Inversions

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT

This time it's all about inversions: turning characters, roles, or tropes on their heads

We're back at it with our retellings & reboot series (& here are parts one and two)...

This time, let's talk about inversion. For the purposes of this prompt, we want to focus on one particular kind of inversion -- one in which we flip roles to switch up who has the power.

Think about the most recent Ghostbusters film. It's a simple inversion by our definition, because the ghostbusters used to be men and now they're women. Cool, cool. For many, just seeing women in roles originally assigned to men is empowering. But what changes about the story? Do these women do anything special with that power once they have it or is it pretty much the same story? (Think here specifically about the role of the receptionist, or the way race & class stratifications influence and are upheld by the story.)

Recall (if you can) the 2004 reboot of 1975's Stepford Wives. In the original, a misogynistic dude scientist has replaced all the women with compliant robots. In the remake, the super villain behind the dastardly switch is Claire Wellington, a former brain surgeon who claims that the post-millennium Career Woman is to blame for all society's ills. An inversion? Sure. The power that belonged to men in the original now belongs to one woman (who shares it only with men). But how is the story inverted? How does the satire of the original (which focused on privilege, groupthink, and misogyny) transform when a woman is behind it all? And do you find that change satisfying or worthwhile?

What we think: in these "traditional" inversions, power changes hands. But the power structure itself is not disrupted; it's reinforced.

Sometimes our retellings are of specific published and produced stories. Other times -- or perhaps all times -- what we retell are persistent cultural tropes. Nine to Five (1980) starts out exploring the cultural story of abusive dude bosses who diminish, demean, and sexually harass the low-powered women who work for them. And then the story inverts that trope: the three women workers physically tie up and wrest power from their abusive boss. When they take over the office, they don't merely transform into the New Asshole, hoarding and abusing power. Instead, they institute equal pay, flexible hours, onsite daycare, job share for working mothers, and generally make the office a safe and "productive" environment.

Things are better!

Except... well... the changes rely on faked memos from the boss, and they're still working within the structure of the company. Benefits are only available because the people at the top bequeathed them. The movie itself only validates the women's improvements because they increase productivity, telling us the fiscal bottom line means more than quality of life. And, I mean, a hierarchical pay scale is still hierarchical -- even if the hierarchy isn't gendered.

Hollywood tells us it's enough to flip some genders and call it a day. But of course it's not the only option. What if we changed other aspects of these human beings, or what if we didn't have to stay human at all? What if the robots were building the Stepford Wives? What if the ghosts had the proton packs? What if, instead of fighting, we just got along with the ghosts? What if, instead of women upholding patriarchy, we just dismantled it?

What part do we invert? Who defines the opposite/alternate? How far can we take this and still call it an inversion?

Prompt: Take a TV show you're watching now and find an obvious power/role pairing and flip it. Or start with a less obvious pairing. Which power structures does your inversion make us question? Which ones does it merely uphold?

Recommended viewing and reading: Planet of the Apes (2001 remake); Freaky Friday (1976 & 2003 movies, 1972 novel); I Love Lucy "Job Switching" 2x01; Mr. Mom; Drop Dead Diva; The Power by Naomi Alderman; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Ocean's 8; Big Business; Trading Places; Down and Out in Beverly Hills; Maid in America.

Talk to us on Twitter: Use #powerflip to tell us about the inversions you find on TV. Which ones uphold the systems of power? Which ones burn them down?

Reflection: We struggled a bit with how to define or structure our talk of inversion. A flip implies two sides; opposites imply a binary. If we define inversion in terms of "opposite" types of human beings -- it implies there are only two types of people, which we know is not the case. It also reinforces limited ideas of possibility: what if the "opposite" of poor were not rich, but was community? What if the "opposites" were not men/women but binary/non-binary, or gender/agender? Or, to quote Rent, the opposite of war weren't peace, but creation?

Blow our minds. Give us other ways to think about inversion.

The Minneapolis Storytelling Workshop is a project of writers Erin Kate Ryan and Allison Wyss, who also have books coming out.

On December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Welden put on a bright red parka and disappeared into the Vermont wilderness; how many lives might she have led since then? Preorder Quantum Girl Theory.

A rhinoplasty model meets a phantom pregnancy meets a human metal detector in this humorous and poignant collection about grotesque and glorious bodies. Preorder Splendid Anatomies.

Minneapolis Storytelling Workshop is a project of professional writers Allison Wyss and Erin Kate Ryan. All rights reserved.