Jennifer’s Body: Illuminating the Connection Between Beauty and Madness
There exists a disquieting connection between the commodification of women and the turn to madness. A connection conceived by violence and abasement. A paradox of exaltation and humiliation. Of violence and praise. Of fear and desire. It is known to many that this attention -if that’s what we shall call it- is nothing but brutal to the senses, the body, and psyche. Within the backdrop of high-school Americana “cult classic” Jennifer's Body(2009), poses a rhetorical reality. Where women serve as both the proprietors of their own fate; and casualties within the heterosexist patriarchy. This stark dichotomy examines the complexity and politics of desirability and feminine commodification within a male dominated network. To pursue this paradox, Diablo Cody, writer and architect of the film’s universe, crafts a paradigm juxtaposing the levity and normalcy of adolescent behavior, with the cruelty of female exploitation and commodification. In this reality, a seemingly invisible push and pull effect is developed.
Glaring violence coupled with the surface level irresistibility of teenage humor, girlhood, and sensuality, ultimately driving the narrative voice of the film, and illustrating the fallacy of adolescent behavior. Cody’s rhetorical devices force us to dissect the maddening nature of heterosexual environments, questioning the intrinsic subjugation of female ontology. This article will explore the rhetorical reality Jennifer’s Body presents to us, and the theoretical underpinnings illustrated within the narrative and symbology of the film.
Contorting our sense of knowing, Jennifer’s Body commences a narrative framework that carefully plays with the notion of truth and fiction. Within the complexity of the film, the narrative voice observes and surveils the behaviors, actions, and expressions of characters within this high school setting. A perfect framework to critique our contemporary heterosexist environment. As a subset of the patriarchal machine, surviving in high school often forces women to
Create value by existing within the mercy and rigidity of feminine archetypes. Edging towards the psychological hysteria of hyperfixation; as one competes with the scale of feminist perfection.
Brimmed with familiar tropes and scenic design, we are oriented into a paradoxical reality that is both familiar, arousing, yet starkly grotesque in nature. Panning from Pep Rally bleachers to packed hallways, excitement rings as the narrative voice unfolds, and the characters begin to unarm themselves. As an epicenter of male power and domination, the high school framework projects a reality of terror and madness within its existence. Physical spaces such as hallways and classrooms transform into hypervisible stages, exalting social norms and hierarchies. Archetypes of femininity and masculinity preexist in the form of stereotypical caricatures: The Popular Girl, The Nerd, The Jock, The Goth. All dichotomous displays of desirable and undesirable feminine and masculine behaviors reckon themselves as coveted symbols of youth. Relegating lead characters to players, whose objective is to thrive and compete within a vertical social hierarchy; clawing one’s way to ontological safety and worthiness (Woolf, 1990).
As symbolic entities, Needy and Jennifer thrust themselves inside the binary artifacts of the Madonna/Whore syndrome. Archetypal realities that exist to fulfill the fetish of male domination and power. As the gatekeeper of moral purity or the consumer of the commodified feminine. Inside this patriarchal machine, desirability and beauty become the currency in which women are granted worth, and Needy and Jennifer are judged (Woolf, 1990).
The opening scene of Jennifer, clad in her cheerleading uniform, and Needy, waving from the bleachers highlights the power dynamics between the two characters and, openly judge most are seen as the ‘valuable’ most feminine. And whose body is being condemned within this vehicle. “People find it hard to believe that a babe like Jennifer would associate with a Dork like me, but Sandbox love never dies.”
The physicality and beauty of Megan Fox as Jennifer in this adolescent film, serves as a dual role to both coax the viewer into entering this reality and constrict them from exiting, once its true nature is revealed. Undeniably captivating, the beauty and physicality of Jennifer Check carefully lures the attention of both men and women in her environment. A quintessential It Girl whose performance, almost flawless, causes both viewers and characters alike, to cling to her every word, gaze, and moment. Consuming her beauty as their own. On the surface, if you aren’t seeing beyond what is presented, it is easy to get lost in the caricature Jennifer Check presents to you. But, it is an act, a performance, and a call for power. Jennifer understands, her beauty is currency, within this framework. And, casts herself as the lead role. Forcing herself into a version that demands the most power in her environment. Within her rigid archetypal reality, exists the madness of feminine perfectionism. The exhaustion of adhering to cultural beauty standards, and engaging in vicious ‘art of war tactics’ to ensure perceived competitors, like Needy, remain in their place.
“ When a woman is operating within her full power, she becomes a monster. ”
THE TRANSFORMATION
What happens when your power is teased with desire? Does this caricature collapse, remain the same, or does it morph into another state of being, constructed to please the next sentinel? Needy, as the narrative voice of the film examines this question when Jennifer encounters a quasi-Maroon 5 band ‘Low Shoulder’. Unbeknownst to the high school student, the struggling indie band had plans to conduct a satanic ritual in which they would have to sacrifice a virgin for fame and fortune. Their concert was orchestrated as a staged tragedy to uplift their names in the news cycle. At the concert, we see for the first time Jennifer actively pursue a man she desires. Her "cool girl" persona melts in the presence of her almost famous crush.
The girl on the pedestal had become just like everyone else. She gets wooed by the lead singer of the band, Nikolai, buying him a drink and engaging in giddy and unencumbered conversation. With excitement and playground eyes, Jennifer agrees to follow him and his bandmates to his tour van, even after the tragedy at the Melody Lane concert hall. Entranced, Jennifer feels compelled to do anything to please him, sacrificing her own intuition in order to be in his world. Desire is a precarious instrument that penetrates even the strongest of palisades.
As the van door close we know with certainty that Jennifer is in danger. With a survival instinct, she claims she is a virgin as a form of harm reduction in the spectacle that is about to ensue. Jennifer is murdered by the band and evidence of the crime is destroyed. The transformation of Jennifer’s body into a demonic succubus, is arguably one of the most infamous and poignant parts of the film. It not only marks a narrative shift within the storyline, but unearths the ancient philosophical depiction of womanhood, within patriarchal thought. When Jennifer does not meet the ‘criteria’ of virginity for the band’s sacrifice, she is reanimated into the categorical definition of a ‘monstrosity’. The madness that follows from her existence is rooted in her trauma, a forced transformation. It is the predetorial male gaze that targets Jennifer and later the consequences of abuse turn her into a deviant non-human entity. It is when she is discarded that she was free to transmogrify, weaponizing the same gaze that fed on her to fuel herself. When a woman is operating within her full power, she becomes a monster.
THEN AND NOW
Deemed a ‘commercial failure’ in 2009, Jennifer’s Body, was actively mis-marketed during its transfer from genre and comedy production company Fox Atomic, to action/adventure powerhouse, 20th Century Fox. In a 2019 co-interview with Megan Fox, Diablo Cody vehemently recalls a marketing executive stating, “Megan Fox Hot”, when asked his perspective on the value of Jennifer’s Body.
The internal marketing preface of the movie was thus canopied outwards and screen tested to young white men ages 18-24(Cody, 2019). During testing, sentiments of the film ranged from outright horror to believing ‘it needed more boobs’. Ultimately unsuccessful, both Megan Fox and writer Diablo Cody were personally ‘savaged’ for the film’s failure, enduring critiques by fellow directors and writers on social platforms like Twitter. This occurred while Megan Fox at the peak of her career, faced a media 'witch hunt’, incurring (violent) harassment and objectification from both digital and in-person tabloids (Fox, 2024). ‘Worshiped’ and ‘destroyed’, the mystique of Megan Fox, became owned and sold as a (commodity) to be possessed. Molded and spectacularized. Exalted and condemned.
The sexualized marketing of the film, and individualized torment both Fox and Cody experienced, recreated and reemphasized the central thesis of the film. Being that Patriarchal (and male dominated) entities will commodify and sell your being to the highest bidder. Viciously depraving your body and spirit(Fox, 2024). On trial, you are placed, as a spectacle, hunted for sport.
Your body, forced to bear the burden of humanity.
