I know I'm going to be insane about Lisa Frankenstein for the rest of the year and I loved every bit of it. Today, I want to talk about female rage, especially teenager female rage portrayed in the movie.
I was a teenage girl not that long ago (notably in the late 2010's, when I hadn't even known I was non-binary), and what I remember about it is that people, (family members, teachers, adults in my life) never wanted me to be angry. I was a ball of emotions, but I had to be the rational one. I had to be the centered one. Not my little brother, or even my older brother, not my male classmates, just me and the other teenage girls. I couldn't lose my head or I was a bitch. I couldn't cry or I was a sensitive baby. I had to be happy or I wasn't worth the attention of others.
Lisa has the same problem every other girl has. If you have complex emotions, like grief or anger or sadness, nobody wants to see them. You can deal with that stuff on your own. Taffy gets the attention because she hides those "unsavory" emotions behind smiles and mascara. When she finally shows any kind of trauma, she is ignored, thrown away like a piece of garbage.
That's why I love Lisa and the Creature's relationship. The Creature can tell that Lisa is struggling, and he knows the consequences of what it is to be a woman whose emotions are different or hard to hide. He saw it in the early 1800's, where woman were considered crazy or filled with hysteria if they didn't conform to the standards men wanted them to be. They had wandering womb syndrome, or they were old maids, or they were locked up, literally hidden from society.
He sees Lisa struggling, and does everything in his power to make her feel validated in her struggles. Her rage doesn't make him hate her, just the opposite. Her sadness is his vindication to go after the ones that hurt her. When she feels happy, true happiness, he does too. He accepts her for the flawed human being she is, and in return, so does she.
Everything she does for him only changes him physically. His emotions never change for her. He doesn't get mad at her when she acts irrational. He's jealous when she goes to Michael's, but still drives her anyway and protects her when she gets hurt, literally shielding her with his body.
More movies need to show that teenage girls that are flawed. Teenage girls are angry. They aren't pretty little flowers. They feel rage and anger in a system when their pain is mitigated.
I want more teenage girls in film to fight people, get angry, chop off abuser's hands, or just allowed to show those "bad" emotions. It doesn't make them villains. It doesn't make them horrible people. It makes them human.
I'm so hyperfixated on Cabaret right now
Consuming the media isn't enough I need to absorb it into my soul. I need to eat it
Send help /j
Love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you
Tooth Fairies
there was a cabaret and there was a master of ceremonies and there was a city called berlin in a country called germany and it was the end of the world. if you even care.
My favourite outfits from Almost Famous (2000)
it's october and i'm on a trip to new york i can feel my banana fish hyper fixation coming back