Women of Substance
Modern Miscellanea 004: I am Woman, Hear Me be Wrong (aka Unpopular Opinion Time!)
(Warning: There will be spoilers for the movie The Substance.)
If there is one motto I live by in life, it’s the patented Van Pelt rule:
“There are three things I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”
Except I’m a liar, because I talk about the Great Pumpkin all the time. So, if I’m already giving utterance to one unmentionable, I might as well talk about the big, ugly thing, because politics are inescapable.
I don’t need to talk about the election, the inauguration, and what looms in the not-so-distant future, I’d be just another voice into the bottomless, lipid, harrowing void that is our reality, and really right now we should be prioritizing the voices of those who continue to be impacted the most—our immigrant, minority, trans, LGBTQIA+, disabled siblings. Another white woman’s voice is really not necessary after an election where white women showed us where a disgustingly large amount of their loyalties lie. Standing by their man, exemplifying the absolute worst of “pick me” girl culture.
But I am a woman. And while I can acknowledge that my rights in a blue state are more protected than others, it’s the only thing I can speak to from a lived experience. And being a woman has never been more of an awareness, whether it’s meant to or not.
Remember before how I said politics are inescapable? That’s true down to every interaction. I’ve never felt more aware of being a woman before. I’m noticing the “mythical microaggressions” in every interaction I have. I’m sensing the shift in tone between men and men and men and women. I’m feeling the dismissiveness that’s easily given to women whereas consideration is given to men. I’m tired of being met with “no,” in every response, even if the response is in agreement with me.
Maybe I’m just hallucinating, imagining things as different from what they truly are.
Or maybe I’m just over-sensitive. That I can admit as true, but it’s because I have always noticed these things before, they’re just a lot harder to ignore now. And now on the largest platform in the country, misogyny has been given the a-ok, so men everywhere who cared are jumping in on the trend. If you can’t beat ‘em, join 'em. Though I fear the first half of that missive might be passed as an ok thing to do with flying colors.
In this post-election, post-inauguration shift, I’m seeing things from a lot of different angles. And that’s a luxury, for it’s in a post-election, post-inauguration cycle I’m giving a name to it, while others have had to feel it every single day, regardless of whose finger is closer to the red button. And that’s just the thing, it’s been there, it’s always been there, but the veil is lifted, and you’re only missing it if you’re willfully trying to miss it.
And I’m seeing it in the media I consume.
A few months ago, I finally decided to sit down and watch The Substance after hearing many rave reviews about it, which have now become Golden Globe wins and, most recently, Oscar nominations. I’d been eagerly anticipating the moment I could stream it and went into it knowing very little other than it’s a career defining role for Demi Moore that gives a feminist spin to Frankenstein in a Cronenberg-meets-Lynch-style. Sold.
And all that was true, for the most part. What I wasn’t expecting was a splatterfest that would make even the most hardened horror fans cringe. The monster imagery was gruesome, and the blood and gore were perfectly done as to be just over the top enough while still looking realistic enough to keep you just on the verge of vomiting. As far as body horror goes, this movie is top notch.
Unfortunately, that and the masterful acting of both Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, are the extent of the positive things I can say.
The movie itself just did not do it for me. It’s not impossible to make a horror movie with a message, in fact, I’d argue that horror is a genre that can send a message more than others. And trust me, I’ve talked about that a lot. But when the message is muddied or hollow, it’s hard to take any of it seriously, and that’s even more apparent in a blood and guts-filled splatter-style horror.
And what was the message that Substance was trying to convey?
That the cost of beauty is dire.
Yeah, no shit, what else is it trying to say?
Hollywood execs are bad.
Yes, and…
…people still buy workout videos?
It was exactly that present-day-but-feels-like-the-1980s setting that felt so especially bizarre. It read like a feminist anthem for a bygone era, one where the Harvey Weinstein-esque character is so smarmy, cartoonish, and over-the-top there’s no doubt that he’s meant to be the villain. And what of the mysterious maker of the titular Substance? Is the end goal profiting off women’s insecurities?
I guess, but between the gratuitous ass shots (are we meant to believe Demi Moore doesn’t still look absolutely gorgeous?) and the desire to see our female protagonist(s) punished repeatedly, it was harder and harder still to assert the message. Sure, it’s meant to be a critical lens, but when you have the autonomy to allow a woman to triumph, why won’t you?
When I was in college, a playwright professor once gave me a tip that has always stuck with me: Stop making the women in your stories victims. There are a lot of ways that phrase alone can be picked apart and criticized. And at the time I was naive and more pig-headed about a lot of things, but here's how she meant it in terms of story-building: Your female characters exist in a world YOU create. They can be heroes, they can be survivors. Why choose to beat them down just to justify their power?
Except, in The Substance, our female protagonist(s) are hardly winners. Toeing the line of torture porn, the only winners seem to be the people who feed off their fame, the crowds who ghoulishly get to take gleeful delight in ripping her to shreds, like the worst-case-scenario outcome of a piece of Marina Abramović performance art.
The notion of Hollywood’s/ the patriarchy’s insistence on its women staying forever young, not ravaged by the wrinkles of time, isn’t novel. But the ways in which its influence extends is—where it was once beauty pageants, Playboy centerfolds, and, yes, workout videos, has now infiltrated into the everyday. If it’s not corporations directly selling us snake oil from the fountain of youth, it’s fresh-faced influencers doing their best to convince us that radically changing our appearance is not just something to sell products, but a necessity to live a happier, fuller life.
Lip filler, Botox, Ozempic, and Semaglutide have all become words we’re forced to understand and consider daily at a time of economic instability where even something as simple as a trim feels more like a luxury than routine maintenance. “Body positivity” is used as a construct to hype up shapewear, cosmetic surgery, and body-altering means, implanting (pardon the pun) these thoughts into the mindset of the youngest and most vulnerable viewers. Email lists I’ve signed up for that lauded themselves on empowering women with the most newsworthy items are now book-ended with promo codes and sponsored ads for weight loss medications. Apocalyptic weather updates and the beginning stages of an oligarchy in waiting are surrounded by guides on how to keep our pelvic floors strong and why the pants we're wearing are all wrong.
Things haven’t changed, they’ve just evolved, and their impact is more harmful and pervasive than ever.
And sure, maybe there is something to be said about that gruesome ending of The Substance, maybe it's not director Coralie Fargeat championing Elisabeth's demise, but rather how the world views a woman of a certain age, a woman “past her prime.” It’s a reflection of a broken world, a symptom of it, not a cure for it. Maybe it was always just meant to be a gore-filled schlock-fest that accidentally became an Oscar-bait-style-feminist-anthem.
Either way, somehow The Substance, despite all its hype, despite its fantastic casting, and despite its jaw-dropping effects and gore, managed to lack the one thing it needed most: substance.
