From Hip Hop 2 Horror

To finish my final Tumblr post for this course, I wanted to thank not only the professor but also the class itself. I really appreciated how this course constantly pushed difficult conversations and encouraged us to critically analyze the media and ideas around us. One of my favorite parts of the class was hearing other people’s perspectives during discussions because it helped me understand topics in ways I had not considered before. Even when discussing sensitive or uncomfortable subjects, the environment encouraged conversation rather than judgment, which made the class feel genuinely meaningful.

Throughout the semester, I feel like this course changed the way I think about media and the way messages are presented to audiences. It made me more aware of where information comes from, the intentions behind it, and the ethics surrounding the people creating and sharing it. I also think the class taught me to slow down and question things more deeply instead of just accepting them at surface level. Whether we were discussing horror films, representation, gender, race, or sexuality, there was always a deeper meaning behind the material that challenged me to think further.

Overall, this class helped me grow not only academically but personally as well. I learned how important it is to analyze the media we consume and recognize how much influence it has on the way society thinks and behaves. More than anything, this course taught me how valuable discussion and critical thinking can be, and I think that is something I will continue to carry with me long after the class is over.

Here is something I meant to share a couple classes ago:

After discussing Jennifer’s Body in class, I kept thinking about the conversation around the sexualization of lesbians in media and how often people misunderstand the difference between representation and objectification. A lot of people argue that Jennifer’s Body was made for the male gaze because of scenes like Jennifer and Needy kissing, but I honestly think that interpretation ignores what the film is actually trying to do. The relationship between Jennifer and Needy does not feel performative or shallow to me. It feels emotional, messy, confusing, and real. Their relationship is tied to identity, control, trauma, and connection rather than existing only for sexual appeal. I think that is why the movie has remained so important to a lot of queer women despite how heavily it was marketed toward men when it first came out.

Something that stands out to me is how lesbians in media are so often sexualized in a way that is meant to entertain other people rather than actually represent lesbians themselves. Their relationships are turned into something to watch instead of something to understand. What I think Jennifer’s Body does differently is that even though the film uses horror and sexuality, it also critiques the way women are constantly looked at and consumed. Jennifer herself becomes a reflection of that. She is sexualized throughout the film, but the movie also shows the violence and trauma connected to that sexualization. Instead of women simply being the victims in horror, the film flips that structure around and forces viewers to sit with the discomfort of it.

I also think it says a lot that people are often comfortable with lesbians in media only when they are being presented in a way that is appealing or “safe” for straight audiences. The second queer relationships become complicated, emotional, angry, possessive, or realistic, people suddenly criticize them. That is part of why I think Jennifer’s Body has become more appreciated over time. People are finally starting to look past the surface and understand that the film is not just using sexuality for shock value, but is actually commenting on the way women, especially queer women, are viewed and treated within both media and society.

Watching The Half of It really made me reflect on how we define attraction and relationships. Aster clearly builds a deep emotional connection with Ellie through letters, showing that you can connect with someone on a level beyond physical appearance. However, when Aster finds out that Ellie is a girl, her reaction shifts dramatically, which makes me question why gender and physical expectations hold so much power. If the connection was real, why does appearance change everything? This made me think about things like blind dating and online relationships, where people can make genuine bonds and emotional connections BEFORE physically seeing each other. However, when appearance doesn't match their expectation, the relationship falls apart. This made me question whether people prioritize physical attraction because that's what we are taught or if it's something else that determines how we choose partners, like human nature. If the connection is real, why does it matter what the person looks like?

I decided to pick a hip hop video that made me think about bell hooks' oppositional gaze. Hooks discusses how black women learn to cook critically in the video that wasn't meant for them. In "Megan Thee Stallion -Body," she controls how she's seen by others instead of being framed by someone else's expectations, like in the industry. This ties back into our readings on miso-gynoir and shows how women in hip hop are slowly yet surely reclaiming the gaze rather than being defined by it.

Looking through the "It Gets Better Project", I noticed the honesty and the hope behind every story. They didn't pretend that everything was easy, but showed the LGBTQ youth that, regardless of the suffering, there is support. I noticed the connection to our readings in the visibility that becomes a form of protection for this community. We live in a time when anti-LGBT rhetoric is rising. This video pushes back by offering a representation that is not tragic. We are reminded that storytelling can actually save lives, as emotions are released, and it serves as a message to the world.

After reading Ibrahim and Halim on how the news frames the effects on Arab and Muslim viewers, I noticed how the media covers it. They rely on fear-based stereotypes. When I checked the CAIR Press Center, many of their recent releases corrected misinformation that had spread through headlines. After reading it and comparing it to CAIR side by side, I noticed how harmful farming can be when it becomes a cycle. When the public absorbs this misinformation, the damage it causes could be irreversible, underscoring the importance of accurate reporting for the real communities that care.

The thing that immediately stood out to me about Jennifer's Body is how it flipped the usual horror dynamic we are used to. Instead of punishing a sexually active girl, they show how trauma is able to twist someone's relationship with their body and the power they hold. Jennifer's confidence after the ritual wasn't empowerment, as many could assume; it was a survival instinct mixed with damage. The thing that interested me the most was the way the movie used horror to show the actual mess that reality is. It i hard to recleaim contrpol after being violated the way she was. Although there was a lot of fiction, a good amount of the movie, and the overall message felt more honest than most media portrayals in this genre.

As I watched and listened to the discussion about the movie Jennifer's Body, I felt a lot of sympathy, anger, and frustration. There were many scenes that resembled real-life sexual assault, like when Jennifer is taken away and given a drink to confuse her more, and then being sacrificed. Her body is abused and exchanged for fame, which is accurate to the way women's bodies are seen as objects and currency in the real world. Women are constantly tracked and abused in exchange for profit. Another key element of the movie was the idea of purity; she chose to be killed for her virginity. Again, current society is constantly fixated on women's purity and is often enforced by cultures and religions. In movies, women who are sexually active are often "punished" with death. Overall, the movie did an amazing job at detailing the horrors of sexual violence. \

After learning about CAIR, I found out it's an organization that is fighting anti-Muslim discrimination while teaching more about Islam. I believe it's very valuable to respect and support all religions, especially in a nation founded for freedom. Muslim rights should be advocated for, and we need to eliminate all toxic stigmas surrounding them.

I find a connection to Gorham’s statement that stereotypes are repeated media patterns that shape how audiences interpret entire groups of people. Stereotypes start as individual opinions that quickly spread, influencing large groups of people. Muslims are seen as dangerous and strongly connected to terrorism over one event in history. Since then, the media have continued to build on the toxic stigmas. Organizations like CAIR can be extremely helpful in educating and correcting society.

I had been aware of the discrimination and hate the LGBTQ+ community has always received, but I didn't reflect on the effects on the members. As I researched the "It Gets Better" movement, I saw the empowerment and support LGBTQ+ youth need. Many of them face extreme bullying and harassment that can follow them into adulthood. But with this non-profit, people are being educated on the proper language to use and how to support teens. It's very inspiring to see society progress and take down harmful stigmas.

By hearing my classmates' presentations, I learned more about stereotypes and how harmful they can be. The immigration systems are currently one of the biggest examples, as individuals are being harassed for their appearances and nationalities. In the media, perception can be easily manipulated, which aligns with social psychology. Irresponsible politicians, officials, and news outlets are portraying immigrants as criminals, influencing a large part of the US.

In Jennifer’s Body, instead of a male killer targeting sexually active women, Jennifer, the main antagonist, becomes the killer, she them starts killing young men as a way to get revenge against the band who put her through a satanic sacrifice ritual that made her a demon. Though the sacrifice did not go as planned, the boy band didn’t have any karma for their actions, while Jennifer had to live her life as a power-hungry demon, depowering young men. This reversal of killer and victims in this film doesn't change the sexual politics; it reframes it so her sexualization of her body of society that objectifies her, so rather than sexual transgressors must die, as the film showcases Kusama and Cody suggest that sexual desire can be dangerous when it is exploited by power imbalance, as seen in many horror films through the male killer. Jennifer wasn’t just a demon; she represented the product of systematic violence against women such as what she had gone through. This film allows the audience to reflect and think about the system they have lived in decide what is wrong or right and what needs to be changed.

I've linked the article below, but just a heads up it discusses abuse, coercion, addiction, and trauma experienced by former porn performers. 

-Marlisa

Maria Ahlin's solutions to porn culture in the U.S. are simple: communication and awareness. However, what if we combined both of these to create online/in-person rehab communities? These would be safe spaces for those who are affected by porn culture negatively to speak about their experiences and create plans on how they can heal their relationship with sex and their partner. Just as we have online communities for struggling like alcoholics, like Alcoholics Anonymous, we can create an anonymous global community for those who've struggled with porn. This would prevent future sexual aggression and violence as well, because those who may be likely to commit sexual aggression will have access to a space of empathy and understanding to shift their views and beliefs when it comes to sexual pleasure.

When reading bell hooks’ idea of the oppositional gaze, it becomes clear how closely it connects to hip-hop culture. hooks explains that looking itself can be an act of resistance, especially for marginalized communities that have historically been misrepresented or excluded from mainstream media. Instead of passively accepting those portrayals, the oppositional gaze encourages people to question them and create their own representations. Hip-hop often works in this exact way. Many artists use their lyrics and music videos to push back against dominant narratives about race, identity, and inequality. Songs like Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” show this clearly, where he talks directly about police violence and the struggles faced by Black communities while also emphasizing resilience with the repeated line “we gon’ be alright.” In this sense, hip-hop becomes more than just entertainment—it becomes a space where artists reclaim the power to tell their own stories. At the same time, the genre isn’t perfect. The industry sometimes promotes sexualized portrayals of women because they sell, which creates tension between empowerment and reinforcing stereotypes. Even with those contradictions, hip-hop still functions as a powerful example of the oppositional gaze in action, challenging dominant images and giving marginalized voices a platform to speak about their experiences and demand change.

Jennifer’s Body can also be read as a critique of porn culture and the way women’s bodies are constantly sexualized and consumed in media. From the beginning of the film, Jennifer is treated less like a person and more like an object of desire. The band that sacrifices her for fame literally sees her body as something they can use to get what they want, which mirrors the way women are often reduced to their sexuality in entertainment industries. Even after she becomes a demon, Jennifer still uses her attractiveness to lure boys in, which reflects how porn culture trains audiences to see women primarily through a sexualized lens. What makes the film interesting, though, is that it exposes how damaging that dynamic can be. Jennifer’s power is tied directly to how people view her body, but it also isolates her and turns her into something monstrous. The movie exaggerates these ideas through horror, but the message underneath is that constantly objectifying women can have real consequences. By showing Jennifer as both a victim of exploitation and someone who weaponizes that same system, Jennifer’s Body highlights how porn culture and sexualization shape the way people view women and relationships.

Get Out uses the structure of a horror film to explore systemic racism in a way that feels both uncomfortable and very real. At first, Chris visiting his girlfriend’s family seems like a normal situation, but small moments quickly start to feel off. The family insists that they are progressive and supportive, yet their behavior toward Chris is full of subtle microaggressions and strange comments about race. These moments build tension long before the film reveals its central horror: that wealthy white people are literally taking over Black bodies in order to extend their own lives. The idea is disturbing, but it also works as a metaphor for how Black culture and bodies have historically been exploited. What makes the film so effective is that it mixes everyday social situations with psychological horror, making the audience feel the same unease that Chris experiences. On a larger scale, Get Out shows how horror can be used to talk about real social issues instead of just providing scares. Jordan Peele uses the genre to highlight how racism can hide behind polite behavior and liberal language, forcing viewers to think about how these systems continue to exist even when people claim they don’t.

After discussing Jennifer’s Body in class today, I kept thinking about one of the last questions the professor asked before we left. She basically asked: if Jennifer was a victim of sexual assault in the very beginning, why would she lean into her own sexualization afterward?

I feel like the reason she does this, like a lot of victims of sexual assault, is because leaning into it can feel like taking back control. Instead of letting others use it against her, she kind of reclaims it for herself. It can lead to oversexualizing, but in a way where she feels like she’s the one in control now, not them. By using her body and sexualization to lure and lower her victims, Jennifer flips the power dynamic. There’s this irony in how she turns what was taken from her into something she uses to have control over others, especially men.

And then the other question: if she’s targeting men because of what happened to her, why doesn’t she go after the band that actually caused it? I think part of it could be fear, like she’s still trying to avoid them on some level. But also, maybe she feels like they already took her power in a way she can’t get back, so she doesn’t see herself as having power over them the same way she does over her other victims.