The Girlboss-ification of the Horror Genre

Black Christmas' (2019) tagline is "slay, girls" and that makes a lot of sense in hindsight.
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find me elsewhere!
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sources used:
2. Linda Steiner, "Feminist Media Theory."
16. Jo Livingstone, "The Final Girl is All Grown Up."

[FDSignifire]

I keep reflecting on the unique movement that came behind Jennifer's body. It's an amazing touchstone on changing perspectives and the type of fuckery Hollywood was full of...and is still full of.

[mzivanovic]

The Shining is obviously a great movie and a horror classic. But the fact that filming was so traumatic for Shelley Duvall enrages me. Kubrick would've never tortured a male actor in such a way; what he did to her was a literal crime. He was a douchebag and nothing will ever change that.

[soggy]

The craziest thing about black swan is that beth and nina are three years apart but everyone pretends that beth's some old woman who's one dance away from breaking her hip

[tweedlebug]

I always thought the original Scream was oddly empowering. Especially the "Not in my movie" line, and the fact that the final girl did have sex but still managed to outwit her attackers, linking not her virginity to her survival, but instead her intelligence and survival skills. How it tbh should've been all along. She ALSO wasn't the only woman who survived the plot.

[elleliteracy]

the costume! the editing! the subject matter!! banger after BANGER

[debunkintheories]

I love how you add captions! It makes it way easier for me to understand what is going on, and most huge you-tubers don’t have correct captions, so thank you!

[odin]

It’s important to mention ableism when discussing this topic… (esp when mentioning intersectional feminism) Ableism is rampant and often ignored. Specifically in horror, disabled people are made to be “scary” or the villain time and time again.

[Grace-vyfj]

THE WAY IVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THIS !! Horror movies and the way they depict women has always gotten to me. Especially considering how s3x ALWAYS makes its way into how women are k!lled in these movies. I'm really glad you mentioned how the horror genre has always had a lot of sexism and racism throughout it.

[lj]

the Black Christmas remake isn't necessarily bad because it portrays feminist themes...it's bad because it doesn't do a good job at portraying feminist themes.

[KhadijaMbowe]

I am 00:26 seconds in and cannot stop howling

[mhunt]

I took the ending of Black Swan to mean that Nina reached her goal, but at the cost of everything else. She bent herself to please Thomas, her mom, the expectations of everyone in her dance community and it killed her. But - she was the Black Swan. So Nina reached her career goal, dying at the peak moment of her life, will never experience the decline into obscurity Wynona Rider's character had, and we're left to decide if it was worth it.

[spiritphone]

ah this video is great! being a female horror fan is so exhausting, ur stuck between defending it when people say the whole genre is misogynistic, and being disgusted at the films that actually are misogynistic. but even when it’s bad it’s kinda the only genre that explores gender in depth

[tiffanyferg]

I love that you covered this topic! In my last semester of college I took a class on horror films and it was my fav. That professor wrote a book called “Recreational Terror” about the horror genre and her theories of why so many women enjoy it. Something I’ve found fascinating is the popularity of true crime among women; I think the appeal may be for similar reasons. Why do so many of us enjoy hearing about or watching such horrifying things? Do we in some way feel like we’re learning how to survive, if we were ever in those situations? (Semi rhetorical questions lmao)

[alljustletters]

i just wanna add that darren “fuck you“ aronofsky, of black swan fame, is known to treat his young lead actresses similarly terrible to how kubrick treated shelley duvall, so that’s fun. i love horror.

[Hyzentley]

Not a feminist horror movie in the sense of seeing women struggle against patriarchy, but definitely one in focusing on women and their experience: Annihilation (2018). It follows five women scientists who are sent into a mysterious area that fractures reality, and soon it turns out that it also fractures them and uses their trauma against them. Its such a good metaphor for mental illness, and truly haunting

[theaverageglasses]

Excellent video. Though I wish there had been room for how "Alien"'s themes were meant to make the fear of involuntary pregnancy and oral violation tangible for men, because when I found out quite some years ago I fucking CACKLED. It all made sense. I had loved the movie before, I loved it even more intensely after. Here was a man who had looked at women's fears and went "that's horrific, I'mma make those guys real uncomfortable". The only other movie that has so viscerally resonated with me is probably "Promising Young Woman".

[nah]

I loved the movie “Invisible Man” since it portrayed the experience through the main character’s story that drove her to desperation to prove she wasn’t crazy and that her husband was out to get her. It was amazing to see that experience through chillingly silent scenes when she was escaping the control of her abusive husband. The mental, social and physical torment he put her through was depicted really well.
I’ve also watched ‘Black Christmas’ and I really enjoyed the Christmas jingle song that was in it about female agency but I now think I should check out the older one.

[sharkofjoy]

You didn't have to explain the turtleneck + bustier because I think it's a hot look 🔥 you could have just gone with it. Once you've pulled off a beard, you can get away with anything imo

[rachellme]

horror is such a thorny topic to critique bc not only does a lot of horror rely on misogynistic and racist tropes, but ableism also tends to be rampant in the genre too. from the concept of ~~psycho~~ killers w the insinuation of mental illness, to the heavy usage of body there's just a lot to unpack in this genre lol

really enjoyed this analysis of """feminist""" horror and where it succeeds and where it fails. I especially enjoyed your reading of Black Swan, as I was too young to pick up on Thomas taking advantage of Nina when I watched it and I found the ending too disturbing to bring myself to revisit it since.

P.S. thank you for acknowledging Kubrick is the worst. far too many ppl gush about The Shining without mentioning his abuse.

P.P.S. your outfit is super cute!!

[flxjybl]

I was literally dying of boredom and saw your notification, you're a literal darling!!