From women’s pictures to horror flicks, The Feminine Grotesque is a term I created to describe a genre and ethos of sorts that explores the darker side of womanhood and femininity by way of madness and extreme emotion; complicating notions of beauty, desire, autonomy and power. 

I am now refining this list. Many movies that qualify aren’t listed because I don’t like them or I don’t want to write about them. 

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Recommendations always appreciated!

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The emotional, social and psychological problems that are specifically connected to the character’s sense of womanhood provide the meat and gristle of this genre. The questions of women’s pictures turn on their pretty heads in The Feminine Grotesque. The tools of beauty — physicality, dress, makeup — become weapons that wound as much as they empower.

Like women’s pictures, The Feminine Grotesque offers visual liberation from the confining strictures of the patriarchy. No matter how temporary, women are able to see themselves as bold, defiant, vulnerable, sexually realized, ambitious and hopeful. The films of The Feminine Grotesque obsess over female desire and subjectivity, but even with this strong feminist impulse, the genre is often muddled by endings that show these women integrating themselves but lacking any hope for a future. In cinema, like in life, it often feels like there is rarely hope for the madwoman.

Madwoman (noun)

A woman who is mentally ill.
A woman with a transgressive place in society because of her anger, sexuality and/or refusal to play by the rules.
A woman ruled by her passions. (see: Taylor, Elizabeth).
A woman of fire and music. (see: Davis, Bette in All About Eve)

Some of this writing is from an essay I wrote a few years ago you can read here. My thoughts have changed a bit. I think of the feminine grotesque as more an ethos and lens than an outright genre and this list will reflect that. 

This list also acts as a living document for the films that I’m interested in covering or at least looking into for my book.