Date of Award

Fall 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Media & Communication; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Lisa Holderman

Abstract

The representation and proliferation of violence against women in media, when applying genre theory, reflects the social climate of rape culture and the social response to sexual violence. Looking at the Rape-Revenge genre through the scope of Feminist Theory, the only way to reintroduce female agency into a trauma led narrative is to reclaim the tropes used to perpetuation female exploitation and a popular culture ambivalent to male on female violence. Within this subversion and deconstruction, a genre benefiting from female trauma finally includes an honest artistic retelling of that female experience. With the intention of the creator in line with expression rather than exploitation as well as an assumed female audience the use of female perspective in Rape-Revenge films propells the genre into a more evolved and honest portrayal of the narrative as the auidence is led throught the framework by the gaze that runs parallel to it’s protagonist.

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The Evolution of Revenge: Genre, Feminist Theory and Jennifer’s Body

The representation and proliferation of violence against women in media, when applying genre theory, reflects the social climate of rape culture and the social response to sexual violence. Looking at the Rape-Revenge genre through the scope of Feminist Theory, the only way to reintroduce female agency into a trauma led narrative is to reclaim the tropes used to perpetuation female exploitation and a popular culture ambivalent to male on female violence. Within this subversion and deconstruction, a genre benefiting from female trauma finally includes an honest artistic retelling of that female experience. With the intention of the creator in line with expression rather than exploitation as well as an assumed female audience the use of female perspective in Rape-Revenge films propells the genre into a more evolved and honest portrayal of the narrative as the auidence is led throught the framework by the gaze that runs parallel to it’s protagonist.