Blood and Beauty: The Beautiful Dead Girl Trope in Literature and Beyond
Abstract
Women throughout different forms of media are consistently assigned a value associated with youth and beauty. Throughout history, the aging of women has become a societal reasoning to devalue them as it seems to signify the gradual loss of beauty. However, the concept of the beautiful dead girl has risen as a means of combating this “unfortunate” loss of what society deems valuable. This concept identifies the beauty of dead girls and sees their death as not a tragic circumstance, but rather a gift to immortalize their youth, allowing them to remain beautiful forever, cemented in a state of value. This has extended beyond media and into real life by allowing fantasies to form in the minds of the people – fantasies which are then enacted against real women. By exploring how this trope is present in literature such as Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome and Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, I was able to see the patterns that subsequently emerged as technology grew. As society evolved with the internet and film, so did the idea of the beautiful dead girl, taking on different forms in slasher films and pornography. The consistent presence of violence against women and women lacking agency, rooted in the beautiful dead girl trope, led to small implementations over time until full fledged fantasies were developed, resulting in violence against women. This paper calls attention to these patterns resulting in a solution that the media stop glorifying women’s deaths (such as pictures taken of women after jumping from the twin towers during 9/11 as mentioned in My Year of Rest and Relaxation). Until the media recognizes the harm within the trope, the beautiful dead girl will never be confined to media and entertainment, and will affect living women as much as metaphorical characters.
Start Time
16-4-2025 1:30 PM
End Time
16-4-2025 4:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster
Presentation Category
Art and Humanities
Student Type
Graduate Student - Masters
Faculty Mentor
Danielle Byington
Faculty Department
Literature and Language
Blood and Beauty: The Beautiful Dead Girl Trope in Literature and Beyond
Women throughout different forms of media are consistently assigned a value associated with youth and beauty. Throughout history, the aging of women has become a societal reasoning to devalue them as it seems to signify the gradual loss of beauty. However, the concept of the beautiful dead girl has risen as a means of combating this “unfortunate” loss of what society deems valuable. This concept identifies the beauty of dead girls and sees their death as not a tragic circumstance, but rather a gift to immortalize their youth, allowing them to remain beautiful forever, cemented in a state of value. This has extended beyond media and into real life by allowing fantasies to form in the minds of the people – fantasies which are then enacted against real women. By exploring how this trope is present in literature such as Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome and Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, I was able to see the patterns that subsequently emerged as technology grew. As society evolved with the internet and film, so did the idea of the beautiful dead girl, taking on different forms in slasher films and pornography. The consistent presence of violence against women and women lacking agency, rooted in the beautiful dead girl trope, led to small implementations over time until full fledged fantasies were developed, resulting in violence against women. This paper calls attention to these patterns resulting in a solution that the media stop glorifying women’s deaths (such as pictures taken of women after jumping from the twin towers during 9/11 as mentioned in My Year of Rest and Relaxation). Until the media recognizes the harm within the trope, the beautiful dead girl will never be confined to media and entertainment, and will affect living women as much as metaphorical characters.