‘A Walking Study in Demonology’: Postfeminism and Popular Misogyny in Jennifer’s Body (2009)

IF 0.2 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Máiréad Casey
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article analyses the 2009 horror-comedy directed by Karyn Kusama, Jennifer’s Body. I describe how this female-centred horror film critiques the postfeminist or neoliberal feminine subject from an angle that aligns most comfortably with antifeminist sentiments and arguments from the centre-right and right. I discuss how a gendered neoliberal discourse of individualism, and the idea that the individual must be ultimately bear responsibility for their own biography, renders the titular character as an illegible subject of sexualised violence. I argue that the film naturalises threats of sexual violence, attributes blame to the violated female body, and renders her illegible as a victim or as person worthy of sympathy and support. I demonstrate how the film is prescient of secular forms of exclusion, specifically popular misogyny and conforms to some of popular misogyny’s circulated myths and philosophies regarding female sexuality.
“人口学中的行走研究”:詹妮弗身体中的后女权主义和大众厌女症(2009)
本文分析了草间弥生2009年执导的恐怖喜剧《詹妮弗的身体》。我描述了这部以女性为中心的恐怖电影是如何从一个最符合中右翼和右翼反女权主义情绪和论点的角度来批评后女权主义或新自由主义女性主题的。我讨论了一种性别化的个人主义新自由主义话语,以及个人必须最终为自己的传记承担责任的想法,是如何将这个有名无实的角色变成一个难以辨认的性暴力主题的。我认为,这部电影将性暴力的威胁自然化,将责任归咎于被侵犯的女性身体,并使她作为受害者或值得同情和支持的人变得难以辨认。我展示了这部电影是如何对世俗形式的排斥,特别是流行的厌女症有先见之明的,并符合一些流行厌女症流传的关于女性性行为的神话和哲学。
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来源期刊
Gothic Studies
Gothic Studies HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
22
期刊介绍: The official journal of the International Gothic Association considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. Gothic Studies opens a forum for dialogue and cultural criticism, and provides a specialist journal for scholars working in a field which is today taught or researched in academic institutions around the globe. The journal invites contributions from scholars working within any period of the Gothic; interdisciplinary scholarship is especially welcome, as are studies of works across the range of media, beyond the written word.
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