Do female revenge films like these degrade or empower women?
There is a lot of debate over these kinds of films and one topic is whether or not these films centered on revenge can be called empowering or feminist or if they encourage too much inappropriate responses to violence against women to be truly empowering.
Some people believe that a film that truly empowers women would have them deal with injustice, oppression and mistreatment simply by healing, moving on and living a fulfilling life. And that these films don't do anything at all for women because they still make it more about the *beep* who wronged them than about the victims.
Others point out that there is a fine line between vengeance and justice and what one calls vengeance another calls justice. And that deep down, even if we consider ourselves pacifists, nonviolent, feminists, social justice types, we all have a desire to extract this kind of vengeance on those who hurt us and it is purely natural to use these movies as a catharsis of sorts.
This debate has been going on for years, ever since the first I Spit on Your Grave came out in 1978. And it has resulted in interesting, to say the least, debates that sometimes end up as flame wars. The original I Spit On Your Grave has been called both a feminist horror film of sorts and an anti feminist horror film of sorts too. I imagine that the same could be said for the 2010 remake.
Which side of the debate do you take?