Military

ASOS boots, BCBG jacket, Hudson jeans

Blackbird

Topshop coat, Ronny Kobo skirt, Alice + Olivia boots

Carrie

I really can’t place my finger on why females cannot make decent horror films. In what has been labeled a misogynistic genre, female performances have always excelled – often times establishing the careers of many successful actresses. In many cases, renowned actresses get their start from horror movies - or have you never heard of Jennifer Aniston, Rooney Mara, or Jamie Lee Curtis? So I can’t understand why female directors cannot do the same. Perhaps the genre is devaluing of women in theory, but in practice, females dominate. This is especially known within the slasher category – seeing as everyone partakes in the Male Gaze. We don’t want to watch males suffer just to succeed (because we see that enough through the glass ceiling). In what could be called an allegory for the female menstruation cycle, Carrie becomes an example of what is acceptable and expected of females in society and what is not.

Apparently, females can’t even make a period horrifying to the masses. This could be, in part, due to the script, but I truly believe most female directors just cannot translate and instill fear. I have some anxieties that even as women integrate into the film industry, female directors fail within the horror genre. What put me into this inkling was Karyn Kusama’s direction of Jennifer’s Body (2009). The performances were amazing, but it just wasn’t scary. Perhaps this was a mistake from the marketing department, but I was made to believe the film was supposed to be horrific. But I know for sure that the Carrie remake was supposed to be horrific. Right? Maybe it’s just the style of these high school period pieces. Although my viewpoint only stems from Carrie and Jennifer’s Body, I have a terrible feeling that women just weren’t built for the genre.

Mandie

Ah LA, so much to do so much to see. I went to the LACMA today, and no offense to the MFA, but gtfo of town.

The museum is huge and full of famous people...just the way museums were intended to be. The exterior was just as gorgeous as the paintings inside - maybe that's an exaggeration.

Zara jacket, Indah amazing Monroe-esque dress, Kate Spade boots

Evil Dead

Maybe I'm a little late to the party, but in the spirit of Halloween, I overloaded myself on Evil Dead and Cabin in the Woods this weekend. I must say I'm going to miss being a college student with the chance to go to a cabin with four of my closest, stereotypical friends and get murdered one by one. My odds of that happening are about to diminish...but oh, well. I couldn't help but watch Evil Dead with a different perspective in mind. Here it is... 

But What If the Evil Dead Remake is Feminist

I’m kind of sick of all these horror film critics. Slut this, whore that; we’ve heard it before. Like society though, horror has come a long way.

First of all, women feel pain differently than men do. Women are biologically capable of handling more internal pain due to the whole birthing process and what not. It’s difficult to measure pain and how it can be felt or compared, but seriously, birth trumps football. The men in Evil Dead barely get scratched compared to what the women go through. They get a few nail injections, stabbing in the already visually impaired eye, a few fingers broken off…but what the women go through is Hell. These women mutilate themselves; that’s how tough they are. Carving one’s own face like a jack-o-lantern and cutting one’s own arm off for survival? This reboot, remake, re-whatever film critics call it, spins the genre around.

Secondly on the pain factor, these men are butt-hurt because they lost touch over the years. The protagonist of the film is grappling with watching her mentally insane mother die in an asylum – a very place dedicated to the saving of people. Oh right, and withdrawals from heroin.

All the gore aside, these characters are completely vulnerable to the cry of a girl. All one has to do while the evil consumes him or her is to cry out in a sympathizing whine, making whomever feel guilty for actions. Every time this manipulative appeal for sympathy and thereby sparing of evil life works on the person being manipulated. Why is that? Is it because humankind just can’t help but feel sorry for little girls? Is it that feign of innocence that pulls at our heartstrings?

It seems like this film is rooting for the women upon close reading. The final act where the protagonist revs up the chainsaw is like a feminist’s way of saying “hey look what we’ve got between our legs”. It’s not a woman imitating a male in order to defeat the evil; it’s a new form of female empowerment. The derogatory language used all throughout isn’t putting down females so much as riling them up for a fight. Perhaps this can all be taken as subjugation to male dominance, but why would we ever want to look at it like that?

FallBoots

I took a Sunday excursion to the South End and I have to say it is my favourite part of Boston. Boston is gorgeous in the fall but it becomes way prettier in this neighborhood. I can't believe I don't hear more about it.

Petit Robert Bistro seemed like the perfect place to catch brunch and pretend to be sipping  lattes in Paris.

Kate Spade hat, Rugby Jacket, ASOS dress, Zara boots

Snakeskin

 After a few mojitos at Zacolo, I thought it would be a good idea to get my friend to take pictures of me at the Copley church. Not quite the safest photo-shoot location, but really pretty at night.