Tag: Feminist Criticism
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Why are we Stuck in a Cinderella Cycle?
Cinderella has lived many lives. While the original tale dates back centuries, the film boom began in 1950 with Cinderella (the Disney animated version), and continued with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1957, 1965, and 1997 with Brandy and Whitney Houston), A Cinderella Story (2004, and further iterations in 2008 and 2011), Cinderella (2015, with Lily…
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Female Pleasure In The Red Flag Framework Of ‘True Things’ 
It’s not often that cinema dares to unravel its opening credits with a visceral, heaven-sent shot of a woman being orally pleasured. In a public setting, no less. Female sexuality and pleasure have often been viewed through the lens of masculine ego—with chest-beating machismo and the prowess of surface-level satisfaction taking a routine precedent. In…
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I’ll be Home for Christmas: The Importance of Domestic Spaces in Christmas Films
In ‘Christmas as Religion’, Christopher Deacy states that Christmas films act as a “barometer of how we might see and measure ourselves.” Central to such understanding is the private environment of the home, where ideas and perceptions are distilled and accentuated. Within all of these films, ‘the home’, or subsequent return to it, emerges as…
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Excess and the Feminine Body in ‘The Neon Demon’
*CW: mentions of murder, attempted rape, necrophilia and cannibalism* In the opening shot of The Neon Demon, Elle Fanning’s character, Jesse, is sprawled onto a metallic-coloured sofa, her face adorned with multicoloured crystals, her eyes wide open and tributaries of blood cascading down her arm. Her throat is torn and mouth agape in shock. From…
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Romanticising the Renaissance of Jean Smart and Hollywood’s Fear of Women Ageing
It is safe to say that 2021 is the year of all things Jean Smart; as it probably should be every time Smart graces our television screens. Her two most recent roles, both on HBO, have been the lightning rod of performances to instigate public interest in her once again. Smart’s performance on HBO’s Hacks…
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“I’m Leaving It For Us To Be Curious About”: Challenging TV Norms Through First-Person Titles
Content Warning: Sexual assault Michaela Coel knows that I May Destroy You is not a clear name for a TV show. “Who is saying ‘I may destroy…’?” she poses in an interview with GQ, “I’m leaving it for us to be curious about.” Yet Coel’s show isn’t the only work to utilise a first-person title:…
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The Mastermind and the Maniac: How ‘Breaking News in Yuba County’ Highlights the Dimensions of White Female Criminality in Media
Female criminality in film is not new, especially today. We see it all the time now in films like Ocean’s Eight (2018), The Kitchen (2019) and I Care A Lot (2020). However, the theme has a long history in the United States. Evolving from the women in prison genre, which can be traced back as…
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Fanfiction and Women’s Empowerment
Who hasn’t wished at least once in their lives to be able to rewrite that Cinderella scene and point out to Prince Charming that he should ask her name before trying to kiss her? Or who wouldn’t wish they could change the ending to their favourite TV show? Fleabag, I am looking at you. As…
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Girls Who Talk Too Fast: ‘Gilmore Girls’ and the Transgressions of Perpetual Girlhood
Girlhood is liminal. It’s like an inhale, all anticipation. I like thinking of myself as a girl, instead of a woman. I am interested in perpetual girlhood, I like to think of my adolescence as ongoing. It’s a way to create distance between me and adulthood, to separate myself from responsibility. I like re-watching trashy…
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The Perfect Wife: Weaponising a Cultural Ideal in ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Phantom Thread’
“When I think of my wife I always think of her head,” Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), relays at the beginning of Gone Girl – the David Fincher directed, Gillian Flynn conceived tale of a couple’s relocation from New York to small town Missouri. “I picture cracking her lovely skull… trying to get answers. What are…
Screen Queens 