University of Sussex
Browse

“Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?”: Good for Her Film, and contextualising rape-revolt in post-Weinstein America and Promising Young Woman

Download (433.38 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-12-18, 13:42 authored by Christian FrantzChristian Frantz

The #MeToo moment following Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse allegations led to a change in the way we make sense of ra;e allegations within popular discourse. In film, changes to the discursive construction of women's rights movements became key to what Barbara Creed calls the Feminist New Wave cinema. The rape-revenge film inserts itself into this new landscape of social and online activism too, as it starts to evolve into a 'rape-revolt' narrative structure, which aims to treat rape within film as a source of political revolt and a way to challenge institutions which uphold rape culture. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell, 2020) interrogates these changes to the public reception of rape culture within a post-Weinstein framework which allows for a nuanced perspective on rape-revenge, taking into account a flawed criminal justice system, corrupt institutions, and enablers' personal failures. This article argues that the Weinstein scandal and its consequence on public discourse have started to influence the ways in which cinema makes sense of rape, and furthermore situates films of the Feminist New Wave within a movement which social media users have called the 'Good for Her' film. 

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Brief Encounters

ISSN

2514-0612

Publisher

Brief Encounters Postgraduate Journal

Issue

8

Volume

1

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC