splinteredstar | Maleficent and gendered power (Reply)

Recently, I went to see Maleficent. It wasn’t a world changing movie – it’s not Frozen, or The Winter Soldier - but it’s good. And the more I think about it, the more I realize the movie does some interesting things with gendered power dynamics. Since Maleficent and Aurora (and the consent dynamics) have already been analyzed in http://archiveofourown.org/works/1781935, I’m going to talk about one of the male characters – Diaval, the sometimes-human raven.

Diaval is important to the power dynamics in the movie, both with Maleficent and with Aurora. A bit of backstory in summary: after having her fairy wings cut off by her human lover (in a scene that has been described as “kind of date-rapey”), Maleficent becomes obsessed with revenge. But she’s grounded, now, and needs wings. So when she comes upon a raven being attacked by a farmer, she rescues him in exchange for his service and changes his shape as convenient to her.

She does not give him the ability to transform as he wishes – specifically, his transformations are all dependent on her. And for the most part, he doesn’t mind this. He only objects when the forms are distasteful to him, such as his initial reaction to becoming human (summarized with “what have you done to my wonderful feathers?”) and to becoming a wolf (“Wolves /hunt/ birds, mistress!”)

There are consent issues in this – changing someone’s species is a fairly extreme means of taking away their autonomy. However, there is mitigating context. First of all, the process is reversible. It is not the same as Maleficent’s wings being stolen and taken away from her, both in the fact that it does not cause any lasting damage (Maleficent is seen to be near-crippled) and in the fact that it is intended to be temporary. Secondly, the context is very different. A life-debt is very traditional – she saved his life, and so according to custom it belongs to her now. This is clear from his reaction – he is annoyed, but he knows that he owes her this and offers it with only grumbling.

What this sets up is a power differential that is /heavily/ in favor of the woman. Maleficent is much more powerful than him, even crippled and grounded. She also has the weight of tradition to ensure his obedience. And Diaval accepts this with no objections. Certainly, he grumbles about what he is asked to do, sometimes, but he does not grumble that he is being ordered by a woman. There are no scenes where he questions his masculinity, patronizes her, or is praised for going against her orders, or rescues her from another male. He is much weaker than her and he has no problems with this.

And this relationship is not based on fear of her, either. Diaval would not snark back at her as much as he does if he were afraid of her. He would not complain at being turned into a wolf, or roll his eyes, or laugh at her when she got mud splattered on her. He also is not afraid to question her orders, or offer his opinion on what she’s doing, and this is tolerated. We see the comparison to King Stephan – his subordinates are terrified, flinching away from his orders and scrambling to obey. Diaval does not show the same signs of abuse that they do. By the end of the movie his loyalty is clearly based on personal respect and affection, and when he is given the chance to back out and save his own life – “This is not your fight, Diaval” was giving him an out with his honor and his life – his response is basically, “I am you second, and I will watch your back.”

Now, onto the other major woman in Diaval’s life – Aurora. After Maleficent places a curse on the child in a spasm of revenge, King Stephan orders her kept away in the woods and raised by the friendly fairies. Unfortunately, these fairies are to put it politely incompetent, and little Aurora is at risk of dying before the curse can be activated, and where’s the fun in that?

So in his role of Maleficent’s servant, Diaval is tasked with keeping the whelp alive. In doing so, he takes on the traditional ‘mother’ role – early on, he is shown nursing her via a magic bloom, which is one hell of a symbol. And again, there is no grumbling about his masculinity, or having to do women’s work. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were his favorite duty – caring for the child, playing with her, fussing over her safety and fetching things out of trees for her. He certainly enjoys it more than Maleficent, who (due to her own trauma) falls into the more western-traditional ‘father’ role of being emotionally stunted but showing her love via teaching and encouraging exploration. The gender norms of the parents are completely switched, and the child turns out /awesome/.

So there we have it. The main heroic male – a woman’s sidekick who supports her out of loyalty and respect, who isn’t threatened by her incredible power and willingly follows her into hellfire. He’s emotionally sensitive, great with kids, and isn’t considered weak, incompetent, or insecure for it. He knows that this isn’t his show, knows he’s not even second billing, but he’s okay with that as long as he can support the people that matter to him.

It’s pretty awesome.