Hell is a Teenage Girl

“Hell is a teenage girl.”1 These first five words of the film “Jennifer’s Body” stand for something far more than a high school catfight. Throughout film history, men have been celebrated for their aggression; their violence is written off as just a part of who they are. The vision of a vicious woman, however, is a nasty and evil one. The film “Fatal Attraction” first coined the term “bunny boiler” after Glen Close’s character famously boils her lover’s daughter’s pet rabbit.2

When women do express anger in film, it is almost always used as a mechanism to paint them as crazy and unstable. “To be a teenage girl is to simultaneously be pop culture’s ultimate punching bag, cash cow, and gatekeeper,” wrote Vox columnist Constance Grady.3 Through film, girls are exploited, but through resilience and power they also rebel.

The idea of a “cool girl” is often presented as the more attractive and acceptable version of a woman. The psychological thriller “Gone Girl” introduces and kills the legendary “cool girl” standard. Protagonist Amy Dunne explains in her iconic monologue: “Cool girl. Men always use that, don’t they? As their defining compliment. She’s a Cool girl. Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game. Cool girl is fun. Cool girl never gets angry at her man.”4

Amy Dunne grows tired of keeping up the facade of a picture perfect marriage upon uncovering her husband’s affair. She goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, framing him for it and gaining a control that she had previously given up while posing as this malleable “cool girl” character. This film demolishes this mold by showing a woman who completely rejects it coming out on top in the end. “Gone Girl” celebrates female rage through its prevail over what is typically expected from a woman.

The dark comedy horror, “Jennifer’s Body,” follows high school “it” girl Jennifer Check, who is brutally murdered by a cult band in a virgin sacrifice to Satan. As Jennifer was not in fact a virgin, the sacrifice backfires and possesses her with a demon. Jennifer seeks re-

venge by satiating her appetite with the flesh of the small town’s boys. At first glance, “Jennifer’s Body” seems to cater directly to the male gaze, starring sex symbol Megan Fox as she rips boys to shreds. This movie is revolutionary because it illustrates a character who embodies everything stereotypically feminine as more powerful than the masculine energy around her.

The horror film “Carrie” follows a high school girl who gets her period for the first time, which gives her the power of telekinesis. She is urged to conceal the intrinsic parts of girlhood and to hide her power along with it, eventually ending in a bloodbath as she wins prom queen.5 Despite its tragic finale, “Carrie” comments on the societal fear of a woman’s body and sexuality, simultaneously acknowledging their power and warning of the danger they hold when underestimated.

Women feel violence at the hands of a society designed against us and in every drop of blood we shed. Female rage has so much power beyond retaliation against male aggression, or as a way to paint us as crazy and wounded. Rather, it should be celebrated as a powerful and expressive state of being. Women’s rage, something that is constantly smothered, is made permanent through film. ■

Female rage has so much power beyond retaliation against male aggression, or as a way to paint us as crazy and wounded.

1 Karyn Kusama, “Jennifer’s Body,” Fox Atomic, 2009. 2 Adrian Lyne, “Fatal Attraction,” Paramount Pictures, 1987. 3 Constance Grady, “Who runs the world? Not teen girls,” Vox, 2021. 4 David Fincher, “Gone Girl,” Twentieth Century Fox, 2014.