Becca's Knife

My great-grandmother (Savta) was a girl when the Nazis took over. She evaded the worst of the Holocaust by being part of an initial deportation campaign, but her sisters and friends weren’t as lucky. They came out alive but traumatized. I grew up with my father telling stories about them, about the Nazis in general, and heard from his friends about their own personal family histories involving running from the Nazis.

That trauma that happened to other people made an impression on me and left me with similar trauma symptoms, as sometimes happens. It’s called intergenerational trauma. You inherit your ancestors’ PTSD, more or less. A common effect is the desire to recreate aspects of that traumatic experience as a way of processing it, like through playacting or consuming media about it. There’s a reason for the stereotype of the Jewish person obsessed with the Holocaust.

While not exactly a history buff, I’ve generally had an interest in shows with Nazis in them: The Sound of Music, Rat Race, Man in the High Castle, To Be or Not to Be, etc. I get something out of engaging with the premise of Nazis as a general danger and their subversion. One of my favorites is the 1942 Jack Benny version of To Be or Not to Be because there is a very real sense of weight to the danger the Nazis pose to give balance to the silly subversion on the comedic side of things. Life is Beautiful is similar. I’m also intrigued with the depiction of Nazis less as inhuman monsters and more as very human dangerous pitfalls anyone can be subject to under the right pressures, like John Smith in Man in the High Castle or Rolfe Gruber in The Sound of Music.

Unrelated to trauma (probably?), I’m also bi and super kinky. I’m a switch specifically attracted to sadists and dominants for both submission and dominance fantasies. I also like strong women. And feminist discourse. You can probably tell where this is going.

So, The Boys? Already into it as a good show, and then Stormfront shows up as a cool rebellious girl? Like... she’s a hot girl villain who presents as a feminist. Who’s a Nazi. Of course, I’d like the character. I like her when she’s dominating... and when she’s being dominated. The Stormfront beatdown scene is awesome.

Nazis... are scary. They’re making a comeback and the U.S. government is committed to doing nothing about them. It’s easier to deal with the concept by specifically dealing with its manifestation in The Boys as a hot villain that can be beaten up, stabbed in the eye, and lasered into incoherence. In the end, I can use this evil Nazi character as a tool for empowerment.