CONTENTS 1. About Jennifer’s Body 3. Megan Fox’s Career 7. Film Failure 9. Becoming a Cult Classic 11. Women in Modern Cinema 13. Interviews
JENNIFER’S BODY a feminist comedy/horror for the ages
Jennifer’s Body is a comedy-horror that came out in 2009 that was written by Diablo Cody (writer of ‘Juno’) and directed by Karyn Kusama. It stars Megan Fox as Jennifer Check and Amanda Seyfried as Anita “Needy” Lesnicky. The story follows Jennifer, who is sacrificed to Satan by a touring rock band. The sacrifice fails because Jennifer is not a virgin, and she is possessed by a demon instead. In order to live, she kills and feasts on the flesh of her male classmates. Needy strives to do anything in her power to stop Jennifer after she sets her sights on Needy’s boyfriend, Chip. Cody was given creative freedom on this film, and wanted to write a horror. She, specifically, wanted to write about a girl who ate boys. She wanted it to be about revenge, sex, empowerment and most importantly: female friendships. Cody wanted to explore these complex, often toxic and manipulative teen friendships women have. When it hit the box office it received a lot of mixed reviews from critics, mostly commenting on the horror/ comedy not being effective enough. It had a very lacklustre performance at the box office and was seen, ultimately, as a failure. But why? 1
When filming a scene, she asked questions about where she was supposed to be looking or who she was supposed to be talking to. Bay’s replies were often “be hot” or “just be sexy”, clearly the character wasn’t important to him. In 2009, in an interview for British magazine ‘Wonderland’, Fox compared Bay to Hitler. “He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets and he is.” (who really knows what he’s like). She also went on to slate the Transformers franchise “I can’t shit on this movie because it did give me a career and open all these doors for me. But I don’t want to blow smoke up people’s ass. People are well aware this movie is not about acting.” She’s right, but she can’t just say it. “I had, what I believe to be, a psychological breakdown.”
-Megan, on being objectified in the industry
Because of these comments, she was eventually fired. Bay claims he let the statements go, but that the producer, Steven Spielberg, pushed him to fire her. Spielberg claims this didn’t happen, and it was Megan’s choice to leave. 4
After she left, a group of crew members released a savage and misogynistic statement about Fox. They called her “dumb-as-a-rock”, “thankless, classless, graceless”, an actress who would eventually become “a porn star in the future” and an “unfriendly bitch”. Bay then posted to his personal website. This says a lot about what Bay is like as a person, no one should be proud of that. It became difficult for her to be successful within Hollywood, having being labelled ‘difficult to work with’ and effectively being blacklisted from the film industry. Any producer she worked with objectified her.
“Objectified doesn’t begin to capture what was happening to me at the time.” Fox, during this period, spoke out about the abuse she had suffered at the hands of the film industry. She was met with victim shaming and a lack of care from the public. She felt the general response was “we don’t care, you deserve it because of how you look, how you talk, how you dress”. This eventually caused her a psyhcological breakdown. It was then difficult for her to speak out now during the ‘Me Too’ movement, as she felt that the past would repeat. “I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim.” 5
FILM FAILURE In short, it wasn’t marketed correctly. This film was made for women, the target demographic Cody was writing for, were women. However, the studio didn’t feel the same, and neither did the marketing team. In an ET live interview Cody and Fox discussed this, Cody said: “The studio had a very strong, unshakeable belief that the movie had to be marketed towards young men, specifically.” They both agreed this was because of Megan’s role in the film. She was being used as a sex object - again.
“Hell is a teenage girl.” -Needy For the test screening, fans of ‘Juno’ were chosen (Cody’s first film). It was a fun, heartwarming coming-of-age tale. Not exactly the right audience for a film about a succubus. On top of that, mostly men aged 18-25 (what Fox and Cody referred to as ‘frat boys’) were recruited to view the film. At a test screening, one of the boys were asked what could be improved about the film and he wrote “needs more bewbs”. This was data taken seriously by the marketing team. 7
Cody wrote a very articulate email to the marketing person at the studio, defending the film and explaining how it should be marketed. She asked him what specifically he valued about the film, he replied “Megan Fox hot”. The trailer and poster were both aimed at men too. The poster featured Fox in a (short) schoolgirl outfit, with ‘hell yes’ written on the blackboard behind her. The trailer focused on a possible lesbian relationship between the characters, showcasing a kiss (which was more of a manipulation tactic in the film). It also painted a picture of the film being a ‘sex romp’, where Megan would be having sex with a lot of her male classmates. She ate them instead. As you can imagine, this wasn’t very pleasing for the men watching.
Because of the marketing, women felt like the film wasn’t for them, so they didn’t see it. I know I was sceptical about the film when I looked at the poster, it didn’t look like a film for women; for me. The film suffered greatly, and so did Cody and Fox’s careers. 8
BECOMING A CULT CLASSIC
Almost 10 years after its release, it’s being regarded as a cult classic and a feminist film. “Had this film been made a decade later, it’s possible Fox could have been heralded as the feminist revenge hero of our time,” wrote Anne Cohen in a Refinery 29 post. Many men will have watched the film and not understood what it stood for, what it meant for women and the kind of issues it enacted through film. The film explores the way in which teen girls are heavily sexualized, noting that once they take control of their sexuality or use it, they are demonized for it. Jennifer uses her sexuality to attract men who objectified her, and eats them. When she is sacrificed, not being a virgin is what makes her a succubus, possessing her with a demon. The film dives straight into society’s view of women, their bodies, their sexual experiences and what makes them preferable mates, or even targets.
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It also unearths the toxic friendships women have with each other. The (often exploitative) power dynamic that some of them have. Jennifer tries to manipulate her friendship with Needy by kissing her, trying to persuade her that what Jennifer is doing isn’t wrong. That she isn’t a bad person, going out of her way to use Needy to her advantage. The revival of the film is mainly down to young women and young feminists, and has been lovingly referred to a film for ‘the girls and the gays’ by many a fan. Many of them recreate make-up looks, outfits and discuss the film, it’s meanings and it’s the layered relationship Needy and Jennifer share. (Jennifer’s prom look, recreated)
A deep discussion has been started about Megan Fox’s career, her treatment via the industry and the disgusting way in which she was used as a sexual fantasy to entice men to watch films. A generalized sympathy has arisen for her, contrasting the rejection of the feminists during the time of Megan’s original objectification. 10
Women IN MODERN CINEMA Captain Marvel
This was the first female lead film out of 21 (21!!!) Marvel films. Captain Marvel was review bombed online, before the film even came out. It got so bad that Rotten Tomatoes had to change their site rules to try and filter those reviews out. This reaction was for several reasons, some had to do with downright misogyny, criticisms of her character, and some had to do with Captain Marvel’s actress: Brie Larson herself. She had previously criticised the fact that most of her interviewers were white men and called for more diversity, this came across to some as a hatred of white men. From this, some men harboured resentment towards her, one even going far enough to compare her to Hitler in a tweet. They complained that her character was ‘too powerful’ and didn’t have enough flaws. There were never criticisms of other equally strong male characters, like Thor, a Nordic God of thunder. Or Doctor Strange who had his power given to him by gods AND could travel through other dimensions. 11
Brie was also criticised for not smiling enough in her movie posters. Not a single character in any other Marvel poster has smiled, and yet she is the one they complain about? Smells like sexism to me. Even big franchises like Marvel have huge issues with sexism in today’s world. How do we begin to tackle this issue? How can we put women in film’s without uproar? CAROL DANVERS SAYS: STOP BEING A SEXIST PIG!
WORD VOMIT SAYS: A WOMAN IN A FILM WON’T KILL YOU. SIT DOWN.
The all-female Ghosterbusters (2016) was review bombed on IMDb in a similar fashion, by a majority of men aged 18-44. Hmmm. Comments on the all-female Ghosters and Ocean’s 8 trailers were filled with men complaining that they were ruining a movie franchise by using women and that these franchises were ‘for men’. I think that the real complaint here is that there isn’t nearly enough women in films; well-written ones exspecially. The question is: why do all-female spin -offs? WHY DON’T YOU JUST GIVE WOMEN THEIR OWN FRANCHISES? 12
Interview 1: Do you consider yourself a feminist? Sure, why not. Why ‘sure’? It’s not something I’d declare, but if asked, I would say yes. Would you watch ‘Jennifer’s Body’, and why? Probably not, not going to lie. It doesn’t sound very good. It sounds like, uh, the plot to a kids film. What would make you watch ‘feminist’ Movies? If they looked good. Like the story? Yeah, if it’s got a good cast or storyline, or part of a series already. Do you enjoy female-lead spin offs, and why? I haven’t watched one. Mainly because they get bad reviews and people say to leave it as the original. I haven’t even seen the originals either, so I’m not going to watch the spin off if the original is better. Would wou watch a movie/franchise with an all female cast if it had an original story? Yes. I think I’d prefer an all-female cast. When shows have a cast of all of one gender they’re better. All gender cast usually flows better than having a mixed group flows better. How do you feel women in Movies are presented? Background characters, usually. Emotional support. 13
Interview 2: Do you consider yourself a feminist? Yes, I do consider myself a feminist. It takes little brain activity to understand why we need feminism. Would you watch ‘Jennifer’s Body’, and why? Yes, from what I’ve heard it’s an interesting concept. What would make you watch ‘feminist’ Movies? If they explore feminism in an interesting way. Do you enjoy female-led spin-offs, and why? I do enjoy female spin-offs because usually the characters are more interesting. Would you watch a movie/franchise with an all female cast is it had an original story? I would watch a movie with an all-female cast because it could have an interesting concept, or women aren’t just textbook characters, and it could be used to represent women more justly. How do you feel women in movies are presented? Women in the film industry aren’t represented as men are in the respect that women are deemed lesser than men. Women are overlooked more and experience sexism. What would you like to see women do in Movies? I would like to see women have more in depth and interesting characters.
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WHAT WE STAND FOR AT WORD VOMIT
IDEOLOGIES WE LIVE BY 1. BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND YOU’RE BODY, YOU ARE AN IMPERFECT BEING AND IT’S OK TO HAVE FLAWS 2. NEVER LET ANYONE CONTROL YOU 3. RESPECT IS EARNED, NOT GIVEN. TREAT PEOPLE FAIRLY, UNLESS THEY ARE UNWILLING TO DO THE SAME] 4. LOOK AFTER YOUR SISTERS, DO NOT PIT OTHER WOMEN AGAINST EACH OTHER, IT’S ALREADY TOUGH ENOUGH OUT THERE 5. ALLOW FOR CHANGE. IGNORANT PEOPLE CAN LEARN NEW VALUES, IT’S IMPORTANT TO ENCOURAGE GROWTH 6. UNDERSTAND WHAT MAY GO ON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. OFFER A HELPING HAND WHEN YOU CAN. 7. CRY WHEN YOU NEED TO. IT’S FREE THERAPY.