Slavit, Ilana Abigail2020-09-292020-09-292020https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2581463 pagesU.S. erotic thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s are intrinsically intertwined with the socio-political history of the culture wars. Both the counter-culture movements and a laxation of cinematic censorship during the 1960s resulted in an increase in sex and violence on-screen, in addition to non-normative behavior. Thus, the culture wars began, with neoconservatives and antifeminists in the late 1970s to the 1990s pushing for traditional family values against a backdrop of loosening social mores. Violent non-normative women in erotic thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s highlighted antifeminist sentiments of the era through literalization of non-normative lifestyles as dangerous to traditional family values and U.S. culture.en-USCinema StudiesErotic ThrillersGender RolesNeoconservatismFilm HistoryFeminist FilmFilm CensorshipThesis/Dissertation