Jennifer's Body(Beauty and Madness, Original Essay)

Beauty and Madness: Locating Jennifer's Body within Monstrous Heterosexism(Arielle El-Amin)

"There exists a disquieting connection often between the commodification of women and the turn to madness. A connection conceived by violence and abasement. A paradox of exaltation and humiliation. Of violence and praise. Of fear and desire. It is known to many, this attention, if that’s what we shall call it, is nothing but brutal to the senses, the body, and psyche. Within the backdrop of Highschool Americana, “cult classic”, Jennifer's Body, poses a rhetorical reality. Where women serve as both the proprietors of their own fate; and casualties within the heterosexist patriarchy. This stark dichotomy examines the complexity and politics of desirability and feminine commodification within a male dominated network. To pursue this paradox, Diablo Cody, writer, and architect of this reality; crafts a paradigm juxtaposing the levity and normalcy of adolescent behavior, with the cruelty of female exploitation and commodification. In this reality, a seemingly invisible push-pull effect is developed. Glaring violence coupled with the surface level irresistibility of teenage humor, girlhood, and sensuality, ultimately driving the narrative voice of the film, and illustrating the fallacy of adolescent behavior. Cody’s rhetorical devices force us to dissect the maddening nature of heterosexual environments, questioning the intrinsic subjugation of female ontology."

El-Amin Arielle, Beauty & Madness, Culture Jock, (2023).