosophy or a gift for painting. You had to be the daughter or wife of the right person: it was not possible to make a career, as a man sometimes could, by sheer talent for fighting or arguing or making. You also had to work in the interests of the family and keep a low personal profile.Plutarch, who believed that women were endowed with courage and intelligence, collected instances of Great Deeds by Women (Moralia 242–63). These occur in crises: his heroines do not have, and he does not advocate, an acknowledged social or political role. He admires Aretaphila (257de), who withstood torture, conspired successfully to kill a tyrant, declined an invitation from the people to join the government, and retired gracefully to private life in the women’s quarters. When women are found, in Plutarch’s time, holding magistracies and priesthoods (as they did in Asia Minor in the first and second centuries A.D.), or are honoured by their cities as public benefactors, they too are praised for modesty, charm, and self-restraint, as though everyone needed reassuring that no departure from convention was intended. In fact, it cannot be shown that such women ever chaired a meeting or addressed an assembly, or did more than foot the bills and acknowledge the applause. Some actually have public spokesmen; some are obviously the Lady Mayoress, the wife of the man who had the job.

The Forbidden Forest by Mircea Eliade is a “total novel,” whose complexity is evident on every page through the variety of suggestions, metaphors and symbols, of intertextual and mythological references. In this study, I will mostly discuss the penultimate chapter of this novel where the death of Biriș, the rational and sceptical philosopher, at the beginning a follower of the philosophy of Kierkegaard, is presented. In this troubling episode, I identified the presence of two myths whose unconscious actor this rational spirit currently anchored in history became. The myth—an exemplary story about foundation—seeks his Chosen One and finds him in the opposite of an intellectual, an “unbeliever,” just as Jesus chose his most bitter enemy, Paul of Tarsus, to become his faithful apostle. But the gnostic and religious philosopher also needs to believe in self-salvation from the clutches of the demon of fear and cowardice, and impending death, surrounded by friend-interrogators (Mihai Duma), by a compassionate executioner (Bîrsan), and demonic monks (Bursuc). The healing function of the story is lost in this world of suspicion, where Biriș is surrounded by masks, which disguise their true role. The myth of the sacrifice of Christ acquires a double saving power, because Biriș saves himself and redeems his torturers, too. By converting nocturnal stories into a sacred ritual of story, the destiny of Scheherazade, the heroine of One Thousand and One Nights, is saved from the banality of a simple literary character, because “the story in the story” provokes the human being to descend into the abyss and to live by the symbol. In the company of his interrogators—human aspects of demons—the frightened philosopher becomes the image of a Thracian Orpheus, trying in vain to “tame” the human beasts by his wise Logos. By the Logos, Biriș fails to rescue his torturers and himself from their own bestiality, but at the level of his “trance-conscious”—where Eliade speaks in his scientific work—he mystically lives a symbolic and mysterious superposition between the stages of the sacrifice of the shepherd in “Miorița” and those of the sacrifice of Christ. This intelligent, subtle and erudite intellectual lives deeply rooted in history with the consciousness of the presence of death in all intimate structures of life, a mentality specific to Western conception. In the last moments of his life, Biriș is converted to the sacred mystery of the Great Passing. Homo sapiens becomes Homo religiosus, the mysterious veil of Maya rises and the exit of the labyrinth is a certainty. The two myths which I take into account are the Orphic myth about the healing word and the mixture of the mioritic and the Christ myth of salvation through sacrifice.

Fan cultural production, be it in the form of fan fiction, art or videos are often celebrated in fan studies as evidence of fan creativity, fans’ skills in adopting technology and their expert knowledge of the texts. As Jenkins argues, “the pleasure of the form centers on the fascination in watching familiar images wrenched free from their previous contexts and assigned alternative meanings” (227). However, can fan mash-up videos can also offer an alternative view, not of one’s fandom, but of anti-fandom? Fan pleasure is often seen as declaring love for a text through juxtaposing images to sound in a mash-up video, but this paper will argue that it can also demonstrate hate. Specifically, can these videos affirm anti-fandom readings of a particular text, when clips from two (or more) different texts, seemingly of the same genre and targeting the same demographics, are edited together to offer an alternative story? In 2009, a video entitled Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed (hereafter BvE) (See Video 1) was uploaded to YouTube, juxtaposing clips from across the seven series of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and the first film of the Twilight series. Twilight is a series of novels written by Stephenie Meyer which was adapted into a successful series of five films between the period of 2008 and 2012. Its vampire-centric romance story has resulted in numerous comparisons to, among others, the cult and popular television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (hereafter Buffy) created by Joss Whedon, which aired from 1997 to 2003. In BvE, which has over three million views to date and reportedly has been translated into thirty different languages, Jonathan McIntosh, the video’s creator, “changes Edward Cullen from a smouldering, sparkly antihero into a self-obsessed stalker who's prone to throwing tantrums. Buffy Summers reacts to him with disdain and dwindling patience, assertively rebuking his every self-indulgence” (Leduc). By editing together clips from two texts seemingly of the same genre and targeting the same demographics, this video affirms an anti-fandom reading of Twilight. Video 1: Buffy vs Edward: Twilight RemixedOn the first viewing of the video, I was struck by how accurately it portrayed my own misgivings about Twilight, and by how I had wished Bella Swan was more like Buffy Summers and been a positive role model for girls and women. The content of the video mash-up—along with fan reactions to it—suggests and perpetuates an anti-fandom reading of Twilight via Buffy, by positioning the latter as a text with higher cultural value, in terms of its influence and representations of female characters. As McIntosh himself clarifies in an interview, “the audience is not supposed to go “Oh, see how TV is stupid?” They’re supposed to go “Oh, see how Buffy was awesome!”” (ikat381). As such, the BvE mash-up can be read, not just as a criticism of popular commercial texts, but also as an anti-fan production. Much work surrounding fan culture extrapolates on fans’ love for a text, but I’d like to propose that mash-ups such as BvE reaffirms anti-fandom readings of derided texts via another that is deemed—and presented—as culturally more valuable. In this essay, BvE will be used as an example of how anti-fandom productions can reinforce the audience’s opinion of a despised text. When BvE first launched, it was circulated widely among Buffy fandom, and the narrative of the mash-up, and its implications were debated rather fiercely on Whedonesque.com [http://whedonesque.com/comments/20883], one of the main sites for Joss Whedon’s fandom. Comparisons between the two texts, despite existing in different mediums (film vs. television), were common among general media—some survey respondents reveal they were persuaded to read the books or watch the first film by its assumed similarities to Buffy— as both feature somewhat similar storylines on the surface: a young, teenaged (human) girl falling in love with a vampire, and were presumably aimed at the same demographics of teenaged and college-aged girls. The similarities seem to end there though, for while Buffy is often hailed as a feminist text, Twilight is dismissed as anti-feminist, down to its apparently rabid and overly-emotional (female) fanbase. As one Buffy fan on Whedonesque clarifies: Buffy was more real than Bella ever thought of being. Buffy was flawed, made mistakes, bad decisions and we never saw her sort out a healthy romantic relationship but she was still a tremendous role model not for just teen girl but teen boys as well. […] Bella's big claim to fame seems to be she didn't sleep with her boyfriend before marriage but that was his choice, not hers. BvE appears to reflect the above comparison, as McIntosh justifies the video as “a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behaviour”—essentially a problem that Buffy, as a vampire slayer and a feminist icon can solve (for the greater good). For the purpose of this paper, I was interested to see if those who are active in fandom in general are aware of the BvE video, and if it informs or reaffirms their anti-fandom views of Twilight. Methodology A short online survey was devised with this in mind and a link to the survey was provided via Twitter (the link was retweeted 27 times), with the explanation that it is on Twilight anti-fandom and the BvE mash-up video. It was further shared on Facebook, by friends and peers. At the same time, I also requested for the link to be posted by the administrators of Whedonesque.com. Despite the posting at Whedonesque, the survey was not particularly aimed at Buffy fans, but rather fans in general who are familiar with both texts. The survey received 419 responses in the span of 24 hours, suggesting that the topic of (Twilight) anti-fandom is one that fans—or anti-fans—are passionately engaged with. Out of the 419 responses, 357 people have seen BvE, and 208 have read the book(s) and/or saw the film(s). The other 211 respondents came into contact with Twilight through paratexts, “semi-textual fragments that surround and position the work” (Gray New 72), such as trailers, word-of-mouth and news outlets. Anti-Fandom, Twilight, and the Buffy vs Edward Mash-Up Fan studies have given us insights into the world of fandom, informing us about the texts that fans love, what fans do with those texts and characters, and how fans interact with one another within the context of fandom. As Henry Jenkins explains: Fan culture finds that utopian dimension within popular culture a site for constructing an alternative culture. Its society is responsive to the needs that draw its members to commercial entertainment, most especially the desire for affiliation, friendship, community (282). Fan studies has obviously progressed from Jenkins’s initial observations as fan scholars subsequently proceed to complicate and augment the field. However, many gaps and silences remain to be filled: Hills (2002) […] argued that fandom is ‘not a thing that can be picked over analytically’ (pp. xi-xii) and separated into neat categories, but is a performative, psychological action that differs according to person, fandom, and generation (Sheffield and Merlo 209). In a 2003 article, Jonathan Gray reflects that in fan scholars’ enthusiasm to present the many interesting facets of fan culture, “reception studies are distorting our understanding of the text, the consumer and the interaction between them” (New Audiences 68). So while there is the friendship, affiliation and sense of community where fans share their mutual affection for their favourite texts and characters, there are also those who engage critically with the texts that they dislike. Gray identifies them as the anti-fans, arguing that these anti-fans are not “against fandom per se, […] but they strongly dislike a given text or genre, considering it inane, stupid, morally bankrupt and/or aesthetic drivel” (New New Audiences 70). Most anti-fans’ encounter with their hated text will not merely be through the text itself, but also through its surrounding paratexts, such as trailers and press articles. These paratextual pieces inform the anti-fan about the text, as much as the original text itself, and together they add to the formation of the anti-fannish identity: Rather than engaging the text directly, […] anti-fans often respond to a “text” they construct from paratextual fragments such as news coverage or word-of-mouth, reading, watching, and learning all they can about a show, book, or person in order to better understand and criticize the text (and, very often, its fans) (Sheffield and Merlo 209). Media attention directed at the Twilight franchise, as well as the attention Twilight fans receive has made it a popular subject in both fan and anti-fan studies. Dan Haggard, in a 2010 online posting, commented on the fascinating position of Twilight fans in popular culture: The Twilight fan is interesting because of reports (however well substantiated) of a degree of extremism that goes beyond what is acceptable, even when considered from a perspective relative to standard fan obsession. The point here is not so much whether Twilight fans are any more extreme than standard fans, but that there is a perception that they are so. (qtd. in Pinkowitz) Twilight fans are more often than not, described as “rabid” and “frenzied” (Click), particularly by the media. This is, of course, in total opposition to the identity of the fan as effective consumer or productive (free) labourer, which scholars like Baym and Burnett, for example, have observed. The anti-fandom in this case seems to go beyond the original text (both the books and the film franchises), extending to the fans themselves. Pinkowitz explains that the anti-fans she examined resent the success Twilight has amassed as they consider the books to be poorly written and they “strongly dislike the popular belief that the Twilight books are good literature and that they deserve the fanaticism its rabid fans demonstrate”. Some survey respondents share this view, criticising that the “writing is horrible”, the books have “awful prose” and “melodramatic characterisations”. Sheffield and Merlo demonstrate that the “most visible Twilight anti-fan behaviors are those that mock or “snark” about the “rabid” Twilight fans, who they argue, “give other fans a bad name”” (210). However, BvE presents another text with which Twilight can be compared to in the form of Buffy. As one survey respondent explains: Bella is a weak character who lacks agency. She lacks the wit, will-power, and determination that makes Buffy such a fun character. […] She is a huge step back especially compared to Buffy, but also compared to almost any modern heroine. Paul Booth argues that for mash-ups, or remixes, to work, as audiences, we are expected to understand—and identify—the texts that are referenced, even if they may be out of context: “we as audiences must be knowledgeable about both sources, as well as the convergence of them, in order to make sense of the final product”. Survey respondents have commented that the mash-up was “more about pleasing Buffy fans”, and that it was “created with an agenda, by someone who hates Twilight and loves Buffy,” which gives “a biased introduction to Buffy”. On the other hand, others have commented that the mash-up “makes [Twilight] seem better than it actually is”, and that it “reinforced [their] perceptions” of Twilight as a weaker text. Booth also suggests that mash-ups create new understandings of taste, of which I would argue that is reinforced through BvE, which McIntosh describes as a “metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21st century”. In fact, many of the survey respondents share McIntosh’s view, criticising Twilight as an anti-feminist text that, for all its supposed cultural influence, is sending a dangerous message to young girls who are the target demographic of the franchise. As they reflect: It bothers me that so many people (and especially women) love and embrace the story, when at its crux it is about a woman trying to choose between two men. Neither men are particularly good/safe for her, but the book romanticizes the possible violence toward Bella. The idea that Bella is nothing without Edward, that her entire life is defined by this man. She gives up her life—literally—to be with him. It is unhealthy and obsessive. It also implies to women that stalking behaviour like Edward's is romantic rather than illegal. I think what bothers me the most is how Meyers presents an abusive relationship where the old guy (but he's sparkly and pretty, so it's ok) in question stalks the heroine, has her kidnapped, and physically prevents her from seeing whom she wants to see is portrayed as love. In a good way. These testimonials show that fans take a moral stand towards Twilight’s representation of women, specifically Bella Swan. Twilight acts in counterpoint to a text like Buffy, which is critically acclaimed and have been lauded for its feminist representation (the idea that a young, petite girl has the power to fight vampires and other supernatural creatures). The fact that Buffy is a chronological older text makes some fans lament that the girl-power and empowerment that was showcased in the 1990s has now regressed down to the personification of Bella Swan. Gray argues that anti-fandom is also about expectations of quality and value: “of what a text should be like, of what is a waste of media time and space, of what morality or aesthetics texts should adopt, and of what we would like to see others watch or read” (New 73). This notion of taste, and cultural value comes through again as respondents who are fans of Buffy testify: It's not very well-written. I strongly dislike the weak parallels one could draw between the two. Yes Angel and Spike went through a creepy stalking phase with Buffy, and yes for a while there was some romantic triangle action but there was so much more going on. […] My biggest issue is with Bella's characterization. She has flaws and desires but she is basically a whiney, mopey blob. She is a huge step back especially compared to Buffy, but also compared to almost any modern heroine. There is tremendous richness in Buffy—themes are more literate, historically allusive and psychologically deeper than boy-meets-girl, girl submits, boy is tamed. Edward Cullen is white-faced and blank; Spike and Angel are white-faced and shadowed, hollowed, sculpted—occasionally tortured. Twilight invites teen girls to project their desires; Spike and Angel have qualities which are discovered. Buffy the character grows and evolves. Her environment changes as she experiences the world around her. Decisions that she made in high school were re-visited years later, and based on her past experiences, she makes different choices. Bella, however, loses nothing. There's no consequence to her being turned. There's no growth to her character. The final act in the mash-up video, of Buffy slaying Edward can be seen as a re-empowerment for those who do not share the same love for Twilight as its fans do. In the follow-up to his 2003 article that launched the concept of anti-fandom, Gray argues that: Hate or dislike of a text can be just as powerful as can a strong and admiring, affective relationship with a text, and they can produce just as much activity, identification, meaning, and “effects” or serve just as powerfully to unite and sustain a community or subculture (Antifandom 841). Conclusion The video mash-up, in this case, can be read as an anti-fandom reading of Twilight via Buffy, in which the superiority of Buffy as a text is repeatedly reinforced. When asked if the mash-up video would encourage the survey respondents to consider watching Twilight (if they have not before), the respondents’ answers range from a repeated mantra of “No”, to “It makes me want to burn every copy”, to “Not unless it is to mock, or for the purpose of a drinking game”. Not merely resorting to mocking, what McIntosh’s mash-up video has given Twilight anti-fans is yet another paratextual fragment with which to read the text (as in, Edward Cullen is creepy and controlling, therefore he deserves to be slayed, as should have happened if he was in the Buffy universe instead of Twilight). In other words, what I am suggesting here is that anti-fandom can be enforced through the careful framing of a mash-up video, such as that of the Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed mash-up, where the text considered more culturally valuable is used to read and comment on the one considered less valuable. References Baym, Nancy, and Robert Burnett. Amateur Experts: International Fan Labour in Swedish Independent Music. Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008. Booth, Paul. “Mashup as Temporal Amalgam: Time, Taste, and Textuality.” Transformative Works and Cultures 9 (2012): n. pag. 3 Apr. 2013 &lt; http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/297/285 &gt;. Click, Melissa. “‘Rabid’, ‘Obsessed’, and ‘Frenzied’: Understanding Twilight Fangirls and the Gendered Politics of Fandom.” Flow 11.4 (2009): n. pag. 18 June 2013 &lt; http://flowtv.org/2009/12/rabid-obsessed-and-frenzied-understanding-twilight-fangirls-and-the-gendered-politics-of-fandom-melissa-click-university-of-missouri/ &gt;. Gray, Jonathan. “Antifandom and the Moral Text: Television without Pity and Textual Dislike.” American Behavioral Scientist 48 (2005): 840–858. ———. “New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and Non-Fans.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 6.1 (2003): 64–81. Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures. London: Routledge, 2002. ikat381. “Total Recut Interviews Jonathan McIntosh about Buffy vs. Edward.” Total Recut 24 Dec. 2009. 20 July 2013 &lt; http://www.totalrecut.com/permalink.php?perma_id=265 &gt;. Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans &amp; Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992. Leduc, Martin. “The Two-Source Illusion: How Vidding Practices Changed Jonathan McIntosh’s Political Remix Videos.” Transformative Works and Cultures 9 (2012): n. pag. 19 July 2013 &lt; http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/379/274 &gt;. McIntosh, Jonathan. “Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed.” Rebelliouspixels 20 June 2009. 2 Apr. 2013 &lt; http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/2009/buffy-vs-edward-twilight-remixed &gt;. Pinkowitz, Jacqueline. “‘The Rabid Fans That Take [Twilight] Much Too Seriously’: The Construction and Rejection of Excess in Twilight Antifandom.” Transformative Works and Cultures 7 (2011): n. pag. 21 June 2013 &lt; http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/247/253 &gt;. Sheffield, Jessica, and Elyse Merlo. “Biting Back: Twilight Anti-Fandom and the Rhetoric of Superiority.” Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media and the Vampire Franchise. Eds. Melissa Click, Jessica Stevens Aubrey, &amp; Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz. New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 2010. 207–224.

Introduction The dark silhouette of Batman (Robert Pattinson) emerges from the shadows on a rainy night, confronting a gang at a train station. One of their members asks, “what the hell are you supposed to be?”, before moving to attack. Batman quickly disarms the gang member, but in contrast to many of the character’s incarnations – on the screen and the comic book page – who would knock the criminal out before moving on, this Batman pummels the gang member even after he’s been knocked to the ground. With a throaty growl Batman responds, “I’m vengeance”, then proceeds to violently assault the other gang members. So begins The Batman, director Matt Reeves’s 2022 adaptation of the Caped Crusader. In addition to the title character’s willingness to inflict violent punishment beyond the boundaries of how the character usually operates, the film inhabits a cinematic realm blending aspects of the noir and gothic genres similar to Tim Burton’s original Batman film (1989) and the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012). Where The Batman most stands apart from the other cinematic adaptations is its willingness to imbue the main character with traits that arguably deconstruct him as a psychologically damaged yet overly empathetic vigilante, at once alienated from his colleagues yet yearning for connection in a way other cinematic Batmen have not. Compounding this characterisation is the use of gothic and noir tropes which combine in intriguing subversions; Batman embodies the noir role of the dark detective with a chip on his shoulder headed for a bad end, yet is ensnared by the gothic’s connection to trauma and the uncanny as a figure of horror born of grounded, relatable injury. In a further twist of expected conventions, despite Batman’s arguably psychopathic traits and the dark, gloomy atmosphere suggesting that bad end, the film concludes with optimism, hope, and personal growth, suggesting a casting-off of the noir and gothic aspects in favour of psychological healing. In this article we discuss the intriguing dichotomy of The Batman as noir, gothic, and more besides from perspectives of media studies and psychology. We outline how both the noir and gothic genres inflect the film and the title character with expected conventions and qualities that are drawn from psychological aspects of empathy, trauma, and personal distress, and how the film presents a version of Batman working through these issues and who may end up a more stable, sane psychopath than the others who have worn the mantle on the big screen. Finally, we conclude by theorising what a gothic noir reading of Batman implies for the larger state of the character – and the uniqueness of Pattinson’s on-screen version of the character – and for understanding anti-heroism more broadly as a staple of the noir genre. Batman as Gothic Noir Character Our research locates Pattinson’s Batman at an intersection of two neighbouring genres. The first is of course film noir, concerned with the use of the “hard-boiled detective” and associated tropes – the femme fatale, focus on crime and murder, dark-hued cinematography, and so on. While previous Batman media have included noir stylings and influences, arguably The Batman is the first on-screen adaptation of the character to fully embrace and embody the genre compared to previous uses of camp (Batman: The Movie, 1966, and Batman and Robin, 1997), post-9/11 “terror tv” (The Dark Knight, 2008) and the gothic (Batman, 1989, and Batman Returns, 1992). This latter genre is the second cross-point of The Batman, with the film drawing upon gothic tropes more aligned with the abject, grounded repulsion of human- and self-based horror than with the fantastic and somewhat distanced gothic tropes inherent to the monster and vampire fiction subgenres. In essence, The Batman presents a superhero embroiled in the noir atmosphere of a crime-ridden Gotham whilst dealing with the personal horrors inflicted upon himself and those around him as a gothic protagonist. In a manner similar to Blade Runner’s (1982) combination of film noir and sci-fi, The Batman integrates its film noir tropes into the superhero genre. There is an initial thematic dissonance at work in this fusion, given the wish-fulfilment aspect of the superhero – a figure we may wish to embody or emulate as well as look up to – clashing with the distanced, emotionally isolated nature of the noir protagonist. Very few viewers could say they would want to be Pattinson’s Batman, given how alienating and emotionally bereft he is. Where emulation may be employed is in the desire for exacting justice upon the unjust through Batman’s vigilantism, offering a figure of power and agency that audiences can engage with despite him being an extrajudicial figure (Brooker; Langley; Comerford “The Hero”). In the film, Pattinson’s Batman does not yet enjoy the implicit acceptance of his vigilantism by law enforcement which characterises many of his adaptations; his relationship with Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) is fraught and the Gotham Police Department has a tenuous partnership with him. While he is what Jacques Derrida would consider to be a pharmakon, a figure who alternately helps and hurts Gotham’s situation through his action as both “a remedy and a poison” (Derrida and Johnson 73), he is not legitimated as a necessary tool of dispensing justice. This means Batman is not yet the figure of the state of exception (Agamben) which enables him to undertake crimefighting as an extraordinary extrajudicial practice necessitated by crisis, something which is again inherent to the Batman adaptations mentioned previously. Instead, Pattinson’s Batman hews much closer to the figure of an anti-heroic noir protagonist, “a lone hero, usually some kind of detective or investigator” operating in a city “portrayed as vile and evil … where people are sinful and untrustworthy … abounding in crime” (Flisfeder 103-4). His status as a nascent vigilante waging a one-man war on crime illustrates him as an outsider even before the film explores Bruce Wayne’s tortured psychology and emotional isolation. It is because of this isolation that Pattinson’s Batman is made more complex through the addition of the gothic to the noir. It is made clear through his actions and his narrated entries in his journals that Batman sees himself as becoming an embodiment of fear and violence necessary to secure Gotham; in effect, becoming a monster to stop the monsters. Gothic tropes of inhuman horrors and fear of the unknown marry monstrosity and abjection, a terror made of humanity yet exaggerated into almost mythic status through symbols and disbelief (see Punter; Spooner). Batman makes a conscious effort to be a monstrous symbol of violence to criminals, manifested in a scene where a criminal sees the light of the Batsignal in the sky and runs in fear of a darkened road where he believes Batman may be waiting. Aside from Gotham being a crime-riddled hellhole, Batman’s actions are driven by internal horror and an inability to emotionally process his trauma after seeing his parents murdered at a young age, a trauma which in the gothic tradition haunts him as an inescapable facet (Punter and Byron). His surrogate father figure and butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), aids Batman in fighting crime and attempts to do the same for his emotional maturation and growth, but Bruce rejects Alfred’s attempts to help as anything other than an aide to Batman’s campaign. A strand of The Batman’s narrative concerns Bruce’s eventual attempt to overcome his emotional isolation and realise his ability to do more than just break bones and scare people. In this manner the gothic as a genre of exploring trauma (Hogle) is also utilised to add to Batman’s nuances. While Pattinson’s Batman arguably improves emotionally by the end of the film, potentially breaking free from the “noir lone hero” archetype and into something still gothic yet healing, the journey to arrive at that conclusion spells out troubling facets of the character that are sharpened through the combination of the gothic and noir genres. Though many interpretations of the character strongly imply a close connection between Batman’s actions and the murderous antics of the villains he faces – arguing that he is only one bad day away from joining them in Arkham Asylum (Morrison) –, rarely has there been a version of the character that embodies so starkly many elements of outright psychopathy. Conflicted Sense of Self-Help through Hurt and the “Empathy Cost” Problem Batman, a dark and brooding figure with a dearth of emotions and penchant for violence, encapsulates the hallmarks of a psychopath. Using Hare et al.’s (394) Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), this anti-hero would score highly on several criteria, including shallow affect, lack of remorse/guilt, criminal versatility, and the need for stimulation. However, many other criteria would not be met (e.g., pathological lying; conning/manipulative; superficial charm), meaning they would fall below the threshold of clinical psychopathy. Psychopathy is most known for its association with a lack of empathy and callous/unemotional traits (Hare et al. 392). On the surface Batman would seem to be high on these criteria; however, we argue this may not be the case. What Batman does display are characteristics of boldness (calmness under pressure or threat; high self-assurance; tolerance for danger; thrill seeking) and meanness (excitement seeking; empowerment through cruelty; Patrick et al. 926-8). These traits are synonymous with the primary psychopath: one who demonstrates low anxiety and social effectiveness (Patrick et al. 918). Batman also embodies other dark traits from the constellation of Dark Triad characteristics (Jonason et al. 194; Greenwood et al. 166). This construct represents personality traits (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) that are often thought of as negative and maladaptive (Jones and Paulhus 28). Born of trauma, Batman demonstrates high levels of aggression, antisociality, and grandiosity through being special and entitled (Jonason et al. 193; Wang 1007), personality factors that are most often associated with narcissism and psychopathy. However, the presence of these ‘dark’ traits does not necessarily exclude other positive characteristics, such as empathy, which add to the complexity of his gothic noir characterisation. Heym et al. identified a cluster of individuals high in both dark traits and empathy. The Dark Empath displays selfish and untrusting or contentious behaviours, despite the high levels of empathy. Whilst lower in aggression than the Dark Traits cluster (low empathy, high dark traits) the dark empath still displays higher levels of aggression than typical (Heym et al. 7). Batman does not strictly adhere to all of Heym et al.’s (8) dark empath qualities, being higher in interpersonal aggression; however, this research demonstrates that, in the real world at least, psychopathy, narcissism, and empathy are not all mutually exclusive. Whilst Batman comes across as unempathetic and unemotional, these qualities are, like the one he dons, a mask. His empathy is targeted towards those few who are close to him and those whom he deems worthy of it: respectively, Alfred and the citizens of Gotham City. Importantly, Batman denies himself compassion and empathy, and does not expect it in return, something in keeping with noir tropes of the loner hero. By compartmentalising these emotions, he distances himself from humanity, de-humanising himself. This is a protective mechanism that grants freedom for him to commit the highly violent acts he does, in order to bring ‘justice’ to those who deserve it; the cost of being the ‘hero’ is that he cannot indulge in the human condition, for to do so completely would be to see himself as a true monster. In this way, Batman portrays himself as unfeeling, uncaring (to a degree), and a psychopath. The juxtaposition of both Batman and the film’s primary villain, The Riddler (Paul Dano), as two different types of psychopaths not only imbues the film with an unrelentingly dark tone – again, in keeping with many other film noir texts – but also blurs the lines between pure good and pure evil. The Riddler, whilst embodying more of Hare’s psychopathic traits, is still enacting vengeance against corrupt officials, which could possibly be seen as a type of heroism. But viewers lack an affinity for The Riddler the way they do for Batman, given that the former’s mental instability takes him beyond the reach of ‘normal’ understanding. Whilst Batman is ruthless, The Riddler is more so, garishly displaying his gruesome punishments for the whole city to see. It is both warning and theatre. The Riddler revels in his ability to unnerve, regardless of the cost to others, as is demonstrated in his disregard for safety when attacking the funeral of Don Mitchell Jr. (Rupert Penry-Jones). Batman at least has some redeeming qualities, though they are few. He saves children and innocents, and demonstrates care towards others – albeit a limited number – such as Alfred and the Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz). His inability to protect Alfred is a cause of angst and anguish for him, making him strive harder to find the one responsible. He tries to protect Catwoman by convincing her not to kill the cop, knowing that she will ‘never come back’ from that; in a twist on noir tropes, Catwoman as the typical femme fatale becomes a figure of redemption rather than a cause of the hero’s downfall or a tragic murder victim. But the miasma of despair and fear that seems to follow Batman makes connections otherwise difficult. Even those who need to work closely with him, such as Gordon and the GCPD, are uncomfortable in his presence, resulting in further isolation of the anti-hero (Sánchez and Vidal-Mestre 256). This perceived lack of empathy, the absence of emotional displays, the difficulty with connections, and the inability to relate to people can be seen as character flaws, emphasising the anti-heroic nature of the character (Wang 1006). In this case though it is arguable that each of these is a deliberate conscious choice Batman makes. He does this in order to become the monster he believes he needs to be, undertaking a sacrifice to be the saviour of Gotham. It is a mistake to believe Pattinson’s Batman lacks empathy, whether as a deliberate choice to excise it or not. A lack of empathy would mean he would not understand another’s pain or distress. Instead, he has an over-abundance of emotional empathy. Davis (118) defines empathy as having both cognitive and affective elements, such as empathic concern (concern and compassion for others) and personal distress (the discomfort you feel in the face of another’s distress). Batman experiences a great deal of personal distress, feeling the pain of others acutely. In part this is what drives him: that desire to relieve not only others’ pain, but his own. Empathy is also commonly associated with morality, or more precisely moral action (see Hoffman 221). Whilst Batman obviously has a moral code, that code is fluid and malleable – also a distinctly noir trait, for the loner hero willing to break the legal and moral rules to succeed. For instance, Batman will work with criminals in order to fulfil his goals, although his distaste in doing so is obvious. This moral fluidity, and his code of the end justifying the means, places Batman in morally ambiguous territory, underpinning his dark persona of ruthlessness, and reinforcing his noir anti-hero positioning (Sánchez and Vidal-Mestre 256; Wang 1006). Batman is what Comerford (“Ambiguous” 4) refers to as a liminal hero, inhabiting the spaces between the black and the white. In true noir fashion, Batman stalks the grey areas between hero and villain, between good and evil, between empath and psychopath. Whilst traditionally these latter two concepts sit diametrically opposed, as demonstrated in Heym et al.’s (7) research, they can be found together in the dark empath. Batman is able to be both aggressive and empathetic by compartmentalising his empathy and walling off his emotions. His high emotional empathy acts as the motivator for violence to protect those he sees as innocent. But as we can see, navigating this liminal emotional space comes at a high cost. Conclusion: A Hopeful Batman? We have examined noir and gothic facets of both Batman and The Batman through brief explorations of media studies and psychology, arguing that the film and this version of the character offer a unique representation of a character traditionally associated with darkness. The Batman combines gothic tropes of horror and gruesomeness with noir tropes of the ‘hard boiled’ detective, as Batman seeks to bring to justice Gotham’s latest serial killer, the Riddler. This iteration of Batman embraces his anti-heroism, engaging in extreme acts of violence in order to visit justice upon the unjust. With its sepia tones and dreary atmosphere, this film pushes the limits of the liminal hero, leveraging both the noir and the gothic to portray a dark study of the tortured human condition. Concurrently, the film ends with what is arguably an optimistic ending. Bucking common film noir trends, Batman does not die, nor does he become relegated to the fringes of society as a loner once more, but instead he is embraced by the public as a hero, saving them from the breaching of the Gotham sea wall. Gothically speaking, while Bruce Wayne’s trauma is still present, he has shown promising signs of healing through his horror, evidenced by his willingness to mend his relationship with Alfred. As if to underscore this optimism, Batman’s final scenes feature him – a nighttime vigilante usually occupying the shadows – standing in daylight. References Agamben, Giorgio. State of Exception. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2005. Brooker, Will. Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-First Century Batman. London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Comerford, Chris. “Ambiguous Heroism: Anti-Heroes and the Pharmakon of Justice.” IM: Interactive Media 1.11 (2016): 1-13. ———. “The Hero We Need, Not the One We Deserve: Vigilantism and the State of Exception in Batman Incorporated.” Graphic Justice: Intersections of Comics and Law. Ed. Thom Giddens. Oxon: Routledge, 2015. 183-200. Davis, Mark H. Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. Routledge, 2018. Derrida, Jacques, and Barbara Johnson. Dissemination. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981. Flisfeder, Matthew. Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. Giddens, Thom. “Natural Law and Vengeance: Jurisprudence on the Streets of Gotham.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 28 (2015): 765-785. Greenwood, D., Angelique Ribieras, and Allan Clifton. “The Dark Side of Antiheroes: Antisocial Tendencies and Affinity for Morally Ambiguous Characters.” Psychology of Popular Media 10.2 (2021): 165–177. Hare, Robert D., Stephen D. Hart, and Timothy J. Harpur. "Psychopathy and the DSM-IV Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100.3 (1991): 391. Heym, Nadja, Fraenze Kibowski, Claire A.J. Bloxsom, Alyson Blanchard, Alexandra Harper, Louise Wallace, Jennifer Firth, and Alexander Sumich. "The Dark Empath: Characterising Dark Traits in the Presence of Empathy." Personality and Individual Differences 169 (2021): 110-172. Hogle, Jerrold.E. “History, Trauma and the Gothic in Contemporary Western Fictions”. The Gothic World. Eds. Glennis Byron and Dale Townshend. Oxon: Routledge, 2014. 72-81. Hoffman, Martin L. "Empathy, Social Cognition, and Moral Action." Handbook of Moral Behavior and Development. Psychology Press, 2014. 275-302. Jonason, Peter K., Gregory D. Webster, David P. Schmitt, Norman P. Li, and Laura Crysel. "The Antihero in Popular Culture: Life History Theory and the Dark Triad Personality Traits." Review of General Psychology 16.2 (2012): 192-199. Jones, Daniel N., and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A Brief Measure of Dark Personality Traits." Assessment 21.1 (2014): 28-41. Langley, Travis. Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2012. Loock, Kathleen. Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture. Oakland: U of California P, 2024. Morrison, Grant. Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero. London: Jonathan Cape, 2011. Patrick, Christopher J., Don C. Fowles, and Robert F. Krueger. "Triarchic Conceptualization of Psychopathy: Developmental Origins of Disinhibition, Boldness, and Meanness." Development and Psychopathology 21.3 (2009): 913-938. Punter, David. The Literature of Terror, Volume 1: The Gothic Tradition, Second Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education, 1996. Punter, David, and Glennis Byron. The Gothic. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Sánchez, Alfonso Freire, and Montserrat Vidal-Mestre. "The Concept of Anti-Hero or Anti-Heroine in Contemporary Audiovisual Transmedia." Notebooks.info 52 (2022): 246-265. Spooner, Catherine. Contemporary Gothic. London: Reaktion Books, 2006. Wang, Zhiqi. "Popular Anti-Heroes: Origin, Changes, and Influences." The International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies, 2023. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/3/2022796.

Introduction "Barbie has a great day every day, but Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him", states the narrator in Barbie (2023). Directed by Greta Gerwig, the film not only claimed the title of the highest-grossing film of the year but also prompted its audience to reconsider a character they had previously mostly overlooked; another one of Barbie’s many accessories: Ken. Ken's identity as Barbie's companion is fundamentally dependent upon the presence and recognition of his more prominent female counterpart. This highlights Ken's secondary role, where he serves as a supporting figure to Barbie's idealised existence. Akin to a Manic Pixie Dream Boy (MPDB) overshadowed by Barbie, we realise Ken’s lack of identity. Throughout the film, Ken, initially depicted as identity-less, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, challenging the confines imposed by white patriarchy, although it doesn’t seem that way at first. This article will first establish Ken's MPDB status, highlighting traits such as (a) seeking to elevate and challenge the main character’s beliefs, (b) harbouring both gentleness and deviousness, while also engaging in playful yet mildly destructive mischief, (c) acting as a catalyst for change, (d) exhibiting a desire to escape, disappear, or transform, leaving valuable lessons behind, and (e) existing solely within the perception of or for the benefit of the main character. Subsequently, it will follow his journey, ultimately examining how a humanoid doll undergoes healing particularly concerning gender issues. Through the deconstruction of his narrative, this article aims to uncover the underlying power dynamics at play and to explore how Ken's transformation contributes to broader conversations surrounding gender fluidity and representation. By doing so, the article will provide an understanding of Ken's role and contribution to the feminist cause, while also offering insights into the broader cultural significance of the film. Manic Pixie Dream Girl In contemporary discourse, the term MPDGirl has gained recognition following its coinage by Nathan Rabin: “that bubbly, shallow, cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures” (Rabin, "The Bataan"). It rapidly gained eminence within popular culture, precipitating a widespread societal fixation on the quest for mining more MPDGs, up to the point where Rabin himself voiced his regret about coining the term ("I’m Sorry"). However, the MPDG was already a presence among us. As Laurie Penny states in the article "I Was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl", “Like scabies and syphilis, Manic Pixie Dream Girls were with us long before they were accurately named”. Additionally, Gouck contends that “the Pixie is a descendant of the Classical Muse and also has roots in the Pygmalion myth” (527). Thus, tracing from these foundational mythical and ancient iterations to contemporary relatives such as the Earnest Elfin Dream Gay (EEDG) and the “Magical Negro”, popularised by Spike Lee, reveals a diverse family tree. Although various writers for online platforms have declared the demise of the MPDG (Eby; Harris; Stoeffel), the trope constantly found ways to revive itself. Harris, in her 2012 article "Is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Dead?", claimed that the trope has been turned on its head with later iterations like Ruby Sparks, “depicting a writer (Paul Dano) whose idealistic, winsome female character comes to life and challenges patriarchal notions of what women actually want”. Tannenbaum, on the other hand, suggested that the MPDG isn’t dead but just evolved through a loophole: the tragic backstory. This article contends that as long as a concept remains in circulation, it cannot die. Thus, even this article itself contributes to the preservation of the phenomenon in question. Manic Pixie Dream Boy In 2012, Molly Lambert introduced a notable extension of the MPDG archetype: the MPDB. Lambert described the MPDB as a character who uplifts the heroine's self-confidence through comfort, inspiration, and nurturing support, without expecting anything in return. He … tamps down her … temper while appreciating her quirks … . He’s a nerd, but not an angry … one. He’s handsome, but he has no idea … . His … hobbies might be immature … but it doesn’t extend to his emotions … . He’s a selfless, responsible Peter Pan. (Lambert) The likening of the MPDB to a selfless and responsible Peter Pan is flawed. One of the main reasons that make Peter Pan Peter Pan is that he doesn’t want to become an adult and be burdened with responsibilities. Additionally, the notion of the MPDB wanting nothing in return is flawed, as the MPDB's actions are usually driven by a fixation obsession rather than genuine altruism. Consequently, rather than epitomising selflessness, the MPDB defined by Lambert aligns more closely with an idealised EveryWoman’sDreamBoy archetype. In 2015, Anna Breslaw introduced another definition, labelling the MPDB as a “self-mythologizing ‘free-spirited’ dude”; however, it still remains unclear and unsatisfactory. Since its inception, there has been a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of the MPDB. Originally rooted in a female-centric trope, it requires careful interpretation. When the definitions of the MPDB are applied as previously stated, it effectively transforms into an archetype that conventionally represents many women's ideal. However, unlike the MPDG, who is characterised by her eccentricity, the previous definitions of the MPDB reject this norm. Drawing inspiration from figures such as Peter Pan, Puck, King Kong, the Amphibian Man, the Beast, and Edward Scissorhands, the MPDB embodies a blend of comfort and chaos. This dichotomy is exemplified in Ken, who fulfills the role of comfort and chaos for Barbie, yet finds himself unwanted and unneeded. The real MPDB is defined by five core features that distinguish it from the misinterpreted notion often associated with the trope. a) The MPDB seeks to elevate and challenge the main character’s beliefs: Ken consistently tries to alter Barbie’s perceptions, as evidenced by his persistent attempts to reshape her opinion of him beyond superficial interests. This is exemplified by his pursuits beyond conventional activities, such as his daring act of running into the plastic waves, a seemingly unprecedented action that surprises, shocks, or scares those around him. b) The MPDB harbours both gentleness and deviousness, while engaging in playful yet mildly destructive mischief: Ken exhibits a dual nature, demonstrating kindness and charm towards Barbie while simultaneously harbouring ulterior motives, including a deep-seated desire to become Barbie's romantic partner. This complexity in character can be likened to the “nice guy syndrome”, where benevolent actions may mask underlying intentions. Furthermore, upon his return to build patriarchy, this desire is accentuated, showcasing his multilayered personality. c) The MPDB acts as a catalyst for change: Ken serves as an important force in instigating transformation, as demonstrated by the significant shifts that occur in both Barbieland and Barbie's life due to Ken's presence. His actions challenge Barbie's beliefs, whether intentionally or inadvertently, leading her to perceive new perspectives and undergo personal growth. d) The MPDB exhibits a desire to escape, disappear, or transform, leaving valuable lessons behind: Throughout Ken's MPDB journey, his inclination towards escapism, disappearance, or transformation becomes evident. While his initial desire to accompany Barbie may stem from romantic aspirations, it is also fuelled by the rivalry among the Kens. Once Ken realises there is more than Barbieland and he can want different things, he expresses his desire for change. As Ken evolves and heals, he undergoes a transformation, ultimately becoming a changed entity, yet leaving behind significant lessons that pave the way for the transformation of Barbieland and Barbie. e) The MPDB exists solely within the perception of or for the benefit of the main character: Ken’s presence is exclusively crafted within the perspective of, or to serve the needs of, the main character. According to a 2017 GQ article, Michael Shore, the head of Mattel's global consumer insights at the time, states that, “Ken was really viewed as more of an accessory in Barbie’s world, to support the narrative of whatever was happening with the girls” (qtd. in Weaver). This perspective reinforces Ken's role as arm candy within Barbie's world, serving as a complement to her endeavors at a ratio of about 1:7 (Weaver). This aspect highlights the trope's function as a narrative construct intended to support and shape the protagonist's storyline and growth. The MPDB Ken Ken (Ryan Gosling) makes his debut appearance in the Barbie movie at the eight-minute mark. While the narrative primarily revolves around Barbie, Ken's introduction is a subtle but significant moment. As Barbieland unfolds before us, Ken's delayed entrance, as another inhabitant of Barbieland, draws attention. Barbie is everywhere, but where is Ken? Amidst the cheerful exchanges of “Hi Barbie, Hi Ken”, Ken's behavior stands out—he doesn't reciprocate the greeting with other Kens, he only greets Barbie. Ken's omission from acknowledging his fellow Kens seems like a deliberate choice—a denial of their existence, perhaps suggesting that he perceives himself as the sole Ken of significance in Barbieland. His exclusive greeting to Barbie highlights this notion; in his world, Barbie is paramount, and other Kens are unimportant in comparison. We understand that there is a rivalry going on between the Kens; there is no Kenship, mainly between Ken (Gosling) and Ken (Simu Liu). The same evening at the party, while all the Barbies wear complementary yet distinct clothes, the Kens are dressed uniformly in identical outfits. This lack of individuality strips them of identity, claims Roche, “it is a training, an element in the education of controlled individual power ... designed to shape the physique … of [an] individual” (228-9). Uniforms shape individuality into collectivity and thus cause a lack of identity. The white and gold motifs on Kens’ jumpsuits may symbolise collectivity. They are a team; they are minds that have never been shaped before, they are accessories. The 'K' emblem on their jackets further emphasises their lack of identity. Costume designer Jacqueline Durran “imagined Gosling’s character as ‘almost like an accessory’ where his main function is to just be there and match her look. The Kens could all be dressed the same because there wasn’t meant to be anything distinct about them” (Zemler, "Dressing Barbie"). This point is even more highlighted in a scene where Barbie and Ken are in the car going to the real world, where Ken has another jumpsuit that is covered with the letter “B”. In the absence of the other Kens he is even more of an accessory, and even wearing something with his initials is denied, he is Barbie’s property. Contact with Patriarchy Barbie and Ken enter the real world, and interestingly, while throughout the travel sequence, Barbie is in front of Ken, leading Ken, in the shot where they enter the real world, Ken is in front of Barbie. Ken, for the first time alone, somehow ends up at Century City: “it is the antithesis of Barbieland”, says Greenwood, “there is an homage to the male construction industry and the male gaze” (Zemler, "On Location"). Men who are passing him say “excuse me, sir, thanks man, what’s up bud”. This new world that he encounters in Century City is giving him an identity. For the first time, he is something more than an unwanted MPDB. He is sir, he is man, he is bud. Since the Kens exist as a second-class species whose sole purpose is to cheer the Barbies on, he cannot comprehend his actual yearning, he thinks common decency (someone saying excuse me) is what patriarchy is. A fish out of water, the manic pixie Ken creates a pastiche of everything he encounters to assume this new identity: male presidents, mini-fridges, golf, a fur coat, and even horses. His first interaction with horses is through two police officers riding horses. Believing that horses are an important part of patriarchy, Ken wearing a cowboy outfit too, internalises the bond between horse and man. Pickel-Chavelier, in a study about horse stories, states that “the horse has been a fundamental element in the evolution of Western civilization” (120). Robinson argues that historically “the human-horse relationship was male-dominated, reflecting the horses’ role as a work tool and the traditional placing of power and power sources under the control of men” (44). Thus, the rider has been considered to have “increased power and an increased sense of power” while evoking “a sense of inferiority and envy” in pedestrians (Robinson 43). Studying the human-horse relationship through the American mounted police, Lawrence claimed that the mounted police have close relationships with their horses. Robinson states that “the officers spend much time with their animals each day and develop a sense of trust” (43). Ken's admiration of horses likely symbolises his evolving understanding of masculinity and power dynamics within patriarchy. Being introduced to horses as symbols of authority and control, he understands them as companions embodying strength, loyalty, and trust. This explains how he understands masculinity as a realm where power is defined by mutual respect and partnership, rather than dominance, which is also probably the reason why he loses interest in patriarchy when he realises it’s not about horses. Nicholas, in their article "Ken’s Rights?", claims that “radicalization … is often motivated by feelings among … men of being left behind by a feminist world or system that doesn’t value them. This then leads them to long for an imagined natural order of patriarchy where women are back in their place and men regain their entitlements”. Ken’s frustration leads him to introduce patriarchy to his fellow Kens, envisioning a transformation of Barbieland into a new Century City. This shift reflects Ken’s Manic Pixie healing journey: rather than being solely an MPDB, Ken slowly constructs an identity under patriarchy for himself. Drawing from Connell's perspective on hegemonic masculinity, which posits that masculinity is always constructed in response to subordinated masculinities, we see how Ken's desire for change extends to altering the very fabric of Barbieland, from its constitution to its name, renaming it Kendom. This name change holds significance, echoing the concept of “Inceldom” within the larger misogynist ecosystem of the Manosphere, where men perceive themselves as deprived of love and intimacy due to feminist ideals. In addition to incels, the ‘Manosphere’ is comprised of Men’s Right Activists, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), AND Pick-Up Artists (PUAs). Each of these groups subscribe to the same underlying philosophy, referred to as the ‘red pill’… When an individual has ‘taken the red pill’, they have enlightened themselves to a reality in which women wield feminism as a weapon against men, depriving them of sex and love. (Gothard et al. 1) Ken’s new outfit is another important change. As patriarchy leaks into Barbieland, Ken's outfit begins to reflect iconic images of masculinity, such as Sylvester Stallone in a mink coat. Previously, Ken's clothing complemented Barbie's, but now, his fanny pack displays his full name instead of just the letter K, positioned over his non-existent genitalia. This deliberate placement implies a newfound connection between his new identity and his imagined sex. When discontent Barbies strategise to disrupt the new order, they manipulate Kens' fragile egos, inciting conflict just before the crucial constitution vote. The fighting sequence starts with Ryan Gosling’s "I'm just Ken" song and imagery reminiscent of Rodin's iconic statue “The Thinker”. The Rodin Museum describes the figure as “a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry”, mirroring Ken's current state of turmoil. In Rodin’s lifetime, there were “many marble and bronze editions in several sizes” that have been executed (Zelazko). Similarly, there are countless iterations of Ken, undermining his belief in his uniqueness. The general anticipation of the statue being impressive but then feeling let down when seeing its real size serves as a poignant metaphor for Ken's inflated self-importance, contrasted with his inherent fragility and insignificance. As the chorus “I’m just Ken” starts, Ken (Gosling) rides into the battle “on paddle boats reminiscent of cannon-loaded ships, while [Ken (Liu)]’s crew carries him over their shoulders, spinning umbrellas like wheels and holding stick horses as if they were human chariots” (Lee), having frisbees, tennis rackets, and other sports equipment in their hands. This imagery not only captivates the audience but also serves as a reflection of the sports and war imagery in media representations of men. The notion of hegemonic masculinity is intricately woven into such depictions. Jansen and Sabo point out “that the sport/war metaphor is embedded within a “deep structure” of patriarchal values, beliefs, and power relations that, in turn, reflect and advance the agendas of hegemonic masculinity” (2). This metaphor not only reflects but also advances the agendas of hegemonic masculinity. By glorifying competition and valorising traits associated with aggression and dominance, media representations perpetuate narrow and rigid norms of masculinity, reinforcing the hierarchical gender dynamics prevalent in society. However, through playful exploration of these notions, Barbie introduces a significant step in the healing journey of MPDBs, all while cleverly critiquing the inherent associations society makes between masculinity, competitive sports, and even aspects of warfare. Kenough As Ken continues his performance, seamlessly transitioning from a part-power ballad, part-battle sequence into a dream ballet, the narrative takes a profound turn. Connell's concept of “gender order”, referring to “a historically constructed pattern of power relations between men and women and definitions of femininity and masculinity” that emerge and are transformed within varying institutional contexts (98-99), becomes particularly relevant when applied to dancing, seen as an institutional context. Silvester, discussing how gender dynamics within dancing evolved, notes that in the 60s, with the twist and later with disco dancing, dancers did not have to have partners any more, which made the “presumptions about the effeminacy of professional male dancers” widespread (qtd. in Owen 18). Because in performance culture female dancers were the objects of desire for usually male spectators, dancing found itself a place inside the borders of femininity, “and homophobic prejudices against male dancers grew” (Owen 18). Initially, at the party, dancing symbolises their confinement to their identities as Barbie’s accessory, and later it serves as a catalyst for shedding the performative shackles of masculinity and patriarchy. Through dance, MPDB Ken embraces authenticity, breaking down the barriers of the embarrassment of showing admiration to his fellow Kens and fostering genuine connection and affection. The Kens help each other up, they giggle, and they kiss each other on the cheek; they are no longer threatened by each other or by showing affection. As the battle sequence comes to an end, one Ken acknowledges that they were only fighting because they didn’t know who they were. What initially began as a melodramatic expression of the insecurities of an incel, angry at his object of affection, transforms into a collective affirmation of self-worth, fostering unity and acceptance among the Kens. Lee aptly describes this transformation as an elevation from internal conflict to self-affirming validation, marking a pivotal shift away from self-destructive behaviours towards mutual respect and understanding. Ken finally has an identity that is not defined through Barbie’s gaze or patriarchal vision of masculinity. He is not an MPDB that only exists for the protagonist anymore. He finds an identity; however, one he does not know how to express. Connell and Messerschmidt state that “men can adopt hegemonic masculinity when it is desirable; but the same men can distance themselves strategically from hegemonic masculinity at other moments. Consequently, ‘masculinity’ represents not a certain type of man but, rather, a way that men position themselves through discursive practices” (841). Ken still does not abandon what he has found in the real world. Knowing he has been defeated he tries to “strategically” reposition himself. Like a toddler having a temper tantrum, he runs to his mojo dojo casa house, throws himself on his bed, and starts crying, while Barbie tries to comfort him. Myisha et al. suggest that Barbie, as a woman, again is cast in the role of nurturer and comforter, and thus the movie finds itself repeating gender stereotypes. However, missing the point that Ken is crying in this scene, these criticisms are themselves reinforcing gender stereotypes by mistaking common decency for an intrinsic association with women. Ken later denounces patriarchy and learns from Barbie not to define himself by his possessions, his relationship, or his job. Embracing his individuality, he declares, “I'm Ken, and I'm Kenough”, going down the slide, symbolizing a rebirth. In his final shot, Ken is seen with a sweatshirt proclaiming “I’m Kenough”. In embracing his past identities through the bandana and the color pink, he constructs a new identity, one that welcomes all colors. bell hooks defines feminism as “the struggle to end sexist oppression” for all women without “[privileging] women over men” (26). Greta Gerwig, in an interview with Time, acknowledges the struggles faced by both men and women throughout history, highlighting the universal pressure to meet unrealistic standards (Carlin). This suggests that while women face specific forms of oppression, men too are ensnared by other rigid societal norms, if not the same. By recognising these challenges, feminism advocates for the involvement of men in the movement. Whether it is standing in solidarity with women or confronting their own biases, men play a pivotal role in advancing gender equality. For feminism to thrive, it necessitates men's active participation, urging them to support women's rights and challenge patriarchal structures while remaining open to introspection and growth. Feminism has consistently aimed to dismantle the rigid gender binaries epitomised by the Barbie/Ken dichotomy, advocating for the separation of attributes from their gendered associations. From Barbie, we can glean the lesson that hierarchical and inflexible gender norms benefit no one and that power and social roles should not be determined by one's biological sex. Nicholas, in their article "Ken’s Rights?", claims that online antifeminist discourses reveal parallels between Ken's journey in the movie and themes found in Men’s Rights Activist spaces. Ken's transition from aggrievement to a more enlightened perspective on masculinity mirrors the narratives prevalent in such spaces. This underscores the importance of understanding and addressing men within the context of feminism, as their experiences are intertwined with broader societal structures and expectations. True progress cannot be achieved if we continue to view those who perpetuate patriarchy or toxic masculinity as “others”. We should see them as humanoid Ken dolls, and in doing so help them to help us trigger answers and solutions. Understanding and addressing these issues is crucial for healing and reducing harm inflicted by patriarchal norms. While Barbie may have its flaws, focussing solely on its shortcomings detracts from the opportunity to address deeper issues regarding society. MPDB Ken's portrayal as a subservient accessory to Barbie raises important questions about gender dynamics and the impact of societal expectations on individuals. Rather than vilifying Ken because he brought patriarchy to Barbieland, and reducing him only to a man, I advocate for understanding his journey and recognising him also as a brainwashed character, alongside the brainwashed Barbies, who needed the help of his friends to heal. By acknowledging and addressing the influence of patriarchal norms on all individuals, including men like Ken, we can work towards healing and progress for all. References Barbie. Dir. G. Gerwig. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2023. Breslaw, Anna. “Beware the Manic Pixie Dream Boyfriend.” The Cut, 13 Sep. 2015. &lt;https://www.thecut.com/2015/09/beware-the-manic-pixie-dream-boyfriend.html&gt;. Carlin, Shannon. “The History Behind Barbie’s Ken.” Time, 20 Jul. 2023. &lt;https://time.com/6296386/barbie-ken-history/&gt;. Connell, Raewyn. "The Social Organization of Masculinity." Feminist Theory Reader. Routledge, 2020. 192-200. ———. Gender and Power Cambridge. Polity, 1987. Connell, Raewyn, and James W. Messerschmidt. 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