“God should have made girls lethal when she made monsters of men” : personal reflections on representations of rape and women’s rage in rape and revenge films

Abstract

The rape and revenge narrative is a not a new sub-genre of film, but rather has appeared throughout Hollywood for decades. However, the emergence and recognition of more progressive methods for depicting this narrative in film is a recent development. As a rape survivor and a personal consumer of rape and revenge films, I approached this research with the intent to explore and challenge my own response to this narrative. This thesis examined the following seven films: <i>Ms. 45</i> (1981), <i>Promising Young Woman</i> (2020), <i>American Mary</I> (2012), <i>M.F.A.</i>(2017), The <i>Accused</i> (1988), <i>Violation</i> (2020) and <i>Revenge</i> (2017), with a specific focus on their portrayals of rape culture, female agency, trauma, consent, rape, and consequences of revenge.