"The girl gashes her thigh with a razor, burns herself with
cigarettes, cuts and scratches herself; so as not to go to a boring
garden party, a girl during my youth cut her foot with an ax and had
to spend six weeks in bed. These sadomasochistic practices are both an anticipation of the sexual experience and a revolt against it; girls have to undergo these tests, hardening themselves to all possible ordeals and rendering them harmless, including the wedding night. When she puts a slug on her chest, when she swallows a bottle of aspirin, when she wounds herself, the girl is defying her future lover: you will never inflict on me anything more horrible than I inflict on myself. "
From The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, in the chapter "The Girl."
This is one of the quotes from The Second Sex, which Dan Waters read and was particularly inspired by in the creation of Heathers. Specifically, he said he read one chapter of it, but didn't specify which, but based on how much of the experiences outlined in "The Girl" were mirrored in Heathers, I do believe this is one of them. I plan on writing a longer post about this at some point in the future, but I want to share this now because I think it's interesting.
In the final production (the film), Veronica self-harms twice. When she's hiding from Brad at the Remington party, and later on, when she's with JD after killing Kurt and Ram. I think this passage from "The Girl" provides an interesting bit of metatextual context for these scenes that begs for further analysis (which, again, is planned for the future, so it can be in conjunction with other scenes with the other girls) on what these moments represent for Veronica's character arc as a whole.
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