Consumption as Agency: An Exploration of the Feminine Grotesque

Consumption as Agency: An Exploration of the Feminine Grotesque In the genre of horror, the feminine body is used as a tool of consumption, usually via the audience consuming the media or as the objectified body in the film itself. The genre of the feminine grotesque works to refute this stereotype, typically through a subversion of horror media standards. The feminine grotesque aims to show women in body horror scenarios consuming in ways that are typically viewed as “unacceptable,” allowing them to deviate from what is typically expected from the genre. This paper will work to assess the decisions made in terms of the linguistics, narratology, and mise-en-scene of the feminine grotesque, and will use examples from Julia Ducournau’s Raw, Diablo Cody’s Jennifer’s Body, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ Swallow, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon. By focusing on a threefold approach to the destabilization of the body genre, the feminine grotesque allows women characters to engage in more horrific forms of consumption while evading the trope of violence as revenge. This paper will dissect the ways that the autonomous feminist body unsettles the notion of consumption while remaining a wholly woman’s text. Keywords: film studies, body horror, feminist studies, queer theory, poststructuralis