A Damsel’s Lessons for Women’s Month

I wanted to like this supposedly empowering twist on the token damsel in distress more than I actually did, but you can still squeeze some valuable Women's Month lessons out of it.

This International Women’s Day, Netflix dropped its latest offering, “Damsel,” starring Millie Bobby Brown of “Stranger Things” and “Enola” fame, one of today’s most bankable young actresses.

While the cinematography and the effects were superb as usual, and Brown is her usual charming self as Elodie, the heroine, and the entire female-driven movie hinges on empowerment right on time for Women's Month, the film falls flat due to lackadaisical storytelling and forgettable characters.

SPOILER ALERT: Contains spoilers for “Damsel”

Elodie comes from a poor family who may not survive the next winter, and her parents marry her off to a prince, not knowing his family has been sacrificing his brides to a dragon every time.

The mysterious disappearances of the prince’s brides are never addressed/explained. Were their subjects not at all curious that these high-profile weddings ended with the mysterious disappearance of the bride?  Weren’t the families asking about the daughters they’d lost?

As an action adventure film, there are times where the titular damsel just finds ways to escape that are awkwardly set up and unnatural, as if it was just a showcase of Brown's action skills.  In a scene where someone close to our protagonist dies, the grief is glossed over conveniently, as if the director was too uncomfortable to shoot it, then is followed by another neat way of escape.

In spite of the film’s flaws, there is a lot to learn from the supporting female characters in the story, in celebration of Women’s Month.

1.  Lady Bedford (Angela Basset)

When the story starts, Elodie's stepmother is excited about the plan to marry off her stepdaughter, until she gets a sense that the wedding was a mistake, just from an interaction with the queen.

However big or small our influence is in the lives of others may be, we can support other women by saying something when we see something.  Sometimes it's the least we can do, and sometimes it's the best we can do.

2.  Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright)
Queen Isabelle: You know nothing of what we’ve endured. You know nothing of our story!

It’s true that all of us have a story, past pain, past trauma. But feeding innocent girls to a dragon you’ve wronged, in the guise of marriage into the royal family, might not be the right way to cope.
 
This isn’t exactly the kind of woman any girl, or any human being, for that matter, should aspire to be.

We can’t just support women for the sake of supporting women.  What if that woman has problematic, toxic behaviors?  What if that woman is destroying everything and everyone in her wake in the name of showing the world that a woman can have it all?

Before you support a woman, it’s generally good practice to see if she’s someone you can look up to as a person first.

3. The Dragon (Shohreh Aghdashloo)
Spoiler alert, the dragon is female!
Another spoiler, she is out for revenge on the royal family for having killed her daughters.
During the confrontation between damsel and dragon, the dragon is bent on killing her, because she thinks that all humankind is the same.

Elodie: I am not one of them.

Dragon: I smell it in your blood.

The dragon thought all humans were the enemy, while it was only the royal family.
 
How many times has society painted men as the enemy of women?  As the enemy of women’s rights? Maybe some are, but not all of them.

The real enemy is the world's system.  A system that for centuries, cutting across countries and cultures, has prohibited women from getting an education, owning property, electoral participation, gainful employment, equal pay, etc.  And this is where women need allies regardless of gender.

Women have made great strides in any field you can name, and have earned their rights and their respect against odds that were culturally, socially, sometimes physically stacked against them.  Which is why there is a need to commemorate women's history, and International Women's Day yearly, even with films that try and sometimes fall flat in trying to promote women and their potential.  

And it is precisely because equitable rights are not within reach for all women, and equal pay is projected to be centuries away... that every gesture, every step, every ally, and yeah, every well-meaning, female-driven film counts.  

Happy Women’s History Month!