"Girl You Want" seems to be an ironic but straightforward story about a girl who is physically transformed into what people want her to be. She's a shapeshifter with no agency - she is altered, against her will, by the people around her. Kate ("Katie, Kath, Kat. Is that short for Kartherine? With a 'k' or a 'c'? Even my name is what people want it to be.") is an angry teen. Understandably. We meet her at a house party where she is changing shape every time someone looks at her. She gets mad and storms out and we are left with the impression that most of her life is spent in a similar emotional state. However, at a Starbucks, Kate is treated kindly by a server [barista? I would much rather use "server"]. More importantly, Kate does not change when this server looks at her. Kate becomes mildly obsessed, believing that she has fallen in love with someone who sees her for who she truly is. Kate attempts to ask the server out on a date, but fails. She then follows the server home on the bus, downplaying the irony that she doesn't even know the girl's name. When they end up in a sketchy area of town, Kate is surprised. When the server picks up her daughter from the babysitter, Kate realizes that she, herself, has created an identity for this girl.
Contrary to appearances (see what Wood & Cloonan did there?), this is not a story that explores the identity crises of a shapeshifter. Kate is not like Mystique from the X-Men or Chameleon (Boy) from the Legion of Super-Heroes. She doesn't change at will, nor use her powers for any purpose. She is changed. Because of this, Kate is deeply alienated. But not for the reasons she thinks. Other than the nameless server who sees Kate's "real" face, a transit worker and several people on a bus see Kate for who she is. She notices this and, instead of believing that either she has more control over her appearance then she imagined or that others are capable of seeing her real face, Kate chooses to believe it means that she's a screw-up. "Good job, Kate. You blew it. Stupid. Everyone thinks so." When she is denigrating herself for making the same mistake that others had made with her, though people on the bus are looking at her, she does not change. She looks in the mirror and sees her own face and, sorry for herself, claims that the fact she hasn't changed means that everyone sees her as a failure ("everyone thinks so"). Her interpretation of what they see is questionable at best. "Girl You Want," clearly, is not without the adolescent indulgence and self-pity that many of Demo's stories showcase so vividly. The climactic moment even happens in the rain.
But Wood & Cloonan's story is more than a mash-up of teenage pity trips. "Girl You Want" is a sad story in the way that many teenagers think their lives are sad. The simple dramatic irony is foreshadowed consistently. Wood & Cloonan are not trying to surprise the reader with the ending, but are trying to get inside the head of a girl with alienation issues. Kate spends much of the story angry, but she seems to revel in it to a certain degree. There is no indication that she knows anyone at the house party, no sign that she was invited. Only one person seems to even know who she is and she is rude to him when he asks her out. This young guy sees her as the sexy librarian because she works in the stacks, and Kate lashes out at the cliche more than anything else. Ultimately, the story is about how we construct alienating images of ourselves and others out of cultural detritus and cliche.
Kate only transforms into cliches. One guy sees an older woman, possibly his mother. Another sees her as a spiky-haired punk chick. Yet another sees her as Chun-Li from Street Fighter (and not the version recently portrayed on film by Smallville's Kristen Kreuk). Wood & Cloonan are not criticising cultural icons or cliches, at least not with any sustained attack. They are commenting on how these images get deployed in relationships. And, surprisingly, these relationships seem to be nothing but emotional. The forms Kate takes on are designed for emotional attachment, not sexual fantasy. None of the fantasy images of Kate, not a single one, are particularly sexualized. Even the horny librarian is demurely clothed. Given how highly sexualized most images of Mystique are [see left - seriously? That's where she puts the gun?], it's rather surprising that the fetishes on display in "Girl You Want" are so tame. It seems that what these boys want isn't to sexually objectify Kate. What Kate's can't see is that the desire isn't as predatory as she believes. They want companionship, as does Kate, but lack the ability to visualize that relationship outside their very limited fantasies.
The limitations of these fantasies, most painfully for Kate, lead to alienation. Kate can't connect with anyone else, but neither can anyone really connect. The boy who just wants to date Chun-Li [right] is doomed to be disappointed. Only the nameless server seems well-adjusted (and she's a fan of indie music ... so there's that). The only time Kate feels a human connection is at a Starbucks, a formless ahistorical space if ever there was one - a clue that, perhaps, her feelings are less than authentic.
Cloonan doesn't change up her artistic style within the issue when illustrating Kate's changes. Though the stylistic variations of the preceding chapters of Demo plainly establish that Cloonan could draw Chun-Li as a manga babe, or the pierced and spiky punk Kate in a different style, Cloonan's art portrays each transformation within the visual syntax of this story. All the metamorphoses occur within a consistent stylistic universe. The effect of this decision actually de-emphasizes Kate's transformations. This isn't a story about how reality is represented and the artifice of any such duplication. This is a story about how the limited grammar of desire leaves people feeling alone.
"Girl You Want" is actually a rather big-hearted story, dressed up as a self-pitying emo song. The story suggests that people can't really be blamed for their fantasies, and that, to some degree, this is because we are unable to separate cultural cliches from our lived experiences. Kate doesn't see herself any more than the nameless server or the video game fetishist see her. She wants a connection based on more than just superficialities, but is unable to imagine it.
Next Week: "What You Wish For" and the limits of metaphor.
No comments:
Post a Comment