Improved Kevin Paragraph

The viewer experiences a similar power struggle between Eva and Kevin in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. We see throughout the film how Eva fluctuates between appearing more masculine or feminine, linking to Doanne’s theory of the performed quality of femininity, how womanliness is a mask either worn or removed. During the book reading scene, the faded colour of her beige top, lack of any womanly makeup e.g. redder lips/eye shadow or anything that accentuates the lashes/brows, as well as short hair (not too dissimilar to Kevin’s hair) makes her seem more masculine. This is used in conjunction with the tilt shot the alternates between Kevin and Eva being centre frame, but never seen together, highlighting the divide between them. The implication of such masculinity is that Eva is merely pretending to be a caring mother, and in reality is antipathetic towards Kevin. This behaviour is mirrored by him, as while he acts as a normal boy in the scene, displayed through stereotypically boyish and childlike pyjamas (blue with robots), the argument could be made that this incongruous behaviour is only as a result of his lowered defences now that he is ill, and so he needs to have someone to depend on. In a scene where Eva is the dominant in the binary opposition of dominant vs assertive, she and Kevin are finally living in harmony, which has enabled the expression of the maternal role (book reading, cleaning up vomit). The ideological message derived from the aforementioned equilibrium is that it is ‘right’ for the parent to be the dominant one. This brief rest in the opposition between Kevin and Eva has helped the spectator understand the layered nature of their relationship - they will only ever resolve their issues through acting as a normal mother and son.