Jennifers Body and the feminists who hate it

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I went and saw Jennifers Body this weekend, not because I thought it was going to be a feminist masterpiece, but because writer Diablo Cody has been seeping through countless pubs and blogs in the last month, daring us to weigh in on her answer to the typical blood-n-tits horror flick. And, well, my curiosity gave into the hype. Since then, Ive been seeing two types of piecesthose that actually review the film and those that review Diablo Cody and how feminist she is. Writers who do the latter seem to be doubly disappointed that the film didnt remind them of Juno, or didnt provide us with a justified, Buffy-like heroine, or didnt subvert the genre enough, or blah blah blah. Alright. Time to put this movieand this incredibly overexposed writerin perspective.

In case you havent come across the scads of journalism on DC and JB, heres the gist of the film, directed by Girlfights Karen Kusama: Jennifer (Megan Fox) is a painfully, plastically hot and haughty high school cheerleader, who becomes possessed when members of a poser indie rock band sacrifice Jennifer to Satan after she pretends to be a virgin. Problem is, Jennifers not even a back-door virgin, so naturally their plan goes awry. Jennifers now a flesh-eating succubus, and Needy (Amanda Seyfried, who I love in Big Love), her moderately dorky BFF, is scared shitless. Theres a makeout sesh between the girls, a hilarious virginity-losing scene, a few good mental hospital/prison scenes, and a bunch of gory, vicious girl-demon attacks.

I didnt fall in love with the movie, but I was entertained and certainly not offended by it. Truthfully, Im having a hard time understanding why so many people are. Im going to go ahead and take Diablo Codys subversive, feminist claims under consideration, and debunk some of the common and often lazy criticisms Jennifers Body has endured in this 3-day hailstorm:

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• jennifer lopez body