Iris' Gender

[Cimmerian Dragon]

This got a little too extensive in the "Iris or Irys" thread, so pardon me as I relocated the discussion.

Sorry for switching topic...but do we know what Irys' gender is, officially? Has someone just flat-out stated it? I've heard enough people call it a "him", but I wasn't sure if that was definitive.

He shows more male qualities then any other japanese monster out there! I mean, he was in a relationship with Ayana! Poor Irys, that little human bastard kept trying to ruin his relationship. Then he finally manages to get her in bed, and what does that human do? Barges in, and rudely rips Ayana away from Irys without so much as a "how do you do." No wonder he went on a rampage after that, who can blame him?

Poor, poor Irys. All he ever wanted was for someone to love him back. Damn that stupid falcon punching turtle!

Eh, I get the semi-sexual vibe well enough, but I always thought that a female monster-analogue to Ayana felt more satisfying in a dramatic sense. It feels like one more quality they would share; two bitches out for turtle-blood!

Also, did anyone else notice that Iris wears high-heels? And has a glowing blue bony bustier? Or maybe I'm just going too Freudian on certain design elements...

Wasn't there some sort of fetus looking thing floating around with Ayana before Gamera ripped her out?

^ Ayana was depicted curled up in a fetal position in Iris' abdomen, obviously evoking the imagery of a womb. Again, Iris comes across as a decidedly feminine creature.

Maybe this was intended to link with Ayana's yearning for her lost parents? Granted, Dad died as well, but if you want the most intimate possible symbol of the parent/offspring connection, then there's no substitute for mommy, who we were literally a part of.

*shrugs* Best explanation I can come up with at the moment.

Cimmerian, you have masters in English-Literature, correct? Then you may know what I'm about to get out:

Considering Irys' tentacles and other physical anomalies, a psychoanalytic or feminist reading of Irys/Gamera III would be fun and a nightmare.

Force abortion on Gamera's part...O Holy God!

I've working on my master's...there's still a long way to go.

But yes, I see the can of worms that this whole line of analysis could open. However, it seems more and more like a relevant avenue to pursue. Essentially, the forced abortion reading is legit...the world was not prepared for the unholy rage that Iris' "child" (or next evolution/mutation/whatever) would have birthed, and so Gamera had to interrupt the process before it could it could mature. I hesitate to bring feminism into the discussion, because it's one of those hot-button terms that seems to regularly get injected into discourse with only the most tenuous of links.

As of right now, I'm only prepared to say that that Iris (from both a dramatic and aesthetic viewpoint) seems to have been intended as a female creature, in my personal opinion. I just can't believe that Shusuke Kaneko could have given us this mother/dominatrix-esque beast, tied it into a reserved and angry young girl, and yet thought of it as a masculine force. I would even hesitate to accept a gender-neutral reading, at this point.

Funny, I hadn't thought about this question in a loooong time, and now all of a sudden I'm taking a hard-line stance on it!

Wait wait wait. Hold on a second.

Are you saying Irys is a lesbian???

I don't think that's exactly the vibe, but it feels a little more satisfying than the "straight" sexual interpretation to me. I think of Iris as something between a lover and a surrogate mother.

Just reading the monster/girl relationship as a sexual metaphor doesn't really work for me. What's the point? That, being a girl, Ayana is a weak vengeance-seeker that needs a big, strong man with four phallic tentacles to give her the power to realize her vendetta? Or is it that a naive little thing like Ayana needed to be kept on a tighter leash by her guardians, to prevent her from wandering off alone in the world to be seduced by that monstrous lover? Either way, these oddly-Victorian interpretations leave a bad taste in my mouth, and certainly clash with the stubborn and defiant Ayana depicted early in the movie.

The idea of the two characters being more alike, each one needing the other to realize their full potential (regardless of whether or not that's a good thing), is much more satisfying to me as a viewer. Now, that could still work if Iris is male or asexual, but the "womb" sequence, along with the driving idea that Iris' purpose will be fulfilled, and that Ayana will someone be transformed, through taking her into that womb, and the aforementioned aspects of Iris' visual design, still tend to push me toward believing in the female interpretation.

Again, I'm still just going from my own impressions. That's why I asked if there had been any definitive statements regarding the subject. I did just recall that on ADV's tongue-in-cheek "commentary" on the Gamera 3 disc, "Iris" was depicted as a female; but that's obviously not a proper source of information. That said, it is worth noting that the people who put that release together did, in fact, think the monster was female. Why, I don't know.

And here we stand. Thoughts, anyone?

[Godzilla 1995]

Male. Several times during the movie Iris is referred to as a male, so that probably makes the most sense.

[Living Corpse]

Genderless. It's probably easier to refer to Iris as "him" then "it" bt ovrall I got the feeling it was meant to be alien in every way including in gender or lack of gender.

[Tyler]

Iris is supposed to be some sort of mutant Gyaos, so maybe he's asexual like them?

Essentially, the forced abortion reading is legit...the world was not prepared for the unholy rage that Iris' "child" (or next evolution/mutation/whatever) would have birthed, and so Gamera had to interrupt the process before it could it could mature.

Maybe Iris would 'give birth' to his new form. Ayana's mind rape could be Iris downloading memories into his new form.

[Tohosaurus]

Yeah, although Iris is referred to as a male, it seems to me that it's neither male or female. Don't remember what that's called, but it doesn't really seem to be either.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

You know, I said earlier that I was beginning to doubt the asexual thing, but maybe I was falling into the "too literal" trap. Iris can take on symbolic attributes associated with women and still play the same role. I think it waters down the effect a bit, and clashes with the drama and imagery, but not enough to torpedo the themes entirely.

Although, if the Gyaos are genderless, Iris may have risen as a mutation that could perpetuate the species despite this flaw, becoming their new mother; the old "Jurassic Park Effect". Obviously that's total conjecture.

[Rody]

Actually, the Gyaos were described as all being female.

As for Irys - well, this has got to be one of the weirdest kaiju out there. I think we would have to ask Kaneko himself to get the right picture.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Duh, I was being a moron. I completely forgot that Super Gyaos eventually laid eggs in the tower. Asexual or not, I'd call that a reasonable analogue to motherhood. Iris being a Gyaos mutation...it stands to reason that it shares that same potential.

[Inferno Rodan]

There are no female tentacle hentai monsters, because a female tentacle hentai monster would break all sorts of rules and would just be silly and nonsensical even by hentai standards. Thus Iris, being a tentacle hentai monster, cannot be female.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

^ Okay, it's not difficult to see where you're coming from; but can we really just assume that Kaneko was bound by the culture of pornography (or even conventional pop psychology) in crafting his film?

SuperSaiyan4Godzilla did bring up the difficulties the tentacles posed for any devoted Freudian that wanted to read Iris as a mother, but they are by no means game-ending features. I'll counter the weight you're placing on phallic symbolism, with the now oft-referenced shot of Ayana inside Iris, literally in the fetal position, which so obviously mimics being in the womb. If we're using the same-old vocab of sexual symbolism, we're presented with contradictions from either angle. Of course, one could say that's the point, if Iris is indeed asexual, and thus it shares aspects of both sexes. Regardless, this uncertainty is part of the reason I stated looking at it from the "what works best dramatically" angle.

*Shrugs* Unfortunately, there I stumble straight into subjective opinion.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

SuperSaiyan4Godzilla did bring up the difficulties the tentacles posed for any devoted Freudian that wanted to read Iris as a mother, but they are by no means game-ending features. I'll counter the weight you're placing on phallic symbolism, with the now oft-referenced shot of Ayana inside Iris, literally in the fetal position, which so obviously mimics being in the womb. If we're using the same-old vocab of sexual symbolism, we're presented with contradictions from either angle. Of course, one could say that's the point, if Iris is indeed asexual, and thus it shares aspects of both sexes. Regardless, this uncertainty is part of the reason I stated looking at it from the "what works best dramatically" angle.

*Shrugs* Unfortunately, there I stumble straight into subjective opinion.

I don't think I brought Gamera III down to school with me. However, in March, I'll watch the film and see what I can get to it. There may be some vaginal imagery in with it.

You can read the phallic imagery of Irys' tentacles as the female monster trying to have the power of a male monster. Consider that the Gyaos, while asexual, seems very female. The laying of eggs, bird-like features and behavior, and the shape of its head (a V) hint at a female character. Since Irys is a mutation of the Gyaos species, it may be possible that "female" species of the Gyaos may have tried to mutate into a "male" species to defeat the powerful, virile Gamera. The tentacles would be an extension of this want to become a male.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I don't think I brought Gamera III down to school with me. However, in March, I'll watch the film and see what I can get to it. There may be some vaginal imagery in with it.

It isn't explicit, but there is a certain sense of this in the moment Ayana is pulled inside the monster. We're not talking H.R. Geiger levels of gynecological detail, but the overall shape of Iris' glowing area, and the membranous look of the energy field that closes back around Ayana after she is taken in (again, into the womb), has a hint of the Vulval about it.

You can read the phallic imagery of Irys' tentacles as the female monster trying to have the power of a male monster. Consider that the Gyaos, while asexual, seems very female. The laying of eggs, bird-like features and behavior, and the shape of its head (a V) hint at a female character. Since Irys is a mutation of the Gyaos species, it may be possible that "female" species of the Gyaos may have tried to mutate into a "male" species to defeat the powerful, virile Gamera. The tentacles would be an extension of this want to become a male.

Speaking to the need for Iris to take on masculine traits as part of attaining greater power, we're moving back to what I meant earlier when I equated it with a dominatrix. I can't be the only one who has seen an armored corset and high-heeled boots built into the monster's design. Running with that, and the idea that the tentacles may be an aspect of the mutation associated with affected masculine power, I'd like to equate Iris' tentacles with the whip. Taking the look as a whole, it starts to seem rather intriguing:

The costume of the dominatrix certainly incorporates a number of obvious phallic symbols, such as high-heeled shoes or boots, long gloves, a boned corset and such accessories as a whip or riding crop. Clothed in hard, shiny material, her entire body is transformed into an armoured phallus.

Now, one can debate whether a woman seeking power by taking on masculine traits ought to be respected as a legitimate image of empowerment or leveling of the field (rather than just edifying that old weak girl/strong man nonsense). What we cannot deny is that many practitioners of the lifestyle do, in fact, claim a rise in their sense of individual strength and feelings of controlling their lives and desires. If Iris truly hopes to be the Gyaos' new "Eve", saving its kind from extinction by leading into the next generation, such symbols make more sense.

Whether or not Ayana is a woman (as many have pointed out) is irrelevant; A dominatrix often has female submissives. What matters is simply that Ayana is a source of new genetic material, and Iris has chosen her to "fertilize" the next stage of its mutation (or however you want to say it). When Ayana is freed from Iris' seduction, the forced absorption into Iris womb can be seen as an act of sexual domination in the most literal, and disturbing, sense.

[HayesAJones]

I hope you people know I will never look at Iris in the same, innocent way again.

[Kaiju-King42]

Sorry Hayes, I think it's my fault. I was the one who brought up the whole "Irys, I feel hot" thing in the first place.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

No, it's my fault. I read someone refer to Iris as "him"...and never looked back.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

No, it's my fault. I read someone refer to Iris as "him"...and never looked back.

I take some blame myself, bringing in the literary criticism.

[HayesAJones]

It's ALL your faults. You should all feel shame. REPENT FOR YOUR SINS!

[Cimmerian Dragon]

*Hangs head in shame*

Save me, Jebus!

[Huan_of_Valinor]

I hope you people know I will never look at Iris in the same, innocent way again.

same here

[hammysammy59]

People looked at Irys in an innocent way? He/She/It seduces Ayana, how was that ever innocent?

I like the idea of Irys being male and female simultaneously, to serve as a gross amalgamation of surrogates for both of Ayana's parents.