Aslan's Mane-ia

Does Aslan's gender matter?

So I guess we have to talk about this.

The C.S. Lewis world has been abuzz with a rumor that Meryl Streep has been in talks with Greta Gerwig to play a very important role in the upcoming Netflix Narnia adaptation. She has not been cast as the White Witch (which would’ve been awesome, by the way), the Lady of the Green Kirtle, or Polly Plummer (as an adult). She is in talks to play Aslan.

Photo by Ansie Potgieter on Unsplash

I’ll admit, even I was surprised by that.

I haven’t exactly been jazzed about the casting rumors to begin with. They want pop star Charlie XCX to play the White Witch, which aggravates me, because I hate when pop stars are cast in iconic roles that should go to professional actors. There are murmurings of Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew (Digory’s uncle from The Magician’s Nephew) and while I know Daniel Craig is a fine actor, he is simply too pretty to play Uncle Andrew. I want someone weaselly and capricious. It is very hard to imagine Daniel Craig doing so, but at least he’s a professional actor. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong. (I’ll tell you this much, I’m going to be annoyed if the White Witch is a sexpot who seduces Daniel Craig to do her bidding…Uncle Andrew is enamored by Jadis, but trust me, the feeling is not mutual.)

This brings us to Meryl Streep.

If Greta were here in front of me, I think my first question would be, “BUT YOU’RE KEEPING THE MANE, RIGHT?! MERYL STREEP’S ASLAN WILL HAVE A MANE, WON’T SHE? SHE NEEDS A MANE. NARNIANS SWEAR BY SAYING, ‘BY THE LION’S MANE! ASLAN’S MANE!’ ALSO THE VIVIDNESS OF BURYING YOUR FACE IN ASLAN’S GOLDEN MANE IS ESSENTIAL AND THE SCENE WHERE THE WHITE WITCH SHAVES ASLAN’S BEAUTIFUL MANE IS VERY IMPORTANT…”

My best friend (a Tolkien scholar) pointed out to me that in some cases, female lions do grow manes. See?

Five female lions in Botswana have grown manes and a few in zoos have, as well. Scientists aren’t really sure why this occasionally happens. High testosterone levels, loss of a mate, female dominance of the pride, and hormonal changes as they age have all been suggested as reasons, but basically? We don’t know. But they do exist. So gender amongst lions is not quite the stringent binary as Twitter biologists seem to think.

That being said, I’m not proposing scientific rationale for C.S. Lewis’ magical fantasy land. If I’m honest, I’m still mulling over my feelings about it myself. So bear with me as I plod down this road.

Would C.S. Lewis appreciate a female actress voicing Aslan? I doubt it. I think it would confuse him. I think he wrote femininity and masculinity in a very purposeful way in his fiction and this particular subversion would ignore the gender cosmology he created, and that would upset him. I doubt Doug Gresham would much care for it either, and it does bother me that they are making such a drastic change while he is in ill health. That seems rather nasty to me.

That being said, do I think it matters to the series as a whole? Do I believe a female Aslan makes any kind of difference towards His sacrifice for Edmund, His guidance and love for the children, His beauty and strength and wonder?

No.

What frustrates and angers me about this entire conversation is how automatically outraged and nasty self-described Christians got about the idea of God being feminine. Any hint of a woman, and there are screams of WOKENESS RUN AMUCK and HERESY and TRANS ASLAN HOW DARE YOU a slew of sexist and derogatory remarks coupled with some random racist slurs that have nothing to do with Meryl Streep or Aslan (I am referring to the Official C.S. Lewis Facebook Group’s reactions to the news, posters have not been pleasant this week).

We can’t even have a decent conversation about it because the Christian Nationalist side of C.S. Lewis land (I don’t know why it exists either, but my Twitter replies are filled with these losers any time I talk about C.S. Lewis) gets so viciously disgusting about it.

Throughout the course of the Narnian chronicles, Aslan appears as a Lion, obviously. I understand the masculine imagery of a lion. But Aslan also appears as an Albatross and a Lamb and a purring Cat, none of which is explicitly gendered. (I’d even make the argument that the Lamb displays more of a femininity than masculinity, as the Lamb serves breakfast to the children and is described as having a “sweet, milky voice”.) So I suppose my question is, if Aslan can appear as an Albatross and a Lamb, does giving Aslan Meryl Streep’s voice diminish Aslan’s goodness and strength?

I don’t think so.

I posted a pithy tweet mentioning my insistence that Aslan have a mane, but otherwise expressing apathy towards the casting. I’m not excited for this new series, I don’t think anyone could do a better job than Liam Neeson, and I’m a little nettled they’re starting with The Magician’s Nephew.

But ultimately, I have far more disgust towards the sexist reactions than anything Meryl Streep or Greta Gerwig could ever cook up.