This month, Andrea and Alex tackle two films whose hearts lie in the darkest, most secret parts of suburban utopia. In Bryan Forbes’ The Stepford Wives and Jordan Peele’s Get Out, we follow protagonists who are socialized to make room for the privileged and examine what happens when they strike back.
REQUIRED READING
The Stepford Wives. Dir Bryan Forbes, 1975.
Get Out. Dir Jordan Peele, 2017.
EXTRA CREDIT
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. The second-wave feminism manifesto that examines “the problem that has no name.”
The 21st century cult of domesticity. As relevant today as ever.
The Cyborg Mystique. Anna Krugovoy Silver’s examination of the opposing and overlapping views in The Feminine Mystique and The Stepford Wives.
How to Dress Like a Stepford Wife. Great fashion advice without a trace of irony.
On Photography by Susan Sontag. Sontag’s influential treatise on photography and its power.
Capitol Couture via ladyhellbat.com. In which Andrea gets her Hunger Games in a twist.
Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present by Robin R Means Coleman. A history and analysis of blackness in horror cinema.
HORROR BLACKADEMICS: THE GET OUT (2017) SYLLABUS. Graveyard Shift Sister’s compilation of essays about Get Out.
The Horror, The Horror: “Get Out” And The Place of Race in Scary Movies. NPR’s Code Switch’s episode on Get Out and race in horror.
Jordan Peele on Why Get Out Is an Important Movie. Oprah’s interview with Jordan Peele.
‘Horror Noire’ Author Robin R. Means Coleman: The Horror News Network WiHM Interview. An interview with Means Coleman about horror, her book and Get Out.
Surveilling the City: Whiteness, the Black Man and Democratic Totalitarianism. John Fiske’s examination of the normalization of Whiteness through surveillance.
Whitopia: My Trip Through the Whitest Towns in America. Rich Benjamin’s TED talk about his experience living in the fast-growing white communities in America.
Why Hollywood’s White Savior Obsession Is an Extension of Colonialism. An examination of the problematic trope embedded in numerous popular films.
The White-Savior Industrial Complex. How the White Savior trope is embedded in day-to-day life.
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