The Women of KERBEROS

"But what about the women?! Doesn't Kerberos have some feminine representation?" they all shout as I post more blog entries. Yes, dear readers. Both of you can set down the torches and pitchforks. There are women in the underworld. Hey, that sounds awesome: the "Women of the Underworld" pin-up calendar. Hotties from Hades. Blasphemous Babes. Damned Damsels. Well, you get the idea...

Vivian, or Vinnie (to be played by Courtney Hogan), gets to be our version of Persephone, leading lady of the underworld. Vivian has a subdued strength despite the situations in which it could be interpreted that she is a victim. She has survived a great deal before we get this brief glimpse into her world and will likely endure much more. But she never comes across as that victimized woman operating in survival mode. We never really pity her. Moreover, she doesn't come across as the man-hating type, either. The character, despite all temptations to the contrary, resists the pendulum mentality so often in effect. Vivian is strong and soft, displaying real emotion when she can and remaining stoic when she can't.

Our other female focus is Katie, Lolita catalyst and the source of a lot of conflict and confusion. At times petulant and manipulative and at others defiant and scared, Katie is searching for something constant in a world of hastily shifting, rapidly increasing chaos. There is no safe haven for her in this society of bad guys and worse guys. If she can't escape this way of life, she'll become as damned as Vivian...or worse.

In Kerberos we get an honest look at these women, free of the pigeon-holed stereotypical caricatures so frequently portrayed in film. The femme fatale, the nurturing mother, the whore, the woman warrior, and the piteous victim cannot be isolated and amplified in these women, Vivian and Katie. Both characters contains threads of each archetype, the weaves and patterns changing and shifting to meet the needs of the moment, just like any woman adjusts her glamours.