In today’s day and age, cinema is one of the most common forms of entertainment and escapism, and a large part of this entertainment comes from violence. Out of the top one-hundred highest-earning movies in America in 2022, about half of them included major themes of violence or gore. Violence is clearly an appealing subject in modern cinema, and people are starting to call for more representations of violent women in the media.
Oftentimes, women are painted as passive, non-violent background figures, as opposed to their violent masculine counterparts. It is rare that movies show female rage, and this is problematic for several reasons, mainly because it strengthens the harmful stereotype that women are only docile and incapable of having powerful emotions such as hate or anger. It also conveys the message that women should be forgiving and kind to their oppressors and abusers, instead of harboring any negative feelings for them. Thankfully, there are movies that do break through this social expectation, and these violent heroines can, for the most part, be categorized into two main groups: characters seeking revenge and characters that are simply immoral.
While both of these types of characters have their pros and cons, movies featuring vengeful antiheroines are much more common than the other type of movies. One famous example of a revenge-centered movie is Jennifer’s Body, a 2009 film starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. After a group of teenage boys’ satanic ritual goes wrong, the cheerleader who they attempted to sacrifice (now some sort of demonic creature) decides to enact revenge on her abusers, disemboweling and devouring them. She then goes on to seduce and kill many other men as a way of avenging herself after being so brutally violated.
While this movie received criticism for catering too much to the male gaze and being too sexual, the story of a woman rising up, finding confidence in her body, and executing vengeance in a poetically brutal method clearly isn’t just a story with a sexual appeal, but a cathartic story of retribution as well. Recently, Jennifer’s Body has become increasingly popular for its feminist message and bisexual representation. While it is true that some aspects of this movie are hypersexualized, Jennifer’s Body is a must-see for anyone interested in violent slashers featuring a healthy dose of gender and sexuality empowerment.
While movies like these might be appealing in and of themselves, these cannot be the only types of female rage displayed in cinema. If movies feature a woman’s revenge spree as the only form of violence a woman is capable of, it ultimately does a disservice to women, and these movies can still fall under traditional stereotypes. Having women’s violence only be the result of the crimes of men asserts the notion that women are incapable of independently being violent or cruel themselves.
Movies that truly express female rage do so unabashedly; the antiheroine is violent to further her own agenda, or simply because she is cruel or psychopathic. This type of movie is unfortunately rare, as the stereotype of a “weak” woman still prevails in modern society, especially in the movie industry. Recently, however, there has been an increase in the number of movies including this type of female rage. One stellar example is Pearl, a movie that just came out in 2022. The titular character, played by Mia Goth, is a young woman living with her disabled father and controlling mother on a small Texas homestead. She dreams of achieving stardom and moving away and is provided with this opportunity when an audition for a traveling troupe of actors comes to her town. Pearl does not stop at anything to try and secure this role, leading to an incredibly unsettling story full of gore, violence, and some of the uncanniest smiles in the history of cinema. The main character in this movie shows no remorse and manages to create a truly terrifying experience for the viewer. If you’re looking for a gruesome horror movie that features a chilling heroine, Pearl is an obvious choice.
It is indisputable that the film industry needs more representation of women in general, and showcasing female rage is a major part of that. Fortunately, there are more movies that do have violent antiheroines, like the two previously mentioned, including well as Midsommar, Kill Bill, Hanna, Léon, and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. Even if all of these movies are still exceptions to the rule, they all manage to break out of the mold that has been set for women.
