The fate ofJennifer’s Bodyis very closely intertwined with its lead’s story. Megan Fox pointed out toIndie Wirehow her attempts to protect herself against the exploitation of women in Hollywood were far ahead of her time. She was too much of an imperfect victim for the #MeToo movement, sexualized and aggressive. Then, she is suddenly back in mainstream pop culture as a feminist icon. The same happened toJennifer’s Body— about ten years after its release it has become a cultfeminist horror film, commended for its sapphic themes. AsBuzzFeedpoints out, an apology is probably due for writing offJennifer’s Bodyas a silly flick about a man-eating cheerleader.
This is an unfortunate case of satire being so clever that it is viewed as a genuine take on the thing it satirizes, as Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama’s creation is a biting mockery of the politics of response to tragedies, Christianity, but, above all, a poignant commentary on female sexuality and agency, girl-coming-of-age and death of innocence, and relationships between women. A feminist reimagining of the rape-revenge story and a tribute to the female-monster horror genre but set in high school,Jennifer’s Bodyoffered clever dialogue and interesting interpretations but fell victim to its own publicity team, leading to it being marketed for a completely wrong audience.
Initial Rejection ofJennifer’s Body
Megan Fox was the first actress sought for the role of the titular Jennifer, due to her status in audience perception as that bombshell that washed a car as her audition for theTransformersfranchise. Kusama wanted to play on those sexist constrictions and show how women’s bodies don’t belong to women anymore in a gender-skewed world, of which Hollywood is a hyperbolic mirror. However, the industry was not ready for that conversation.
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While the portrayal of Jennifer became one ofFox’s best performances, the underlying message went over viewers’ heads, with the film’s bro-focused marketing strategy particularly to blame for this miscommunication. In an almost purposeful misguidance, Megan Fox’s sex appeal was the main promotion instrument, set on securing a straight male audience. Posters featured Fox in seductive poses, with suggestive slogans like “She’s got a taste for bad boys”. The trailers included no hints of the complex relationship between the two main female characters. During the interview, producers hyped up Needy and Jennifer’s kiss, promising viewers some steamy girl-on-girl action. There was even an idea to make Fox set up an amateur porn website.
Lured into the cinema, men were left unsatisfied, confused, and deeply disturbed. They were not invested in the anxiousness and trepidations of teenage girls’ friendship. Their avatars on the screen — guys who inevitably feel for Jennifer — were torn apart, their insides falling out, and eaten by her. Even the ‘good’ guys! At the same time, such an ill-advised marketing approach drove off the actual intended audience ofJennifer’s Body, girls.
Jennifer’s Bodyas a Sapphic Classic
As the movie starts, Jennifer and Needy’s relationship appears as a classic toxic ‘sandbox’ friendship that is long overdue. One is a strong bossy personality and the other is a lackey, faintly resisting the despotic control over her life. As the story progresses, though, it becomes evident that Needy’s assertion about their connection is not so naive, after all.
Chip, Needy’s boyfriend, couldn’t possibly understand the extent of his girlfriend’s loyalty to her mean best friend because then he would have recognized that, in Needy’s life, he is much less important than Jennifer. To be fair, not even Needy at that point realized that she was endlessly bored and uninterested in her boyfriend or anyone else for that matter — because she’s ‘totally lesbi-gay,’ in the film’s own words for Jennifer.
Jennifer is the apple of Needy’s eye. She visits Jennifer’s every practice to watch her with awe. Needy desperately wants to impress her. She is moved deeply just by holding her best friend’s hand. Her crush is especially, painfully, clear in the infamous kiss scene that happens right after Needy has sex with her boyfriend. This is why the scene did nothing for the male audience because it was not made with the male gaze in mind. This is a tender queer moment.
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This love is not one-sided, it’s just that Jennifer struggles to find her worth beyond male appreciation. She pursues men she obviously has zero interest in, battling her deep insecurities. Jennifer seduces Chip and demands an admittance that she is better than Needy. Because if not, then why would Needy need her?
In a prominent scene, right after she is turned, Jennifer is disorientated and desperately hungry — even then, she doesn’t lay a finger on Needy. She chooses boys as prey because, for her, they are insignificant and interchangeable. When Needy rejects her friendship, heartbroken Jennifer, in the most maximalist teenage nature, refuses to fight her and accepts the death from her hands.
Revival ofJennifer’s Bodyas a Cult Feminist Horror Comedy
The Monstrous Feminine (a term from Barbara Creed’s seminal text of the same name) has been a beloved subject of cinema forever, from the oldest myths of succubi, snake women, or kitsune, to DC’s Poison Ivy, Sharon Stone inBasic Instinct, and so on.Vagina Dentatais one of the scariest concepts in the patriarchal society: a woman who is not conquered and will never be.
Feminist film theoryexplain that in the male subconscious, female power is inversely proportional to male power, therefore they cannot coexist because of the fear of emasculation. The more power a woman gains, the more she is dehumanized — and then punished. The implication of the overpowered woman narrative is that the destruction of the status quo leads only to meaningless and uncontrollable violence because women don’t know how to deal with power without crossing the lines. It is better, therefore, to preserve the current system.
In movies, this opinion is often reinforced through a ‘good’ woman, the one that opposes the violent one.Jennifer’s Bodytwists the cliché with its ending. Needy being admitted to the psychiatric clinic can also allude to women being sent to the asylum for female hysteria. However, even if she kills her demon-possessed best friend, she gains some of her powers from the bite and proceeds to exact a bloody rampage, avenging Jennifer.
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After all, the most horrifying scene in this movie is not one of the gory sex-turned-murder scenes, but rather the scene of the sacrifice. Suddenly the viewer remembers that while Jennifer is bossy, mean, and shallow, she is just a girl. A terrified girl at that. The movie also satirizes obsession with women’s virginity and lets the moment of the tragedy go uninterrupted. And then, asFilmdazepoints out, another flip to this misogynistic structure — Jennifer is not punished for her sexuality, it is actually what saves her from death.
Jennifer’s Bodyfinds common grounds with Cody’s previous workJunoin its frank and witty treatment of different female experiences and for putting them at the center of the story.Mashableexplains why horror is a great genre to tell teenage girl stories: “Whatever the case, a growing collection of movies sees the feelings generated by the pressure placed on young women – anger, guilt, shame, fear, self-loathing – explode in a bloody fashion.”Jennifer’s Bodyremains a great and vicious satire of the male gaze and the fetishization on women in horror movies, and deserves to be reevaluated as a true classic.
