Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Language Lessons: Gender-Based Material Signifiers Of Social Intent In Better Off Dead, Elizabeth Brady

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

While there is significant evidence of Lévi-Strauss’s model of women as material signifiers of male intent present in Better Off Dead, two characters undercut the absoluteness of this theory. Monique freely dwelled outside of the realm of the system, indicating that there are alternate models. Lane’s willingness to and success in denying the system and departing from it indicates that even those within the system are not inevitably bound to the tenets of the theory.