Not So Much 'The Virgin Next Door' As 'The Killer Down the Street' (Analysis #6)

At the end of this clip from Ginger Snaps, the two sisters are burying the body of a girl that has died as a direct result of their actions. Bridget, the younger of the two, is upset and worried about what they are doing, and her older sister Ginger tries to reassure her by telling her that no one will suspect them because they are girls, and girls don’t kill other people. They aren’t allowed. Murder is nor a part of their assigned gender role, so therefore no one will realize that the two of them might have something to do with the soon-to-be-reported-missing girl that they are burying. The fact that girls are only allowed to portray a certain type of personality due to preconceived notions about their gender will keep them from getting caught.

The different identities that Ginger lists for females are exactly what Judith Butler argues against in Gender Trouble. She believes that the rigidity society places on gender roles is problematic, because it can lead to a repression of the one's true self; one's true identity (2551). Butler argues that identifying onesself through gender is impossible because "gender is...a norm that can never be fully internalized...gender norms are...impossible to embody" as they are merely a creation of "...a masculine domination" (2552-53). Yet, even though no one actually conforms to the gender norms that they are given, the ideology has been so ingrained into their heads that they cannot see past it to the reality.

This shows in the way that Bridget keeps her mother from finding the body of the murdered girl. Because their mother believes that the two of them are simply "normal teenage girls", she is unable to catch on to the fact that her daughters are less concerned with what boys want than figuring out how to keep her from finding the frozen body in the freezer.

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. "Gender Trouble." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. 2536-553. Print.

"YouTube - Ginger Snaps Pt.9." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .