Introduction Popular film is replete with men combatting violence

Introduction Popular film is replete with men combatting violence

Popular film is replete with men combatting violence. Take the (2008) film Taken

for example. In this tale of male rage and revenge, the all-too-common retired special ops

character, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), makes use of his years of combat and intelligence

training to travel across the globe and rescue his innocent teen daughter, who is abducted

by an unknown, French-Albanian squad of men and subsequently sold into sex

trafficking. At the film’s turning point, Bryan kills the seemingly affluent man who

recently bought Kim, preventing him from pursuing his final act of sexual violence. After

experiences of victims of male violence and the experiences of women more generally.

Women in film seek out vengeance as well. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2004),

David Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Meir Zarchi’s I Spit on Your Grave

(1978) and Abel Ferrara’s Ms 45 (1981) are stories of women who, after suffering

horrifically at the hands of men, seek autonomy and agency.

Recent films have begun to challenge both the Liam Neeson-esque genre of

maledominated revenge thrillers as well as the female out for blood rape-revenge

narratives by portraying women who, when in the face of victimization, look for some

sort of closure – a cousin to justice. In their seeking out of such closure, the women in

these contemporary films focus on agency and re-situating themselves into a society

where justice is under attack. While some of these women still technically seek

Woman (2020) to discern how recent American-made feature films convey women

resisting violence.

Filmic Violence

Violence pervades popular film and has for decades. When entranced by the

pleasures of filmic narratives, it becomes easy to forget that each narrative of violence

could have potentially been represented differently, and thus every chosen narrative of

violence represented in film “has been awarded the significance of actuality” (Young

2009:8). Films shape how we define violence, organize our thinking about violent

actions, identify victims and perpetrators of violence, and infer how violence is (or ought

to be) resisted (Rafter and Brown 2011).

depict resistance to violence (Berets 1996:176). The term resistance is often associated

with ‘nonviolent action’ (Moran 2011:15). However, there exists a pervasive paradox in

contemporary film where violence or wrongdoing is often met with violent, rather than

women’s resistance.

Take Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003–2004) franchise, for example. In this hyperviolent

film franchise, after being shot in the head and left for dead by her ex-partner and his

team of assassins, Beatrix – the female protagonist – regains her strength and goes on a

manhunt for her assailants. Her wrath and plan of vengeance extend throughout the

entirety of both films as Beatrix individually hunts down and kills each of her assailants.

The violent actions taken by Beatrix against her assailants are justifiable – that is, in the

context of the film – and function to allow her to reclaim agency after the violence that

she endures. While entertaining, these “commodified images of women in film” as

violence combatants bare little relation to reality (Mulvey 2004:1291).

Realities of Violence and Resistance

oppressed category, women maneuver and negotiate with the given (patriarchal) structure

in their everyday life and offer resistance in many ways and degrees at the individual and

collective levels” (91). While resistance strategies used by women in the face of violence

may differentiate to various degrees, Kumar and Yelne (2003) specifically outline three

Covert resistance is defined as “noncompliance to patriarchal authority in

as ‘conscious agents’ and resist violence covertly through their own means. Those means

may range from withholding sex from a male partner, using femininity or sexuality to

control men, or even secretly making plans to leave a violent partner or situation to

escape further abuse.

Overt resistance, on the other hand, as described by Kumar and Yelne (2003) is

direct or organized confrontation. They state that overt confrontation “can produce ripple

effect, both by demonstrating to women (who may not have yet made the leap) what is

necessary and possible and by bringing undiscussed issues into the arena of public

consciousness and debate” (Kumar and Yelne 2003:92). Overt resistance might look like

a group of women organizing to confront a shared issue; however, in other cases it might

look like an individual woman discursively

confronting men and/or patriarchal power

structures at large.

Further, how a man or woman might respond to violence can be dependent upon their

gender performativity.

Socialized gender norms play a substantial role in creating and perpetuating

violence. To understand how various forms of violence are enacted and/or resisted, then

we must understand how “social actors construct notions of femininities and

masculinities” (Salazar, Goicolea, and Öhman 2016:315). Some scholars in biological

and social sciences have attempted to theorize masculinity and femininity as inherent,

By discursive confrontation, I mean verbal confrontation through discourse rather than

biological constructions that are natural extensions of the sexed body (Kimmel 2011). For

others, masculinity and femininity are purely social constructs – edifices solely dependent

of hegemonic or dominant masculinity where he found that men are constantly forced to

accomplish masculinity according to the dominant social script – “this script endorses the

performance of traditional masculine values such as labor, subordination of women, and

hypersexuality” (157). Thus, violence, oftentimes becomes a resource for men to

demonstrate their masculinity and define themselves as ‘real’ men. However, while

violence can also be used by women as ‘resource for expression,’ it often has ‘destructive

effects’ on their lives, thus further subjugating them rather than liberating them (Rafter

and Brown 2011:157). One could infer then that because the use of violence by a woman

to resist violence is more likely to subjugate them rather than free them, they may be less

likely to respond in such a way. Thus, responding instead with non-violent resistance

Missouri (2017), and Promising Young Woman (2020), portray female protagonists

making sense of and resisting violence. The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate how

popular American film depict women in the face of violence, specifically how resistance

Organization of the Thesis

I dedicate the next chapter, (Chapter 2) to my theoretical framing of the thesis.

There I conceptualize the terms gender and violence and consider the theorizations of

their complex relationship. This literature helps to convey that by examining each female

protagonist's gender performativity, we can see both the role of individual agency in

behavior and the social conditions that restrict their agency in the production of or

resistance to violence.

Chapter 3 provides a detailed breakdown of my thesis methodology and methods.

This section of the thesis: (1) outlines the sampling strategies via which I arrived at a

purposive sample of contemporary, American made, feature films in the crime genre; and

(2) discusses how the films were analyzed. I used thematic narrative analysis, a form of

Promising Young Woman (2020) in the same fashion. In doing so, these analyses outline

the ways in which each female protagonist actively resists violence. Finally, in Chapter 6,

Chapter 6 asserts that while traditional crime film narratives tend to link

femininity with victimhood and masculinity with power, these four films cast women as

the main protagonists and furthermore characterize them as active and powerful in their

resistance to violence. This chapter ends by expressing the implications for constructions

of women in distress, and thus gender, and for responses to harm-doing.

CHAPTER TWO – GENDERING VIOLENCE

Gender and violence are closely linked. Examining gender and violence in the

present moment means summoning many complex questions. Contemporary research on

gender and violence brings about an assortment of problems across a variety of contexts.

Bahun-Radunovi and Rajan (2008) explain that:

All contemporary approaches to the relationship between gender and violence are

grounded in an awareness that the regulation, surveillance, and assumed

(or reasonably ought to have known) would result in the harm in question” (19). It is

“Making Misery,” she explains that throughout the social world, definitions of harm, are

socially constructed, regulated, and perpetuated “in and by institutions and other

hierarchical arrangements” (Presser 2013:15). I propose that violence – a sub-type of

of activities carried out to harm or injure oneself or others. These harms or injuries are

‘dealt with’ by specifying who is culpable and subsequently punishing them according to

their evaluated extent of premeditation or intent (Felson and Messner 1996; Tedeschi and

Felson 1994). Violence can take various forms, such as gang violence, domestic violence,

Gendered Dynamics of Violence

I turn now to discourses that engender violence. Hester (1992) proposes that

‘violence work’ is used to sustain, create, and recreate social inequalities. The threat and

the use of violence are often used to control the life of lives of others. Within the context

of gender, then, violence is used as a means of power construction – placing men above

women in this power dynamic (Kaufman 1987). Therefore, violence against women

works as a social tool to control women and simultaneously allow men to exert and

maintain power over other men and women via women’s bodies. As in any social order,

male power prevails through coercion to consent – which includes force or the threat of

force and thus further violence (Hester 1992:1–2). This power of the male over a

woman’s sexual and reproductive rights denies their freedom and thus subjects them to

gender-targeted forms of violence (Campo-Engelstein 2016).

violence is the indication that it is undesired and nonessential—the woman did not ask for

emotional. Cognitive resistance would appear “when women think about alternatives and

strategize how to stay safe” (Hollander 2005:780).

or inactive (Hollander 2005; Papendick and Bohner 2017). Women actively resist

violence, employing whatever resources necessary to prevent it, reduce it when it

happens, and flee from it when given the opportunity. Such actions do not denote

passivity but power and bravery.

Victimization, Culpability, and Appropriate Behavior

Analyses of women’s experiences of violence have revealed the degree to which

the fear or threat of violence is a feature of many women’s daily lives and the detailed

women face more risk than men of becoming potential victims of violence. Crime

iconography and culturally constructed gendered stereotypes are prevailing discourses in

filmic depictions of violence and victimization. This interplay between stereotypes and

discourses of violence has been illuminated with explicit reference to both the

approached by a strange man on her walk home from a sick relative’s house. This ‘ideal

victim’ tries to fight the stranger off; however, he ultimately overpowers and thereafter

rapes her (Christie 1986). Put differently, Christie (1986) identifies the ideal victim as

innocent and therefore deserving of compassion and support.

Further, understandings of violence are not only constructed based on the social

characteristics of the victim, such as gender or race, but also in terms of ‘behavioral

responsibility for risk’ (L. Kelly 1988). Put differently, there is a greater social

expectation on women to protect themselves from violence since they are often assumed

to be less likely to defend themselves than men, which means women’s lives are

violence (e.g., when women are raped, it is often because they ‘asked for it’ or did not

and Fischer 1995). Further, female victims are not only judged based on their actions but

also on their inactions in not having done enough.

Though sympathy and concern are the “normatively prescribed responses to

victims in our society, we may also derogate victims, holding them at least partly

responsible for having been victimized” (Howard 1984:270). Further, although most ideal

victims are seen as innocent, society still places a greater expectation on women to

safeguard themselves from violence by modifying their behavior in social contexts

associated with the risk of violence. If women ‘fail’ to modify their behavior

Socially constructed gendered differences also structure ideas and, oftentimes,

stereotypes about how female victims should behave after made victim to violence

some level or form of grief. According to Doka and Martin (2010), there are various ways

in which individuals experience, express, and adapt to grief. They describe the process of

was before the loss, (2) accommodate to a newly emerging reality resulting from his or

deemed appropriate to the status quo. That is, they should display ‘response tendencies’ –

“predispositions that are shaped by cultural influences and personality styles” and

challenges, threats, and opportunities” (Doka and Martin 2010:19) – that are considered

normal, and thus non-deviant.

A victim’s conduct after experiencing an act of violence is critical. If believed to

be in violation of gender norm(s) – or socially constructed and shared rules and ideas

about appropriate and inappropriate behavior of women and men in specific social

contexts and environments – after experiencing an act of violence, women are often

deemed deviant by other social actors (Doka and Martin 2010). Oftentimes, women’s

mere resistance to violence, whether it be through verbal or physical contestation, mass

mobilization, or even escapism is seen as a form of non-conformity and is thus defiant to

the status quo. Women’s resistance is often seen as non-compliance because of the

existing multitude of social and gender norms that promote and perpetuate violence

A Note on Domestic and Sexual Violence Against Women

captivity, as well as state violence enacted by state agents.

Stark (2007) focuses on the functions of gender inequality entangled in violence,

dubbing the processes involved in sexual violence, domestic violence, and other types of

violence against women ‘coercive control.’ Questions about what constitutes domestic

and/or sexual violence are straightforward to answer on the one hand yet complicated and

contested on the other. Domestic violence can be defined as any repeated behavior

towards another person in the home that is controlling, coercive, and threatening. (L.

coercive, controlling, or violent act (or pattern of acts) between two or more people in the

same household, whether they be intimate partners or parents and children. Violence in

domestic environments such as the home may consist of physical harm and emotional,

sexual, psychological, or economic abuse (or threats of abuse) that influence another

regarded an indicator of love (149). However, regardless of the reasoning behind it,

economic class, immigration status, or religion. It affects people of all socioeconomic

backgrounds and education levels (Sacco 2019).

Sexual violence, while often occurring as a form of ‘domestic violence,’ is a bit

distinct in definition. Sexual violence ensues when one person or group of people forces

or manipulates another person into unwanted sexual activity without their consent

(Hlavka 2014). Reasons for the lack of consent may include fear, the influence of alcohol

or other drugs, illness, age, or disability. Sexual violence can impact people of all races,

ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religions, ages, incomes, professions, and

someone they know – a friend, classmate, coworker, neighbor, or family member – rather

than a stranger (Hlavka 2014). The rigid social assortment of gender roles is one of the

major catalysts that have led to the perpetuation of sexual violence. Men have

and uses of language were also analyzed to determine how American-made feature films

engages or critiques constructions of gender and violence.

of experiences across time to make some point (Labov and Waletzky 1967). Reissman

(2008) states:

Narratives are thus “strategic, functional, and purposeful” (Reissman 2008:8) conditions

of social life and thus “constitutive of reality and not merely its representation” (Presser

Further, I followed a methodical classification procedure of determining and

narrative themes were not only used to read and analyze the text but also to gather the

data used to interpret the text (Patton 2002; Riessman 2008). The texts were interpreted

by analyzing and identifying patterns – or themes – within and across each text to assess

the nature and scope of representations of gendered harm, suffering, and resistance as the

film portrays them. In doing so, I employed a list of specific questions to help me

navigate through the films. Such a list of questions (see Table 3.2) allowed me to analyze

the films systematically.

By following Riessman’s (2008) approach to thematic narrative analysis, I

First, I screened each of the four films separately and recorded extensive notes

concerning the initial research questions. As mentioned above, the first viewing

concentrated on coding dominant messages about women’s responses to violence. As I

screened each film, I recorded my notes on each case and then imported them into

ATLAS.ti 22 to code the qualitative data. I coded the narratives according to the most

prevalent themes across each of the three films: statements made by the protagonist about

violence and/or resistance. Next, I discerned whether any of those themes overlapped –

meaning that the same or similar aspects occurred across two or more separate film cases

– and connected them to theoretically derived concepts of violence and gendered

reactions to violence. Different aspects of each case allowed for other controlled

comparisons. Then, I noted what each observed film narrative was about – its pivotal

events or complicating actions (Labov and Waletzky 1967) – and how it was told. Then, I

created a running summary of the context of violence to grasp the story of violence,

including antecedents and responses to violence,

Additionally, I discerned each of the film’s female protagonist’s gender

accomplishments. Put differently, I noted how each protagonist performs gender – or how

rescreened each film, I transcribed relevant dialogue between the protagonist and other

characters. In this case, relevant dialogue was deemed as being associated with or

concerning speech about violence or resistance. This portion of the research was tedious,

requiring roughly 12 hours of my uninterrupted and undivided attention. Roughly 4 hours

had to be devoted to re-screening each film to allow additional time to pause and

transcribe narratives where necessary. I decided to refer to the film screenplays (which I

obtained via simplyscripts.com – a publicly accessible website) when transcribing

specific narratives because they provide verbatim accounts, which allowed me to record

the narratives as precisely as possible.

While transcribing, I was able to note previously overlooked codes (Aiello 2014).

feature film that depicts such a story of violence against women, Room (2015) resonates

time. captor, Old Nick. After successfully gaining autonomy from their captor, Ma

‘social avengers’ (M. Connell 2018) who first resist violence by transforming reality.

However, after gaining autonomy from their abusers, each female protagonist is able to

children. Further, while Precious and Ma are quite different in terms of physical

characteristics – as Precious

is a Black, overweight, pregnant, 16-year-old and Ma is a

abducted by her captor (i.e., Old Nick) when she was only 17 years old and has for the

past seven years, lived locked away in a shed behind his home. Two years into Ma’s

captivity she gave birth to Jack. Ma and her son are forcefully held captive and physically

locked away from the world by their abuser. Precious, on the other hand, has the ability to

step foot outside of her home and interact with her community. However, regardless of

understand violence and thus does not always understand what is to be feared. For

recognize Ma’s fear of what Old Nick will expect in return for such a gift. Thus, the

violence that Ma faces is inferable from the limited onlooker perspective of Jack.

Jack’s

Jack’s narrative perspective resonates with contemporary work by feminist scholars

Sorcha Gunne and Zoe Brigley Thompson (2010), who identify an increasing need for

filmic “rape narratives that refuse voyeurism and exploitation” and instead “confront the

uncomfortable and shocking nature of sexual violence in [ways] that are themselves

shocking and uncomfortable and break the mold of the victim/perpetrator binary” (3).

point of view is sometimes naive and guileless, partly because he is unaware that he and

Ma live in confinement. However, the spectator can still recognize the aspects of violence

and confinement, even if Jack is unable.

abuser. Tanner (1994) explains the usefulness of this identification between spectator and

protagonist, stating:

…representations of violence appropriate the conventions of film, either relying

upon a highly visual mode of narration or undermining the distancing conventions

of reading to direct the reader’s gaze upon a scene in a manner similar to the

enforced perspective of the camera’s frame (12).

relationships involving nurturing and caring for children are evident” (Hooker, Agius, and

Taft 2016:88). Mothers thus perform gender by taking up activities of caregiving and

nurturing. Ma’s maternal work of keeping Jack away from harm, constructs Ma as a sort

Each of the female protagonists in these two films about violence against women,

Precious (2009) and Room (2015), initially use escapism to endure daily violence.

However, approximately halfway into both films, these women obtain freedom from their

abusers and begin their transformations from timid women living in personally

transfigured realities to autonomous mothers determined to regain their agency. This

transformation for Precious, comes after the birth of her second child, Abdul. Prior to

Abdul’s birth, Precious had already been achieving autonomy from her mother by making

doctor regularly, and opening up to her social worker about her abuse – all of which she

had never done before attending Each One, Teach One, the alternative school she enrolled

Throughout this time, Precious is continuously visited by her peers and a friendly nurse

(who also fits the description of her object of desire), but not by Mary. Precious also

consistently writes journal entries back and forth with Ms. Rain throughout her hospital

stay, opening up about her abuse and casually making plans to get away from her evil

mother. The challenge of journal writing helps Precious deal with her traumatic past of

Precious with the strength to escape her mother’s wrath permanently.

Upon Precious’s return home, she cautiously makes her way into the apartment

fearing what is to come next. After a short exchange about Precious’s time in the hospital,

Mary asks to hold Abdul and Precious allows this. As soon as Precious hands

violent homes shows that “more battered women are killed in the process of leaving or

indicating that they will leave than any other time... and leaving does not guarantee safety

Precious’s head and then proceeds to attack her screaming, “You fucking bitch…You

done took my man, you had those fucking babies, and you got me put off the welfare for

running your goddamned stupid ass mouth!” Instead of fully escaping into the fantasies

Rain – which, at this point, is the only safe place she has or knows to go for help.

Ms. Rain then takes Precious and Abdul into her home and tirelessly advocates to

get them placed in halfway house. On her first night at their home, Precious is regaled by

stories and happy voices of Ms. Rain and her lovely, warm partner. In this scene, Precious

looks on in wonderment, realizing that for the first time she is surrounded by people who

love her and one another. An influential scene that conveys Ms. Rain’s dedication to

Precious’s humanization appears when Precious breaks down in class after discovering

that her sexually violent father has infected her with HIV. With tears pouring down her

face, she cries:

had no boyfriend. My daddy said he gon marry me. How he gonna do that? It

Precious: I’m tired Ms. Rain.

Ms. Rain: If not for yourself, then for the people who love you.

Precious: Nobody loves me.

Ms. Rain: People do love you Precious.

Precious: Please don’t lie to me Ms. Rain. Love ain’t done nothing for me. Love

a significant shift in Precious’s behaviors and thoughts. Rather than thinking and feeling

that she is worthless and unloved, Precious feels that she has a purpose in life. Through a

self-awakening prompted by the love and support of Ms. Rain, Precious finally sees

herself as something other than “ugly, black grease” – as she calls herself early on in the

film; she begins to see herself as a mother loved by her teachers, peers, and most

importantly, her children – Abdul and Mongo. As Precious’s abuse subsides and her

literacy improves, she learns to accept love as a form of genuine care rather than

violence, thus allowing her to become more associated with reality rather than fantasy,

which in turn, helps her to gain autonomy. As such, she regains her agency, or perhaps

achieves agency for the first time.

welfare, which is why she brings Mongo to the meeting. This scene also further depicts

the strength and autonomy that Precious has attained throughout the film. Precious

remains stoic as she watches Mary fall apart, fumbling to fabricate a logical argument for

Weiss, picks up Mongo, and says to Mary, “You ain’t gon see me no more.” Then

Mary’s protests, she continues walking, hopeful for her future as a loving and supportive

mother.

her after Old Nick tells her that he has been laid off. Ma knows that Old Nick will not let

them survive if his house gets repossessed, and he certainly will not simply allow them to

go free, so her survival instincts heighten demonstrably. Ma begins to prepare Jack for

what she calls their ‘great escape.’ However, in explaining this plan to Jack, Ma is forced

to introduce him to the reality of the outside world by telling him the truth about her and

her new stories about Room because he knows only the reality that Ma has constructed up

to this point. However, through his love for Ma and her wise urging and manipulation of

with Ma running out of the shed and into Jack’s arms, declaring that they will never

return to Room. Their release from Room powerfully evokes a release from prison,

mirrored thematically in the intertextual allusions to the story of The Great Escape.

media exploits her enslavement for their own entertainment, just like pornography

Local and national media outlets spread Ma’s story of abduction and captivity worldwide,

but her inner turmoil and mental punishment within the domestic remain unknown to the

world. Both the public and private violence she is subjected to in her prison of Room and

domestic dimensions after her escape draw parallels to one another, in which they are

both based on the hidden institutionalized discipline against women. Again, her inner

turmoil is

invisible to the public, similar to how sexual abuse and rape faced by women within the

prison industrial complex remains hidden from public eye (Whatley and Hardin 2002).

Although the two are ‘free,’ Ma does not feel free, and Jack no longer feels secure.

Throughout this portion of the film, we see Ma grow less patient with Jack, more

argumentative with her parents, and even more depressed than she appeared while in

captivity. While freedom was long anticipated by Ma, it is not as thoroughly fulfilling as

she might have hoped. In the film's reality, she is working to readjust to life outside of

captivity. When Ma's lawyer first mentions the tremendous attraction of various

television networks and explains that she should consider writing a book in the future, Ma

becomes contentious. Despite her opposition, the need for financial security outweighs

her hesitations, and she finally agrees to do a sit-down interview with a television host to

genuinely curious about Ma’s story, addressing her as an “amazing, inspiring,

courageous, and beautiful… beacon of hope.” However, it quickly turns into and

immensely traumatic event for Ma – as it not only forces her to relive the traumatic

experiences through talk but puts her in a vulnerable and judged position. During this

Ma: He had me.

scrutiny. Unlike Precious, Ma’s release and subsequent retelling of her time in such a

coercive and violent space does not offer her solace but is rather quite traumatizing.

the event, but of the passing out of it that is traumatic; that survival itself, in other words,

psychological abuse, serious physical injuries, exposure to war, exposure to natural

with assigning the victim with responsibility for the trauma, something that can

or my life, or my daughter, or my billboards. So, why don’t you just finish your tea

there, Father, and get the fuck out of my kitchen. (McDonagh 2017).

From this excerpt it is clear that social actors – in this case, the clergy, the police,

and a local dentist, all of whom are male – expect women to grieve in specific, passive

ways that reinforce the status quo. Social actors and institutions such as the church, law

enforcement, and the greater community construct ideas about how women and victims in

Like Mildred, Cassie also feels that to tolerate violence is to be complicit, and

thus similarly undertakes an active and creative quest for vengeance. Rather than

inflicting physical pain on the individuals that had a hand in Nina’s

brutal rape and

subsequent suicide or escaping into a fantasy that allows her to escape this brutal reality,

Cassie confronts Nina’s assailants and the institutionalized system of male power that has

kept them free from harm. As the film slowly progresses, and the plot unfolds, we learn

more about Cassie’s motives. She was previously a medical school student, but she

dropped out after Nina was gang-raped by classmates at a party. Nina’s mental health

deteriorated as her authority figures and peers blamed her and failed to seek justice for

to maintain her sanity. A tremendous and recurring theme throughout the film is the

when trying to justify their misogynistic behavior.

hoping that some ‘nice guy’ will try and help get her sluggish body home. When men

behavior. Afterward, she goes home, tallies each conquest in a hidden diary she keeps

also for Nina – even though, like Mildred with Angela, Cassie has no real idea what Nina

might have wanted.

The Non-Conforming Feminist and the Feminine Avenger

Following mainstream American culture, mainstream American films typically

assign attributes including “emotional expression, purity, style, virtue, and motherhood”

to women in film, portraying them as lacking conventional masculine traits such as

cleverness, strength, and resilience, thus constructing a dependency on men (Wellman,

Meitl, and Kinkade 2021:661). However, Mildred’s character constructs a challenging yet

charismatic image of a non-conforming yet powerful adult woman – a kind rarely seen in

Hollywood films. Frequently, empowered female protagonists in popular film are either

seen as problematic and in need of correction (Sutherland 2013) or as oversexualized

objects (Itzin, Taket, and Barter-Godfrey 2010:102). McDonagh (2017) avoids the trend

of over-sexualization by characterizing Mildred as a fierce, nonconforming woman –

meaning that while she is visibly a woman who openly identifies as a woman and a

military. Like the Uncle Sam posters that have been circulated throughout history to

recruit men to enlist in the military, the Rosie the Riveter posters were circulated

throughout WWII, to help recruit women into the workforce. In the poster, Rosie appears

wearing a red and white polka dot bandana and a blue-collar uniform with the sleeves

rolled up – similar to the way we see Mildred dressed throughout the entire film.

overalls and a bandana. The status of mother seems to be the only feminine attribute that

she claims. Yet, while not feminine, that doesn’t necessarily denote that she is masculine,

per se, but rather more aggressive and careless as a result of the violence she has endured.

actions. She finds that discursively confronting those responsible for Angela’s case and

death helps her to restore both her and her deceased daughter’s agency, thus allowing

In specifically focusing on how Mildred engages in gender performance – or the

‘doing’ of gender – we can better understand both the role of individual agency (or

choices) in behavior and the social (or structural) restrictions that confine her agency in

the production of violence (Miller 2008). Further, in Mildred’s case, rage and violence act

as a “powerful resource for expression,” as it liberates her from “constricting cultural

stereotypes,” even if it ultimately destroys her life (Rafter and Brown 2011:157).

Cassie, while just as underlyingly fierce as Mildred, often takes on the role of

damsel in distress

presented as an embodiment of “seemingly idealized femininity,” conforming to a

gendered display of the “white, middle-class, heterosexual, and cosmopolitan” American

pink, with manicured nails, styled hair, and a face painted with beautiful portions of

regarding gender, sexuality, and nationality. As such, the violation of the damsel

Fredriksson (2021) states that “in popular culture, the ideal victim often surfaces

unconventional. Cassie’s parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown), her boss – Gail

rescuers” (Fredriksson 2021:59). The damsel in distress is similar in that it is also

constructed in submission to, and need of rescue by, patriarchal traditions and forces

(Wester 2012). The damsel in distress and the ideal victim are often portrayed as “fair

(and often fair-skinned),” helpless women attacked by threatening, domineering, and

often unknown men and in need of rescue by brave men (Fredriksson 2021:59).

(Laverne Cox), and even Nina’s mother (Molly Shannon), all express concern for

Cassie’s choices and well-being. Her parents, whom she still lives with, express concern

over many of Cassie’s behaviors. They protest the fact that she still lives with them at age

knowledge about her vengeful yet liberating agenda to achieve retribution in Nina’s

name. Cassie, like Mildred, has become consumed with grief. Instead of reacting to that

grief in a socially acceptable fashion (i.e., appearing or acting as passive a victim), she

becomes a vigilante. Cassie begins to target not only men who attempt to take advantage

of inebriated women but also those directly responsible for Nina’s fate.

Your Grave, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because she does not punish through means

of physical harm or overt violence, but instead with an elaborate scheme of discursive

confrontation through blackmail and deceit – which she feels is more damaging. Cassie is

calm, collected, and comes off as entirely unsuspicious – which renders her even more

dangerous. Cassie holds the power to frighten. The film does not shy away from this fact

or from the fact that some of the decisions she makes are not nice or good. Cassie is

angry, but she is very particular about her acts of vengeance. Rather than continuing to

seek personal revenge against men, Cassie begins to tackle the institutionalized system of

male power that helped aid in Nina’s subjugation and death. Through her revenge against

The central themes of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and

Promising Young Woman (2020) – misperception, loss of loved ones, grief, vengeance –

of public outrage or pressure on local police to find the assailant(s) lends support to a

first with the billboards, then by drilling a hole in a dentist’s thumb. Later, Mildred blows

up the police station and injures Officer Jason Dixon in the process. After that, she allows

a friend to lie to the police about the bombing to establish her alibi and thereafter

humiliates him when he expresses his romantic interest in her. At the end of the film, it

even appears she may well be on her way to kill a man who may or may not be guilty of a

rape having nothing to do with her daughter. However, while all of these actions are

Dixon: Yep?

Mildred: You sure about this?

Dixon: About killing this guy? Not really. You?

Mildred: Not really. (McDonagh 2017).

This exchange is ambiguous in the sense that the conflict of the film (finding Angela’s

assailant(s)) is still unresolved as the two most disagreeable people in town are following

through with their plan to engage in yet another perversion of justice by taking the law

into their hands. However, this is not what the final line is about. The final line is directed

toward the spectator who must decide whether to lend support to those acting outside the

valorous hero. However, such a moral journey is only budding and is not completely

developed. Dixon’s reprieve has a final goal, tracking down and potentially even killing

another presumed criminal—a righteous redemption that would constitute the final stage

a posh restaurant pouring ginger ale into a champagne glass while she waits on Madison

to arrive. Cassie pre-orders a glass of champagne for Madison before she arrives in hopes

to get Madison drunk and confront her. Upon her arrival, Madison assumes that Cassie is

film Hard Candy (2005) portraying a young woman verbally confronting and enacting

(2020) to cult classics like I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and Ms. 45 (1985). However, a

that Cassie, does not seek vengeance and retribution through means of physical violence,

Undoing Gender

(or choices) in behavior and the social (or structural) restrictions that confine a woman’s

agency in the face of violence. That said, I found that discursive confrontation, like

violence, may be a powerful resource “for expression, liberating women from

constricting cultural stereotypes,” even if it ultimately destroys their lives (Rafter and

The women in these two films are not ‘ideal victims’ because they do not conform

to the status quo, meaning they do not act as passive and pure in the face of violence, and

are thus deemed undeserving of sympathy. They see themselves instead as survivors of

Mildred, the fierce, non-feminine, non-conforming, unsympathetic woman is less

concerned with the ways in which she is viewed by the community – a small town who

contests her discursive events, engendering resentment, and the pursuit of retribution. She

condemns herself along with the people she accuses.

popular films often miss – one where womanhood and feminine attributes are strengths

rather than weaknesses.

unequivocally adopting them. These female protagonists are ‘undoing gender’ by acting

(Deutsch 2007:122).

In paying close attention to how female protagonists in these films respond to

violence, I found that although they all seek to regain some form of “interpersonal

harmony” (Sullivan and Tifft 2005:4), this does not mean that, in effect, they take on a

restorative approach to justice – one where the primary focus is on “the reparation of

harm, rather than punishing the offender” (McGlynn, Westmerland, and Godden

2012:217). Instead, these women take up individualized efforts to make justice

Mildred and Cassie are social avengers who reclaim their agency by seeking

punishment for their loved one’s assailants. After suffering from the loss of her daughter

and the failure of the state to enact justice, Mildred, a middle-aged Missourian mother,

exists, and abuse does not. In Precious (2009), the transformed reality is a means of

some amount of safety from further abuse. While both women first escape violence

through a transformation of reality, once freed from their abusers, each woman avoids

further violence by asserting their autonomy and thereafter achieving agency.

My analysis of these four films has shown that the female protagonists are trying

women take individualized efforts to make justice meaningful in a context where justice

The insights I have offered in this thesis can apply to other contemporary films

reclamation of agency can bring a certain amount of personalized justice—is a crucial

element of this filmic cycle. These insights also illuminate narratives about violence in

the real world: violence can take various shapes and can arise from numerous avenues

that if an individual is not part of a larger collective in a social justice-oriented landscape,

how does that individual enact justice; are they achieving anti-carceral means, or are they

protagonists’ resistance may be empowering and may ‘feel good,’ it can also reproduce

harm and violence.