The dubious logic of sacrifice: motherhood, crisis, and social reproduction in Advantageous (2015)

Abstract

ABSTRACT A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relatively unexceptional protagonists in dystopian scenarios, thereby shifting the conventional focus of the genre from heroic action to small-scale personal and domestic dramas. This article argues that by juxtaposing issues of broader environmental degradation with more intimate private narratives of social reproduction, such films point to the limits of neoliberal austerity discourses that have become increasingly dominant since the 2008 economic crisis. Among these is Advantageous (dir./co-writ. Jennifer Phang, 2015), about the struggles of a middle-aged single mother, Gwen Koh (Jacqueline Kim, also co-writ.), to raise her young daughter Jules in a technocratic society characterized by rampant unemployment, feminist backlash, environmental ruin, and socioeconomic stratification. Using a blend of close textual analysis, genre study, and cultural critique, I argue that Phang’s film offers a timely vision of the ways in which mothers can be compelled to make drastic sacrifices for the upward mobility of their children. In combining the domestic tropes of maternal melodrama with the macroscopic concerns of dystopian science fiction, Advantageous makes openings for an immanent critique of the strivings of virtuous neoliberal subjects in the face of eviscerated notions of social solidarity and collective purpose.