“Sexy but frightening”: Femme worldbuilding and feminist revenge

Abstract

Women-led revenge films are often lauded for feminist narratives and cathartic reversals of heteropatriarchal hegemony. However, many texts reify femmephobic systems of gender and power by construing violence and revenge as masculine, thus requiring heroines to adopt masculine tactics and weapons. Promising Young Woman (2020) breaks with genre conventions by constructing a world and protagonist that exemplify femme norms, values, and covert ways of operating. Drawing on queer and femme theoretical frameworks, I situate Promising Young Woman in a femme enclave of psychological thriller, positing it as an example of femme worldbuilding that explores how femme subjects assert power over their narratives.