An Ecofeminist Study of the Body Horror Film
Research Article
Open Access
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An Ecofeminist Study of the Body Horror Film

Zuohan Qiao 1*
1 Macau University of Science and Technology
*Corresponding author: 1220020944@student.must.edu.mo
Published on 27 August 2025
Journal Cover
CHR Vol.76
ISSN (Print): 2753-7072
ISSN (Online): 2753-7064
ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-146-4
ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-284-3
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Abstract

Horror is the primitive psychology inherent to humans. Centering on the contemporary development of the body horror film, this study applies a method combining theoretical criticism and textual analysis, taking Titane (2021) and The Substance (2024) as two case studies, to conduct an ecofeminist investigation into the body horror film. This study points out that the two films effectively evoke the audience’s pain empathy by depicting the lesions, alienation and violent experiences of the female body; through the semiotic metaphors of female bodies, they complete the female narrative of pain and resistance, exploring the female existential predicament filled with struggles; by means of the artistic form of extreme body horror, they reveal and criticize how patriarchy in the “post-human age” achieves the double control and violent colonization of women’s bodily nature and spiritual ecology through collusion with technology and abuse of biomedicine, thereby accomplishing a profound ecofeminist critical interpretation of the body horror film.

Keywords:

The body horror film, ecofeminism, criticism of patriarchy, post-human

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Qiao,Z. (2025). An Ecofeminist Study of the Body Horror Film. Communications in Humanities Research,76,13-18.

References

[1]. Wei Q.Q., Li J.L. (2019) Ecofeminism. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2, 21, 72.

[2]. Berman T. (2012) The rape of mother nature? Women in the language of environmental discourse (Zhao K.Y., trans.). Poyang Lake Journal, (4): 119–128.

[3]. Wang M.A. (2017) What is affect? Foreign Literature, (2): 113–121.

[4]. Butler J. (1993) Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”. Routledge, 28.

[5]. Creed B. (1993) The monstrous-feminine: Film, feminism, psychoanalysis. Routledge, 13–15.

[6]. De Beauvoir S. (1953) The second sex (Parshley H.M., trans.). Jonathan Cape, 78.

[7]. Marx K. (1988) Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 and the communist manifesto (Milligan M., Engels F., trans.). Prometheus Books, 76.

[8]. Zhao Z.X. (2025) From “Organ Projection” to “Cyborg”: Rewriting the anthropocentric view of technology. Culture Journal, (2): 140–144.

[9]. Wang R.S. (2000) The translation of the term “alienation”. Academics (3): 45–49.

[10]. Braidotti R. (2013) The Posthuman. Polity Press, 92.

References

[1]. Wei Q.Q., Li J.L. (2019) Ecofeminism. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2, 21, 72.

[2]. Berman T. (2012) The rape of mother nature? Women in the language of environmental discourse (Zhao K.Y., trans.). Poyang Lake Journal, (4): 119–128.

[3]. Wang M.A. (2017) What is affect? Foreign Literature, (2): 113–121.

[4]. Butler J. (1993) Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”. Routledge, 28.

[5]. Creed B. (1993) The monstrous-feminine: Film, feminism, psychoanalysis. Routledge, 13–15.

[6]. De Beauvoir S. (1953) The second sex (Parshley H.M., trans.). Jonathan Cape, 78.

[7]. Marx K. (1988) Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 and the communist manifesto (Milligan M., Engels F., trans.). Prometheus Books, 76.

[8]. Zhao Z.X. (2025) From “Organ Projection” to “Cyborg”: Rewriting the anthropocentric view of technology. Culture Journal, (2): 140–144.

[9]. Wang R.S. (2000) The translation of the term “alienation”. Academics (3): 45–49.

[10]. Braidotti R. (2013) The Posthuman. Polity Press, 92.

Cite this article

Qiao,Z. (2025). An Ecofeminist Study of the Body Horror Film. Communications in Humanities Research,76,13-18.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of ICADSS 2025 Symposium: Art, Identity, and Society: Interdisciplinary Dialogues

ISBN: 978-1-80590-146-4(Print) / 978-1-80590-284-3(Online)
Editor: Ioannis Panagiotou, Yanhua Qin
Conference website: https://2025.icadss.org/Lincoln.html
Conference date: 22 August 2025
Series: Communications in Humanities Research
Volume number: Vol.76
ISSN: 2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

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