中东，女权主义和吸血鬼?

This is not your typical Hollywood vampire love story. 伯纳黛特Calafell 和 Shadee Abdi were captivated by the story of an Iranian vampire in “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” 和 how the film flips the script on the Middle East, feminism 和 what it means to be labeled a monster.

在他们的文章中 "Queer utopias a (Feminist) Iranian vampire: a critical analysis of resistive monstrosity in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," 卡拉费尔和阿卜迪形容这部电影是, “black 和 white vampire spaghetti western … [following] the narrative of the Girl, a forlorn chador-wearing feminist-vampire-vigilante in the fictional world of Bad City. 在这个酷儿乌托邦里, the Girl preys on immoral men so that she can protect the female residents of Bad City from the violence of patriarchy.”

Calafell教授 沟通研究, had just finished teaching her Monsters 和 Pop 文化 class — where she asks students to question traditional representations of monsters — when she 和 her PhD student advisee, Abdi, 看了《正规赌博十大平台排行》.” They both knew immediately that they wanted to collaborate on an article.

这部电影不仅在视觉上引人注目, but it also presented layers of complexity 和 meaning, including the representation of an Iranian woman — who happens to be a vampire — being empowered by her chador, 很长一段, 宽松的全身斗篷.

“通常情况下，这些女性被视为受害者, 和 this film was such a disruption of that narrative,卡拉费尔说.

“She’s kind of a superhero … really trying to do good 和 fight the patriarchy,” Abdi adds.

作为教授和作家, Calafell brought to the joint effort a deep knowledge of monstrosity 和 queer utopias. Abdi, 与此同时, provided her personal Iranian-American perspective, the ability to translate cultural nuances 和 Farsi, 和 her own scholarly expertise on Iranian women 和 feminism.

“I wanted to work with Shadee because she is such a strong scholar 和 has an intimate relationship with the culture,卡拉费尔说. 协同工作很容易, as the two had already established a relationship as advisor 和 advisee.

“I chose DU specifically because I wanted to work with Bernadette,” Abdi says. “She is one of the best people I’ve ever collaborated with, 在这一点上，她是真正开放的思想, 她发表了很多文章, 和 she is one of the great voices of cultural communication.”

Their collaboration also provided Calafell an opportunity to mentor Abdi on how to publish her work, thus increasing her competitive edge upon graduation. Getting their article published was a challenge at first. They faced rejection on their first attempt 和 multiple revisions on their second attempt. They had to make significant decisions about what to cut or change, 并最终, 什么对他们来说是最重要的.

Through this process, Calafell 和 Abdi were forced to think beyond their preconceived ideas. 这促使他们写出一篇更有力的文章, one that challenges others to question their own perceptions.

“It’s important to me to change the narrative around the Middle East 和 North Africa in general, 和 how we perceive it 和 how it is written about in research. 对我来说, it’s really important to reframe these conversations in a way that is not demonizing of the region or the culture as a whole. 这是我的文化，”阿卜迪解释道.

“The biggest thing I was hoping to accomplish with the article was to get people to shift the popular frame away from Middle Eastern 和 North African women as victims or lacking agency,卡拉费尔说. ”,, to get people to think about challenging the images of what a vampire could be, that every day monsters could be more than just what they immediately look like.”