The Turner Diaries provides an insight into the mind of a right-wing extremist in America during the social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s. As morally corrupt and disgusting as his ideas are, they are unfortunately, not very shocking. The novel is an important primary document for the history of this era. Despite the advance of civil rights and liberties, not all Americans were on board. For example, the idea that equality of men and women before the law would result in the decriminalization of rape was an idea (extensively denounced by legal scholars) that was circulated during the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment. However, this development provides the necessary trauma that is needed to propel Katherine to join the paranoid “Organization.” The idea that the Organization provides women greater security from sexual attacks than the System does is interesting consider. While in the alternate reality that Earl lives in, this seems to be true given the legal status of rape, I wondered how long this would remain true. What are the statistics on sexual attack in the year 2099, the year in which the “editor” of Earl’s diary is writing? The protectionist attitude that the Organization has towards female members (evident in rules and regulations that allow a man to veto an order given to his wife) is one that subordinates women to men’s decisions. It would seem to me that down the line (if not already) this would make women more susceptible to rape than an organization or “system” with egalitarian values. The lack of egalitarian values already seems to be frustrating Katherine since her activities are relegated to those that fall within traditional gender roles: cooking cleaning, and doing hair and makeup.

While in The Turner Diaries, women’s sexuality makes them easy prey for male predators, a group that needs male protection, in the 1985 film Lifeforce, women’s sexuality is a powerful weapon that can be used for man’s destruction. The film follows Tom Carlsen, the commander of a spaceship who happens upon a naked woman in an alien spaceship. Unbeknownst to him, she is actually a vampire-like alien (instead of draining someone’s blood, she drains their “lifeforce”). She kills the entire crew of Carlsen’s ship and once on Earth, she kills to sustain her own existence and initiates a zombie apocalypse in London. While she does seem to have some psychic or supernatural abilities, her main power seems to be that of seduction. She appears naked in the entire movie. She says her human form (her true form is something akin to a large bat) is “the feminine in [Carlsen’s] mind.” The power of her sexaulity is discussed by the a doctor who was in charge of watching her on earth (Dr. Bukovsky) and someone looking for her once she’d escaped the government facility  (Colonel Colin Caine):

Dr. Bukovsky: She… was the most overwhelmingly feminine presence I have ever encountered. I was drawn to her on a level…
Colonel Colin Caine: Was it sexual?
Dr. Bukovsky: Yes. Overwhelmingly so, and horrible. Loss of control.

Her sexuality is explicitly characterized as horrible: it causes men to lose control. At the end of the movie, it ultimately leads to Carlten’s death, as he must kill them both to stop the apocalypse that is occurring around them. This final scene takes place in a church, and draws on some biblical language. The alien girl says: “The web of destiny carries your blood and soul back to the genesis of my lifeform,” alluding to predestination.

As the only female character in the entire movie, the alien girl presents an extremist view of female sexuality as a destructive force (she is said to have “destroyed worlds”). What I puzzled over was whether this view was one that the creators of the movie agreed with and were trying to convey, or whether it was meant to be a satirical critique of those who think this way.