So we've all heard: Harvey Weinstein is going down and thanks be to the Goddess. Hopefully this is the start of a new era in Hollywood where women aren't seen as objects that can be used and abused, like the characters in the Weinstein Company's Netflix show Marco Polo. It seems that the perverted mindset of Harvey Weinstein is a direct analog of the mind of Kublai Khan. Not only is Kublai fat and ugly like the real Weinstein, he wields his power and penis without much thought for anyone else's well-being. And it's not just Kublai: sex and violence are collapsed in almost all of the tv show's relationships. The divine feminine is completely desecrated and there truly is no good model of what a woman or man should be on this show.
Let us start with the Blue Princess. She is the High Priestess to Marco Polo's Magician, but this typical pairing is never truly allowed to flourish as it should. Here is the first sexual violence: Marco and Kokachin are not allowed to be together because of the intricacies of Kublai's court. They are both held prisoner with equally captive sex lives. When Kokachin is promised to Prince Jingim, it is a violent break in Marco and Kokachin's sex lives. Then as Jingim's bride, the Blue Princess is subjected to a violent assessment of her virtue where her hymen breaks and she bleeds. Next she is forced by the Queen to have sex with a stable boy to ensure an (illegitimate) heir to the Khanate. This leads to her untimely death, a jarring event that leaves the viewer feeling pretty distressed. We, as viewers, are invested in the Blue Princess, a plucky servant girl who steals her title from the real Kokachin. She is Marco's main squeeze, so how could she die? And at the hands of someone who "cares" for her intimately, all because her sexuality was used and abused and her actual person is no longer "convenient" for the Khan's court anymore. And through it all, she remains the quiescent, modest model of what a princess "should be", even unto her death. She almost forgives the Queen for killing her, or at least, she does not resist when Chabi drowns her. It puts in mind the women that Weinstein used and abused and then buried under payoff money or career-inhibiting slander, not to mention those he convinced to date him legitimately after he illegitimately took what he wanted from them first. There is no model for the divine feminine here; it is desecrated and murdered, as sex and violence collapse in the character of the Blue Princess.
Next we have the Chancellor Jia Sidao and his sister Mei Lin. These two are a blatant juxtaposition of sex and violence as Mei Lin is an Imperial Courtesan and Sidao is the Minister of War for south China. Their relationship is fraught with instances of psychological and sexual violence, culminating in Sidao sending his armed and dirty soldiers to bed Mei Lin after the Emperor dies. As we know, she kills all of them and does it in the nude, effectively collapsing sex and violence aesthetically and representationally as well as symbolically. Then, in another act of sexual violence, Sidao sends his sister to be Kublai's mistress, wresting from her her daughter in the process. There she beds the Khan while plotting the murder of him and his wife. As for Sidao, his mistress betrays him and kills herself, further aligning sex with violence. Plus, the name Sidao just sounds like sadist, which he proves to certainly be as Minister of War, but also as an uncle: he eventually binds Mei Lin's daughter's feet. As feet are a symbol of sex, this certainly is "sexual violence".
The Empress Chabi is not passed over in Weinstein's portrayal of sexual violence, either. When asked what would excite her, she replies that the gruesome murder of Kublai's brother would "get her going". What a Lady Macbeth we have here. And let's not forget the one time she stood up to Kublai and he manhandled her head a bit: as she walked away from him, he reached out and grabbed her hair. So, not ever this "highest" of relationships is without the conflation of sex and violence. Plus, it feels like sexual violence that Kublai sleep with other women, especially because the Empress is present for all this. When Chabi seeks to debase her political and sexual competitor Mei Lin, Chabi tells her the Khan is not pleased with her, and that she will remedy the situation. The way Mei Lin's "reeducation" is filmed and the scenes it is interspersed with imply violence. It may not be physical violence, but it is the kind of psychological, social, mental violence women use against one another.
If we thought we'd get a reprieve from sex and violence in the form of Khutulun we are sadly mistaken. She may not be a wilting flower like the rest of the female characters, but she is not safe from Weinstein's collapse of sex and violence, either. Indeed, she may be the most obvious instance: she is to wed any man that can beat her at wrestling. Although she chooses to bed Marco before she weds, even that is violent. Khutulun and Marco wrestle and she ends up on top, but ultimately, she is just another princess to be possessed.
In conclusion, it is obvious that Harvey Weinstein's penchant for sex and violence is evident in Marco Polo. Even Hundred Eyes is not exempt: his lover fights him to the death. In a direct quote from the show: "Taking what you want is the way of great men". I assume Weinstein considered himself one of these great men. The violence towards women is apparent from the beginning: the opening credits show what is clearly the body of a woman that has been run through with a stake (or a giant phallus). This image is a departure from civil tv shows that tend not to show obvious violence toward women. And not just women. Not to get too shitty or anything, but the Muslims on the show tend to die horrific deaths after being proclaimed traitors. Plus, there are the New World Order elements of child sacrifice and incest. All in all, Marco Polo may be beautiful, complex, and intriguing, but in the end, the viewer is left with the stench of despotism, corruption, and sexual trespass. But like its creator, the show is put down: there will be no season 3. Like I said, thank the Goddess.
