Real, Raw Rage
Written By Yaa Mensah-King
The transition from girlhood to womanhood is, generally speaking, an extremely violent thing. Girls are forced to grow up too fast and then berated for failing at being women. Julia Ducournau's feature directorial debut knows this all too well.
The transition from girlhood to womanhood is, generally speaking, an extremely violent thing. Girls are forced to grow up too fast and then criticized for failing at being women. Julia Ducournau's feature directorial debut knows this all too well.
Julia Ducournau's 2016 film ,"Raw," opens with a shot of an unidentifiable young person, later revealed as the protagonist Justine's older sister, walking along an empty road. Alexia runs into the middle of the road as a car approaches, causing it to swerve and collide with a tree. This sequence of events vaguely reminisces the typical deer in the headlights scenario. However, expectations are subverted as it is not the deer, Alexia, that is caught unaware, but rather the car and its driver. In the aftermath of the collision, we see both parties immobile for a few seconds. Alexia stands and approaches the vehicle with ominous music, revealing her as the predator.
The car in the opening scene could be seen as a representation of manufactured institutions that shape individuals living in society. Three prominent societal institutions are portrayed negatively in the film: the family, the school, and the patriarchy. At the film's beginning, Justine is a vegetarian because everyone in her family is. She is going to vet school because everyone in her family does. She has no real agency, which is illustrated most clearly in the scene in which she finds meat in her meal at a diner. Her mother takes charge despite her request that her mother "forget it." Even when she is dropped off at the university, her parents expect to leave her in the care of her sister. Justine cannot escape the family.
The school is portrayed as even more antagonistic than the family. It forces Justine into several uncomfortable situations through the numerous hazing rituals, ranging from slightly demeaning (crawling to a party) to downright distressing (such as the forced intimacy in a closet). The family and the school collaborate in violating Justine's personhood when she is coerced to eat raw rabbit kidneys despite her vegetarianism by her sister. This act leads to the awakening of her desire for flesh, which she later realizes is a desire for human flesh.
After Justine discovers her cannibalistic urges, the patriarchy's antagonism becomes more apparent. The patriarchy influences the family structure and the school's treatment of the youth, specifically young women. It is omnipresent. Justine's cannibalism is intrinsically linked to her sexuality which contributes to her alienation from other characters and the viewers, as both cannibalism and female sexuality are considered taboo, albeit to differing degrees. She becomes a monster because a dark, repulsive part of her has been unleashed. This part could be viewed as either her cannibalism or her sexuality. At its core, society's problem with Justine is that she becomes more in touch with her body and reclaims her autonomy by taking action that responds to her wants and needs.
Justine's rebellion simultaneously liberates her from a society that denies her humanity and personhood while trapping her in the box of a monster. For this reason, in the final scene, the last we see of Justine is with tears in her eyes. She has found and tasted her freedom but can never have it because society will always condemn her for it.
Not every young woman is a cannibal, but it's not very difficult to relate to Justine. Shame is heavily weaponized against us, and it seems as though the more we fight, the stronger the patriarchy's weapons become. So do we give up? No. We take what's ours despite everything. We refuse to be shamed into submission. We'll be painted as villains, but in the words of 'of Montréal' frontman Kevin Barnes:
For every one psycho bitch, there's 10,000 aggro pricks.
Cover photo: A still shot from “Raw”