ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the often-overlooked progressiveness and cultural significance of depicting white male violence, against women in particular, in Post-9/11 Heartland Horror. The 'War on Terror' effectively reinscribed and reinforced constructions of ethnicity and identity, concerns that have long plagued the United States. Still, that which was equally problematic, yet better disguised, was the post-9/11 rising tide of myth and misogyny, born out of anxious American masculinity and national insecurity in the wake of the attacks. McKee's film, Chris Cleek ultimately plays the role of a gatekeeper of a hollow and illusory American dream. This chapter argues that mirrors the Unites States preoccupation with myth and misogyny. The Woman revolves around horrors of dire misogyny, which flourish beneath the most banal of everyday circumstances. Regardless of the United States backlash on its own women after 9/11, a feminist message was adopted in order to justify the nation's need to go to war.
