It wouldn’t be pride if I didn’t talk about a queer classic, Jennifer’s Body. I’m not the most eloquent with my words, but I would be remiss if I didn’t try and discuss this movie and all it represents.
Jennifer’s Body is one of those movies that really sticks out as something to be looked at. Shamed and belittled upon it’s initial release, Jennifer’s Body has finally found it’s audience fifteen years after it came out. Starring Megan Fox, Jennifer’s Body was originally marketed as a sexy horror movie very much through the typical male gaze, basically pushing the narrative that Transformers‘ Megan Fox was going to be a hot, sexy demon. This was predominately featured in every ad, poster, and marketing material used to push Jennifer’s Body to the public. I remember distinctly that despite being the prime audience for that film upon it’s debut, I was so turned off by the ads I didn’t end up watching it until years later. When it bombed, and I believed it was because the movie that was advertised was the one that was made, I figured that made sense. Who wanted to see some bitchy cheerleader demon? I got my fill of that with Buffy.
It wasn’t until I finally, in my adulthood, sat down and watched the movie that I realized it bombed because it was a stark contrast to what the marketing team had pushed out. Megan Fox is a sexy succubus in it, sure, but her character is so much more than a senseless killing machine. There’s the famous line exchange from a deleted scene between possessed Jennifer and her best friend, Needy (brilliantly played by Amanda Seyfried), where Needy confronts Jennifer on the fact that she is killing people. Jennifer calmly corrects her and says, “No, I’m killing boys. Boys are just placeholders — they come and they go.” And while the exchange is comedic, it’s also so poignant for Jennifer who is indeed killing boys, but it’s deeper than that. This isn’t sexy killing and quipping like I think a lot of men thought and wanted it to be. This is a story of a girl pushed too far by men — literally and metaphorically. Jennifer is a girl trapped in a “hot girl” body. Men lust after her, try to own her, and they really don’t care about Jennifer at all, simply having her. She’s not this bitchy, Joss Whedon sass machine — she’s a complicated person, which male audiences at the time did not like. When men aren’t lusting after her, they are horrifically abusive towards her — her possession takes place because a group of men took her into the woods, used her as a virgin sacrifice, not knowing she wasn’t a virgin. And as a result, she becomes a succubus, feeding on boys and men in the local area to keep herself staying strong and powerful. Truly, I think this part would be enough for most guys even way back in 2009, were it not for the fact that men have really no other impact in this story.
The problem is Jennifer isn’t stopped by a man. She doesn’t even seem to like men. No love of a man is what sways her to be her former self, nor are they the ones to “put Jennifer in her place”. Jennifer responds to, reacts to, and just simply loves one person, and that person is Needy.
If ever anything or anyone gets close to getting Jennifer to try and stop hurting boys, it’s Needy. If anyone can get under Jennifer’s skin and push her to have any emotional reaction, it’s Needy. Jennifer, when initially possessed, has the opportunity to kill Needy but refrains from doing so because she chooses not to. When they are having the big climactic fight at the end, what gets Jennifer to stop attacking Needy is when Needy rips off Jennifer’s half of their best friend necklace. And it’s not like Jennifer’s love for Needy isn’t reciprocated; I mean her name is Anita but her nickname is Needy — not subtle in the dynamic here. Pre-possession, Needy seems hopelessly in love with Jennifer and would follow her to the ends of the earth. Post possession, Needy has visions about Jennifer, seeming to know when she’s in trouble. After having one said vision and finding Jennifer covered in blood, the two have a very romantic moment that genuinely isn’t through a festish-lens. This is a tender, romantic moment only cut short by Needy (and I believe this is only cut short because she is in love with the real Jennifer, not the post possession one).
Even after the climactic battle with Needy triumphing over Jennifer, there is no “happy” ending that the 2009 audience would like. Needy is not the typical final girl, she is not the good guy defeating evil– she is a woman who lost her best friend and the only person she loved (She definitely liked Chip but like….come on.) Needy, having been bitten by Jennifer during the fight, now has some of her supernatural abilities. And what does she do with them? Massacres the assholes that did this to Jennifer in the first place. That is some badass use of demons in a movie, and it’s honestly one of the most romantic gestures I have ever seen. Diablo Cody is one of my favourite writers, and she is not subtle in the romance department — if she wants you to buy a romance, she will sell it. She also doesn’t shy away from love triangles, but ones where one partner is clearly ill fit for the other, and the other person is perfect but sometimes a monster. It’s the same as in Lisa Frankenstein, where Lisa thought she wanted that dumpster fire Michael but Creature is right fucking there. Jennifer is Needy’s soulmate, and Needy is the one thing anchoring Jennifer to her authentic self. Anyone who watches this movie and cannot understand that this is a queer love story through and through went in with the intentions of sexualizing Megan Fox and nothing else and like I said with Lisa Frankenstein, this movie isn’t for those people.
I’m glad I watched Jennifer’s Body, even if it was later than I should have. I’m sad the audience it has now didn’t get the chance to see it when it came out, and if they did, they were not in the vocal majority so their correct stances were drowned out. What I can only hope now is that this movie gets the love it deserves and is preserved with the audiences who get it.
We love you, Jennifer Check. Never change.
Happy Pride!