Inspired by the Psychologist findings of Barbara Creed
Female sexuality has always been viewed as a societal taboo that limits the freedom of sexual desire. It transgresses into the cinematic screen by constraining female sexuality to an impenetrable box of horror genre tropes. The horror genre heavily comments on female sexuality implicating that women use their bodies to represent the conflict, (reflected through demonic possession), labeling them as monstrous females in need of purification, (reflected through exorcism), in order to restore the natural order and be once again “proper and clean”. “Possession becomes the excuse for legitimizing a display of aberrant feminine behavior which is depicted as deprave, monstrous,abject — and perversely appealing.” In this paper I will argue how the revolutionary horror film, Jennifer’s Body, written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, not only pays tribute to the horror genre, but also critiques some of the conventional tropes such as, “Possession” and “the Final Girl”. I will show how the film serves as an innovative point of view that revolutionized female sexuality in horror films. Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009) progressively reconstructed gender tropes that developed a new subculture of female leads.
One of the most obvious tropes Cody and Kusama revolutionized is “(demonic) possession”. They reject the disgusting bodily characteristics associated with the traditional demonic possession yet, the nature of the monstrous female remains intact. Creed explains possession and abjection by stating, “Possession becomes the excuse for legitimizing a display of aberrant feminine behavior which is depicted as depraved, monstrous, abject - Number firstly appealing.” She also explains how horror films demonstrate abjection through the women body whether it is whole or dismembered, or how the body secretes disgusting bodily fluids (such as blood, vomit, saliva etc). A perfect graphic example of this is the possessed pubescent girl, Regan, from the iconic 1973 horror film, The Exorcist ,directed by William Friedkin.
When Reagan becomes possessed by a demon it begins to manifest itself through the horrific changes in her body. The once innocent vulnerable girl transforms into a literal monster that throws up green bile, has incredible strength and has disgusting skin sores. Regan also becomes sexually distorted by masturbating with a crucifix , making sexual comments towards her mother, and grabbing the priest's genitalia. Contradictory to the film, Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009), Jennifer, Played by Megan Fox, does not manifest possession the same way Reagan does. The difference between Reagan and Jennifer is highly noticeable, in which Reagan is the embodiment of the horror genre trope, the violation of the “innocent vulnerable young girl” and the not so innocent promiscuous teenage girl, Jennifer. She is not pure like Reagan in fact she is not a virgin, she is the epiphany of the average sexually active high school girl. She even brags about not being a backdoor virgin anymore to her best friend Needy, making her relatable to the average teenage girl. The polarity between the possession of Regan and the possession of Jennifer as highly juxtaposed, while Reagan literally becomes a disgusting monster, Jennifer becomes even more beautiful teenager but is still metaphorically a demonic man-eating-monster. Although Jennifer does not physically demonstrate the same characteristics of being possessed, such as those of Reagan, she is still rendered monstrous, binary to Julia Kristeva’s idea of abjection. According to Creed, “human sacrifice as a religious abomination is constructed as the abject of virtually all horror films ; and bodily disfigurement as a religious abomination is also central… particularly those in which woman is slashed, the mark a sign of her ‘difference’, her impurity.” In other words, the abjection in Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009) comes from being raped and sacrificed by the band, Low Shoulder, and the manifested physicality of the abjection is the blood coming out of Jennifer’s wounds and the black vomit. However, when Jennifer embraces her possession and uses it to her advantage it crushes the gender trope of “possession.” While Reagan attempts to reject the possession through an exorcism in order to restore her purity, Jennifer fully accepts the demonic possession and uses her body to lure men and prey upon them to keep her newfound lustful youth. Interestingly Jennifer never expresses remorse nor guilt, she even compares herself to feeling like a goddess. Jennifer’s act of defiance becomes the embodiment of the female sexual rebellion, one that does not need purgation nor salvation.
Although the film is titled Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009), Jennifer is not the protagonist, her best friend Needy is, she is both the narrator and “The Final Girl”. Coby establishes this trope immediately with the opening scene as she narrates the film through a series of flashbacks. The story comes to full circle at the end of the film when the spectator is brought back to her present time in the mental asylum. By having Needy be both the “final girl” and the narrator, Coby dismisses female objectivity crushing the dominance of male gaze associated to horror films. In doing so, Coby liberates the “final girl”trope from its societal conventions.
However, Needy does has a lot in common with the traditional “final girl” trope she is: average looking, intelligent, and a goody-good girl. Yet, the difference between the traditional “final girl” trope and Coby’s version is that she is not an innocent virgin. In contrast she is a sexually active teenager who shares her sexual needs with her boyfriend, Chip. This contradicts an important characteristic of the traditional “final girl” trope ,which is also crucial to her survival. By rejecting virginity and embracing sexual freedom ,Coby shatters the trope and brings it a step further by demonstrating Needy as the final survivor. In other horror films women who express sexual freedom are often punished and the first to die. For example, the opening scene in the thriller-parody, Scary Movie, (Wayans 2000), the first to die is a very promiscuous girl, played by Carmen Electra, who is being chased down by the murder. In this scene the murder reaches for her and somehow rips all of her clothes off. She runs half naked through the water sprinklers in slow motion like if she was Pamela Anderson in Baywatch (running her hands through her hair, touching her body, while making sexual gestures with her face) only to be murdered. Scary Movie (Wayans 2000) pokes fun at the “final girl” trope by overly exaggerating this scene. Scary Movie, (Wayans 2000) comments on this trope and demonstrates what happens to the sexual and impure women in the typical horror films, they die first with no chance at survival.
Furthermore, Needy faces Jennifer as the monster in contrast to the traditional horror film, the “final girl” often faces a male monster such as, Nancy and Fred Krueger in West Craven’s, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Needy does not face a supernatural male monster, but rather a female, Jennifer. Although the monstrous female, Jenifer, is created by the men from the band, it is still a battle of female versus female. The film is told Through Needy’s perspective and through her transformation the film progresses until the concluding scene of her victory over Jennifer. It is Needy that defies the “final girl” trope shattering the both its societal and genre related conventions.
It is neatness to say that Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama have utilized Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009) to revolutionize how people perceive femininity and exploit female sexuality beyond the societal constraints. They reinvented the “final girl” trope by changing important characteristics thus making the characters relatable, powerful, confident, and in charge of their own destinies. The social commentary behind this film demonstrates the need for change starting with how women are perceived in both the horror genre and everyday life. Often women are punished for being open about their sexual freedom by being ostracized and labeled as whores or in the cinematic world, killed off by men. Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama take a different approach with Jennifer by letting her accept her new found sexuality and embracing who she has become.
Bibliography
Creed, Barbara. The monstrous-feminine: film, feminism, psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, 2007.