Laura Gerlach - Surviving Neoliberalism: the Values of Contemporary Final Girls

Saturday 18th May / 16:00 / Zoom

The Final Girl trope emerged from specific political circumstances and aspirations, which stand in opposition to the idea of the empowering feminist force that Final Girls are pop-culturally claimed to be. This talk explores these circumstances and the dangerous feedback loop original portrayals of Final Girls created and subsequently traces the Final Girls’ journey through the subversion of herself into an intersectionality empowering present, represented through a selection of contemporary slashers, such as Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021).

Laura Gerlach is a freelance culture writer who in her work mainly focuses on her lifelong passions, film and music. In 2023 she graduated from Leipzig University with a Master’s degree in American studies. Her Master’s thesis “Surviving Neoliberalism: the Values of Contemporary Final Girls” is the basis of this talk.