We also have to look at the facts beyond the film discourse. How does the onscreen violence towards women work in the context of the modern female empowerment?
Is The Depiction of Violence Going Too Far?
The harsh reality is violence against women is portrayed very differently when it comes to men.
In many cases, the female characters are often brutalized and humiliated. It’s not the usual battle of “you killed my family, so I’ll kill you.” Even in the case of Thurman’s role, Beatrix was first put in a coma for four years, then, during those four years, repeatedly raped. What is the purpose of this?
“…quietly stands up, gathers a group of similarly rebellious women, and creates resistance.”
In February 2020, Naomi McDougall Jones wrote a book titled “The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood.” The actress pointed out that the violence on the screen towards women increased after the outbreak of the #MeToo movement. In chapter two, titled “Dance, Girl, Dance” (named after the 1940 Dorothy Arzner film), she noted 10 points that display the “right kind of woman.” Among them are “she has to be in her twenties,” or “she has to be a man’s wife.” But the most distressing is, of course, the ever-present violence towards the woman. Jones deals with many critical topics in her book, and what’s better, she shows statistics and diagrams, where everything is displayed in black and white.
Naomi Wolf, another author, also noted the increase in violence towards women raises when real-life women become more powerful. Surely enough, after the #MeToo initiative started and women of Hollywood began speaking up, “the graphic portrayal of the violence – particularly sexual attacks and murders of women – is on the increase.” (The Conversation, 2016).
The issue of violence towards women onscreen is material for an entirely separate article. With the focus on The Bride, the question is this – is the Bride still working in the modern film discourse? The answer is yes. There is no doubt that Beatrix Kiddo remains a universal figure that can be rendered in any period in pop culture. The portrayal of female revenge unquestionably increased in modern times, and Thurman’s role keeps pace with new characters. As long as she empowers women and has a positive influence on them, she will work for a long time.
Zofia resides in Los Angeles and is a film and television critic.
If you want to stick with the Kill Bill narrative, O-Ren watched her whole family get slaughtered and she worked her way to the top just to, you know, SHOW ’em.