The Historical Review's Blog

TW: Brief Mention of Sexual Assault

Medusa, Eve, Pandora. These easily recognizable figures in mythology have been reimagined and referenced in culture for centuries. Most, if not all, know their respective stories. How do these ancient examples of “evil” or “foolhardy” women exist within our culture now? How do characters like Jennifer Check from Diablo Cody's 2009 cult classic  ‘Jennifer's Body’ relate to and differ from their much older counterparts, and how do these newer recreations reflect western cultures' attitudes toward women? I’ll attempt to identify historical similarities between monstrous women past and present and tie that to how modern culture perceives and understands women today. 

Firstly, what is a monstrous woman? Simply put, a monstrous woman is deviant. Deviance can stem from physical appearance, behavior, or sexuality. While a monstrous woman can be a literal monster like Medusa, a monstrous woman can also exhibit seemingly monstrous behaviors that rail against existing gender norms in their respective societies. Because of the existing patriarchal structures we operate in, it's easy for deviance of any kind to be portrayed as evil, just because it goes against the overarching idea of how a woman should act. A key feature of many monstrous women is rage. In stories and real life, women are often condemned for expressing anger. The monstrous woman flouts convention and allows her anger to fuel her actions. While stories that depict harm caused by male protagonists are often justified by their feelings of righteous anger, female-coded figures in history and fiction who allow themselves to be motivated by those same feelings of rage are often condemned and villainized. Going against the expectation that they should silently harbor their rage and buy into silence often results in punishment. 

Medusa stands as a colossal figure in mythology and provides a barometer of how Greek society perceived women. After being assaulted by Poseidon, Medusa is cursed and turned into a snake-haired monster with the ability to turn those who look her in the eye to stone by the goddess Athena. In contemporary understanding, Medusa’s rage toward the heroes who seek her out to harm her can be interpreted as justified. Medusa became a monster, not of her own choice but due to the will of another, more powerful entity, and throughout her life is continually harassed by glory-seeking warriors. However, instead of condemning the god, goddess, and heroes who continue to cause Medusa pain and eventually kill her, in traditional interpretations Medusa is killed by Perseus for having the audacity to harness her rage and power to turn onlookers to stone into a weapon used to defend herself. After being killed, her head becomes the provides the vessel for Perseus to enact his will on King Acrisius, harnessing his rage and enacting his revenge in the same way that resulted in Medusa’s death. While feminist interpretations that center on Medusa’s perspective have become more prevalent, the traditional version of the story and its lessons still stand. A woman who channels her rage into violence, however justified, must be punished while her male counterpart is allowed to revel in it.

Jennifer Check from ‘Jennifer's Body’ stands out as an example of the modern monstrous woman. The plot of the film tracks much of Medusa’s story. Jennifer is taken into the woods and sacrificed by an indie-rock band trying to make it big. However, Jennifer survives, imbued with supernatural abilities and the need to eat boys to remain powerful. Her rage grows throughout the film until finally, after killing her best friend Anita or “Needy’s” boyfriend, Needy condemns Jennifer and her boy-killing habit by stabbing her with a box-cutter. However, the film diverges when Jennifer’s rage is allowed to live on. Before dying, Jennifer scratches Needy and passes on her succubus powers, which allow Needy to enact revenge on Jennifer’s “killers” after Jennifer officially dies. When Jennifer passes her power onto Needy, it can be interpreted as Jennifer’s rage being allowed to live on in another form, through another person who loved Jennifer before she was made into a monster. While Jennifer’s rage is justified, her story diverges from many on-screen depictions of male rage. In the end, she is ultimately held accountable. After all, murder is indeed wrong. While Jennifer’s death condemns the pain she caused, her ending does not condemn her feelings of righteous anger, and she is allowed to enact revenge against her abusers through her best friend.

Medusa and Jennifer were both made monsters through the exertion of another's will. Both were filled with rage, and both were killed by the end of their stories. However, the divergence of Jennifer’s story reflects a changing societal attitude that recognizes women’s rage and allows for the creation of stories that depict women motivated and empowered by their anger. This positive recognition of female rage was not received when ‘Jennifer’s Body’ was released in 2009 and has only recently developed in the past few years. Because the movie starred Megan Fox, the film was overzealously marketed to eager male audiences as a movie made for them when it was the opposite. When teenage boys and men learned that the film was about their corollaries being eaten, they gratuitously distributed zeros on Rotten Tomatoes. Women and queer people have since reclaimed the film and recognized it for what it was always meant to be. A portrait of two best friends and a cathartic and timely display of female rage allowed it to run its course.