Asking4it: Fun and Games and Assault in Body Swapping Dark Comedy

Emma Jesse’s 16-minute Asking4it is a film that knows how to stick its landing. A dark comedy about living in someone else’s skin, it follows a man who Freaky Fridays his way into a damn good day and the promise of an ever better evening. But as much as he enjoys his newfound ability to cop a feel whenever, our protagonist is about to discover the back breaking weight of existing with such a “privilege”.

It is a circular narrative, and the opening waits until the finale to unfold into its full picture—though the impression is less of a puzzle and more of the gap between action and consequences. The first thing a man does after waking up, next to his partner, is to check Tinder. The fate of each profile is determined by bust size. The bigger it is, the closer Dave will zoom, the longer he will gawk at it. He zooms, he evaluates, he decides. And when he has satiated his appetite for virtual lechery, he descends upon his still asleep girlfriend.

With the prologue thus in place, the narrative kicks Dave (Arron Blake) into what should immediately look like punishment to him, and initially it does, but the film would look very different if it stopped at that. No, Dave is about to take a turn towards something that is so on brand for his thorough sexism that it practically turns into trans euphoria: he has a female body (Antonia Whillans) now and he loves it. He loves it so much he immediately gives himself a good groping, followed by shopping for the most glamorous outfit he can find for the club.

The disturbingly obnoxious has turned into hilariously obnoxious. Blake makes the most of the screenplay. It is as easy to hate Dave as it is to enjoy his time with him. He leans into every single perk of being a woman that he can conceive of. Dave, lecher extraordinaire, enjoys being a woman by indulging other men who are also lechers. He does not know it yet, but he is about to find out that that will only last so long and only take him so far.

The film has a similar frolicky bounce to it as Gerwig’s Barbie, but the bite is more palpable, the conceit of naivete drawn back. Which is to say that despite the fun and gloss, Asking4it is always sensorial. The upside down queerness of having a loud and oppressive heterosexual like Dave in a dress and showing him enjoying it creates a kind of compartmentalisation for the viewer as well. Whatever else is going in the plot, there is a lightness—a very brief one—of watching Dave dance and enjoy himself in his shiny mini dress. The premise seeming like every TERF’s ideal is simply part of the dissonance that makes the film toe the line between observation and complicity. But in fact it makes the case that no one who experiences womanhood would do so for any material benefits other than that it feels the most natural despite the horrors.

The climax brings the narrative back to ground zero with the help of Blue Ekhaletruo’s striking performance. The tone shifts from action to reaction. Things had been happening up to this point. Now, Dave has to reckon with them. Perhaps the most important choice that Asking4it makes is to cut to black.

Watch Asking4it Short Film Trailer