CLASS DESCRIPTION
The whispers have turned to screams, and the "unlikeable" woman is no longer hiding in the shadows. We’re in a moment of reckoning, where the very definitions of femininity and power are being challenged. Clelia McElroy's lecture, "Killjoy", slices through the polite veneer of cinema, exposing the raw nerve of misogyny that shapes our most visceral stories. 🔪🔥😈
In "Killjoy: Anti-heroines of thriller and horror cinema," McElroy dissects the cinematic bodies deemed "unlikeable", revealing the societal anxieties that fuel their demonisation. From the seductive trap of the femme fatale to the unbridled rage of the "femcel," and the defiant reclamation of queer narratives, this lecture is a confrontation with the moral cages we build for women and non-binary people.
The lecture will dissect the manipulation of perception in films like Fatal Attraction (Lynne, 1987), the explosive catharsis of Pearl (West, 2022), and the subversive power of queer body horror in Titane (Ducournau, 2021). McElroy traces the evolution of these figures, exposing how they reflect and challenge our deepest fears about gender, power, and the terrifying freedom of being "unlikeable."
The "good girl" narrative is dead. Long live the Killjoy. 💥🖤🩸
ABOUT OUR LECTURER
Clelia McElroy (she/her) is an independent film researcher and the founder/director of Monstrous Flesh, a project dedicated to exploring the representation of women and non-binary people in the horror genre. Since its inception in 2021, Monstrous Flesh has been hosting film courses, events, panel talks, lectures and film seasons in collaboration with other community groups and art institutions in the Midlands and the North of England.
Since 2023, Clelia has been collaborating with Dr Megan Kenny on the Monstrous Flesh podcast, and together they have created the Monstrous Flesh Collective to promote their podcast activities. as well as the publication of the Monstrous Flesh Journal. Find out more www.monstrousflesh.co.uk
INSTAGRAM: @monstrous_flesh
WEBSITE: www.monstrousflesh.co.uk
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SUMMER TERM 2025
Monday 5th May
Clelia McElroy (she/her)
Killjoy: Anti-Heroines of Thriller and Horror Cinema
Monday 12th May
Lucy Wright (she/her)
Tradition is Good for You!: A Feminist Reclamation of Folk
Monday 19th May
Dr Helen Gørrill (she/her)
Women Can't Paint: Gender, the Glass Ceiling and Values in Contemporary Art
Monday 26th May
Eleanor Medhurst (she/her)
A History of Queer Women's Hairstyles
Monday 2nd June
TBC
Monday 9th June
Minna Salami (she/her)
The Language of the Feminist Body
Monday 16th June
Dr. Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray (she/they)
Alien: A Perfect Queer Organism Film
Monday 23rd June
Daisy McManaman (she/her)
A Girl Resembles a Bunny: A Feminist Re-Analysis of Representations of Women in Playboy
Monday 30th June
Dr. Giulia Palladini (she/her)
For an Indomitable Domestics: Rethinking, Remaking, Reclaiming 'Home'
Monday 7th July
Amy Hale (she/her)
Ithell Colquhoun and The Vital Energies of Land and Body
Monday 14th July
Marie-Anne Mancio (she/her)
Whoreticulture: The Sexworker in Western Art
RECORDING
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