Ask TV About Our Organizing Problems: Wrong POV Character

The Question: I always feel like I am making things up, or talking too much about myself whenever I share my own feelings about this campaign I’m working on. I know that my experiences related - I’m trans, and we’re trying to start that’s not a discrimination bill, but… I don’t know. I totally trip up every time I need to talk about it. I feel like what happened to me sucked, but like… way worse shit has happened to people who are YOUTH, working class, non-binary… Other people who have experiences like that are cool with talking about it.

they don’t need me to do anything but write my testimony, but I still feel weird about it. What’s the deal? Like every 2021 gay, I have been compelled by the resurgence of interest in Jennifer’s Body, a 2008 movie starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. 

I hadn’t seen it until Halloween of this year, much to the derision of my two gayest friends from high school (they watched it without me. Thanks a lot guys).

Jennifer’s Body is about Megan Fox playing a character completely indistinguishable from her brand personality.

also she gets possessed by a demon.

When Megan Fox gets possessed by a demon, she does a lot of things that are “evil” but not actually evil.

Skipping school.

Confessing her love to her best friend.

Murdering rapists.

Having fun.

The movie is told from the perspective of her best friend, played by Amanda Siegfried.

People have been writing and talking about it a lot in the last couple of years, partially because it’s… gay.

It also has some interesting things to say about being different, using demonic possession as a metaphor, something that apparently somehow, is still controversial.

I wrote a really long piece for PopTarot on how it’s about gaslighting, societal homophobia and queer abuse. But I think the real reason people talked about Jennifer’s Body in 2020 (and now, I’m talking about in 2021) is:

It’s kind of weird.

Even watching it now is a stilted uncomfortable experience.

The pacing and the tone switch a lot.

you’re like…

Is this good? Or is it just gay?

(A question I have to ask less in 2021 than I did in 2009, when it was released, but still ask myself regularly.)

—

My friend Jazmyn also watched this movie for the first time in 2020.

And she had the best take on why this movie feels… off, somehow.

She tweeted:

“Jennifer’s Body? Wrong POV character.”

Every time I think about this I crack up.

It’s so simple.

Like many of you reading this, I have a whole complex about who should be telling which story and why.

A lot of my projected lens on that movie is about witnessing — how to stop being a bystander and take responsibility for your choices.

But ultimately I think Jazmyn is right. 

That story doesn’t have to be that complicated.

It’s a movie with the line “have you guys been fucking? It smells like Thai food in here.”

…It’s not a complicated movie.

So the reason it feels kind of weird is simple.

A story about a girl who gets possessed by a demon is a lot more interesting when it’s told by the girl who got possessed by the demon. 

Duh.

Why am I talking about this movie in your inbox, instead of writing fanfiction about it?

Because I think people who have a complex about “the right person to tell a story?” can get so lost in the politics and ideology and nuances of that question, that we often forget a simple fact.

Whether you’re trying to figure out what feels important to write about, for you or anyone else — ask yourself a very simple question.

Who is the most interesting POV character here?

Who got possessed by a demon?

When you can’t get out of talking about yourself, then write about the times YOU got possessed by a demon, not about the times you saw it happen to other people.

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