Power struggle (or If you bite me I'll bite you back)

While flipping through an old issue of Bitch magazine, I came across an article on a topic I have been meaning to write about for a while. I watched the film version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and was immediately interested in exploring the roots of the exploitation film genre, specifically the rape/revenge formula. Are Feminists right to begrudgingly admit that somewhere amongst the graphic violence and disgusting gore there is cultural validity and value?

Rape revenge films are not a recent phenomenon. In 1978, "I Spit of Your Grave" displayed a new type of horror sub genre. Rape revenge or exploitation films became popular in the 70's and 80's. "I Spit on Your Grave" originally called "The Day of the Women," included a brutal gang rape lasting 25 minutes. The movies heroine, Jenifer, goes off to a secluded cabin in nowhere USA in order to write her second novel. She later goes on a killing spree after she is gang raped and proceeds to cut of the penis of one of her attackers, hang another and hacks one to death with an ax. Time magazine listed the flick in its 2007 list of the 10 most ridiculously violent films. This film was redone and rereleased in 2010. The premise is much the same, only the way in which Jenifer kills and mutilates her attackers is altered.

The movie Teeth is a slightly different take on the same genre. A young women has fictional vagina dentata (teeth in her vagina)and the story follows her as her vagina deals out a quick bite of revenge to those that think to do her wrong whilst being inserted inside of her. This film takes a much lighter look at how a women may exact revenge when sexual abused but it fails to note that while the concept is original in the film world the reality of it is that it is all too familiar in the real world. Rapex, now called Rape-aXe (a device that acts as a female toothed condom)is called the "anti-rape condom." Created to deter the high number of rapes in South Africa, rapex marketers advise women wear one "should you have to travel long distances alone, on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don't know that well, going to a clubs or any situation where you might not feel comfortable or even not sure." Women are the ones responsible for preventing rape while the assumption remains that all men are rapist and should be absolved of any responsibility.

So, are rape/revenge plots empowering Feminist material? Not really. Are these films purely misogynistic crap? Not entirely. Is this genre abhorrently violent and difficult to watch? Yes. Is this type of entertainment baseless and without merit at all? No, it isn't.

Obviously it would be easy to go one way or the other. "This is just pretend and we are all desensitized anyway, get over it" or "Violence and torture against women cannot be justified with violence and torture against men even if it is in the name of revenge."

I find both of these options troubling. Rape is a terrible crime. Rapists are one of the lowest forms of life in my opinion and it sickens me that we live in a rape culture where a women can never feel or be completely safe. These films create an acute awareness of what it means to have power versus what it means to be powerless. Our culture is gendered and rape victims are often left without justice or any recognition that they have suffered great indignity. Often rape victims are blamed for provoking attacks by dressing in suggestive clothing or wearing "sexy" clothes.

Without the retribution portrayed in these films one is left to wonder what exactly can a rape victim hope to achieve without seeking their own revenge? On the cover of ISOYG, the print reads: "This women has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition...But no jury in America would convict her." I find it incredibly disturbing that the premise behind rape/revenge mentality is that these women rape victims need to act as violently as their attacker did in order to earn acceptable justice. On the whole men are portrayed as inherent predators who maim and rape at any opportunity. Women need to act like men in order to gain the understanding of the audience. Answering violence with violence. Powerful with powerless.

Lastly I looked at "Descent" a film that came out in 2007. Rosario Dawson stars as Maya a young multi-ethnic college student who is brutally raped by a white college frat boy, Jarred. Maya enters a downward spiral of foggy nightclubbing coke binges and eventually meets a powerful sexy DJ, Adrian. The film touches on what it is to be a women of color in the aftermath of a rape. This film ends with Maya seducing Jarred and sodomizing him after tying him up and blindfolding him. Adrian also rapes Jarred while taunting and degrading him as he did to Maya. The last moment of the film shows a single tear falling from Maya's eyes after Adrian (whilst still raping Jarred) asks her if everything is all right now.

The overarching structure of the rape/revenge genre is power and violence. Who is attacked, how, their race, socio-economic standing, education, age or gender is left up to which film you look at and what if any point lies in telling the same story over and over again expecting a new result.This obsession with normalizing and fixating on retribution and absolution seems to be a factor in the inability to break the cycle of sexual assault and violence. Preventing rape and violence should be target, not giving women victimized by sexual violence empowerment after the fact by watching them act like men.

Here is a list of some other films taking a spin on or fulfilling the traditonal rape/revenge equation.

Straightheads (2007)

Monster (2003)

Baise-Moi (2000)

Hard Candy (2005)

The Brave One (2007)

All I want for Christmas...Part I.

Giving gifts can be difficult. Giving responsible gifts can be really difficult. While there are many options for giving environmentally friendly and fair trade gifts, especially within the last few years; I am having a hard time coming up with gifts for Feminists.

I am not talking about a t-shirt with the ever popular "If I had a hammer...(I'd smash patriarchy") or "Pro-choice not Pro Abortion" scrawled across the chest. I want more than "The Second Sex" and a poster with a clenched fist. Don't get me wrong, there are options to purchase products that have something to do with improving the lives of women through one avenue or the other and often donations made to a cause that's pro-women can do good in a tangible manner. I have looked through web sites like Bitch or Bust magazine and they do have merchandise (mugs, t-shirts and hats) which make for a decent stocking stuffer for your favorite Feminist.

I am on the look out for the perfect Feminist gift(s). Stay tuned for detail about what I can find.