Jennifer's Body and the Horrific Female Gaze

i am a god okay comedy horror jennifer's body is a case study in how camera framing subversive writing and self-aware characters can bring a female point of view to an overwhelmingly male genre my skin is breaking out and my hair is dull and lifeless god it's like i'm one of the normal girls unfortunately this enterprise was not something people widely celebrated or even got in 2009. when jennifer's body premiered it was more or less a flop director karen kusama and screenwriter diablo cody hoped that the horror comedy would appeal to teenage girls i'm honest that what's up badger so but the studio insisted on marketing star megan fox's sex appeal to men a strategy that yielded disappointing box office sales and largely negative even misogynistic reviews there was a time when it was painful for me to talk about jennifer's body because you know that movie was a commercial failure yeah and like i was savaged personally then over the years jennifer's body quietly became a cult classic loved by fans of genre films and gaining public praise for addressing predatory male behavior long before this was reckoned with in the mainstream can it even be considered a cult following at this point i feel like it's broken through where it's just a lot of people are obsessed with this movie jennifer's body cemented its place in feminist horror by reclaiming the revenge story formula for women to focus less on what's done to them and more about what they feel as they navigate a world that doesn't really value them there's always that girl they love to show it off but they do not give it up here's our take on how jennifer's body put forward a female gaze in horror before most people were ready to care [Music] if you're new here be sure to subscribe and click the bell to get notified about all our new videos [Music] while this movie is named after the body of fox's character i feel so scrumptious thus seeming to promise enjoyable views of it its visuals playfully deny the male gaze there are plenty of shots of jennifer about to take her clothes off throughout the film but the viewer never actually gets to see her body in a tongue-in-cheek sequence of jennifer emerging from a lake after feasting on a victim's body she swims beguilingly toward the camera as if about to offer herself as she slowly climbs out of the water the camera frames her in the tantalizing male gaze-esque shots of isolated body parts like her feet as the music builds anticipation for something more but from there the scene quickly concludes with her fully clothed back walking away from us the frustration of the viewer's desire to glimpse fox subtly calls out the audience for likely objectifying her and having certain expectations about what they'll see of her even if they haven't thought about it the scene is also a dig at over-the-top displays of sexualized women on screen like fox's own famous scene in transformers it looks like your your distributor cap's a little loose the most overtly sexualized body shot of jennifer is a silhouette as she literally devours a boy poking fun at those who had been eager to see her in such a position the way jennifer is easily able to coax men into dangerous secluded areas also seems to make fun of men who only value women for their bodies to a degree that they'll blindly throw themselves into suspicious or even dangerous situations to sleep with them this isn't really your house is it no baby this is our house just for you and me jennifer is not subtle with her hunting tactics and even mocks them while asking them to meet her in the woods or abandoned houses they're gonna see your buddy really soon what you mean like in heaven someday no in jennifer's body the women are in control they're just boys morsels we have all the power don't you know that even when jennifer is flaunting her sexuality the camera doesn't feel intrusive or voyeuristic towards her body rather she demands its attention needy also maintains control over her own body in the film the camera offering her privacy even when she's in bed with her boyfriend laura movie who coined the term male gaze writes that it turns women into the bearer of meaning not maker of meaning in other words women tend to be used as symbols facilitating a male character's journey in many horror movies women are relegated to specific symbolic roles the damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by a man the promiscuous one who's there to be ogled and then killed off as punishment for her sexual activity or the final girl who survives the ordeals of the film because she's more pure than other victims glenn not now but neither jennifer or needy neatly fit these archetypes jennifer is promiscuous and gets murdered but this doesn't make her a disposable plot device instead we spend the rest of the movie with jennifer and her post-sacrifice experience whereas to be unapologetically sexual like jennifer is typically a weakness in horror movies there are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie you can never have sex here it's part of the character's strength when i'm full like i am right now i'm like unkillable the reason she survives her attack and is transformed into an immortal demon is because her attackers were wrong about her virgin status demonic transference it's something that happens when you try to sacrifice a virgin to satan without using an actual virgin and while films that are dominated by the male gaze often includes slut-shaming or judgmental classmates needy admires jennifer's confidence and the boys at devil's kettle are in awe of her you want to know if i'll go out with you no yeah what meanwhile needy might seem like a final girl but unlike the typical example who's just trying to escape and survive she's proactive searching for answers so i did some research paranormal research and running directly into danger to save others she concludes the film by exacting revenge on the men who sacrificed jennifer i'm following this rock band tonight's gonna be their last show so she has the survival skills of a final girl with the narrative control of a lead hero it's also not the final girl's purity that makes her strong but rather her love for jennifer sandbox love never dies their connection literally gives her the power that she needs to overcome the true villains if you're bitten by a demon and you live you just might absorb some of the demon's abilities the movie may begin with jennifer being attacked by a group of men but it is jennifer and her best friend amanda seyfried's needy who have agency and narrative centrality for the rest of the film as they navigate the ups and downs of friendship romance and demonic forces i just know that i woke up and i found my way back to you i remember i couldn't bring myself to hurt you while the marketing of the film did hype up needies and jennifer's kissing scene when we were shooting it amanda and i were making jokes that that was gonna be the entire trailer it was just gonna be two minutes of us making out yeah we both dreaded filming that because we knew that's what was gonna happen within the actual film the scene focuses on needy sexual awakening and confusion and their final fight which is again loaded with sexual tension culminates in the tragic end of their friendship as needy mourns the loss of the person she loves most while jennifer dies in a fairly traditional horror movie manner being penetrated by a phallic object the pivotal moment in the fight is actually when jennifer stops fighting back because needy rips her bff necklace off it's only when her best female friend gives up on her and withdraws her friendship that she totally dies jennifer's body is a spin on the classic revenge fantasy film where a woman or her surrogate seeks violent revenge on her assailant significantly though when jennifer is stabbed to death by the band low shoulder the attack does not include a sexual assault we deliver this virgin unto thee and since the actual murder scene is dimly lit with distorted visual effects little of the violence is on screen the gore is saved for jennifer's own killings by the time they found colin in that god-forsaken house he looked like lasagna with teeth thus jennifer's body avoids positioning the camera in the point of view of her killer and keeps the audience on both the emotional and physical side of jennifer the camera is presented as jennifer's point of view when she is in the lead singer's van before the attack the quick camera pans and handheld shots convey not only the fear running through jennifer's body but the fear and confusion of being any woman trapped with a group of ill-intended men are you guys rapists oh god i hate girls typically the rape revenge film is a form of exploitation horror a film that purposefully exploits something taboo or disgusting to better understand why we're tantalized by it last house on the left irreversible and i spit on your grave are just a few in this genre that were initially praised for their depictions of graphic assault by the same critics that missed the point of jennifer's body but it's striking that jennifer's body one of the few examples actually created by female filmmakers purposely doesn't detail the facts of the violence and instead represents the complicated feeling of surviving an assault through jennifer's physical transformation you didn't even look human in some ways jennifer appears stronger after her attack it's like some x-men [ __ ] right and even more mature in that she has a more cynical yet realistic understanding of the men she used to idealize and those guys from low shoulder totally evil on the other hand the girl she once was is literally dead her normal teenage life was stolen from her it should have killed me but for some reason it didn't maybe it did and the violence at the start of the film irretrievably damages two women's lives i'm a different person now a person who uses curse words and kicks orderlies and sees things that aren't there a very bad very damaged person the ultimate significance of the film's title is that while everyone around her is transfixed by jennifer's body as a potent sexual object the tragedy is that they're failing to value the person and life within that body this leads jennifer herself to feel empty and nihilistic inside i feel so empty her final dialogue underlines that she too has come to see her body purely in sexual terms when jennifer has been stabbed and says your heart to me it's like the audience is looking at her chest and seeing a tit and what i'm trying to show them is her heart near the end as needy feels the loss of her friend jennifer's mother comes in and sobs over her daughter's lifeless body reminding us that this young person was really a vulnerable human being after jennifer's attack her sole focus becomes the destruction of anyone who reminds her of her assailants or is a symptom of a culture of violence against women namely boys you're killing people no i'm killing boys she begins feasting on the boys who are most convenient for her to kill does anyone know you're alive you come with me and seemingly has no interest in finding her specific attackers this symbolizes that the violence against her isn't just the fault of a single man or even group of men but a bigger societal issue in the killing scene as jennifer begs for her life don't do this the lead singer hesitates and deflects from the seriousness of the situation by singing prolonging jennifer's torture with twisted humor you make me so happy i tried to call you before but i lost my nerve i used my imagination but i was disturbed and the chillingly cavalier unmoved attitude of the band underlines how violence against women has long been treated as an expected almost mundane part of our media consumption the story also features the glib ways certain men falsely positioned themselves as allies to women even before we had widespread critiques of the quote nice guy character type the band members present as exactly that type of wolves in sheep's clothing seemingly in touch with their emotions and thoughtful nothing dangerous out here you want to head someplace safer like my van but in reality vindictive and dangerous we're going to have to butcher you and bleach you the bad guys aren't some supernatural force or obviously repellent monster but your favorite boy band you know i think it's really important sometimes to try and connect with our fans in the shitty areas too it's a message that feels especially relevant in the metoo era as we've become aware that it's the everyday men we interact with and maybe even look up to who we need to look a little more closely at and hold accountable i'm a gentleman are you yeah you might be surprised to hear that gentlemen are sometimes the worst when needy confesses that she thinks jennifer's a demon even her seemingly sensitive boyfriend chip tells her it's not that i don't believe you i just don't believe this on the one hand this half-hearted level of support is an upgrade from what men have offered in past genre films in 1981's the evil dead a film referenced in jennifer's body how am i evil dead t-shirt the men were quick to dismiss the possessed woman in their story as crazy and hysterical [Music] but while chip acts more considerate his disbelief still leads to his death sending the message that it's not enough to be polite if you don't actually believe women i believed you through all this commentary about fake nice guys and the pervasiveness of rape culture that was largely overlooked in 2009 we can see how jennifer's body paved the way for emerald fennel's promising young woman's even more direct and ruthless critiques of rape culture which landed among audiences who have since become more ready to acknowledge these problems i just thought that you were drunk yeah really drunk yeah well i'm not but that's good isn't it [Music] it's easy to see why the resurgence in popularity of jennifer's body loosely dovetailed with the rise of the metoo movement it's a story that ends with getting revenge on abusers the band's actions are a direct parallel to real life power dynamics and abuse as they use their influence to lure a young fan into being alone with them and then exploit her body to benefit their careers satan is our only home we're in league with the beast now and we have to make a really big impression on him megan fox has even compared this plot point to how she felt about hollywood at the time that was really reflective of i felt like my relationship with the movie studios at that point because i felt like that's what they were willing to do to literally bleed me dry and they were willing to sacrifice me physically as long as they got what they wanted out of it a vice article by frederick bleakert argues that if jennifer's body came out now it would likely be a winning formula with horror movie critics in the metoo era perhaps this film is finding more of a sympathetic audience now because it is dealing with themes of like consent assault like male abuse of power so why wasn't jennifer's body interpreted as a quirky innovative feminist revenge comedy in 2009 kusama and cody made the movie for teenage girls but both have spoken openly about how 20th century fox mismarketed the film basing its campaign on catering to the same male gaze that the movie was challenging the studio had a very strong unshakable belief that this movie needed to be marketed to young men specifically which came because of me i'm assuming yes okay yeah exactly the advertising for jennifer's body looked more like a sex comedy than a horror movie at one point executives even suggested that fox host an amateur porn site as a promotion cody pointed out that this approach resulted in both turning off the girls the movie was written for and disappointing the guys who did show up the lasting impact of jennifer's body hasn't been felt by the college-aged men that the studio screen tested with the coveted precious white male 18 to 24 demographic was there it's resonated with young women including ones who came to the film since its release people assume like they assumed that most of my fan base is male and it's not true it's young girls the other problem that the film met with when it came out was the critical establishment while some reviewers did appreciate jennifer's body at the time the reception from this male dominated industry was largely negative given that even today men make up 83 percent of film critics the inability of most men to relate to the film's premise clearly hurt its reputation roger ebert gave the film a somewhat positive review but showed a failure to grasp its essence deeming it twilight for boys and completely omitting jennifer's attack from his recap of why the sexy and popular cheerleader goes bad bleaker theorizes that audiences may have been more willing to accept a difficult and complicated message from a horror comedy if it had been positioned as a more art house film in a subgenre that some call elevated horror the elevated horror term gained traction in the 2010s with well-regarded indie horrors like it follows get out and midsummer which contain astutely observed allegories of societal issues your existence will be as a passenger an audience you'll live in a second place while horrors like this have existed for decades there was no 2000's equivalent term or marketing category for jennifer's body to sell itself as still it's important to recognize that there were plenty of fans of jennifer's body before the me too resurgence including young women sexual assault survivors and bonafide genre film fans many lgbtq plus fans particularly bisexual women cite jennifer's body as a pivotal moment for bisexual representation on screen i thought you only murdered boys i go both ways cody appreciates the recent boost the film's received but feels that tying it too closely to the metoo movement may distract from the fact that none of these issues are new she said maybe on a zeitgeist level it's timely but it's a tale as old as time even if mainstream conversations didn't always have the language or much motivation to confront rape culture feminist writers and creators have been making media about women's lives bodies and politics for a long time often without getting much credit or applause for it the renaissance of jennifer's body isn't about who did or didn't like the film in 2009 or whether or not you liked the film at all it's about centering the voices of those who have first-hand experience with oppression or marginalization when creating and valuing media about that oppression it was definitely like a sort of autobiographical for me writing that movie and no one has ever actually asked me that so it's it's feels cathartic to talk about without narratives like jennifer's body we may not have gotten films like promising young woman or coralie farjas revenge so the film's journey is a reminder that it's important to share your unique point of view and there may be more people out there relating to it than you know pms isn't real needy it was invented by the boy run media to make us seem crazy this is the take on your favorite movie shows and culture thank you so much for watching and for supporting us please subscribe and never miss a take foreign

Channel: The Take

Views: 726,391

Keywords: jennifers body, megan fox, amanda seyfried, karyn kusama, diablo cody, female gaze, the take, horror, vampires, needy, jennifer, elevated horror, feminist, revenge film, exploitation film, revenge fantasy, the last house on the left, i spit on your grave, irreversible, emerald fennell, promising young woman, me too, 20th century fox, get out, rosemarys baby, the babadook, us, stepford wives, midsommar, revenge, bisexual, marginalization, critics, review, flop, renaissance, fans

Id: X7Twg8rG2HI

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 27 2021

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[u/SkiesEclipse]

The way Meghan Fox was treated by the industry is truly abhorrent. Hell, just Michael Bay himself was bad enough. He blacklisted her in Hollywood after she spoke out against his misogyny, and was a terror to work under.

She told a story on Jimmy Kimmel, about how Michael Bay wanted her in a love scene in Bad Boys, but when he found out she was 15 and couldn’t do it, he instead put her in a bikini and had her dance under a waterfall.

Knowing what we know now with how sexualized she was as a young woman by men in the industry, it shows what absolutely genius casting it was to have her in Jennifer’s Body. It really mirrored her real life treatment.

[u/Madame_Ray]

This YouTube channel is by far one of my favourites! It's created by women and they look at popular media through a critical female lens, scrutinising common tropes such as the "femme fatale", "manic pixie dream girl" and the "man-child". They discuss how these and many more aspects in film and tv can be demeaning and damaging as they don't promote a genuine depiction of women past or present, moreover an illusion whose main purpose is to fawn over men with questionable value. Incredibly eye-opening and enlightening, certainly made me question ever rewatching many shows i used to watch in my younger days (looking at you Friends and The Office). Thank you for posting this video! Here is the link to their channel called The Take. https://youtube.com/c/thetake

[u/Educational_Okra_798]

I love this vid 😍 Megan Fox is a true icon.

[u/thecrazywitch31]

I love this YT channel. It gives me FDS vibes

[u/spinsterchachkies]

One of my favorite movies