FILM JOURNAL

1

Y
D
N
A
C
EYE

0
2
’
9
1
‘
STAFF

BENJAMIN OCHOASEQUOIA PINTERITS

Q. LIGAD

editor in chiefart director

financial coordinator

LAURA BOUTROSAUDREY SCHMIDTCHUCKIE EIDELMAN

web developer

co-managing editor

co-managing editor

JOYCE CHANG

BETHANY MORGANSOPHIE BARONEMMA SOLTANIKEELY GWYNNE

KAELEB HANRAHANMARIAH MICKENSSAMANTHA WHITTY

SAMANTHA CONDEISABELLA BALBI

BRANDON CASTRO

SASHI SHARMA

:

RED
U
T
C
I
P
T
NO

ED:
R
U
T
C
I
P
NOT
YARENI SEGURA
blog editor
2
2

CHRISTINA CORFIELD
faculty advisor

ALEXANDRA MILLER
EDITH TRAUTWEIN

LILIA DANIELSCECELIA RICEBENJAMIN THOMPSONJOE LYON
3
3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor

6

Gender and Acting

28

Untitled Polaroids

7

Untitled 2020

33

Fantasy, Empowerment, and Trauma
in Children’s Literature

8

Unmasking a Split Framework

34

Arrival39

Social Horrors: Past and Future

44

Dismantled49

Benjamin Ochoa

Brandon Castro

Keely Gwynne

Hell is a Teenage Girl

14

Isabella Balbi

Nico

Summer Nolette

Lolitamerica:
The Blurring of Youth, Age, andSexualization in American Media

20

21

Samantha Conde

Bethany Morgan

Emma Soltani

Joyce Chang

Yvonne Gonzalez

Melissa Bandara

Mariah Mickens
45

letter from the editor
Hi there, before you dive into this year’s journal why don’t you pause and take a breath with me fora minute. EyeCandy Film Journal is UC Santa Cruz’s one and only student run film and media criticism publication, and it has been amazing to serve as its Editor-in-Chief this year. So, if you wouldn’t
mind indulging me, let’s reflect a bit.
To say it’s been an eventful year in EyeCandy’s history would be a serious understatement. I don’tknow who is reading this or when, but just as a brief refresher let me run through a few of the challenges the EyeCandy staff has gone through to put out this journal for you all. We began the year atconstant risk of wildfire and county-wide power outages. We quickly moved into navigating aroundan intense labor strike on campus that made us transform the way we function as undergraduatesand educators. Then by the time we adjusted to that, we got hit with a worldwide pandemic.
Now, all that sounds pretty terrible. It is. I’m not going to try and diminish how difficult it is to change
and adapt to continually worsening situations. I wanted to highlight the circumstances in which thisjournal was created because, despite everything I’ve mentioned, this team rallied and labored tomake sure that the 2020 issue of EyeCandy got made; and not only got made but is a phenomenal
piece of media criticism. The level of dedication, creativity, and flexibility this team has shown impresses me still.
As you read and enjoy this year’s issue, I hope that you consider the role of the media in your life,
especially in trying times. Be critical of the media you love, as well as the media you hate. Think
about all the media you have lost, found, and have yet to discover. We hope you take the analysis
presented in this journal as a prompt to reconsider your own relationship to the films, TV, music andmore you consume. Most of all we hope you enjoy every word, design, and image that our tenacious
staff have put together.

con mucho orgullo,
Ben
Editor-in-Chief 2019-2020
2
6

3

7

Fantasy, Empowerment, and Trauma
in Children’s Literature
By Keely GwynneW

hen I was a kid, I read a lot of stuff I probably
shouldn’t have. From a novel about a serial
killer targeting pre-pubescent girls to a post-apocalyptic manga series about a bounty-hunting cyborg, what I read was not always “age-appropriate.” But my obsession with these stories did notcome out of nowhere: I can easily trace my dark
tastes back to the children’s books that nearly
every twenty-something like me grew up reading.
Matilda, Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia,
Coraline, Warrior Cats, Holes, A Wrinkle In Time,
Goosebumps, and Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark
are just a few of the books
that are fondly brought up inconversations with friends
about childhood nostalgia
and stories that invoked intense emotional responses.
I still remember the
first book that ever made me
cry. I had just finished reading
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a children’s book following a sentient
toy rabbit’s adventures with various different owners.1 The rabbit, Edward Tulane, can only observe as
each of his owners go through the motions of theirlives, until he is eventually torn away to meet someone new. The story rapidly escalates when Edward’s new owner is a terminally ill girl, who tragically dies with only Edward to comfort her. Years later,
Edward gets his happy ending when he is reunited
with his original owner, but that one scene where
Edward helplessly watches as a little girl’s life fadeaway has forever left an impression in my mind.
Edward Tulane was the first time I reada story that openly confronted loss and death,8

and showed me that sometimes bad things happen that are irreversible, and it’s ok to be sad, tomourn, and eventually move on. These are heavy
themes for anyone, especially for children, but thisbreach in comfort is exactly what made the story
so compelling. The author Kate DiCamillo offers
an interpretation for the merit of her book, stating
that, as a child, her friends read emotionally dark
and complex books because they “knew that aterrible thing was going to happen, and I also knewthat it was going to be okay somehow. I thoughtthat I couldn’t bear it, but thenwhen I read it again, it was all
so beautiful. And I found outthat I could bear it...That waswhat I needed to hear.”2 This
perfectly describes my experience with the book, which I
have continued to read over
the years as both a compelling narrative and bittersweet
reminder of life’s hardships.
This story has stuck withme for over a decade, which may be odd considering how “inappropriate” it may be regarded byadults for the age group associated with it. So why
am I still obsessed with this story? One answer
is that the bittersweet narrative is reinforced by
Edward’s surprisingly complex character development. In the beginning, Edward is not immediately
lovable. He is selfish and lacks empathy, disdainfulof others for lacking his own material sophistication. Only when he is separated from his original
owner does he experience fear and depression,
discover that other lives besides his matter, andthat he has a significant impact on others justby existing. Reading about characters who are

not appreciated by the people around them but
are silently and intensely loved by a toy rabbit issurprisingly moving— even more heartbreaking
when Edward is forced to part ways. While Edward Tulane is less well-known and more specific
to my childhood, similar themes can be found inchildren’s books today such as Charlotte’s Web,The Giving Tree, and Bridge To Terabithia, all ofwhich tackle common themes of love, loss, anddeath that focus on the story’s emotional impactof the story rather than the reader’s comfort.
Why did these dark stories entrance us
as children? And why did they resonate with us somuch that we can now rely on a constant streamof movies, tv shows, and even musical adaptationsof the books that shaped our childhoods? After all,many of the stories I listed are some of the mostfrequently suppressed books in America. Concerned parents worried about violence and sexual
themes, as well as applying the general catch-all
term “unsuited for age group,”3 often demand thesebooks be removed from school shelves. They may
have a right to be worried. Fairy tales such as“Snow White,” “Rapunzel,” and “Cinderella” often
depict characters enduring violent and abusive
home lives, Roald Dahl often depicts children fighting against both corrupt adults and evil monsters,
and some of the vignettes from Scary Stories still
haunt me to this day. But this dark content didn’t
matter to kids like me. However, I was completely
oblivious to the ongoing debate of what was appropriate for me, instead reading whatever I could
get my hands on and being fascinated by macabre
narratives where heroes had to fight their worstnightmares to achieve their happy ending. So
how can a children’s book meant for and enjoyedby children be subversive, unless we have expectations of what children and children’s books aresupposed to be? These dueling concepts of childhood purity versus darker, fantastical narratives
preferred by children themselves can be traced
to the invention of children’s literature as a genre.
Dark content in children’s literatureemerged in folk tales such as “Cinderella,” “Sleep-ing Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” “Snow White,” and “Little
Red Riding Hood” which existed for centuries before being published as fairy tales, first in 1697’s
Tales of Mother Goose and then in 1812 by the
Brothers Grimm. These stories often depict characters surviving abusive home lives or fighting offviolent attacks by strangers, sometimes with noclear moral or happy ending, but became associated with children because of their archetypical,
simple, and straightforward storytelling structure.
In between these two time frames, children’s literature became a sustainable and commercial
success because of publisher John Newbury’s
efforts in the 18th century. However, while dark
fairytales were what became modern children’sclassics, Newbury absorbed common philosophy of the time that emphasized the conceptof children needing “some easy pleasant book,suited to his capacity” that were focused on mo-

rality and teaching children right from wrong.4
The original fairy tales, especially those of
the Brothers Grimm, contain a surprising amountof violence that nonetheless has the power tocapture children’s imaginations. For example, theQueen in “Snow White” is originally her mother,9and wishes to eat the girl’s heart as payback forher beauty; Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off partsof their feet to fit into glass slippers; the Frog turns
into a prince after the princess hurls him against
the wall; and in lesser-known stories such as “TheRobber Bridegroom,” a woman is killed, dismembered, and prepared to be eaten. Interestingly
enough, these versions of the stories were the result of the Brothers Grimm restraining and censoring the original tales sexual content, while amping
up the violence. While these additions may seem
cruel, meaningless, and inappropriate, there is
merit in the fact these fairy tales do not shy awayfrom depicting the worst aspects of reality, evenwhen the more dark and violent content is toned
down. But the most fascinating aspect of fairy
tales is children’s response to them. Children continuously search for and enjoy these stories. Theirreasons range from desiring an escape from thereal world to an enjoyment of reading the “twisted
and bizarre,” clearly establishing children’s ability

to distinguish dark fantasy from reality, and a desire for fantastical narrative content beyond moral
lessons.5 But there is a twisted sense of morality
throughout the stories, which are present in the vi10

olence against villains. Cinderella’s stepsisters areblinded by birds, Snow White’s mother is forced todance to her death, and the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” is killed when his stomach is filled withstones. Good does, sometimes, triumph over evil.
Despite the violence present in fairy tales,
there is often an underlying message of hopethrough survival of traumatic scenarios. In fairy
tales such as “Cinderella” or “Snow White,” characters (primarily the female ones, unfortunately)
are largely passive in their roles. Their existence
propels the drama but has no real impact on how
the story progresses. Instead, the characters areprotected by fairy godmothers, princes, talking
animals, and other helpers whose fantastical existences promise a magical resolution to the end of atale steeped in death and violence. This use of fantasy assistance implies that innocent people suffer
and may not be able to protect themselves, but thathope is still possible in overwhelming times. Fairy
tales ultimately explore the concept that “struggl[ing] against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable… but if one … steadfastly meets unexpected
and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious… morality is
not the issue in these tales but rather assurance
that one can succeed.”6 Even when the main characters are passive, their endurance in the face ofhardship promises readers that any suffering they
face is a temporary obstacle they can recover from.
A modern children’s author who perfectly
embodies and expands upon this concept of success in the face of hardship is Roald Dahl. Dahl’s
stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda take a sharp turn from fairy tales ofthe past by incorporating humor and agency into
his child characters, who use their wits or magicalpowers to fight against evil adults. But, when one
decides to look below the surface level, most of his
stories have morals beyond simply “good triumphs
over evil.” For example, Matilda is about a girl developing magic powers to fight against her cruelparents and abusive headmistress.7 Matilda has asimilar structure to a fairytale such as “Cinderella.”A brilliant girl is controlled and emotionally abusedby her guardians, and is able to escape with the useof magic. Unlike Cinderella, Matilda is her own fairy
godmother who directly fights adult oppression
with her own power. Using a literal child-superhuman as his mouthpiece, Dahl communicates clear
messages advocating for children’s autonomy, thejoys of reading (especially what kids are not “supposed” to read), and condemnation of adults whoare systemically allowed to hurt and control children.
Other Dahl books expand on themes ofchild empowerment. For example, the Cinderella-esque James and the Giant Peach,
Peach,8 in which thetitular character is regularly abused by his aunts
until a giant peach grows in his backyard, kills his
aunts through a series of adventures with magical creatures, and flies to New York City. Anothernovel, The Witches,
Witches, is about an orphan boy who defeats the titular witches but is forever turned into amouse. The iconic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rewards Charlie’s good behavior while severely punishing his naughty peers. Dahl addresses
family abuse, a child’s desire to protect their friends,
and that danger can lurk behind any corner. Critics
have questioned whether “such a zestful exploitation of childish instincts for hate and revenge, prejudice and violence, be as innocent as it appears,”9
but such criticism misses the point of the stories.
Matilda, James, Charlie, and Dahl’s countless othercharacters reject the idea that childhood means
innocence, powerlessness, and ignorance. They
take an active role to overcome the traumatic
events, promising to readers that any suffering they
face is not an insurmountable obstacle but something that can be fought and defeated at any age.
A final point of discussion is the perspective of the authors themselves. Despite my analysis, authors like Dahl have different motivations
for writing beyond a message regarding children
and empowerment. Roald Dahl simply insisted
children’s books should require “interesting plots”
that “[teach] children the use of words, the joy ofplaying with language,”10 emphasizing not a moral
lesson but a genuine enjoyment of the text. I foundthis to be a common theme when researching successful children’s authors: they care less about

morality or audience identity and more about how
the actual story engages readers. Kate DiCamillo,
for example, did not seem to write Edward Tulane
to help children understand traumatic situations
in life. In fact, DiCamillo never seems to write forchildren in the first place, stating “I feel like I’m
a storyteller and I don’t make the distinction onwhether I’m telling that story to an adult or a child.”11
DiCamillo’s statement suggests an important and currently un-discussed link between the attraction of children’s books and fairy tales- the language of the text itself. Every single story refrainsfrom patronizing the reader. This is perfectly articulated by E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web,
Web, who
stated that “anyone who writes down to children issimply wasting his time. You have to write up, notdown.”12 Perhaps this is why many of these stories
are so popular, even among adults— they are intended to be blank slates with no moral or philosophicalmessage beyond their narratives, to engage witha universal audience without assuming a lack ofcomprehension that would slow down the narrative by explaining morality. Readers like me pick up
these books at pivotal moments of our development and attach emotional meaning along the way.
11

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane isstill one of my favorite books, and it still makes mecry. As cheesy as this sounds, the book reminds me
how powerful stories can be. The traumatic eventsin the story did not drive me away but kept me entranced. I kept reading the book because I desperately wanted to know what happened, how Edward
survived, and what he would choose to do next, evenif parts of the story made me feel sad. The book
was an essential part of my childhood because it
intrigued and challenged me with frighteningly new
concepts about love, loss, and death, and inspired
me to think more critically about the world around
me. I began to explore other more mature books
that may not have been what I was “supposed” to bereading, but became my most cherished memories.
In retrospect, all these stories have one
theme in common: trauma. Characters in even themost fantastical children’s narratives struggle tocope with oddly realistic and traumatic scenari-

os including abuse, the death of a loved one, andbetrayal. This material which parents may be adamant on censoring is what makes the stories
meaningful because the characters survive andovercome their hardships, proving that no matter
what horrifying situation they encounter, there isalways hope. These themes may seem too heavy,
mature, or subversive for a younger audience, butthey inspire an analytical approach to thinking
about the world through compelling narratives.
Fairy tales approach death and violence as frightening but temporary obstacles, children’s authors
such as Roald Dahl portray children actively conquering the forces that suppress them, and Kate
DiCamillo’s Edward Tulane uses the titular character as a representation for selfless love and a way
to understand and overcome tragedy. Ultimately,
dark children’s literature uses trauma as a narrative
tool and case study for the reader to both understand and overcome traumatic events in real life.

Endnotes
1. DiCamillo, Kate, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane(Candlewick Press, 2006).

1976).

2. DiCamillo, Kate. “Why Children’s Books Should Be A Little
Sad.”

8. Dahl, Roald, James and the Giant Peach a Children’s Story(New York: Knopf, 1961).

3. Banned Book FAQ.” The American Library Association.

9. Hunt, Peter. (2001). Children’s Literature. Oxford: Blackwell.

4. Locke, John. “Some thoughts concerning education,” in Harvard Classics, ed. Charles Eliot

10. West, Mark. “Interview With Roald Dahl.” Children’s Literature In Education 21, no. 2 (1990). 65.

5. Riedel, Kari Ness. “Why Kids Say They Love Fairy Tales.”Brightly. Penguin Random House, March 15, 2019.

11. DiCamillo, Kate, “Kate DiCamillo Interview Transcript.” Interview by Scholastic, Inc.

6. Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning
and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Thames & Hudson,

12. White, E. B. “The Art of the Essay No. 1.” The Paris Review 48,
no. 45.

12

7. Dahl, Roald, Matilda (New York: Viking Kestrel, 1988)

13

essay byisabella Balbi
Illustrations
byAshleyreasoner

The female is an object inhorror culture: a scream queen,a slasher victim for the male antagonist to gut or sink his teeth
into. It is nearly always a man
behind a mask, or a creature of
the night that while not outrightly human, possesses a Y chromosome nonetheless. The only
thing scarier than a man? The
God-forsaken teenage girl. The
hyperemotionality, the budding
sexuality, the grotesque inneranatomy. The Monstrous Feminine. Barbara Creed first gave
form to the classic trope in her
work The Monstrous-Feminine:Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis,
conceptualizing it as the embodiment of “all that human society
finds shocking, terrifying, horrific, and abject” about a woman.1
It is no revelation that society isscared of girls; men have swornthat young women have beenpossessed by the devil sinceEve created original sin and Salem was plagued by a plethoraof witches. Since then, however,the fear of the monstrous feminine has adapted, manifested incinematic images that associate
menstruation, teen cliques, andfemale expressions of sexuali14

ty with the demonic and hellish.
In looking at these expressionsof our cultural taboos we candiscover how our attitudes towards women have, and havenot, adapted throughout nearlya century’s worth of filmic works.

After all, there’s no better reflection of society’s fears than scary
movies.
Consider why Regan
MacNeil got possessed in The
Exorcist. The 1973 horror classic
sees the innocent pre-teen enter
the throes of adolescence while
simultaneously enduring demonic possession, synchronicity
that is anything but coincidental.
Along with the onset of her first
period, in the original novel, Regan had started masturbating.
The subsequent demonic invasion of her body can be seen asa reaction against puberty anda manifestation of the church's
fear of female sexuality. This punishment is for Regan as much as
it is for her mom Chris, a single
parent and woman in the labor
force who operates outside thestructures of the nuclear family.
The demon even makes sure toshame Chris about her defianceof societal norms during theiconic exorcism scene, exclaiming that “It is you who have done
it! Yes, you with your career before anything, your career before
your husband, before her…” using outright horror to play on thegenerational guilt of women whobegan to move into the workplace. Retaliation against this
newfound independence comeswith the onset of Regan’s possession, as Chris is “put back in
her place, forced by the narrative
to adopt the role of the domestic
mother” once more.2 With traditional roles restored, Regan issoon cured, and the conventionalfamily prevails; the audience has
survived what is widely considered to be the scariest movie ofall time, leaving us to ask—justwhy exactly are these two hours
of terror so traumatizing? Creedinsists that Regan’s “monstrousness” stems fromthe film's use of aggressive and unladylike flauntingof bodily functions and fluids, from bile to feces. In
multiple senses, the “horror emerges from the factthat the woman has broken her proper femininerole”.3 Regan’s possession functions as an iterationof teenage rebellion, a resistance of “normality” thatis subsequently unholy. With the release of sexuality and challenges to traditional authority figures
being seen as downright satanic, the film reaffirms
the “rightness” of the church, the conventional family, and the patriarchy. Above all, the film suggeststhat the female body and its functions are synonymous with evil, a common trend that can be seen
throughout the rest of the century’s cinema.
Take Stephen King’s Carrie (1976), whose

telekinetic abilities also develop post-period. Carrie’s devoutly Christian mother floods the scriptwith pious propaganda, emphasizing that menstruation is the result of sinful thoughts, further
shaming the natural experience of puberty. Ethnographer and folklorist Arnold Van Gennep offers perspectives on the larger implications of such a ritualistic transformation in his book Rites of Passage,
in which he suggests that intense transitions likepuberty can be defined in stages: separation, liminality, and incorporation. These steps feature a “separation from a previous world, preliminal rites, andthe ceremonies of incorporation into the new world[of] postliminal rites”.4 It is in this sense that Gennep taps into the social implications of a process
like puberty. Puberty, marked by biological transformation, is demonized as it represents collective
fears about girls becoming women in society atlarge. Carrie is one of the many films that employsa physical symbol of puberty, like menstruation, asa metaphorical tool, using it to showcase what itmeans to transcend the innocence of youth andenter spaces as an adult. The fear of menstruationis the fear of girls becoming sexual beings, of having body autonomy and power, magnified on the silver screen for all to recoil at. It works both ways; theboys who cower at innocent girls becoming independent beings who might one day have sex withmen who are not them, turn away from the footage with the same vehement disgust as the girls
who hide tampons up their sleeves and call out ofwork due to “lady problems”, not period cramps. Ina world where girls are raised to cross their legs,
chew with their mouths closed, and hide any sign ofbasic biological processes, puberty acts as a formof friendly fire, a betrayal by our own bodies. The climactic image of Carrie onstage doused in blood issuch a chilling experience because it is a result of
all this internalized shame—it’s the fear of blood in
the wrong place, usually spreading quietly on theback of pale jeans, amplified.
In a culture that views it as horrifying,young women are taught to fear their own biology
so much that menstruation is referred to as “theCurse” in the 2001 teen werewolf flick Ginger Snaps,
in which 16-year-old Ginger gets her first period
and is immediately bitten by a snarling beast. Her
transformation into a woman is analogous to hertransformation into a monster, as monthly cycles,mood shifts, and body-altering changes transcend
simple adolescence and become twofold. The attack can be read as the punishment for puberty,
and “the perversion of the feminine nature itself”.5

15

These commonalities can be seen as projectionsof society’s view on menstruation as a marker ofabjection and sexual difference between genders.
Carol Clover considers the matter in The Dreadof Difference in which she cites “menstrual blood”
as a symbol standing “for the danger issuing fromwithin identity” as “it threatens the relationshipbetween sexes within a social aggregate and,through internalization, the identity of each sex in
the face of sexual difference.”6 This irreconcilable
difference is what generates the terror which is themonster within the feminine.
Beyond the biological basis for abjection,
women in horror are also feared for their social
roles. Mass media villanizes the communal relationships girls create with each other, recognizing
the inherently formidable bonds and undeniable
power of female collectives. Take the 1996 cultclassic The Craft, in which a group of teenage
misfits forms a coven to escape the torments ofhigh school. Their individual battles for love, acceptance, and respect become feasible fights
upon the arrival of their “fourth”, a member who willcomplete their circle and allow them to summon
the great powers of a god-like entity, Manon. Their
once futile goals are made plausible through thecompletion of the circle—divided, they are schoolgirl loners, but together, they yield an absolute andepic power. The film taps into the primal American

16

fear of this female power, and what happens when
women are alone together. Angelica Jade Bastiénasserts:“For many girls, witches are our first brushwith any depiction of feminism…Whether they’reunhinged old women cackling into the night sky oralluring vixens, witches teach us the glory and riskthat comes with power for a woman. They give voice
to the darker desires you’re too young to name, andthe anger swelling in your chest when the people inyour orbit assume you lack the grit and intelligencenecessary to make your desires a reality.”7
Together the girls take on the pillars of thewhite male institution as they fight to comply withbeauty standards, confront blatant racism, andchallenge rape culture. When Nancy sends Chris
hurtling to his death, she’s the picturesque retaliation against a society that slips pills into girls’ drinks
and follows them home at night. It is at that momentthat the film presents “a beguiling and fearsome
portrait of female anger”—the revenge fantasy thatmen everywhere are fearful of.
The social bonds that hold together the
teen coven in The Craft are the same that form thetraumatism central to the plot of Ari Aster’s Hereditary. This 2018 independent release introduces
a version of the monstrous feminine outside theconfines of teendom, reimagining the vision of an“unhinged old [woman]” that Bastién comments on.
Hereditary delves into a narrative as old as Salem,
presenting a family line polluted by a matriarchal
cult—a twist that uses Christian demonology as atake on the classic witches coven. This reimagination paints the “women [of] the film [as] the architects of the downfall of the Graham family”, playing
on the “fears that the secretive rituals of womenare always about evil”. While the men in the film are“lost and vacuous”, populating “the movie as accessories to a female-focused design,”8 Hereditary ultimately functions as a treatise on the monstrous
feminine, modeling stereotypes about that whichmakes women scary. The women in the Grahamfamily may hold the power, but it is their genetics
that carry the toxic family secret, the evil cancer
that contaminates future generations. It is the women who uproot the very structure they are meant

to belong to—the family and thehome. In this sense, femininesocial roles work in conjunction
with the abjection of the female
form itself, as the cult also places supreme value on the male
body. Despite being a coalitionof women, the cult views themselves in subservience to theirtrue leader, whoever acts as theembodiment of the spirit Paimon. The spirit can only inhabit
a male form, as opposed to afemale host who would be inherently impure and unsuitable. The
female members of the Grahamfamily are innately rejected asconventions about purity andphysical merit prevail, making
their female bodies defunct by
default. The film shows viewers
how the monstrous feminine
evolves, demonstrating the manner in which the budding youth of
the gals in The Craft can wither
into the deranged Satanic fantasies of the women in the Grahamfamily—the idea that women are
crazy and evil, but especially ingroups with social power.
Horror culture follows
these scripts to such an extent
that a violation of these expected roles is an inherent box officeflop. Take the tragedy of the now
revered feminist horror flick Jennifer’s Body (2009). The film stars
Megan Fox, who was arguably
the apex of beauty and sexuality back in 2009. In the film, she
is a succubus cheerleader who
feeds on boys after having had
her body defiled and sacrificed
to Satan by the members of an
all-male indie rock band. The plot
is inherently feminist, starring two

female leads, written and directed by women, centered arounda Satanic beauty queen dressedin pink, dolled up in lip gloss. Jennifer embraces her femininity,
weaponizing it against men as atool to be utilized rather than asa source of shame to be hidden.
When Needy asks her how she isgoing to get alcohol, she replies
nonchalantly that she will “justplay Hello Titty with the bartender”. When Needy threatens to callthe police on her, she promptly
reminds her that she has “gotthe cops in [her] back pocket”
because she is sleeping witha cadet. When she is impaled
during the film’s climax, she asks
Needy if she has “got a tampon?”Jennifer repeatedly references
her womanhood, talking proudly
and openly about female sexuality and biology in a way thatchampions aspects of genderthat most films would vilify. Her
cannibalism works to serve her
status as the school’s It girl, notcounter it. When she eats boys,
her skin is glowing and her hairis shining. When she is hungry,
her skin is dull and her hair is lifeless. Jennifer’s “monstrousness”

is not something to be cowered
at, but is rather a source of empowerment meant to be revered.
The film's initial reception shows
us why a work of this nature exists outside of the standard. Life
imitated art after the film’s production wrapped as the studiochose to sacrifice the artistic
vision of the women behind the
project in order to advertise to
the male gaze. Describing thefilm’s release as misunderstoodwould be an understatement; inaddition to overtly sexualized taglines like “She’s got a taste forbad boys” and posters featuringa scantily clad Fox as the tired
school girl trope, the studio almost went as far as having herhost an amateur porn site to promote the film.9 The demoralizing
ad campaign saw the subversive dark comedy marketed as a
typical high school slasher flickthat relied on Fox’s body for sex
appeal. The original target audience of teenage girls was traded
for the broader male audience
who were so unfortunately disappointed when the porno they
paid to watch turned out to be agenre-defying feature that embraced female empowerment.
Despite its recent status as a cultclassic, the film initially grossed
about $31.5 million worldwide
against a $16 million budget andis now ranked 132 on IMDB’s listof worst film openings by releasescale.10 Jennifer’s Body madeuse of the monstrous feminine ina feminist light; it was a rebellion
against the myriad of its predecessors that were written andshot from the male perspective.
17

It did not reflect the mass fear of women and theirabjected bodies and, subsequently, it failed to appeal to a wide audience. This truth is perhaps thebest reflection of the use of women in horror, and ina wider scope, women in society.
Everyone is comfortable watching thescreen when it depicts a woman cowering in fear,stumbling during a chase scene, or shrieking into
the camera. Film critics will label the female protagonist a scream queen or a final girl. But, once
that girl bleeds from something other than a stabwound or screams out of rage rather than terror,
she becomes something worse than inferior—monstrous. Pop culture teaches women that we should
be ashamed of ourselves. Ashamed of bleeding,of breathing, of being. But our tampons, lipsticks,
and friendship bracelets are our weapons against
a world that abjects our very form. It is the cultureof cliques like cults and blood-like guts that makeprom queens more frightening than the fiery pits of
any underworld. There is an inherent power in being
feared, a power that resonates so furiously that it
has been embedded in the cultural fabric of mainstream media for the past century. Women are
scary because they are formidable
For all the ladies out there, make sureto eat boys for breakfast and rememberthat Hell is a teenage girl..

ENDNOTES
1. Creed, Barbara. "The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis." Routledge, 2015. 34.
2. Riley, Brian, et al. “Revisiting The Exorcist: The Forbidden Pleasures of Resistant Reading." The Journal of
Popular and American Culture. Response.
3. Creed, Barbara. "The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis." Routledge, 2015. 42.
4. Fau, Francesca. “Nevertheless, She Feasted: Why Girls Get Hungry in Horror Movies.” Film School Rejects,
22 Jan. 2018.
5. Zaitsev, Sasha. “The Monstrous Feminine and Abjection.”
6. Clover, Carol. "Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film." Univ Of Texas Press, 2015. 19.
7. Bastién, Angelica Jade. “The Profound, Enduring Legacy of The Craft.” Vulture, Vulture, 27 Oct. 2017.
8. Lasky, Dorothea. “Witches, Artists, and Pandemonium in Hereditary.” The Paris Review, 22 June 2018.
9. Sharf, Zack. “Karyn Kusama: Watching 'Jennifer's Body' Only Get Marketed to Teen Boys Was Painful.”
IndieWire, December 28, 2018.
10. Box Office Mojo by IMDbPRO.

18

19

Nico

I went down to the beach with afriend on the last day of autumn.
She brought a set of chalk paints
to pass the time, and I let her press
the blue one into the hollow of myknee. She dragged it down in a
stream towards my ankle and we sat
still there as long as we could until
the sand had turned cold. Then we
stood and walked aimlessly along
the ocean’s edge to the place where
the pathway fell over the cliff. With
each extension of my leg it looked
as though my knee was crying.

20

21

American media is overly-saturated with
depictions of youth, given that young people are ahuge target audience. A consequence of this is thesexualization of youth on screen as well as the infantilized depictions of adult characters presented
throughout media history. Purposeful reasoning like director’s notes or artistic intention
behind scenes often give clarification as towhy these depictions exist, yet they cannot
justify inappropriate depictions as helpful orsafe. It is fitting to assume that neglected portrayals of youth and childlike adults in American media
can be problematic to our societal development
because of the effects it can have on the actor/actress as well as viewers.
“Sex Sells” combined with our culturalobsession with youth creates a grey area within
American media. The infamous “Dawson Casting”
occurrence has been widely used in order for production to work around not having youth on set. The
term pokes fun at how most of the characters on
the teen show Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003)
were in their 20’s acting as teens. This typeof casting choice exists because childactors are protected by labor laws andschooling hours. Besides having moreof a possibility to acquire a stunt double, itis easier to work with adult actors because
they are often cheaper to cast than children
and they attract a larger demographic appeal. But this has a negative effect on real-life
teens who think they should look as perfect asthese adults playing them on TV. Beth Daniels,
Developmental psychology professor at the
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs talks
about this in a dialogue with Slate on the topic.
“In contemporary teen shows today, they have actors who don’t even physically resemble teenagers.
So now the expectation, or the standard, is way outof line with actual teen bodies, and the possibility
for body dissatisfaction jumps up”1. Daniels speaks
to the truth of comparing oneself to the teens seenon screen. On the flip side, getting children
to play their own roles is not sunshine
and rainbows either. Yes, it is nice to see
actual teen casts, like on Netflix’s Strang22

er Things. However, not every young
character is written for a young
audience.
It is common for childactors to play roles in R rated
films. Each is problematicin their own way; however,some films are forced to depict things more carefully thanothers. In Léon, aka Leon, the Professional (1994)
for America’s release, Jean Reno’s character becomes a caretaker for orphaned 12-year old Mathilda (played by 13 year-old Natalie Portman). In thefilm, he teaches her how to defend herself, assassin style. In the American version of one particular
scene, Leon denies Mathildas plea to kiss him as
they drink while seated in a restaurant. She lightly
confesses her love to him as Léon tells her to stopwith a serious look on his face, drawing a palpableline between ‘adult’ and ‘kid’. The scene ends with
Mathilda laughing joyfully,
adding to her adolescent,childlike complexity. Originally,
the script had way more sexual undertones, though Léon
still acted the same way toward
Mathilda. This scene, along withseveral others, was changed inorder for Portman’s parents toeven allow her to play the role. Thisshows why “Dawson Casting” exists from a filmmaker’s perspective (and why it’s good for parents
to have a say in their child’s acting roles). Director
Luc Besson could have just chosen a different childactress who had more lenient parents, or he could
have opted for a 21+ actress to begin with. It also
shows how a movie can still be enjoyable without
pushing the boundaries of a young actress.
Similar to child actors playing
roles in R rated films, adult actors also
play youthful roles that are realistically too mature fora child to perform.
In Diary ofa Teenage Girl (2015), actress Bel Powley was 23
years-old playing 15 year-old Minnie. The indie film
had a positive critical reception, being deemed as“raw” “unconventional” and “without judgement”.
The explicit sexual encounters between Minnie
and her Mother’s boyfriend Monroe, played by Alexander Skarsgård are very intimately detailed,playing a big role in Minnie’s sexual awakening. The
film purposely sacrifices the modesty of teenage
representation in favor of its tone and underlying
premises.
Though this choice is understandable froma filmmaker’s perspective, it is still importantto portray youth representation as thoughtfully and carefully as possible. Horror thriller The
Neon Demon (2016) is a better cinematic
example of respectfully portraying
youth on screen. Elle Fanningwas 22 years-old when she
portrayed 16 year-old Jesse.
Though the film shows other characters
fully naked, Jesse is depicted sexually, butviewers never see Jesse’s nudity on-screen,
implicitly respecting the boundaries of youth representation. As viewers, we can understand that an
actor is old enough for the role they are playing, but
still feel awkward about what is going on in the cinematic world. This is normal, as one may feel unsettled but intrigued when exploring taboo subjects
through media. Disclaimer: Every film is different,
just as every young person is different. No film canplease everyone, as it is not realistic to expect every
filmmaker to follow an unspoken rule of how to treat
young characters within their scripts of choice. Allover media, these age-gap commonalities are included in the vast collection of what it means to bea part of youth. As filmmakers, a good start to alleviate this grey area is to do a ton of research andto always question a character’s behaviors andmotives. It is up to the viewer to form positiveor negative opinions on what is being watched. The viewer is also
free to stay criticalof what is being seen, even if theviewer does not see it asproblematic.
Entering the discussion of age, aside
from sexualization andyouth, it is seen throughout history that the dichotomy between the young protagonist and theelderly mentor have kept their contrasting characteristics. These traditional archetypes
have been endlessly adapted to fit current generations, given it is an unforgettable component to the
Hero’s Journey, heavily discussed in Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces. In chapter
five, Campbell explains the Supernatural
Aid, which refers to “a protective figure(often a little old crone or oldman) who provides the adventurer with amulets
against the dragon forces he is about to pass”4. It
is clear that the young Hero needs a mature
ally to guide them through future hardships; as the juxtaposition of old andyoung is always visible and important
to note according to its changes andtransformations.
Youth is a desired period oftime where one has the capacity andstamina to experience life to the fullest. Though wisdom is earned with aging, youth has always proven to be thepopular vote between the two because
it speaks to the shared fear that every human being has about death; though death is inevitable, not many want to experience that particular unknown. This, aside from historical origins offolktales and mythology may be why protagonists
are overwhelmingly young when it comes to storytelling. Acknowledging that media is framed fromsociety, the cultural norm of ageism must be considered. In the text “Social Practice With Older
Adults”, Associate professor’s Jill Chonody and Barbra Teater mention the tone ofageism within American culture. “As a result,many Western cultures, including the UnitedStates, can be readily described as “youth
dominated”. Young people are seen as the23embodiment of all that is valued— beauty, vitality,
and longevity. Aging, on the other hand, is associated with disgust. Older people represent failure; they
have “let themselves go.” This point of view on aging
is culturally reinforced and supported, and negative
characteristics are attributed to older people simply
because they are ‘old’ (e.g., Kite & Johnson, 1988)”.5
As aforementioned, American media is fixated on
this “youth domination”. It’s gotten so bad that it’s
brought up multiple discussions in the entertainment
industry. Celebrity pop-culture YouTube channel, Nicki
Swift made a whole video
about why actress, Mila
Kunis disappeared outof the spotlight. The firstreason she mentions isageism in Hollywood. The
video mentions an interview Kunis had with Playboy
Magazine where she talks
about the future of her career.
“It’s weird that at the age of 29 I’m
talking about aging in this industry, but
the truth is I don’t think I can do this for the
rest of my life”6. It is ridiculous that even before her 30’s, an actress as stunning as Mila
Kunis has to worry about her age affecting
her work, similar to many other female entertainers. “This orientation has produced a kind of“youth nepotism” in the film and television industry similar to that in the advertising industry”, says
Linda S. Whitton in the text “Ageism: Paternalism andPrejudice”. “Young executives tend to be selected to
produce youth-oriented programs, and these young
executives tend to surround themselves with young
writers, directors, and actors”7.
Given all these things,
it is easier to understand how
adult actors play infantilized roles.
If American Media is “youth dominated”, the mentality starts to become“if you can’t beat them, join them”.
Of course, this will leave a sour
taste in one’s mouth, as adults
should act like what they are;24

adults. This does nothing to stop the discussion around the concept of mental
age vs biological age. Are we adults because we feel that we are, or because traditional adult ideologies have coaxed us into
being less positive, less imaginative, and moredesensitized? The true answer varies fromperson to person. Interestingly, the song “Taller
Children” by indie band Elizabeth & The Catapult
claims “don’t you know you don’t get smarter, you’rethe same as you started, you just jump a little higher”. That seems to be the case for a big chunk ofAmerican media.
Diving deeper into the juxtapositions of desired youth and matured wisdom, one must not ignore the normalization of childlike innocence andbehavior in adult characters as these two contrasts
start to blend together. Marilyn Monroe’s careershows an example of this blend. In the
text “Chasing Lolita” by Graham Vickers, he mentions a very uncomfortable truth about the portrayal and legacy she had throughout her extensive
filmography. “…About half of the twenty-two films
she appeared in during the 1950s helped to define
her as the ultimate Hollywood sex goddess andone whose erotic charge was indivisible from what
would become one of the decade’s chief preoccupations: childish feminine innocence wrapped up in an
adult body. Monroe’s body was not just adult; it wasalmost a caricature of a fully formed woman; ample
breasts, curvy hips, bleached hair, and lots of lipstickwere the visible assets. But they were paired with awide-eyed expression and a mannered, breathy little
voice that signaled child ingenuousness”.8 This awkward childlike persona is alike to many other films
around and after it’s time. Many of the films directedby Roman Polanski depict this type of childlike-woman character. This adds an extra layer of creepy
to an already unsettling subject, due to
Polanski’s pre Me-Too Movement convictions.
In
speakingof
Me-TooMovement
convictions, TV
writer/producer

Dan Schneider also played around with this typeof character. In Victorious (2010), Cat Valentine,
played by Ariana Grande often acted very childlike. What’s weirder is, Cat’s character developed
into acting like that overtime. In the first season,
Cat displayed some erratic mood swings but
acted her age. In the second season, Jade (thebest character on the show) is screaming forher to stop singing the Sesame Street theme song.
There are plenty of reasons why Cat’s character
displays this type of immature behavior, according
to her background. However, as a filmmaker, one
can spot an excuse for something creepy when
one sees one.
Many media creators continue to adapt thechildlike demeanor into their own bodies of work.
Viner turned YouTube content creator, Lele Pons often displays this behavior in her videos, as her audience mainly consists of kids and teens. Managed
by Shots Studios, she may not have full control overwhat
content goes in her videos andher slapstick comedic tone isultimately a joke. However, paying attention to Pons’ childlike
dimwittedness along with theway she shows off her own sex-appeal, her videos can insinuate toyounger audiences it is acceptable,
even cute to act so immature in your20’s. Pons’ videos blurs adult themeswith childlike behavior so often, it has
gotten negative attention from otherchannels on the site. Many channels
harshly critique her work, such as
Cody Ko, diesel patches, BionicPig, etc.
YouTube content creator and English Professor, Giulia-Christina otherwise known as READY
TO GLARE, elaborates her thoughts on Pons in ananalysis video titled “Trash Content EP. 2: Lele Pons”.
She states, “What is uncanny about her is… how she
infantilizes herself and also sexualizes herself [inother videos]…We have this paradox of ‘oh haha
I’m so awkward and so childish and so immature’
but then, you see her looking like a
25 year-old…so those twoideas just don’t connect…

On the contrary, they juxtapose each other so you’rejust left in confusion of
like, okay so which one isit?”9. The backlash is similar to the uncomfortablefeelings felt by the Los Angeles audience during the Leon, The Professional
screening mentioned previously. However, thisweird trend keeps on giving.
Hulu’s new Show, Pen15 has to be mentioned when talking about this topic. The show isabsolutely hilarious and seemingly others agree, as
91% of Google users liked the show. Adding a newperspective on the prepubescent awkwardnessof surviving Middle School, 7th graders Maya andAnna navigate through changes in life, friendshipand beyond. The tongue-in-cheek casting choice
is funny though it immediately raises some yellow/orange flags if not red. Comics Maya Erskine
and Anna Konkle are in their 30’s reenacting theirpast adolescent personas. Meanwhile, their peers,classmates and crushes are all casted as youngteens. Bold move, Hulu. A great article by Popsugar Entertainment goes into detail about why thesechoices were made and how carefully the situations
were contemplated. “The most difficult challengethat Erskine and Konkle faced was how to portraythe sexual aspects of coming of age …without causing any discomfort for both viewers and the young
actors. As Konkle explained to The Hollywood Reporter, “How do we tell the real story that makes theshow R-rated and the truth and do it safely, but stillreally well?” The answer is: a little bit of clever camera work”. They then give an example of how a kissbetween Anna’s character and her 7th grade boyfriend was cleverly cut with a stunt-double, as to
not repeat what happened on the set of Interview
With a Vampire. “In the scene of Anna’s first kiss, thecamera zooms close up to a pairof lips (which actually belong to
Konkle’s real-life boyfriend, notthe young actor) and the camera cuts away after the actors
share an agonizingly longstare”.10 It’s great that Konkle
25

and Erskine were prepared for theunderstandable awkwardness
that is impossible to resist in thisshow. Pen15 is inevitably awkward, as
it deals with Middle School, puberty, and all of those other shared repressed memories. It’s also great how
Konkle and Erskine made sure to be as careful
as possible while owning their creative perspective. They do their best
to maintain the truth of teenage representation without overtly sexualizing it. Allowing them to create a good example of crossing boundaries withoutharming the youth involved. “Sure, they could havecast adults for all of the roles, but as Konkle pointed out, the series would then feel like a sketch. “Thehumor would be lifted away from it, and the authenticity that is brought, and even just the very basic,
simple feeling of it’s funny to us to be made fun of by

Endnotes
1. Cauterucci, Christina. “The Adult Bodies Playing Teenson TV.” Slate Magazine, Slate Group, 13 Dec. 2017, slate.
com.
2. Robberson, Joe. “20 Things You May Not Know About‘Léon: The Professional’.” Zimbio, Livingly Media. Inc, 15
Sept. 2014, www.zimbio.com.
3. Coco, Team. “Kirsten Dunst’s First Kiss Was Brad Pitt CONAN on TBS.” Youtube, Google, 24 Sept. 2014.
4. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Pantheon Books, 1949.
5. Chonody, Jill M., and Barbra Teater. Social Work Practice with Older Adults: an Actively Aging Framework for
Practice. 1st ed., SAGE, 2018.
6. Swift, Nicki. “It’s Finally Become Clear Why Mila Kunis

26

kids,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“It kept coming back to it’s so importantto fill this world with the authentic teenagers
that really are 13”.11
In conclusion, though American
media has overwhelmingly explored blurring thelines of age, youth and sexualization; the backlash
has proven that it is far from a good idea. In thepast, media creators should have been more careful when exploring these types of subjects. Now,
though problems still erupt, criticism is always
present to put things in place. More than ever, theyouth is able to share their own ideas and opinions
on these subjects online, adding to the collectiveof criticism that matters and deserves to be heard.
With more open communication comes a better
understanding of what is okay and what is harmful.
Fortunately, American media can start to make agood change in the right direction in the near future.

Disappeared”. YouTube, commentary by Nicki Swift, 30
Nov. 2019.
7. Linda S. Whitton, Ageism: Paternalism and Prejudice,
46 DePaul L. Rev. 453, 1997.
8. Vickers, Graham. Chasing Lolita: How Popular Culture
Corrupted Nabokovs Little Girl All over Again. Chicago
Review Press, 2008.
9. Christina, Giulia. “Trash Content Ep.2: Lele Pons.” Youtube, Google, 7 Nov. 2018.
10-11. Sullivan, Corinne. “The Kissing on PEN15 Might
Seem Gross, but Here’s the Reason Why It’s ActuallyOK.” POPSUGAR Entertainment, Group Nine Media Inc,
11 Mar. 2019, www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Do-Actually-Kiss-Kids-PEN15-45888138.

227

By Samantha Conde
Layout by Edie Trautwein and Brandon Castro
Cross-Gender Acting
Cross-gender acting is acting as adifferent gender than what you identify, similar to drag performance. It has existed for
centuries out of necessity, acting ability,
or comedy. Nowadays, audiences andperformers have shifted their views on
cross-gender acting and are more positive towards the artform. It is helping those in society to not haveto conform to any gender norms
because their entertainment is
open to these ideas. Although,there used to be some negatives as
to why theaters or productions utilized
cross-gender acting.
Old Theater
In the 5th century, theater was evolving into
an art form in which people would perform and act
on a stage. Women were not allowed to participate,
resulting in men taking over any female role andcharacter.1 This portrayal was not intended to be
offensive and was merely done to have a play be
performed. However, it is stated that it was too dan
28

gerous for women to perform on stage because it could be too “enticing.”2 Too scandalous for ancient Greeks? No! Never. Whatdo you mean? It’s not like they had many
parties and sex orgies all the time, right?
Right? Okay, moving on...
(Other) Theater/Television
Eventually, women foughtvery hard to be on stage. And, they
were finally beginning to perform
alongside their male actors. Although, it was a bit harder for the womenin Asia to be considered as acting peers. For example, during the 16th century, a few women in Japan wanted to act and perform plays for their community. They took it upon themselves to perform
along the banks of Kyoto’s river when they were still
not allowed on a physical stage. However, in 1629,
shogunate prohibited women from acting- and as afurther insult, they also banned child actors in 1652.3
Some theaters believed that women were thought
to be too natural which is why men were trained tolook graceful and perfectly portray a certain kind of

woman on stage. Women looked too natural? Is thisa joke? I wish this was a joke.
Let’s fast forward to something a little more
recent! Caryl Churchill, a British playwright, wrote aplay titled Cloud Nine in 1979. In the play, a comedy-drama, she purposely wrote stage directions forcharacters to be played by a different gender, suchas “Betty, [Clive’s] wife, played by a man,” “Edward,[Clive’s] son, played by a woman,” and “Cathy, Lin’s
Daughter, age 5, played by a man.”4 Clearly, Churchill
has identified how powerful the role of cross-gender is within acting. Cloud Nine is known for having
cross-gender acting roles and it is utilized almost
like the play’s punchline, not necessarily used as acomedic effect, but to enhance her characters. It isa genius play by a genius
woman. Seriously people,
go read this play.
Current Theater& Television Shows
Cross-gender acting continues to exist in
our modern times! It canbe almost imperceptible
because of the amazing advancements entertainment has made with animation, makeup, computer-generated imagery (CGI), prosthetics, etc. I
mean, did you see how they made Ingvild Deila look
like 19-year-old Carrie Fisher in Rogue One?! That
was the start of something amazing!
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into a current
show that is widely popular and has cross-gender VOICE acting. The comedic animated series

Bob’s Burgers (2011-)
created by Loren
Bouchard has
multiple malevoice actors
who portray
women. It isananimatedsitcom of this family that
operates and runs a burger
re sta u rant. The viewers follow their many hysterical adventures and the love they have for one another.
The family consists of the parents, Bob Belcher,voiced by Jon H. Benjamin, Linda Belcher, voiced
by John Roberts, and theirkids, Tina, Gene, and Louise, voiced by Dan Mintz,
Eugene Mirman, and Kristen Schall. Taking a lookat the cast- do you notice that two of the threefemale characters arevoiced by men?
Side Track
Let me put the record
straight, I am not saying there is anything wrong
with this. I love Bob’s Burgers. I am truly absolutely
thankful for the many episodes that have caused
me to laugh and have a good time. And, I will always
support people and how they wish to be identified.
Back to the show!
Bob’s Burgers is a family show and many
people do not know or attempt to find out who thevoice actors are. Many women and younger girls
relate closely to the characters of Linda and Tina,
who are both voiced by men. Audiences, of course,
get confused when they go to conventions to meetand greet the famous voice actors from the show
and find that John Roberts and Dan Mintz are impersonating these women. How did this come tobe?
29Originally, in the pilot, Tina’s character wasa boy named Daniel; however, it was changed because the show believed that Gene and this character were too similar. Because Fox liked the show,
they told Bouchard to change Daniel to a girl, thus
creating Tina and keeping the same voice actor,
Dan Mintz.5
John Roberts has a different story on
how he came to voice act for the role ofLinda. Years ago, Roberts would upload comedic YouTube videos of himself impersonating his middle-aged
mother. After being recognized for his
talent, Roberts was offered the role ofLinda bringing his knack of voice acting to the show.6
Acting as female characters
is not difficult forthese male actors. The hard partis when they are
asked if acting as awoman ruins the integrity of that role.
Does it? Should it?
No, because these
actors are doing
what they love best
and are doing it in a way that respects
these kinds of roles. This is a great example to other people who identify as amale that they are capable to also workin such roles that used to be closed off tothem. This shows how
men do not always
have to act so masculinely to be a great actor
and well known, and they do nothave to conform to what Hollywood’s idea of a man should be!
There are a few who do believe it ruins the integrity of therole. Not only that, but it causes
an unfairness to women in theacting industry because men
30

are “stealing” roles. I can agree with the second
statement. To this day, it is still hard for a woman
to land a role in show business. There are shows
who choose to ignore this; however, Bob’s Burgers
is trying to address this issue in their own way. The
casting crew and technical side of the show havebeen attempting to hire more female voice actors
and give them lasting or recurring roles. Bouchard said, “We’re not proud taking jobs fromwomen. That’s not what we want as slugline under Bob’s [Burgers] to be – ‘Taking
jobs from women since 2010.’”7That makes me feel happy for thisshow! It has a strong crew with a strong
cast and it keeps growing even though
it has been a hit for so many years.
Break down all those stereotypes andbuild a platform
where men can feellike they, too, can becast in such roles.
Bob’s Burgers is just the tip of
the iceberg whenit comes to female
characters voiced
by men. Let’s get
our minds blown by
these other cross-gender acting roles:••

The Incredibles, director Brad Bird;
2004 - Brad Bird as Edna Mode•
Adventure Time, creator Pendleton
Ward; 2010-2018 - Pendleton Ward as
Lumpy Space Princess•
Monsters Inc., director Pete Docter,et al; 2001 - Bob Peterson as Roz
Arthur, director Greg Bailey; 1996 - present Multiple young boys as D.W. Read

Let’s Flip
Even though women were
not always allowed on stage
does not mean they never had
the urge to perform at all. There
were several brave and bold
women during the 1600s that
acted, despite legal restrictions.8
While men’s performances wereseen as art, women’s performances had them labeled as prostitutes who degraded the artform andproduction.
Thankfully, all of this has changed. Of course,
this took many many years of fighting and feministic actions to occur. Women eventually gained theirrightful place on stage and acted their hearts out!
Slowly, women were becoming more valuable totheater, television, and film, with their biggest asset
being their voices.
Voice acting for women started out rough,but they were able to secure their roles in such productions. They were specifically used a lot to voice
the roles of young boys. The need for this was because it was difficult to come by young boys who
were able to act. If once in a blue moon a boy wasable to voice act, they were only available for a limited time. Young boys are also unreliable because of
the change in their voice as they grow older.9 This
opened up more opportunities for women to voice
act in the industry.
If a woman can achieve even one role, they
will most likely get other roles for young boys in other shows. Let’s take Nancy Cartwright, for example.
She became popular for her role as Bart Simpson,but she had previously acted for roles as Chuckie
Finster, Rudy Mookich, and many more! Another example is Pamela Adlon who voiced Bobby Hill, Dewey Duck, Andy Johnson, Milo Oblong, and a lot more.

Bonus characters that were voiced byamazing female actors:•••

Tommy Pickles
Dexter
Timmy Turner

Here are a few other examples of films thatare popular and include cross-gender acting:••••Mrs. Doubtfire, director Chris Columbus; 1993 Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire
White Chicks, director Keenen Ivory Wayans;
2004 - Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans as
Brittany Wilson and Tiffany Wilson
Diary of a Mad Black Woman, director Darren
grant; 2005 - Tyler Perry as Madea
Hairspray, director Adam Shankman; 2007 John Travolta

All in all, cross-gender acting has beenaround forever. It is a beautiful art that has so manylayers and history to it. Acting as an alternate gender was first a necessity
as women were not allowed on stage.
Next, it became a tool to poke fun atother genders by exaggerating theirfeatures, clothes, and behavior. Even
though that is still the case, cross-gender acting has evolved into something
better, whether it is used to emphasize characters or out of necessity. It
is something that has been uplifted inrecent years and will become something new in the future.

And of course, everyone from the YouTube
series The Most Popular Girls in School. Such talented voice actors that are underappreciated.
Speaking of underappreciated, let’s talk about
women acting as men.
31

Untitled 2020

Endnotes
1. Worthen, William B. The Wadsworth Anthology of Dra- 6. Mashable. “The Voice Behind Linda Belcher of ‘Bob’s
ma. Cambridge, MA: Heinle & Heinle, 2003.
Burgers’ - Supporting Players”. YouTube video, 3:26. Post2. Gewertz, Ken. “When Men Were Men (and Women, ed [Dec 2017].
Too):” Harvard Gazette. Harvard Gazette, July 17, 2003.

7. Sinha-Roy, Piya. “‘Bob’s Burgers’ Creator Promises to
3. Brandon, James R., and Martin Banham. The Cam- Improve Gender Balance in Voice Cast.” EW.com, July 20,
bridge Guide to Asian Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge 2018.
University Press, 2009. (Pages 142 - 179)

8. Thorpe, Vanessa. “Secret Lives of Women Who Broke
4. Churchill, Caryl. Cloud Nine: a Play. London: Samuel Taboo to Act in Shakespeare.” The Guardian. GuardianNews and Media, April 9, 2016.
French Acting Editions, 2015.
5. Lovelle, Andría. “Bob’s Burgers Test Pilot Demo”. You- 9. Myers, Kurt, and Patricia Lopez. “Why Female Voice
Actors Do Great as Boy Voice Characters?.” Voice Over
Tube video, 13:20. Posted [June 2017].
Talent Industry News, October 17, 2014.

32

33

I am an avid consumer of psychologicalhorrors and thrillers. There is something about
diving deep into someone’s psyche that engages and prompts me to contemplate the innerworkings of my own mind. However, it is important to consume this genre of media with a grainof salt, because real mental illnesses ordisorders can be stigmatized from
improper representation. For example, I first became aware of
dissociative identity disorder,
or DID, after watching M. Night
Shyamalan’s Split (2016). DID
is caused by trauma andresults in the mind creating separate personalities
that take over, or front, atvarious times.1 The film
heavily dramatized thedisorder, portraying it as aviolent condition and something to fear. Portrayals likethis are extremely damaging
to how DID is viewed by society and takes us a step backin normalizing mental illnesses
and disorders. However, since then,content creators have been steppingin the right direction, with media such as thefour-season series Mr. Robot (2015-2019) created by Sam Esmail. Through its main character
Elliot, Mr. Robot normalizes DID and portrays
it as something that is simply misunderstood.

34

Traditionally, horrors and thrillers have garnered massive success in the box office, primarily due to their “depictions of ‘madness,” as an article from BBC states.2 Some recognizable films
include Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Stanley
Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), and Wes Craven’s
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). However, rather than being sensitive tothe portrayal of mental illnesses
and disorders, these films, aswell as many others, lean towards “sensationalism,” orcreating a shock factor at
the expense of an accurate portrayal. 3 In Movies
and Mental Illness: Using
Films to Understand Psychopathology by Danny
Wedding and Ryan M.
Niemiec, psychiatrist Peter Byrne explains that a
director’s main goal is tomake a profit off of their film,
not to “educate the public.”4
However, although it is valid topoint out that films are made to
make money, a level of morality
should still be maintained. A film cansimultaneously be successful and sensitive
to mental illnesses and disorders. Unfortunately,
the main intention of these types of films is not toremain sensitive, but rather create suspense andinvoke fear, most often painting the characterswith mental illnesses and disorders as unsympathetic villains. In these portrayals, these characters are viewed as “perpetrators of violence”
and “‘dangerous’ to society,” as a report fromthe USC Annenberg School for Communication
and Journalism states.5 Although these pieces
end up being critically acclaimed and feature
incredible performances, it is vital for us to not
gloss over the misinformation and stigmatizationof mental illnesses and disorders they spread.
According to Cleveland Clinic, DID is a raretype of dissociative disorder causing memory,
consciousness, perception, and sometimes identity to break down. Most cases stem from abuse
and trauma as a way to dissociate from troubling events. Often, this results in the
repression of associated emotions
and pain. Throughout the process of this repression, alternate personalities, or “alters,”
are created in addition to the“core” personality. They cancome and go over time, withmore alters being createdor different alters replacing
earlier ones. Additionally,
when an alter fronts, thecore personality is often unaware and experiences amnesia after they have released
control.6 This is especially highlighted in Mr. Robot,
Robot, particularly inscenes when Elliot’s alter, Mr. Robot,
fronted and, most often, had conversations with other people that Elliot did notremember talking to or even meeting. Although
DID is not commonly depicted in film and television, it has not gone unnoticed in recent years.
I saw Split when it was first playing in theaters. It
separated itself from the typical horror film, as
there had not been many recent mainstream
pieces that focused on the depiction of DID. However, after analyzing it and educating myself on
DID, I have come to realize that it dramatized thedisorder and portrayed it negatively and harmful-ly. The film followed Kevin Wendell Crumb and his
24 alters after one of his leading alters, Dennis, arecovering pedophile with OCD, abducted three
girls: Casey, Claire, and Marcia. While in captivity,
the girls were eventually introduced to more of
Kevin’s alters while they attempted to figure out
a way to escape. Additionally, throughout the film,
the different alters continually hint at “The Beast,”
Kevin’s hidden and especially predatory 24th alter.
Despite shedding light on what was otherwise known as an overlooked mental disorder,
the film did more harm than good. Right off thebat, Kevin had 24 active alters, which is more than
the average amount of active alters an individual with DID would ever have at a given time.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness
Michigan states that the numberof alters an individual with DID
has in their lifetime ranges
from two to 100, but the average number is ten at a given
time. They can come andgo, but the number generally remains stable over theyears.7 In the film, there weremany indications that Kevinhad 23-24 active alters at
the time. For example, there
was a scene when Kevin’s
therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher,
was talking to Dennis, who was
disguised as Barry, another one
of Kevin’s leading alters. AlthoughDennis was trying to mask himself asBarry, Dr. Fletcher tried to persuade him to reveal who he really was. She stated, “Based on thedescription of all 23 identities that live in Kevin’s
body that I’ve gotten from Barry, I think I’m talking
to Dennis.”8 Despite The Beast not being completely established to the audience at this point,
this was still a direct indication that Kevin had 23
active alters at that time, as well as throughout
the film. As an audience member with no priorknowledge of DID, this detail confused me as towhether or not it was normal for those with DID
35

to have a large number of alters at one time.
One particularly interesting aspect of thefilm was that all of Kevin’s alters were played byJames McAvoy. This was an accurate move, asin reality, while a singular person embodies different alters, others are still physically viewing
them as one person. McAvoy is a very talented
actor and did a particularly great job at playing
these alters in a way that distinguished them allfrom each other, which was also seen in scenesthat did not include an outfit change. One example of this is when his therapist catches Dennis
trying to impersonate another alter, Barry. At
that moment, McAvoy’s facial expression andbody language made a distinct shift from Barry’s confident and cheerful demeanor to Dennis’ serious and strict persona. As an audience
member, it felt like a completely different character was present and was one of the scenes thatwon me over, in terms of McAvoy’s performance.
Additionally, Split portrayed Kevin’s alters
as being largely disturbing and violent. Examplesof this were shown in the fact that Dennis abducted Casey, Claire, and Marcia at the beginning of
the film, and that The Beast was a cannibalistic
monster. More specifically, The Guardian article“From Split to Psycho: why cinema fails dissociative identity disorder” features a quote by Dr.
Simone Reinders, who
is a neuroscientist atKing’s College London, stating that it isinaccurate to paintindividuals with DID
as “extremely violent and prone todoing bad things,”
as most tend to“hide” the disorder.9 Depictions
like this are extremely damaging, not only
to individuals with DID
but to outsiders who
are unfamiliar with the36

disorder. Speaking from personal experience,
Split introduced me to DID. After watching thefilm, I thought DID was particularly dangerous andthat most cases were like Kevin’s. I was shocked
to find out that the film heavily dramatized the disorder and was not accurate in its depiction. I thenbecame interested in the disorder, researched it
further, and learned just how much it was overdone. Although Split showcases some incredible
performances, it should have remained sensitive
to what it was portraying, such as other media
like Mr. Robot. Split could have still been grippingwith a more realistic approach to a mental disorder that is overlooked and not widely known.
I jumped on the Mr. Robot bandwagon alittle too late, having started watching it in March
2019, despite the first season being released in2015. Having known more about DID since watching Split, Mr. Robot seemed like a much morenormalized and relatable portrayal. The show
follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer
turned hacker who attempted to, with the help of
the hacker group “fsociety,” wipe out everyone’s
debt by taking down E Corp, one of the largest
conglomerates in the world. Throughout the series, it was revealed that Elliot had some deeply
rooted childhood trauma, but he was ultimately no different from a regular American citizen.
It was not even explicitly noticeable to himselfthat he had DID until the last few episodes ofthe first season, and as the show progressed helearned how to take control of his disorder andaccept it as something that made him stronger.
As an audience member with some prior knowledge about DID, I was impressed with how theshow highlighted the disorder and painted it asa part of Elliot that he was able to work through.
Mr. Robot is incredibly unique and became
one of my all-time favorite shows. It seems like atypical thriller—suspenseful music, mysterious
characters, and illegal activity—but, its underlying
focus is mental illness such as DID, as well as anxiety, depression, and addiction. These are all portrayed both constructively and accurately throughutilizing unique plot techniques such as breaking

the fourth wall and fascinating plot twists. Not tomention that the show is entirely from the point ofview of the protagonist, who continually acknowledged and included the audience in the narrative.
As an audience member, I was constantly engaged and felt like I was part of the show with howoften Elliot and his alters spoke directly to me.
Elliot had only four alters, which wascloser to the average amount of alters one may
actually have. Focusing on a smaller number ofalters made it easier to completely follow thenarrative without getting lost, which would be
especially helpful for audience members who
were unfamiliar with DID. If I had watched Mr. Robot before I had ever watched Split
Split,, I would havebeen able to better understand this disorder andgain a more realistic grip on it. Along with this, allof Elliot’s alters were not completely establishedfrom the beginning but were gradually introduced
across all four seasons. The first indication that
Elliot had DID was not even shown until the ninth
episode of the first season. In that episode, titled,“eps.1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt,” it was revealed to both
him and the audience that Mr. Robot was one of
his alters, resembling a version of his late father.
This reveal was particularly unexpected,
along with the reveals of Elliot’s three other alters, as they were all played by different actors.
It made the show more engaging, cemented thefirst-person perspective that the show was set
in, and uniquely portrayed the interactions between the alters. The entirety of the first season
was a good example of this, as up until the ninth
episode, it was unclear whether or not Mr. Robot
was one of Elliot’s alters. Although the interactions between Elliot and Mr. Robot seemed visible to the audience, Elliot appeared to be talking
to himself to other characters in the show. It wasalso unclear when Mr. Robot was fronting, as theaudience viewed him as a separate person to Elliot (Rami Malek as Elliot and Christian Slater as
Mr. Robot), while other characters in the show justviewed Elliot. However, once it was establishedthat Elliot had DID and Mr. Robot was one of hisalters, the general rule of thumb was establishedthat scenes of Mr. Robot interacting with others
were instances where he had fronted. As an audience member, once this was revealed, it was
like I was watching a completely different show.
In terms of how Elliot was portrayed inhaving DID, Mr. Robot normalized him. Granted,
he had other mental illnesses, a unique and extremely developed hacking skill, and was constantly engaged in illegal activity. But at the endof the day, he was simply an American citizen
trying to find himself in the midst of chaos. Unlike
Split,, he was not depicted as someone to fear but
Split
someone who was working towards managing
his many struggles. Specifically, Elliot had anxiety, depression, a morphine addiction, and broken relationships with others which he attempts
to manage through actively seeking therapy.
Although a depiction like this may be difficult towatch, it breaks the stigma around these mental illnesses and disorders, allowing those whohave them to be able to relate to someone else,
and those who do not to be able to become moreaware of what other people are working through.
Both Split and Mr. Robot were two completely different pieces of media, one being a feature-length film and the other being a four-season television series, with different depictions of
the same disorder. However,theyboth established one
main root of DID thatboth of the protagonists had experienced in theirpasts: childhood
trauma. The book
The Body Keeps
the Score: Brain,
Mind, and Body
in the Healing ofTrauma by psychiatrist
BesselA. Van der Kolk discusses that trauma
leaves lasting imprints,
affecting how survivors37perceive the world, the people around them, andthemselves.10 This exposure to trauma, especiallyat a young age, can cause trust issues in the future,11 as well as a sense of feeling “damaged tothe core and beyond redemption.”12 In Split
Split,, it wasconveyed that Kevin had an abusive mother andin Mr. Robot,
Robot, it was established that Elliot had bothan abusive mother and father. The quality of Kevin’s relationships with others and how he viewed
his life was not largely highlighted, but it was clearthat Elliot had unstable and inconsistent relationships with others, as well as a poor outlook
on his life, often resorting to substance abuse.
Despite being two different depictions of
DID, Split and Mr. Robot are still notable pieces of
media that should have been praised for depicting an overlooked and often stigmatized mental
disorder. They feature phenomenal performances and invoke an immense amount of emotionthat make the stories continuously enthralling. In
fact, after watching both pieces, James McAvoy
and Rami Malek have become two of my favor-

ite actors. In terms of moving forward, not every
audience member is going to dedicate time toresearch DID and educate themselves about it,
so it is important for future films and televisionshows to portray it as accurately as possible.
The last thing people with DID, or any
other mental illness
or disorder, needis to be invalidated. Although nopiece of media
is perfect, it isclear that weare taking
strides in amore prog re s s i ve
direction.

How Arrival
ChangedScience Fiction
Cinemaby joyce chang

Endnotes
1. “Dissociative Disorders.” National Alliance on Mental
Illness.
2. Haider, Arwa. “How Cinema Stigmatises Mental Illness.” Culture. BBC, August 28, 2018.
3. “Definition of Sensationalism in English.” Lexico. Lexico.com.
4. Wedding, Danny, and Ryan M. Niemiec. Movies andMental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology. (Boston, MA: Hogrefe Publishing, 1999).
5. Smith, Stacy L., et al, “Mental Health Conditions inFilm & TV: Portrayals That Dehumanize and Trivialize
Characters.” USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. University of Southern California,
May 2019. 2.

38

6. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality
Disorder).” Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland Clinic, April 20,
2016.
7. “DID Fact Sheet.” National Alliance on Mental Illness
Michigan. NAMI Michigan.
8. Split
Split,, directed by M. Night Shyamalan (2016; Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures), DVD.
9. Rose, Steve. “From Split to Psycho: Why Cinema
Fails Dissociative Identity Disorder.” The Guardian.
Guardian News & Media Limited, January 12, 2017.
10-12. Bessel, Van der Kolk A. The
The Body Keeps the
Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.
(New York: Penguin Books, 2015). 1-21.

“if you could see your life
from start to finish, would
you change things?”
39

This line is asked by Dr. Louise Banks (Amy
Adams) in the film Arrival (2016), directed by thecritically acclaimed French-Canadian filmmaker
Denis Villenueve. This is a question which comesin the film’s resolution, as the protagonist dwellsin the aftermath of her journey. Louise, the heroine of the story, begins her journey as a linguistics
professor called upon by the American government for help when twelve unidentified objects
appearing to be from another planet suddenly land
separately in 12 different places around the world.
She and Dr. Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist, are tasked with figuring out what
the foreign species wants and what their purpose
is for landing on Earth. By the time Louise poses
the previously quoted question, the plot twist in
the film has already occured and audiences understand that Louise now knows her future andhow every event in her life will play out. It is this moment that truly solidifies the film’s significant andunique role in the genre of science fiction cinema.
On the surface, Arrival is presented asa pretty generic, one-genre film. From the trailer
and poster alone, it seems to be advertised as
nothing more than another action-packed Sci-fi
film played by big names, and although the movie does include all of those aspects, it actually
proves to be so much more than that. Underneaththe facade is a multi-layered story, and as the film
progresses, Arrival begins to raise a number ofquestions on themes of humanity, psychology,
and philosophy. Through these factors, Arrival has
managed to integrate its mark into fashioning itself as a turning point for where the future of sci-fi
cinema is headed in terms of not only its deeper,
more cerebral themes, but through its inclusivityof the female gender as well, and due to these elements Arrival reigns at the top of my list of movies that have completely shifted my outlook on life.
This film was initially introduced to me inthe year of 2017. I was 17 years old, about to graduate high school and start a brand new chapter in
my life. However, like most of us were, I was pretty
haunted by the person I was during the majorityof my teenage years. Arrival came at an importanttime in my life because upon watching the film I
40

realized I strongly resonated with Louise, more sowith how she was presented towards the beginning of the film. Louise is first introduced as a quiet, passive individual who seemed neither happy
nor sad, but just someone who seemed to accept
continuing on with a mundane, daily routine, merely existing and nothing more. Her facial expression
remained stoic as she went on each day, goingfrom her humongous house she lived in alone, toher job as a professor at the university, then backhome again. It is evident she had no close friends,
confidants, romantic partners, or even work friends
and it was clear she made no efforts to make any.
At the time I was the same, never really making any
effort to form or strengthen any type of relationship with others out of a mixture of fear, anxiety,and just plain disinterest. I couldn’t seem to finda valid reason why I shouldn’t continue keeping
others at arm’s length, and because of this, I only
had a few people whom I considered to be truly
important in my life. Just like Louise, my way of really participating in the world was as an observer,
as she was constantly watching the world throughthe confines of her clear, glass windows in her
neatly furnished home or on the glow of a television screen before she fell asleep on the couch atnight. Because of this, my day to day routine grewmonotonous and dull, yet due to the anxiety that
had plagued me, I was satisfied because I saw thisas playing life safely rather than potentially getting
hurt from somebody or something. Louise’s life
also seemed just as boring when on a phone callwith her mother. She softly says, “you know me…
nothing’s changed,” signifying the dullness of herlife and her lack of excitement in her daily routines.
Even when the aliens arrive and the world aroundher is clearly shaken with disorder, Louise continues on with her routine, seemingly unaffected by
the chaos that’s going on, proving that not even a
possible alien invasion could’ve phased her as she
clearly had no one or nothing to worry about andthere wasn’t anything that truly mattered to her.
Eventually, Louise is assigned with the task
to help figure out what the unidentified aliens want,
and as the film progresses, Louise and Ian both
continue making big breakthroughs in their mission,

deepening their relationship along the way. As Louise continues her research on the language of the
Heptapods, she seems to be infiltrated more andmore with thoughts of her daughter, who audiences
learn in the very beginning of the film had passed
at a young age from a rare and incurable disease.
However, by the climax of the film, we learn thatwhat audiences thought were “memories” of her
daughter were not actually flashbacks, but instead
fast-forwards, moments in her life that have not yet
happened but will. Through learning the languageof the Heptapods, Louise’s brain had actually beenrewired to give her the ability to perceive time in a
non-linear way. This concept is supported by the Sapir-Whorf Theory, which theorizes that the specificlanguage(s) you know and understand is crucial towhat shapes and alters each person’s thoughts
and cognition. In a paper for MIT, Benjamin Lee
Whorf (creator of the Sapir-Whorf Theory) argues
the power of language when he writes: “We havethe same word for falling snow, snow on the ground,snow packed hard like ice, slushy snow, wind-driven flying snow—whatever the situation may be… To
an Eskimo, this all-inclusive word would be almost
unthinkable; he would say that falling snow, slushy
snow, and so on, are sensuously and operationally different, different things to contend with; heuses different words for them and for other kindsof snow”, referring to this as an example of what iscalled “linguistic relativity”.1 Although it’s highly unlikely a language can ever grant you with the ability to see the future like Louise’s experiences did,a study had been done by linguist Lera Boroditsky
showing that members of the Pormpuraaw Aboriginal tribe think about time passing differently thanEnglish speakers because their language relates
to cardinal directions instead of from left to right,2proving that language really can ultimately holda powerful influence on your cognition. This science-fiction movie takes this concept to a wholeother level, as Louise is literally gifted with the ability
to see her life laid out in its entirety once she becomes fluent with the language of the Heptapods.
Once Louise learns the language whichcauses her to realize her eventual fate— that she
will marry Ian and have a child with him who will

end up to inevitably die at a young age which causes Ian to leave her, she is clearly left with many
choices. She can avoid this and prevent herself
from the sorrow of losing both her future daughterand husband, which will take her back to who she
once was before her journey started— in a place
where she remained neither happy nor sad, justliving on day to day. Or… Louise can choose to accept love and happiness into her life, even if she
knows it will be temporary, even if she knows she
will be left with hurt. When Louise embraces Ian in
the final scene, it is clear what choice she’s made.
It is apparent that the plot of this film taps
into heavy themes of psychology and philosophy,
more specifically toying with the teachings of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, specifically hisconcept on “being-towards-death.” In Being andTime, Heidegger acknowledges the inevitability ofdeath and claims we are not truly able to live ourlives out to its highest potential as human beings
until we realize and accept our mortality.3 To understand our finitude is how we can begin to findhappiness. Heidegger also states the difference
between an authentic understanding of being-towards-death versus an inauthentic one, or what
he calls the “they-self”. It is obvious that we allknow everyone will eventually die, but it is difficult
to really grasp the fact that we ourselves will die. A
they-self may understand that death is imminent,
but will only generalize this and think of everyone
else’s death. To go from they-self to an authentic
self means having to individualize this fact and see
your own death as actual and very real to you, andHeidegger calls this awakening of consciousness
or transition an “anticipatory resoluteness”. Louise’s journey in Arrival is an example of this transition from a they-self to an authentic self. Although
she obviously has always known that death occurs
to everyone, it’s clear through the way she was living in the beginning of the film that she wasn’t yet
able to individualize her inevitable death. Louise
is unable to realize the finitude of her life until shelearns the language of the Heptapods and is thengifted with the ability to see time as non-linear anddiscover her future daughter’s fate. Through herdaughter’s sickness, she is then truly able to identi41

fy death as something that is hers and will actually
be hers. not just everyone else’s. Her “anticipatory
resoluteness” causes her to reach what is considered her authentic self in Heidegger’s theory andteaches her the importance of living her life to thefullest through truly and really understanding theimminence of death. Louise knows her husband
will leave her. She knows her daughter will die
young. She knows she will eventually end up alone,
the way she started, through all of this. However,she still chooses to be with him, to start a family, and to love them anyways even knowing what
is to come. Once she truly understands just how
fragile and short her own life is, she is finally able
to experience her own “being-towards-death” andbegin to live her life with substance and meaning.
Arrival came to me at a very pivotal turning
point in my life. Upon spending the majority of myyouth in stagnation, preventing myself from being

tually fail, but she understands the moments in between mean more than the outcome— so I’d rather
face everything head on, to choose love, than dwellin fear and keep everything at arms length just to
avoid getting hurt. Upon watching this film, my life
was sincerely changed for the better. As these past
two years have gone by since discovering Arrival, I
have vowed to live life with more vulnerability andput trust in both myself and forces outside of me,
hoping for the best of experiences but also understanding a bad one will ultimately still hold more
semblance than not having any at all. Now at 19
years old, I can confidently say I’ve learned the importance in opening myself up to both opportunities
and people, choosing to live life with my heart on mysleeve, and remembering to never take any day or
moment for granted, all thanks to a film that I initially thought would be just another generic, sci-fi film.
The complexity of Arrival raises the bar forable to really experience life due to fear and apathy
just like Louise did, watching this movie and seeing Louise experience her “anticipatory resoluteness” was what caused me to go through my own“anticipatory resoluteness”. Louise’s experiences
have forced me to face the temporality and preciousness of my own life, causing me to also makechoices differently based on the realizations of
my epiphany, just like she did. Although, unlike her,I am ultimately clueless to the specific events thatwill unfold in the span of my lifetime, I understandthat despite everything I too will endure momentsof pain as well as moments of bliss and happinessand all of the emotions in between. I will love andhurt and laugh and cry. With every potential relationship, whether platonic or romantic, I know that
there will always be a possibility of it ending with
failure. Louise too knows her relationships will even-the potential of the abundance of thematic elements that can possibly be explored in the genreof science-fiction. There are so many aspects inthis film that help set it apart from other movies
in its genre, and its deeper layers reminds viewersthat science-fiction, when done well, can be morethan just aliens, spaceships, and CGI, and despite
the genre’s fantastical and fictitious elements,
these films can still have the power to connect
to audiences on a deeper, personal level. Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer John Knoll explainsthat “the best science fiction gives you an opportunity to explore philosophical and moral themes.
There are often societal problems that are very
emotionally loaded … [but] if you … recast them in ascience fiction setting, [and are thus] looking at amore novel situation, then you can leave some ofthose preconceived notions behind and … reevalu-“science- fiction, when done well, can be morethan just aliens, spaceships, and cgi... thesefilms can still have the power to connect
to audiences on a deeper, personal level.”42

at[e] it anew. [This] may cause you to rethink yourposition on the terrestrial version of that problem.”4
Take another movie such as Annihilation for
example, directed by Alex Garland and released in2018, just two years after Arrival. Annihilation’s plotis centered around a team of female scientists on a
mission to enter a strange and supernatural area ofland called “Area X” filled with mutating landscapesand creatures. Despite these two films’ obvious
surface similarities such as both being eerie sci-fi
films played by A-list movie stars with a plot basedaround a woman tasked by the government tosolve a specific supernatural issue, there is much
more these films have in common that meets theeye. Annihilation also proves to have a lot to say onhumanity, psychology, and the meaning of life. With
both of these films, it seems less concerned withwhat happens, the outcome, who dies, who lives,
or if the protagonists’ missions are ever ultimately
successful, but more focused on the characters’
journeys itself and what they learn and how theygrow from it. The lessons that these characterslearn in the end hold more significance than the
missions they go on, as it turns out that their journeys are what pushes them to face their personal demons and release their emotional baggage,
which is therefore what leads both stories to holdmuch more humanistic and philosophical themes.
Another aspect of these films that separates them from others in their genre is the factthat they are both female-led films. For so long,with films like Star Wars, Avatar, or The Terminator, science fiction has been a genre that’s been
proven to be heavily dominated by men. Brogan

Morris writes that “these ‘post-human’ roles havetheir own ideas about female agency and sexuality,
but ultimately all come to the same conclusion in
one respect: that to be woman is to be much morethan the form society often tries to reduce her to.”5
However, it’s not solely the inclusion of women itself that makes these films powerful, rather it’s
how common, tiring tropes in science fiction canbe abandoned and how stories can become more
powerful through its inclusion of a female-led protagonist or cast. In Annihilation and Arrival, thesefilms feel like a breath of fresh air because its stories are not driven by overdone plotlines and theirprotagonists don’t go through the same character arcs from the likes of their male counterparts
that at this point seem way too overdone. Michael
Sun states that these sci-fi films starring a female
protagonist are significant because “They’re freefrom the shlocky[shocking] violence and clumsy
romance subplots demanded by their testosterone-fuelled counterparts, and they have the space
to properly develop complex worlds and ideas.”6
Arrival is a film that taught me to reallynever judge a book (or in this case, a movie) by its
cover, caused me to begin respecting modern science-fiction cinema as more than just CGI-overload and overdone plotlines, and more importantly shifted my perspective and appreciation for myown life for the better. Ultimately, this film has set
the precedent of just how powerful this genre canbe when done right, and has marked a turning
point for the future and potential of science-fiction in regards to inclusion, humanistic connections, and philosophical and psychological themes.

Endnotes
1. Whorf, Benjamin L. MIT. “Science and Linguistics”. 1940.

Being and Time. Albany: State University of New York Press

2. Boroditsky. Lera and Gaby, Alice. SAGE journals. “Remembrances of Times East: Absolute Spatial Representations ofTime in an Australian Aboriginal Community”. 2010.
3. Heidegger, M., Stambaugh, J., & Schmidt, D. J. (2010).

4. Knoll, John. SyFy Origins Podcast.
5. Morris, Brogan. Slate. February 2018.
6. Sun, Michael, “‘Annihilation’ Is Proof That Women-Led Sci-Fi
Is Better”, Junkee, 2018.

43

ta

a

So

s

a

c

l
i

r
o
r
s
r
:P
o
H

nd Future

Films are an international
language. Film is engaging, idiomatic,
and accessible. The emotional power of film isable to transcend differences in the time period andculture. Horror may not be the first example that comes tomind regarding film’s international appeal, but these films do
use both subtle and explicit forms of societal and interpersonal unease to scare us, directly borrowing these concepts fromprevious films in the drama genre. In particular, the films Parasite
and Get Out gained notoriety at a time when wealth disparity wasenlarged, race issues were prominent, and riots and protests were
occurring globally. Two older films— Invasion of the Body Snatchers
and Spartacus — can be compared to these contemporary examples,as they were made to comment on wealth inequality and alienationof cultures. The motifs and themes in these films reflect the cultural, economic, and political struggles of the average person during
the films’ respectives time periods.
Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite focuses largely on family, social class, and social mobility. Parasite is about a poor family, the Kim’s,
infiltrating a rich family, the Park’s, by posing as
unrelated employees. Stairs are prominent in many
shots. They’re the exit of the Kim’s basement apartment
and the entrance to the Park’s lavish house. The lighting
placed at the top of the Park’s stairs emphasizes their importance by equating the top of the stairs with accomplishing one’s
goals.
When Ki-woo, the son of the Kim family, first leaves the apartment to attend a job interview with
the Park’s, he mentions that his goal is to eventually graduate from a university. Education is a
way to escape poverty because it provides social mobility as mirrored by Ki-woo’s dialogue
and placement in relation to the stairs. The same applies to marriage or dating; Ki-woo alsomentions that if he were to marry into the Park family, their wealth would be shared with him.
For the Park patriarch Park Dong-ik, he climbs stairs as he enters his house everyday aftercoming home from work. Unbeknownst to the audience at first, it is Oh Geun-sae, a poor
man living in the Park’s basement, who “automatically” turns on the lights of the houseas Dong-ik enters. Park Dong-ik is able to rise through the ranks by metaphoricallytaking advantage of the lower-classes’ situational vulnerabilities. This is also pointed out by the rainstorm that both the Park and Kim family have to endure in very

44

contrasting situations. The Park’s have the luxury to return to their house and enjoy the following
sunny day, while the Kim’s house is flooded.
The lack of class solidarity between the
Kim’s, Oh Geun-sae, and his wife Moon-gwang(the ex-housekeeper), is what made the film
thy from
truly horrifying. There is a scene where thehis family
Kim family is sitting and enjoying dinneris one of thein the Park’s living room. The Kim’s
most frightening
take a moment to reflect on how
concepts in the enthey were able to secure theirtire film.
jobs by taking it from their preJordan Peele’s Get Out
decessors. One of the more
focuses on interracial
explicit displays of class traitension, social class, andtorism is when the father, Ki-Taek,
the subversion of horror film
attempts to absolve himself oftropes. The film is about Chris,his guilt in firing the chauffeur.
a black man who meets the rich
Ki-Taek makes the assumption
family of Rose, his white girlfriend.
that the chauffeur must have
The family is odd and patronizing
had another job lined up before
towards Chris while claiming to have
he was even fired, which is quicka progressive mindset, which he finds
ly pushed aside by his daughter,disconcerting. He eventually finds out
Ki-jeong, who yells that he shouldthat the family transplants their brainscare more about his own family. Kiinto younger black bodies to attain youth
taek is the only one who expresses
and immortality, while the host’s consciousconcern for the people they had gotness stays trapped in somewhere called theten fired. The lack of compassion,
Sunken Place. This fantastical version of whitesolidarity, and empacolonization is used by Peele to comment on interracial tensions in modern America. As author
Aja Romano puts it, Peele frames violent black resistance as a necessity, white feminism as a lie, code
switching as a tool, and microaggressions as dehumanizing.1 But horror is systemically tied to class as well.
Intersectionality between race and class is a subject meaningful
to the discussion of the wealth disparity in America. The Sunken Place is representative of
the system that silences marginalized people. According to Jordan Peele, it “exists not just for
black people, but for women, for our Latino brothers and sisters, for any marginalized group thatgets told not to say what they’re experiencing.”2 This is also a system that keeps marginalized
communities in poverty. Peele comments further on America’s corrupt system by subverting horror tropes, and thus societal expectations, which is a subtle way of undermining
their power. One instance of this is Peel’s denial of the “white savior.” Instead of saving
Chris, Rose turns out to be evil just like the rest of the white family. Furthermore, Chris is
not the typical “African American who gets killed first” character prominent in horror
films. He reacts to his situation appropriately and doesn’t “mindlessly stick aroundand wait for their death like many do in horror movies,” thus giving his character
agency that is sorely lacking both in film and in the real life power dynamics of45

America.3
Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus focuses on
structured power dynamics, what it means for thewealthy to have power, and what wealth can do toa mindset. The cinematography visually expresses these themes and the story focuses on rebellion against oppressive authority. The film is abouta Roman slave named Spartacus who leads aslave rebellion against the Roman Republic, while
Crassus, a Roman senator, becomes a dictator tocrush the slave army. In terms of cinematography,
there are many shots that show Crassus from a
low angle to make him look larger than he actually is. This is visually metaphorical for his positionin Roman society as he is completely in charge of
those around him. Spartacus and the other slaves
are typically shot straight on or from a slightly highangle when they’re in an arena. Even the lodgings ofthe gladiators-in-training are below ground. The cinematography emphasizes the difference between
the wealthy and the slaves, not just in power but
in mindset. Spartacus believes in freedom for all
slaves, understands the importance of community,
and recognizes his own faults in order to learn fromthem. Crassus believes in violently oppressing thelower class, that money can buy love, and that power is all that is important. Ultimately, Crassus winsand has Spartacus crucified, but there is a lingering
doubt about the Empire’s future stability while themartyred Spartacus’ dignity is solidified.
Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers contains dystopian themes and motifs regarding the loss of individual autonomy, infiltration, andhysteria. The film is about an extraterrestrial invasion in the fictional California town of Santa Miraby alien seed pods that can duplicate replacement
copies of humans but are fully devoid of humanemotion. As the seed-pod people began taking overSanta Mira, the primary concern of the main characters’— Miles, Becky, Jack, and Teddy— is their lossof autonomy. Without hesitation, they try to survive
instead of giving in. Once Miles, Becky, Jack, andTeddy learn that their emotions are the things keeping them apart from the extraterrestrials, they groweven more unwilling to let themselves become
seed-pod people. To the protagonists, group think46

ing and loss of emotion denotes loss of individualautonomy.
The most notable element of the extraterrestrial invasion is that it is a slow and subtle infiltration of society. It started with someone’s uncle,
slowly crept towards another family, then multiplied. By the time Miles, Becky, Jack, and Teddy discovered something was wrong, it was too late — theentire town except them had been converted. The
elimination of people that can be trusted is extremely frightening, and is expanded upon by Miles.
He believes that the Santa Mira seed-pod people’s plan is to repeat the process in other towns
all across the United States. These concepts ofinfiltration and loss of individual autonomy lead tohysteria and paranoia in the main characters, especially when Miles calls the FBI and CIA but no one
picks up. He expresses his concern about whether
the extraterrestrials had already gotten a hold of
the government. Miles and Becky are left with morequestions than answers.
Parasite,, Spartacus
Parasite
Spartacus,, and Get Out are reflective of the dominant capitalist society in both
Korea and the United States. With the American
films Spartacus and Get Out, the capitalist economy is something that transcends time; whether it’s
the 1950’s or 2010’s, capitalism has always been abackdrop. According to author Brian X. Chang, thewealth disparity in Korea and the United States decreases the strength of the middle class, further
dampens the low-income, and favors the rich.4 The
supposed mixed economy is still more dominantly
capitalist than socialist. This difference allows for
wealth disparity and for a lack of socioeconomic
mobility, symbolized by the stairs in Parasite
Parasite.. No
socioeconomic mobility means a cycle of wealthor poverty, mentioned in Get Out. In Parasite andSpartacus,, Kim Ki-taek and Spartacus are attemptSpartacus
ing to escape their income situations and better
their lives. Parasite offers marriage and education
as an escape, but the characters resort to a single
yet extreme act of violence to demonstrate theirhatred of the system they live in. Spartacus offered gladiator school as an escape, but Spartacuschooses to rebel against the entire oppressive system.

Parasite and Spartacus prominently display
the usurping of the lower class against the wealthyelite. Once tensions mount, the people of the lower class get fed up with the system that has them
chained up— metaphorically and literally— to an
unhappy and impoverished life. The fact that thesefilms have their protagonists choose a violent routeemphasizes the social tension when living in these
economies. After a certain period of time, civilians
will get fed up with the system that oppresses themand will choose to overthrow the system by anymeans necessary. The longer civilians are kept under an oppressive hypercapitalist system, the more
likely the protests against such a system are to beviolent. Parasite and Get Out echo the socioeconomic protests taking place globally in places suchas Chile, the United States, Lebanon, and France toname a few.
Something that all four films touched on
was the need for a community or family to help theprotagonists escape their situations. Get Out reflects current American social and cultural behaviors in that we see a chosen family for an African
American man and an actual family for the whitefamily. An African American man having a chosenfamily is especially reflective of American intersectionality in terms of race and class, and academic
papers have found this is because “minority racial
groups are more likely to experience multidimensional poverty than their White counterparts.”5 Because these groups are in poverty, “poorer parents
have less time and fewer resources to invest in
their children,” which means low-income children
are more likely to seek out external support andadopt a chosen family or have a closer bond with
their friends.6 Get Out shows that the support ofthe chosen family surpasses the power of wealththat the white family has. Spartacus also emphasizes the power of chosen family. Spartacus starts
off isolated and alone but with the unification of his
gladiator friends, he’s able to build a thriving community and start a family of his own. Meanwhile,
Crassus sits on his throne with a backstabbing andhostile Senate as the closest thing he has to family. Crassus craves familial bonds so much that hetakes Spartacus’s wife for his own.

Parasite shows every family sticking together. The lack of class solidarity means that familial
bonds are the strongest such as when the two siblings, Kim Ki-jung and Kim Ki-woo, go so far as to get
the Park’s chauffeur and housekeeper fired in order
to secure jobs for their parents. The Kim’s familial
support for each other transcends class solidarity.
Body Snatchers doesn’t highlight family, but a tightknit group of friends. Miles, Becky, Jack, and Teddy
trust each other, and together attempt to escape
the allegory for political and societal dissonancethat is the invasion of the extraterrestrials. With racial and economic tensions rising, Parasite and Get
Out show that community is essential if the current
protests are to achieve their goals. Body Snatchers
and Spartacus had the slow collapse of their community, an allegory for McCarthyism and second
Red Scare of the 1950’s. However, it is with everyone’s participation in their respective definition ofcommunity in each film, that there are survivors inevery ending. All four films have a family or community that the protagonist can rely on when things
get tough, a concept which transcends racial andcultural boundaries.
All four films also create a sense of culturaland economic “otherness.” In Get Out and Parasite
Parasite,,the main protagonists of the films retain small habits and behaviors that are reminiscent of their backgrounds. Chris Washington treats people in thewhite space he’s entered differently than how hetalks to Rob Williams, his black best friend, drawing
a cultural and racial boundary between them andthe rest of the characters. In the living room scene
in Parasite
Parasite,, Ki-woo and his family kept their behavior of eating together around a table instead of assimilating and eating dinner in their own respective
places in the house, like the Park family typically did.
Culturally, the Park’s and Kim’s families are different
from each other, but the line is blurred as the film
continues. That line between the Kim family andtheir lower class neighbors is redrawn in the scene
when Oh Geun-sae finally comes up from the basement for his revenge. The harsh reality that the Kim
family cannot masquerade as wealthy hits them,finalizing the theme of economic othering.
Similarly, Spartacus has an understand47

ing of community and empathy that can’t be understood by the upper-class. Crassus gets visibly
upset that Spartacus has something he will most
likely never have and he’s upset at the alienation
it’s caused him. The lack of understanding that correlates with wealth is what draws the line between
Spartacus and his comrades and the wealthy others. In Body Snatchers,
Snatchers, there is literal alienation.
There are the four main characters that are left intheir hysteria to survive and have to stick to their
humanity in order to differentiate between themselves and the seed-pod, groupthinking, emotionless others. From Parasite and Get Out’s visual segregation of culture, race, and class that highlights
the socioeconomic disparity currently festeringinternationally to Body Snatchers and Spartacus
Spartacus’’
allegorical and divisive line between economic andpolitical fears in America in the 1950’s, a frightfulothering and real reflection of the time period thefilms were made in is created.
Another incredibly important element to thesocial themes tackled in these films is The Second
Red Scare. The Second Red Scare took place from
1947-1957 and it was a fear-driven event started byanti-communist politicians at the top of the government. McCarthyism, or an accusation of treason
without evidence, eventually trickled down and became a fear of the everyday American. Spartacus
and Invasion of the Body Snatchers were released
while the phenomena was occuring. Many film critics were able to read the films as responses to thefear stricken society. In Body Snatchers, the “abilityof the aliens to ‘pass’ as ordinary beings is related
to fears of Communist infiltration, subversion, andEndnotes
1. Romano, Aja. “How Get Out Deconstructs Racism for
White People.” Vox. March 7, 2017.
2. Dry, Jude. “Jordan Peele Lectures UCLA Film Class on‘Get Out’: ‘The Sunken Place Is the Silencing’ of Marginalized People - Watch.” IndieWire, February 7, 2018.
3. Ramos, Dino-Ray. “‘Get Out’ Director Jordan Peele On
Divisiveness, Black Identity & The ‘White Savior.’” Deadline, October 22, 2017.
4. Chen, Brian X. “‘Parasite’ and South Korea’s Income
Gap: Call It Dirt Spoon Cinema.” The New York Times.
The New York Times, October 18, 2019.

48

domination.”7 Due to the rising tension, many filmmakers thought to be Communists were blacklisted from Hollywood. Spartacus
Spartacus’’ screenwriter, Dalton
Trumbo, was one of these blacklisted filmmakers.
“Spartacus was the historical proof that these people could rise and menace any society which had
wealthy employers and mistreated employees”
with Rome as a metaphor for affluent America.8
Parasite and Get Out also have narratives about
the current economic and political situation. Parallels can be drawn to how frightening today’s use of
the word “socialism” is to how frightening “communism” was in the 1950’s simply because both words
threaten the hypercapitalist reality that has transcended race, time, and culture.
Films are able to make significant social,political, and economic commentary using textual
and visual language. The motifs and themes in all of
the aforementioned films reflect the dominant sociopolitcal and socioeconomic ideologies during
the films’ respectives time periods. Parasite and
Get Out highlight America’s enlarged wealth disparity, international responses to these differencesin wealth, and the cultural impact. Invasion of the
Body Snatchers and Spartacus took different approaches to comment on the Second Red Scarein the 1950’s, especially regarding alienation due tosocial class or a literal difference of species. Eachfilm has retained its entertainment value as well as
political commentary, with the Invasion of the Body
Snatchers, and Spartacus making bold statements
to pave the way for Parasite and Get Out’s future
impact on the society and the film industry.

Dismantled

5. Reeves, Richard, Edward Rodrigue, and Elizabeth
Kneebone. “Five Evils: Multidimensional Poverty andRace in America.” The Brookings Institution, 2016.
6. Miller, Claire Cain. “Class Differences in Child-Rearing
Are on the Rise.” The New York Times. December 17, 2015.
7. Smith, Jeff, “Loving the Alien: Science Fiction Cinema
as Cold War Allegory.” In Film Criticism, the Cold War,and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds. University of California Press, 2014.
8. Winkler, Martin M. Spartacus: Film and History. Malden,
MA: Blackwell Pub., 2007.

49

SPRING 2020