Ladies, I know that you might not believe a straight white guy's warning in 2024, but let me tell ya, this stuff is poison for your soul.
Last night, I watched the Netflix film "Damsel," a roaring fantasy adventure that has skyrocketed to the platform's "Top 10" list over the last week.
It is beautifully shot and it has a strong plot compared to most other films these days. The story starts with Elodie, the daughter of a feudal lord, who decides to give her hand in marriage to ensure that her people survive. This isn't some dainty princess: This is a strong woman who understands the balance between duty and personal liberty. From the start of the film, she is a good role model for girls like my daughters, a thing missing from so much of art these days.
Elodie set off with her family to the distant island kingdom of Aurea.
A few minutes after that, little alarm bells started to go off in my head.
Here's why.
[Spoilers Ahead]
I'll breeze through the finer points of the plot to save time.
- Elodie is blown away by how rich the king and queen of Aurea are. Their palace is enormous and her betrothed, Prince Henry, actually gets along with her quite well. The two grow quite close in a single day, which is good, because the wedding is the next day.
- The wedding is straight out of a fairy tale, but afterwards, Elodie is taken to the mountain for a ritual. Her hand is cut and her blood is mixed with the prince's ... and then she's thrown as a sacrifice into the mountain.
- The marriage was a sham, and her father knew it. In exchange for gold, her father gave her up to be fed to a dragon. This dragon has lived in the mountain for centuries and requires 3 children with Aurean royal blood to be sacrificed every generation to make up for the killing of her own hatchlings at the hands of their ancestor long ago.
- To trick the dragon, the Aureans have had their sons take vows with three sacrificial brides before choosing a real wife, then mixed their blood so the dragon would accept them (how the dragon can tell or why the girls don't just wash the blood off is a mystery.)
- Elodie doesn't die from the fall, of course. She makes her way through a labyrinth like Theseus playing cat and mouse with the Minotaur. She finds the remains of dozens of young women like herself, all killed over centuries, and wonders if anyone can get out.
- During her final fight with the beast, she tells the dragon that they have both been lied to. Several scenes before, the dragon had killed her regretful father, who came to try and save her. The dragon doesn't believe her, but Elodie manages to find a sword and best the dragon on her own (despite all the trained, armored knights who were easily dispatched).
- Finally, as she holds her sword above the mortally wounded hell-beast, she convinces the serpent that she too has been wronged by the palace.
And then, instead of killing the murderous dragon, Elodie decides to ally with the beast to destroy the Aureans, which they swiftly do.
"No," Elodie says. "I'm through doing what I'm told."
(Holy symbolism, Batman!)
So why were their warning bells going off in my brain this whole time?
Because Elodie's story is the story of women's "liberation" that allies itself with the devil to destroy God.
Consider:
- The woman was trapped by marriage in the King's Patriarchy, but she was betrayed by that Patriarchy and all its trappings, like marriage.
- They cast her down, but in that pit she found a serpent who had also been cast down by the King's Patriarchy.
- The woman and the serpent ally together. The serpent tells her to "accept your fate," but the woman has a new plan. Perhaps the King can be defeated. Perhaps they can control their own fate.
- Together, the woman and the serpent wage war on the golden city, slaying the King and demolishing his created order. "It's not me you should fear. This is the end of your story," she says.
- Liberated, they set sail into eternity together.
The writers of this film likely didn't realize it (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they were just trying to give us a girlboss fantasy story), but the core theme of this message is rebellion against God.
The heavenly palace with all its trappings is actually rotten (gnosticism) and it has entrapped women and kept them from their true potential (feminism). Consider that the kingdom is literally named "Aurea," which is Latin for "gold" with the idea of shimmering or shining.
Sounds like the biblical depiction of heaven and the New Jerusalem.
Perhaps you think this is all silly.
Well, about half the people on the planet at this moment trace their belief directly back to the creation account in Genesis, including the story of Adam and Eve, not to mention other parallels in other people groups around the world (much like the Flood story).
A story so engrained in our consciousness that billions of people have taught it for thousands of years as an illustration of our nature and where it went wrong? And a piece of art that subverts that story?
I'd say that's important, but what do I know?
Eve was tempted by Satan to break God's rules. She was in paradise, but she wanted more. Men out there might crack a smile at that because they've seen the memes about such women (particularly in our culture where the vast majority of divorces are initiated by the ladies).
Adam, her husband, did not stop the serpent. He failed to lead. He put her above God and was too complacent or lazy to take action. Then, when God asked him about it, he didn't man up but but blamed Eve instead.
The punishment God gave was more than just death. It was endless fighting and inequality between the sexes.
You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.
The modern feminist movement is merely another repetition of an age-old curse. We see it today in a world where women finally have equality but now men are dominating women in female beauty contests, awards, positions, and sports. Movies like "Damsel" tap into the same irony by trying to subvert norms while actually telling our oldest stories.
(The True Myth that has a nasty habit of reasserting itself.)
Here's the thing such movements don't understand:
The dragon is never your ally.
In the movie, the dragon is evil. It burns a whole flock of helpless cave birds for fun. Teases Elodie. Makes sport of her father. The bones of a hundred other girls litter its lair. The dragon lays waste to an entire city. Endless death. Unquenchable vengeance.
And then we are supposed to believe that they sail away together as friends?
Ludicrous.
The dragon will have a whole new kingdom to burn and more souls to eat, nothing more.
Women should take note that this "liberation" offered to you on the silver screen or in real life won't last.
The dragon will always eat you in the end.
"So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring — those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus." - Revelation 12:17
