ABSTRACT
Michaela Coel’s limited series I May Destroy You operates as a case study of the false dichotomies inherent in character and world-building within traditional screenwriting practices. In rejecting the false binary of active agent versus passive victim, the use of normative structures to generate tension, and a reliance on redemption narratives for the abuser in cases of sexual assault, Coel’s series pivots to a profound, empathetic focus on the survivor. Characters slip from subject to object beneath the male gaze and experience the malleability of their autonomy in concert with their race, sexuality, or gender identity. With an intersectional feminist framing and a narrative steeped in rape culture, Coel crafts momentum through the deliberate politicization of information and the specificity of setting, paying particular attention to structures of racial and colonial oppression in Black British culture and the social rhythms present in spaces absent the oppressor. In refuting story logics that tie external obstacle to internal need, Coel makes use of the medium’s spatial and temporal fluidity to bring the role of recovery and closure in sexual trauma into question. There is no return to equilibrium from disequilibrium, but rather the visceral coexistence of joy and pain.
