thinking about the 3rd wave feminization/girlbossification of the cultural literary canon and especially greek mythology and in particularly the cultural desperation to marry the romanticized notion of the taking of persephone with the comfortable and ethical power dynamics and autonomy and consent that we value in our romances today. a lot of these really do rely on the vilifying of demeter and I can see how that narrative spread like wildfire especially given what’s happened to mother-daughter relationships in the private, public, and cultural sectors these past few generations. (re: the given that many of these retellers are women.)
anyway a huge pitfall of girlbossification in action is the way other women’s personhoods, depths, and characters are often slashed on the altar to superficial and/or internalized misogynist (and/or racist, cis/heteronormative, homophobic, classist, ableist etc etc.) empowerment. so other women end up becoming her enemies or inferiors bc they’re all just different flavors of girlboss (elsewise usually they’re damsels/fodder for savior complexes etc.) and the girlboss definitionally inserts hierarchy and competition into her social environment (ostensibly starting with usurping and then maintaining “top of the food chain*” [*very reductionist but let’s not get off topic] status against men; but this sort of shallow character development usually inevitably leads to shafting other female characters).
and it’s shallow writing/character development because it comes from a shallow understanding of how power works on a systemic and interpersonal level, how intersectionality works, and the current wave’s (and audience’s) efforts and ideas about how gender and sexuality should function in society. sometimes a lack of reading comprehension and/or comprehending cultural canon/art as propaganda contributes as well. you would be surprised how many creators don’t think to situate their work inside the sociocultural context it will germinate in, let alone try adapting to and interacting with it in a deliberate and productive way.
when you reject the girlboss lens and what it does to other women characters the reactionary question is like: how do I present flawed women, antagonist women, villainous women? (especially when you hit the intersections of other marginalized identities.) but like it’s the same advice to “well how do I write a gay villain then”. it really gets down to knowing and executing your fucking craft well enough to understand your setting and approach each character as a whole entire person. overbearing and even abusive mothers exist but if you’re just gonna turn demeter into mother gothel I don’t think you’re actually trying very hard to tell a progressive/feminist or even humanist story.
if you choose to make demeter the antagonist (which, it’s really between demeter, hades, and zeus so 33% chance before modifying factors) you’re not only tackling a feminist romance. you’re tackling a story about intergenerational trauma. ESPECIALLY given that the greek mythological canon consists of a divine society where virtually everyone is distantly related to everyone else. demeter was swallowed by cronus and lived through the titanomachy; she also produced children via two different rapes by two of her brothers (notably both gods [as opposed to her human lovers, who were consensually taken]); one of these children was persephone. these are all pretty traumatic events. some sources write demeter as using poppies to help cope with/escape her grief after her daughter is taken.
it is not easy to survive, recover and heal from trauma. there’s a reason many abuse victims grow up to become abusers. so if you want demeter to be a villain: she can be. if you want her to be overbearing, or abusive, or the middling maternal archetype who is kind of a bad parent but can change over the course of one coming of age movie? she can be. but it’s! important! to understand! how and why she became the way she’s being cast and written. how and why she makes the choices she does, and what potential she has for an arc rather than stagnating as antagonist to be overcome.
and of course you can see how humanizing characters just kinda automatically expands the story’s depth and capacity to tell something fresh, subversive and/or relevant. closing remarks......... lore olympus good. does it take creative liberties with its accuracy to canon and geneaology? yes. however. still the best modern reinterpretation of demeter I’ve ever seen.
