Feminism and Sad Endings

Fulton and Alex are definitely within the "love interests" category. I never had any other intention for them.

But what kind of message usually comes along with that? Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, and then most likely kids come up soon after that. This is the sort of ideal that is set up for us in almost all sorts of media. The Disney Princess dreamland or something. You see these female leads with fire and talent and ambition and yet they just end up someone's girlfriend or wife without anything special going for them after that. Because having a man is supposed to be the most important thing they've achieved for themselves. I will not cooperate with this kind of chauvinistic impression in my own storyverse.

What chauvinistic impression you say? I'll go with the Disney Princesses to make my case.

Princess Jasmine strongly informed the male cast of Aladdin that she was not a prize to be won, but her strong will never led her to self-reliance and personal emancipation. Belle wanted adventure in the great wide somewhere, and all she did was get herself locked up in a castle as a prisoner, and then as a wife. Mulan broke the code of tradition to fight a war in her father's place, braved an invasion with more tenacity and wit than any of the male soldiers exhibited, and afterwards all she ended up doing was going home and marrying a man exactly like her family wanted her to. Tiana did end up opening her restaurant, but only after she had the support of a husband. Ariel, probably the most desperate and moronic of the bunch, traded in her finest talent to be with a man she'd only met once. That'd be like asking me to give up drawing to be with some dream man. And I would slap your face and then spit in it.

Hell, it even happens in Harry Potter. Though I find it somewhat less ridiculous in this setting, as the characters all knew each other for years, and knew each other very well. I was still a little disappointed that in the end all that was going on were their marriages and children, though.

I'm not even going to get into the absurdity that is the character of Bella Swan in Twilight.

I just can't stand seeing this theme over and over again, is the thing. I think it's kind of poisonous, really, some cases being worse than others. I'll never really understand or appreciate the grossly unrealistic romantic stories that happen in Disney movies most of the time, even though I enjoy those movies that doesn't make them safe from me scrutinizing them down to every critical level. The thought of thirteen-year-old girls reading Twilight and thinking Edward Cullen and Bella Swan's relationship is a model to follow in their own romantic pursuits one day frightens, sickens, and enrages me all at once. But in general, impressing on little girls and young women that the most significant contribution they can ever make to society, and religion, and femininity is to marry a man and pop out his children is so disgusting and passive-aggressively misogynistic that it more or less infuriates me quietly on the inside every time I see it.

So I won't do it. I will not cooperate with this gender role-assignment in my own characters.

But it's not like I could just create an ending with Alex and Fulton kissing and then fade to black, because that does not allude anything away from the classic assumption of what comes for them next. Of course not. A heterosexual romantic couple and then end credits=married with children in the world of media. So I gotta think further. Think about what kind of sweethearts I would rather see, instead. I even constantly toy with the idea that Alex cannot ever have children because part of her contract with Deke was to sacrifice her bloodline, her heritage (because the Demon society is obsessed with eugenics, as their species is constantly evolving). I consider this very strongly, just so I can dodge the idea of her and Fult having kids ever.

Because Alex is a career-minded woman, and is hard-headed, stubborn, and relentless in every pursuit, I could never picture her giving up her work. But I could see her, at story's end, hitting the road to find and subdue violent spirits, creatures, demons, and even people. (To put it this way, she's got Sam and Dean Winchester's job, except that her badge is real and she doesn't have to act under the assumption that people will think she's nuts.) Traveling would definitely be up Fulton's alley, as that's pretty much all he's done, his entire life. So they fall in love and become international ghost busters? Pretty much, I suppose. That or they join a circus. Fulton would fit right in but I have no idea what Alex would do in a circus. Performance art kind of involves being a people person, which she is not.

These are filed away in "happy endings," but there is another option.

First, I want you to think about it. Fulton has been alive for 126 years, no matter how young his immortality has kept him, that's still a long time. He's spent a good portion of that time looking for a way to die, and stay dead, but he never found it. In the end, his curse is lifted and his immortal bindings are released. But to give up his immortality he must also die immediately after. He cannot live out his natural life after that, it is already expired. And he's wanted it for a long time now, though I'm sure he's sad to say goodbye to Alex, he's probably ready for death. And though it'd be hard on her for a while, I think Alex has the strength of heart to let Fulton go.

The inevitable "sad ending" option. Actually, I kinda like sad endings. That's the dramatist in me, I suppose.

It's the length I'm willing to go to just to avoid the classic roles assigned to love interest characters, anyway.