The Netflix film “May December” is closely impressed by the real-life relationship between Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, which might be why its depiction of stereotypes of Asian males feels so near actuality, too. The morally problematic story takes viewers on a posh journey with troubling racial implications, significantly as they relate to weaponized whiteness and the depiction of Asian masculinity as subservient and childlike.
This extremely publicized case, in addition to its fictionalized model depicted in “May December,” raises a central query: how did the truth that she’s a white lady influence not solely her potential to groom him — an Asian American boy — but additionally the general public’s response to the story?
This feeds into the dangerous stereotype that Asian males are complacent and obedient.
In “May December,” Julianne Moore performs Gracie, the fictionalized model of Letourneau, who started sexually abusing Fualauu when he was her sixth-grade scholar. In 1997, Letourneau pled responsible to 2 counts of secondary rape however stayed with Fualaau, giving delivery to 2 of his youngsters earlier than he was 15 and finally marrying him. In the movie, Gracie is married to Joe, performed by Charles Melton, the fictionalized model of Fualaau.
We choose up the motion as their youngest youngsters put together to graduate from highschool. At this level, Joe is a 36-year-old stay-at-home dad and Gracie is in her mid to lat e 50s. An actress named Elizabeth, portrayed by Natalie Portman, is ready to play a fictionalized model of Gracie and drops into the household’s life to attempt to be taught extra about them.
Throughout the movie, we, like Elizabeth, start to see the true nature of Joe and Gracie’s relationship. It’s one predicated on stereotypes and racism — Joe fulfills the subdued, subservient function so usually foisted upon Asian Americans, and their relationship is comparatively accepted as a result of Gracie weaponizes her whiteness. Ultimately, the movie exposes how flipped gender and racial roles enable sexual abuse to be extra palatable for and accepted by most people.
Let’s begin with Joe. Although he is nicely into his 30s, he more and more comes off as childlike because the movie progresses. He is not a full-fledged grownup or equal accomplice. Rather, he’s infinitely subservient to Gracie, solely doing what he thinks is predicted of him.
This feeds into the dangerous stereotype that Asian males are complacent and obedient. Importantly, it is a sharp distinction to how white males are normally depicted: dominant, brash, aggressive. Joe virtually fades into the background at a neighborhood barbecue, virtually like he’s employed assist, till Gracie calls upon him. It’s clear that Gracie has groomed him, like a toy to fill some a part of herself — and she or he’s been ready to take action at the least partly due to his race.
In one scene, for instance, Joe confides that the opposite women at college weren’t a lot into him, however “Gracie noticed me and I needed that.” It’s clear he has internalized the white-savior advanced. Gracie was very a lot in a position to leverage the notion of Joe as an “different” to her benefit, particularly so as a result of he grew up in a largely white group. Indeed, we be taught that Gracie fetishized Joe proper from the beginning, first noticing him solely as a result of he and his household had been the one Asians within the neighborhood.
Gracie is, in distinction to Joe, way more controlling, treating Joe extra like a software or dehumanized servant than as her husband. At the identical time, she has come to weaponize her conventional “sufferer” function as a white lady. She makes it sound like everyone seems to be out to make her really feel unhealthy and harm her. She even tells Elizabeth at one level, “I’m naive. I all the time have been. In a method, it has been a present.” In her relationship with Joe, whereas she is clearly the one in management, she fights to take care of this sufferer narrative. As she explains to Elizabeth, Joe “grew up in a short time,” whereas she herself was “very sheltered.”
At play right here, too, is the specific and implicit fetishization of Joe’s Asianness.
When Joe’s repressed emotions about how their relationship first began finally float to the floor, he involves her extra like a baby than as an equal accomplice and husband. He asks, “Why cannot we discuss it?” Even although he was solely 13 years previous on the time and unable to consent, Gracie continues to feed him a false narrative. “You seduced me,” she tells him. “I do not care how previous you had been. Who was in cost? Who was the boss?”
This brings up the “sizzling for trainer” trope typically depicted in films and TV exhibits. When we see a trainer who’s a person have interaction with a lady scholar, it’s universally considered problematic and predatory. But when the roles are reversed, the notion is wildly totally different.
Take exhibits like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Riverdale.” In each instances, the boy scholar is the instigator. We’re led to imagine that these boys are prepared for bodily relationships, whereas the ladies lecturers merely get swept up in all of it. This framing fully eclipses the reality of the matter, which is that Gracie is a pedophile and an abuser.
At play right here, too, is the specific and implicit fetishization of Joe’s Asianness. It’s tougher to name out as a result of we regularly see this within the type of so-called yellow fever and the objectification of Asian ladies. But it occurs to Asian males as nicely — normally within the type of an exoticization or emasculation.
Gracie is not the one one to fetishize Joe’s Asianness. As Elizabeth evaluations the audition tapes for who may play Joe within the film inside a film, she notes that the children are “not attractive sufficient. You’ve seen him. He’s bought this, like, quiet confidence. Even as a child, I’m positive.” Equally, she is ready to weaponize her white womanhood to seduce Joe herself.
The disturbing reality that underlies your complete film (and Letourneau’s real-life crime) is that if Joe’s character had been a white woman and Gracie’s character had been an Asian man, the narrative can be acquired in a wildly totally different method. That dynamic can be virtually inconceivable for many American audiences to simply accept as even believable. There’s no method an emasculated Asian man trainer would’ve been in a position to manipulate and seduce a younger white woman scholar — and even when he did, it might be overtly predatory and unacceptable.
The relative acceptance of Gracie’s actions and motives — in addition to the opposite characters’ therapy of Joe — reaffirms that Asian males are seen as “lower than” in American society. Emasculated and fetishized, Asian males change into passive instruments to fulfill and satiate the whims and fancies of the white majority. We cook dinner your meals and clear your laundry as anonymous, faceless, infinitely replaceable devices of absolute servitude and silent acquiescence.
In the true world, Letourneau and Fualaau legally separated in 2019 after 14 years of marriage and two youngsters collectively. She died from most cancers in 2020 on the age of 58, leaving a lot of her property to Fualaau. The ending of “May December” is not fairly so conclusive. Rather, it leaves us with extra questions price exploring.
Conventional gender stereotypes performed a central function within the media’s portrayal of the real-world story. Letourneau was introduced as a social sufferer, and her relationship with Fualaau was usually described by way of love. Her legal actions had been virtually excused within the court docket of public opinion, whereas Fualaau’s lived trauma is little greater than a footnote. It’s her story that is of major curiosity, not his. Fualaau fades into the background, very like Joe does on the neighborhood barbecue, solely introduced up when it’s handy and he’s wanted to satisfy a process.
In “May December,” gender stereotypes equally take middle stage. But the racial implications aren’t examined with almost the identical degree of scrutiny. The energy imbalance is attributed to the dynamic between an older lady and a teenage boy, and far much less so to weaponized whiteness and subordinated Asianness.
We aren’t positive what occurs to Gracie and Joe by the top of the movie, although it looks like she nonetheless has his claws in him and he’ll proceed to really feel hopelessly trapped of their relationship. Because that is what she needs, and what he needs by no means mattered anyhow.