Madeline Looks Back

Rape-revenge movies have a reputation as voyeuristic at best, or at worst, distorted fantasies made by men, for men. Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” reimagines the genre by exploring what revenge and reparations would be sufficient to punish a rapist. We explore the societal and legal structures that fail rape survivors and how men respond when women don’t act the way they expect.

Content warning: This episode deals with rape and trauma, so if that’s not something you want to listen to, check out one of our other episodes.

Cited:

Clover, Carol J. "Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film." Princeton University Press, 1997.

Machado, Carmen Maria. "How 'Promising Young Woman' Refigures the Rape-Revenge Movie." The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/how-promising-young-woman-refigures-the-rape-revenge-movie

Wilson, Lena. "Rape-Revenge Tales: Cathartic? Maybe. Incomplete? Definitely." The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/movies/rape-revenge-films-flaws.html

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about the 2009 film ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ why it wasn’t appreciated when it came out, and what it has to say about the expectations we project onto young women’s bodies. We discuss Megan Fox’s theory about why the movie bombed and the treatment of actresses pre-MeToo, and we dive into how the movie plays with horror tropes.

Cited:

Blichert, Frederick. “'Jennifer’s Body' Would Kill if It Came Out Today.” Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qv99y3/jennifers-body-would-kill-if-it-came-out-today?utm_source=vicetwitterus

Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton

University Press, 1997.

Grady, Constance. “How Jennifer’s Body went from a flop in 2009 to a feminist cult classic today.’ Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/10/31/18037996/jennifers-body-flop-cult-classic-feminist-horror

Scott, A.O. “Hell Is Other People, Especially the Popular Girl.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/movies/18jennifer.html

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about ‘Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey’ (a.k.a. ‘Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’) and discuss the figure of the anti-heroine, how Harley rejects the Lolita effect, and her quest to define herself.

Cited:

Balakian, Nona. “The Prophetic Vogue of the Anti-Heroine.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/43467384

Itzkoff, Dave. “Cathy Yan on the Rerelease of ‘Birds of Prey,’ the Harley Quinn Movie.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/movies/cathy-yan-harley-quinn-birds-of-prey.html

Schmidt, Katlin, "Siren Song: A Rhetorical Analysis of Gender and Intimate Partner Violence in Gotham City Sirens."

https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2423

“Watch Margot Robbie Fight on Roller Skates in ‘Birds of Prey’ | Anatomy of a Scene.” New York Times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IzKamea9ww

“'Birds Of Prey' Takes Flight.” Pop Culture Happy Hour. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805620651/birds-of-prey-takes-flight

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about media made for teenage girls, comparing ‘Bring It On’ (2000) and ‘Never Have I Ever’ (2020), and discuss why teenage movies were dismissed, the importance of women in the film industry, and the evolution in the way we talk about sexuality in media.

Cited:

Cohen, Anne. “Teenage Girls Loved These Movies, Critics Didn’t — Who Was Right?” Refinery29. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/12/8952462/girl-movies-for-women-reviews-male-film-critics-problem

Getz, Dana. “What Happened To Sleepover Movies?” Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/90s-2000s-teen-movies

Orenstein, Peggy. “The Movies Discover The Teen-Age Girl”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/11/movies/the-movies-discover-the-teen-age-girl.html

Scott, A.O. “Strong, Modest and Sincere Behind All the Giddy Cheer.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/25/movies/film-review-strong-modest-and-sincere-behind-all-the-giddy-cheer.html

“Never Have I Ever I Co-Creators Mindy Kaling & Lang Fisher On Creating Teen Comedy “ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE_Oah0RxQE

“Never Have I Ever | Mindy Kaling & Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Celebrate Ganesh Puja Episode” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzVYRST0h3Q

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We discuss the novel 'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernadine Evaristo and explore rejecting binaries, celebrating the diversity of voices in feminist discourse, and practicing feminism as social justice.

'Girl, Woman, Other' character map: https://twitter.com/bernardineevari/status/1208313873473966081?lang=en

More information on deadnaming: https://www.healthline.com/health/transgender/deadnaming#media

Cited:

Anim-Addo, Joan. “activist-mothers maybe, sisters surely? Black British feminism, absence and transformation.” https://www-jstor-org.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/stable/24571919

The Santa Cruz Feminist Of Color Collective. “Building on ‘the Edge of Each Other's Battles’: A Feminist of Color Multidimensional Lens.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hypa.12062

Stryker, Susan. “(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies.” The Transgender Studies Reader. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Transgender_Studies_Reader.html?id=HBRR1isU-VAC

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about vampire women, share a brief history of women in the film industry, and explore the ideas on humanity, criminality, and morality in the films “The Velvet Vampire” and “A Girl Walks Home Alone” at Night.

Cited:

Aylsworth, Laura. “Harmless Victims or Harmful Villians: The Representation of Criminalized Women in Public Discourse.” Carleton University https://curve.carleton.ca/c80b976e-acf0-4c46-9e13-a12be3a95d87

Schnidel, Dan. How the 1970s Marked a Turning Point for Women Directors in Hollywood.” Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/481079/liberating-hollywood-maya-montanez-smukler-ucla-film/

Williams, Linda. "When the woman looks."

http://academic.uprm.edu/mleonard/theorydocs/readings/WilliamsWomanLook.pdf

Wood, Robin. “Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan -- and Beyond.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=CMCpsJBrtBQC&dq=the+velvet+vampire+feminism&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Recommendations:

Allende, Isabel. “Long Petal of the Sea.” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622081/a-long-petal-of-the-sea-by-isabel-allende/

Applebaum, Anne. “History Will Judge the Complicit.” The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/

Carr, Erin Lee. “All That You Leave Behind.” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551517/all-that-you-leave-behind-by-erin-lee-carr/

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quarantine has us creeping up and down the walls, so we’re turning to some of our favorite women authors of the 19th and 20th centuries and relating to them in whole new ways. We talk about feeling trapped inside the home in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” appreciating life after close encounters with death in "Mrs. Dalloway," and finding a little hope in Emily Dickinson. Mild spoilers for "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."

Cited in this episode:

Dickinson, Emily. “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.’ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “Infection in the Sentence: The Woman Writer and the

Anxiety of Authorship.” The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends,

edited by David H. Richter, Shorter Third Edition, Bedford/St. Martins, 2016, pp.

902-915.

Kindley, Evan. “Why Anxious Readers Under Quarantine Turn to ‘Mrs. Daloway.’” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We discuss the series ‘Sex Education’ and the ways it challenges assumptions about sexuality, promotes open and healthy communication about sex and relationships, and creates an idyllic world in which acceptance is the norm. Contains spoilers for seasons 1 and 2!

Cited in the episode:

Glover, Cameron. “The Final Frontier

With ‘Sex Education,’ Netflix Expands the Pleasure Discourse.” Bitch Media. https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/netflix-sex-education-season-two-review

Liepe-Levinson, Katherine. Strip Show: Performances of Gender and Desire https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=I-iFAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=nonbinary+sexual+representation+american+television&ots=9G-lxjB8JQ&sig=CDGhmbyLVHXHXdf6HfjYq1GIvu4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Nursing@USC Staff. “America’s Sex Education: How We Are Failing Our Students.” https://nursing.usc.edu/blog/americas-sex-education/

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about the series Killing Eve, the way women murderers are portrayed as monsters, how Villanelle uses femininity as a mask, and what representations of violence reveal about society’s preconceptions. Season 1 and 2 spoilers abound!

Cited in this episode:

Cox, Lara. “Misogyny, Maids, and Murderesses: Toward a Feminist Reappraisal of Jean Genet's ‘Les Bonnes’.” Theatre Journal. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24580307

Gilbert, Paula Ruth. “Violence and the Female Imagination: Quebec's Women Writers Re-Frame Gender in North American Cultures.” French, Canadian, and Women's Studies at George Mason University/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt80g9h

Nussbaum, Emily. “Chick Magnets on ‘Gentleman Jack’ and ‘Killing Eve.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/29/chick-magnets-on-gentleman-jack-and-killing-eve

Additional reading/listening:

Adler, Natalie. “Season 2 Of ‘Killing Eve’ Killed The Queer Subtext, And All The Fun Along With It.” BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/natalieadler/killing-eve-season-2-sandra-oh-jodie-comer-queer-subtext

Crouse, Lindsay. "My Ex-Boyfriend’s New Girlfriend Is Lady Gaga." The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/sunday/lady-gaga-boyfriend.html

Gutowitz, Jill. “Killing Eve's Queer Storyline Is Looking More and More Like a Marketing Ploy.” Vice. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3nw9x/fans-accuse-killing-eve-sandra-oh-of-queerbaiting-after-season-2-finale

Pop Culture Happy Hour. "'Birds of Prey' Takes Flight." https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805620651/birds-of-prey-takes-flight

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We talk about the series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the state of feminism in 1960, the constraints for women comedians at the time, and Midge Maisel’s own brand of feminism and femininity.

Cited in this episode:

Maud Anne Bracke, Penelope Morris and Emily Ryder. "Introduction. Translating Feminism: Transfer, Transgression, Transformation (1950s–1980s).” Gender & History, 2018. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-0424.12358

Betty Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. Norton, 1963. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Feminine-Mystique

Constance Grady. “The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained.” Vox, 2018. https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth

Richard Severo and Peter Keepnews. “Phyllis Diller, Sassy Comedian, Dies at 95.” The New York Times, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/arts/television/phyllis-diller-sassy-comedian-dies-at-95.html

Krystie Lee Yandoli “The Accidental Revolutionaries In ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.” BuzzFeed, 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krystieyandoli/marvelous-mrs-maisel-season-3-three

Phyllis Diller stand-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwzOflhCJCo

Joan Rivers stand-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppj6Syvwn_o

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” excerpt from season 3, episode 6. Amazon Prime Video, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07WRDTFNT/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_iEgOEZ_2_1

The music used in this episode is "Lost Souls" by Portrayal freemusicarchive.org/music/Portraya…l_-_Lost_Souls used under an attribution license creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/