rage & revenge: the birth of a new genre

Wow you're so smart 🥰

One of these days my amount of self-loathing will be small enough that I can finally watch this video all the way through. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet. These movies make me wonder if I deserve it...

tailored. LOTR, when Eowyn says "I AM NO MAN!" & stabs the Witch King, the audience cheered, bur LOTR certainly not one of these movies.

I thought “Yikes for this chick” when you claimed the Nordic folk cult from Midsomar is “white supremacist”, like how brainwashed by leftist garbage could you possibly be…

I am so glad I've finally watched this video (which was apparently posted 10 months ago so we've cycled right back to spooky season, or nearly! lol). At the time it came out, I thought I might want to watch Midsommar but decided not to, in the end. What an outstanding video! It made me want to watch so many things! (definitely adding I May Destroy You to my list) I also hope I can find the Gas Light play somewhere. As a side note, I highly recommend Chanel Miller's (Bock Turner's victim) book, Know My Name. I listened to it as an audiobook, narrated by the author herself and then bought a physical copy as well, since I found it so powerful.

There are a couple of books that I think might fit this genre. When the women in one of the books are killed/hurt, it’s supposed to be treated like a horrendous crime. When the men (who are written to be absolutely awful) die, we’re supposed to be happy.

I just started avoiding any books with the phrase “feminist YA fantasy” because of how they tend to fall down that path.

Good for him: Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Rambo, The Exterminator, Django (1966), the Dollars trilogy, Nobody, Scarface, Gran Torino

Good For Her happens when a woman who is in an abusive situation steps into her own power. It doesn't necessarily relate to the outcome. As we all know, most women don't get a good personal outcome from doing this, but the more women do it, the more women WHO do it, the more likely it'll lead to a good outcome next time. Tell the story again and hope it turns out better the next time. Hadestown is Good For Her. So is MeToo. It is funny that we got this Meme from a show called Arrested Development. And by funny, I mean fitting.

Thank you Rowan, for doing and showing the work for me to figure this out so that I now have this shorthand formula for applying it.

with promising young woman (one of my favourite films) it's interesting to think about whether the legal system would continue to fail cassie and nina because emerald fennell originally intended the movie to end with the bonfire scene

❤

Do we have a watch list i can check off before jumping in this video? 🥸

I remember having a conversation with friends and said something about how I felt really bad for Dani at the end, and one of my friends asked why and I had to be like "...the cult?"

It felt so weird to me how many people didn't recognize that just because her bf was a bad guy didn't make the literal cult good guys.

I think your analysis is bulletproof here.

So does “Teeth” count as a Good for Her movie? Albeit with a disturbing premise and B-level movie execution 😅

Thx for the indept essay and input. Loved I may destroy you, also Two Weeks to live and I am not okay with this? Probably already mentioned elsewhere;o)
Also liked Alexandro Ajas Maniac (w. Elijah Wood as an abducter slowly becoming the abductee), Freddy II (changing the formula a tad), Final Girls (just for fun) and Louise hires a contract killer + Rebels (w. Yolande Moreau (love her!!!) for the gender-f-ery and... let's call it "weeniegate" or circumcision gone to far^^);o) Cheers!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Climax and how it fits into the the r*pe-revenge genre.

I was really hoping you were going to mention Jennifer's Body which was both written and directed by women.

i LOVED this video <3

The best "good for her" moment I've experienced in film does not fit the criteria for many reasons but I think the overall composition of the film meets the feel for this genre. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.

The rules are missing something, but I don't know what. All I know is that Matilda and Heavy Metal 2000, should not be in the same genre.

Carrie hits SO DIFFERENT when you’re the victim of bullying and an abusive parent. Contempt for the people hurting you turns into contempt for EVERYBODY because no one is doing anything about it. Even tho it’s morally reprehensible, if you can remember that feeling, the catharsis is SO real.

tw: unaliving
I think if I had read it as a teen, who was significantly more mentally ill than I am now, I would have seen the ending of Carrie as a ‘good for her’ moment, just because she ESCAPED all of that.

i feel like birds of prey (the fantabulous emancipation of harley quinn) is a Good for Her movie. thoughts?

Sidney is also a subversion of a final girl in Scream, she loses her virginity like 20 minutes before killing Ghostface

Sometimes I feel like the only person that didn’t finish Midsommar with the “good for her” energy lmao

I haven't watched the video yet, but I want to give honorable mention to Dianne Wiest's bone-chilling climactic scene in Independence Day (starring David Keith.) She wasn't the lead, but she made it her movie.

0 lllll

so would kill bill be a good for her film??

Yeah I bet the abusers in the audience would also like to see more movies where the survivor resolves her trauma through "forgiveness" or "letting go". Yeah let's make more of those. All those sleazy hollywood execs would have nothing against that I bet. This whole "violence doesn't help resolve the trauma" is a buncha boloney that only serves the abusers. Sure, let's make more of that garbo

i dont know how ppl can act like the viewer and dani's povs are 1 to 1 cuz we see the sketchy shit they dont. i feel like its oversimplified to go omg the viewer gets groomed too!! we see the arm in the garden, they dont. we see the murders, they dont. i dont often say this but tbh i dont think ppls good for her feelings are that deep or some sign we're all doomed to be groomed by cults.

it was cathartic bc it was fiction. irl shitty partners just get to damage you and get away with it all the time. thats my theory on why ppl found it so cathartic. bc we were presented with an admittedly extreme, granted.. pov of a shitty partner being "punished".

why we were so gleeful to see him be punished warrants its own unpacking of the carceral mindset, but i just dont think its some huge sign we're all vulnerable. thats just as unnuanced as "good for her!" imo~ also hot take but if her bf and everyone around her didnt fucking suck she herself wouldnt have been so easy to draw in with performative kindness to begin with~

but i never see anyone mention that. they only fingerwag at ppl finding that scenario cathartic. id even argue ppl who comment this seem so sure theyd be immune~ and that certainty that they know their judgement and perceptions, so sure theyre The One Who Wouldnt Be Brainwashed bc they didnt feel that catharsis makes them just as vulnerable imo~

Would you say legally blonde is a good for her movie?

I'm not sure the bear is actually dead. So, I guess they are both victims.

I think a main point for me that decides if I find a "good for her" movie cathartic is if I feel the character has found peace or has begun healing in some way.
PYW didn't feel like you see her ever find peace, but rather accept her own destruction (you see a glimpse where it seems like she might be getting to a place where she can begin to heal, but it's taken from her. It seems very tragic to me). Carrie never seemed like she found peace but instead snapped under the weight of all the abuse she suffered.
In gone girl and midsommar, they are left in terrible situations and will likely only get worse.
But in invisible man, we saw that she had begun healing during her time away from him. With her abuser gone, there is nothing left to torment her. His death brought her peace.
In knives out, she no longer feels guilt over feeling responsible for the death of a man who was kind to her. She now has money to protect herself and her family, and the fact that she obtained it without sinking to the level of those persecuting her makes her feel good about what happened. And we feel good because a kind downtrodden woman triumphed over wealthy assholes.
So while I think I can still find a movie where the woman dies to be a good for her movie or moment, I think if she self-destructs or never finds peace, it reads more tragic to me.

Also I dunno why Us was in that original tweet. Who has the good for her victory? Some poor woman had her life stolen from her. She never did anything, they're both just victims of a messed up system. And that poor child knows. It's terrifying.

Has somebody movie recommendations similar to Midsommar?

People who after watching Midsommar and feel Dani is better than she was in the past would get trapped in a cult themselves and that’s really concerning

Patriarchy ahh yes the system which was decided to keep women protected from rape and exploitation by the capitalist classes

As to the rape revenge movies starting in the 70's, I think part of the reason it was embraced by women is that women were shown being brutally raped and humiliated as a reason for the "hero" to go after the bad guys - like some Charles Bronson movies- which as a young girl, I saw, and was horrified that women were used as props in this way. So, there was a huge leap forward in women being their own heroes rather than mere props used as an excuse.

This is Sidney Prescott as commentary on the final girl erasure since Scream is meta-commentary on the slasher genre and she loses her virginity during the movie not long before killing her boyfriend who was behind the whole murder spree in the first place 💔.

I was in an evangelical christian cult when Midsommar came out. It was such an emotional experience that I became obsessed with why it was so powerful and I eventually came to the conclusion that I was indoctrinated and needed to be deprogrammed. 10/10 would recommend because now I’m safe and finally building the life I deserve.

I feel an aspect of Good For Her as you describe it being so strong a genre is from how it taps into the desire of wanting power to right wrongs. When you talk about them, I'm thinking it is the same as John Wick. Something deeply personal is hurt, and it inspires a empowering revenge where a balance is made by extracting a price from those who hurt the sympathetic character.

I’d also put, “The Menu,” in this incredibly fascinating genre I’ll be obsessed with for the next month. If you’re unfamiliar, I’d very much recommend checking it out, it is simply chefs kiss All I’ll say is that it ends with the leading lady eating a good ass cheeseburger on a boat while she watches the source of all her torment over the past 8 hours go up in flames.

I know this comment is gonna get lost in the ocean but I have to say, Midsomma IS a good for her movie in that Harga was calling her back all along and shes happy at the end of the movie because shes finally found her way back home to her true position. She sees her sister's spirit in the trees and the outhouse shed because her sister's soul has returned to the home land as well. In her sister's last e-mail to Danny, she said its all "too dark." Thats her telling us that she feels a need to return to a place where its always light.. somewhere like Harga where its broad daylight at 9PM. Its a horrible good for her, but still a good for her in my opinion as she overcomes many tribulations and manipulations by her male co-travelers to arrive at the place where she could meet her ultimate fate which entails her sacrificing her "cant hang through the hard stuff" boyfriend and taking he place as May Queen among her people.

I love your commentary on Promising Young Woman- I really enjoyed the movie but understand a lot of the critiques. Something that kind of adds to your analysis of it as an intentional subversion of this genre is the marketing. The ads for the film implied that it was in fact a murderous rampage story. Specifically I remember the clip implying blood dripping from the main characters hand, revealed in the movie to be something innocuous (was it jelly from a donut? I can't remember).

Spoilers for The Perfection if you haven't seen it







Would The Perfection be a rape revenge or a good for her? The ending is that they are getting revenge for rape, but you don't learn this until the second half, therefore not having the graphic rape scene at the beginning. Also, it's not just getting revenge, it's also destroying a cult. If it is a good for her, it has both queer and black representation. However, it is still solely the trauma of being a woman that is focused on. Nothing key to the plot would change if the MCs were two straight white women. It is also another one that is directed by a man.

Revenge plots are (although a minor part of this video) so weird for me. It's OK to have a man take revenge on a man. It's OK for a woman to take revenge on a man too. But the moment the target of the revenge is a woman, suddenly that's not ok. I bet most people can't name a single movie, show, book, or game where the target of revenge is a woman, & the person getting their revenge is a man. & you can probably name one or two pieces of media where both the target & the person taking their revenge are women. It presents this still pervasive idea in society that women are something sacred, that they're weak & fragile & they're not allowed to be hurt in any meaningful way unless in an explicitly bad way, & they can't be the ones hurting others unless it is for the greater good. How many stories have you heard about with a woman as an abuser & the abused isn't some weakling who accidentally leads to the death of their abuser? & why is it always women abusing other women when men get just as often abused by women? Where is the justify for all the men who want a revenge story about getting revenge on their rapist/abuser/murderer who just so happens to be a woman? Why does media still insist on the idea that women cannot cause any meaningful harm?

Reading all the comments by people willingly admitting to falling for the Midsommar cult like "wow guys it was so convincing" ??? Sorry did you not see the old man get his head brutally bashed in in gorey detail early on in the movie?? Or the guy (not her bf, the other guy who was completely innocent) hung alive with his ribs ripped out his back and his lungs removed from his body? And you "fell in love with the cult alongside Dani"!????? Get well soon

one of the weirdest things to me is people calling dani's boyfriend (midsommar) a "cheater" when he was drugged and raped. like, hello? are you seriously trying to tell me someone is capable of consenting while drugged in the way he was, and therefore it was infidelity? to me, this is another one of the movie's subversions. whether or not you think of it as cheating says something about you as a person.