Zombified Patriarchy: The Role of Nature and Gender with the Undead

Abstract

This paper examines the gender politics that influence the zombie genre through the lens of biopower and bio-essentialist philosophy. Zombie films perpetuate a perspective of masculine superiority over women and mankind domination over nature. The American film Night of the Living Dead (1968), a classic of the zombie genre, is contrasted against the Danish film What We Become (2015) to analyze the ways in which zombie-film tropes change or remain depending on cultural context.