I usually try not to comment on posts if it seems like other people are making the same argument already in the notes, but I did some sifting and I didn’t really see anyone else making the points I want to make, so bear with me. This is gonna be kind of long.
I think this “male Hollywood” argument is something of a goalpost shift. The issue with Jennifer’s Body is fundamentally intrinsic, and can’t be pinned on “bad marketing” or “male Hollywood.” Those ARE things to discuss, but not as a means of shutting down any criticism of the movie. The above interview is still worth watching, and I recommend you take the time to do so, but I also think the film’s flaws are worth laying out to get the full picture.
First of all, it is not at all accurate to say that the film is about a “girl getting revenge on her tormentors.” The only people Jennifer kills in the movie are innocent classmates. Many of them don’t even flirt with her; Ahmed is only guilty of walking home alone at night when Jennifer attacks him. One of her victims is shown to be in tears over his grief of losing his best friend, and Jennifer uses the opportunity to seduce and kill him. Collin does ask her out, but backs off when it appears she’s not interested. Chip is her best friend’s boyfriend, and also doesn’t show interest in her (he’s honestly kind of threatened by her). None of these boys are tormentors.
The only men in the movie who could accurately be termed “abusers” or “tormentors” are the band members of Low Shoulder, who kidnap Jennifer and murder her in the woods. Logically, if this movie is about what so many people think it’s about, her motivation should be to get revenge on them, right? But she doesn’t. She never even expresses interest in it. Low Shoulder comes to play her school’s prom, and instead of going after them, she’s busy trying to kill Chip. Instead, it’s Needy who kills Low Shoulder. In a photo montage. During the credits. Because nothing says “empowerment” and “getting revenge on your tormentors” like someone else killing them in a credits-sequence photo montage. That is the very definition of tacked-on. This film could not be less interested in Jennifer’s murderers getting their comeuppance.
I’m sorry to say it, but this is not a movie about overpowering your abusers. It’s about killing random people for a laugh.
So, I reiterate OP’s question: why do people think this film is a feminist masterpiece?
After reading reviews and going through the notes of this post, I have to conclude that people see it as a power fantasy, as amazing WLW representation, or both. But I would argue that Jennifer’s Body does a terrible job at both of these things.
I think I’ve already made it clear that Jennifer’s victims are all innocent, and the power fantasy of killing innocent people is bad. In fact, I would expect more women to relate to Ahmed, the foreign exchange student who is Jennifer’s first victim. She attacks him while he’s walking home alone at night! Isn’t that the quintessential female fear? How does “what if *I* was the attacker?” make you feel empowered? If you find the idea of attacking and killing innocent people empowering, you are goddamn creepy and I have no problem telling you that to your face.
Then there’s the “bi representation” argument. I’ve said it before to myself and to friends, but I legitimately believe that if Jennifer’s Body didn’t have the scene of Jennifer and Needy kissing on a bed, nobody would be lauding this film for anything. LGBT+ fandoms are used to being starved for content, while simultaneously having terrible standards for that content.
Jennifer’s Body is gay-baiting at best, and an outright predatory depiction of a bisexual woman at worst. I recognize that Fox is a bisexual actress, and I don’t say this to disrespect her in any way. She’s not responsible for the script. I recognize that this film was predominately produced by women, but women can fuck up, too!
The scene of Jennifer and Needy kissing is a bad scene from a narrative standpoint. Why? It comes functionally out of nowhere and once it happens, it’s never referenced again. It’s a complete non-sequitur that has no bearing on the rest of the film. You could replace it with a scene of Jennifer mowing a lawn for forty seconds and it would have the same amount of plot relevance. And the film is full of scenes like this; only a few minutes prior, Jennifer kills Collin, and Needy has some kind of vision about it while she’s having sex with Chip. She’s never shown this psychic link with Jennifer before, and she doesn’t seem to have it ever again after this scene. Another random detail with no setup and no payoff.
But, I hear you say, characters’ sexual orientations don’t need to have plot relevance. They’re benign character traits like hair and eye color; a character can be a brunette or bisexual without having to justify it in-story! And that is true! But the problem there is that Jennifer is still a ruthless killer who preys on innocents and explicitly uses her sexuality to do so. If this is an empowering portrayal of a bisexual person, then Dr. Frank N. Furter is an empowering portrayal of a trans person.
And for the record: this isn’t because of any studio influence. Diablo Cody states in the above interview that she had tons of creative control over this project because of Juno’s success right before it. Nobody forced her to re-shoot the film based on test screenings, nobody tampered with her vision. This is just the movie she wrote.
Here’s how the movie should have gone if it was really about what people want it to be about: the boys that Jennifer kills should have been portrayed as sexual harassers or tormentors in some way before she attacks them. Having her kill innocents doesn’t provide a valuable power fantasy; it just makes her a monster. The midpoint of the movie should have been Jennifer opening up about her situation to Needy, and because her killings in this version are more sympathetic, Needy could decide to team up with her. And then the demon and her girlfriend go kill the band that sacrificed her. (This is non-negotiable: Jennifer needs to be the one to kill Low Shoulder if this movie is to make any point about justice.) And they should also kill the band before the end credits, just saying.
Instead, what Jennifer’s Body is is a film that spends more time on a glorified cat fight than any kind of bi representation. People have legitimate reasons for not liking it. The media’s treatment of Megan Fox is indefensible, and the film was poorly tested and poorly marketed. But bad marketing alone wouldn’t have killed it if it really had some kind of powerful and insightful statement to make.
And to be clear: you’re not an asshole if you like Jennifer’s Body. You’re allowed to enjoy it. It’s got fun performances, Fox’s especially, and that wacky Diablo Cody quotability, and I don’t blame anyone who had a good time with it. But it’s no masterpiece. It’s not powerful, it’s not insightful. It’s just another teen horror movie.
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