America: The Final Girl

The myth of the Terrorist correlates to the myth of the Final Girl.  The social identities of gender roles and sexuality are used in the construction of these myths.  The social facets that comprise the terrorist replicate those of the killer, while the United States embodies the facets found in the Final Girl.

              The terrorists are in short murderers.  They have killed innocent people, Americans or not, many lives were lost.  The slasher does not care who he has killed or how many.  He does what he believes is necessary.  This is what the terrorists have done. To envision the terrorist as the slasher, comparable qualities must be shown.  George Bush’s speech and Dick Cheney’s interview with Tim Russet use specific words and phrases to illustrate the comparison.  The word perverted struck out.  It is not a word commonly used without being associated to a sexual predator.  The words sexual and pervert go hand in hand.  This connection signifies the relationship between the terrorist and the killer.  The killer is sexually estranged.  The reason for this sexual queerness is usually attributed to the slasher’s past.  The link between terrorist and slasher strengthens with the mention of Osama bin Laden’s obscure upbringing.  Bin Laden’s cloudy past provides the United States with a reason on why someone would want to do something so horrible.  The most frightening aspect of the terrorist stems from the unknown.  Like the slasher, the ideologies and twisted logic behind their acts is unknown to America.  Just like the slasher, who's concealed face gives off the feeling of unease, so does the unknown terrorists. As Al Qaeda receives the role of the killer, the United States embodies the Final Girl.

The victimization of the Final Girl permits her to later become masculinized in her defeat of the slasher.  The articles labels the United States are the suffering victim.  The Final Girl does not go through the film unscathed.  She is battered, bruised and covered in gore.  But just in the end she will rise and take down the killer.  The last scenes of the movie the Final Girl just barely hangs on, but her spirit to live carries her through to the end.   Just like the Final Girl, the United States will not give up the fight.  George Bush and Dick Cheney describe the United States as courageous, brave, and strong.  Cheney comments that the United States will rise up, and attack with “full wrath”.  With this resolve to fight the United States and the Final Girl both are determined to watch the demise of the killer.  The final blow masculinizes the Final Girl and feminizes the slasher. 

The Final Girl’s masculinization parallels the United States plan to combat the terrorists.  The United States will go from a grieving and distraught nation, to an aggressive, combative and forceful one.  George Bush states “our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.”  The United States plans to use “every tool of intelligence.”  The ambiguous gender of the Final Girl, with her intuitive intellect and independence has been reflected in America.