| |
| author |
Annalisa Manabat
| | title |
Bad Girls, Bold Wives, Bloody Mothers: Monstrous Women in Film Through
the Lens of Women's Liberation
1960-1981
| | abstract |
This thesis investigates monstrous women as protagonists in films from the 1960 to 1981.
It explores Barbara Creed's analysis on the monstrous-feminine -- a figure vilified for her
sexuality, reproductive functions and mothering -- in relation to seven films: Psycho (1960), The
Haunting (1963), Carrie (1976), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Stepford Wives (1975), The Brood
(1979) and Possession (1981). These films variously respond to, represent, and punish women's
collective efforts through the Women's Liberation Movement, thus revealing growing anxieties
over women's rejection of ingrained sexist ideologies and aim to free women from oppressive
expectations, regulations and behaviors. The thesis analyzes how films of this time reflected
women's adoption of these new ideologies, as the protagonists all aim for freedom in their own
ways; however, it also criticizes the patriarchal lens attached to each film, one that ultimately
punishes the female protagonists, leaving all but one of them dead. In an attempt to establish
these women as monstrous, some films associate the protagonists with abject imagery, wherein
their female-ness is portrayed as something repulsive, offensive and dangerous. Such portrayals
of women emphasize how these films exploit both an ingrained fear of the female body and a
more pressing panic surrounding female freedom in order to justify the eradication of the central
women within the films.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2021)
|
| advisor |
Wendy Kolmar
|
| committee |
Shakti Jaising
Marie-Pascale Pieretti
|
| full text | AManabat.pdf |
| |
