Drop-Dead Gorgeous: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

There seems to be nothing more dramatic to crime stories than a dead, naked woman. Whether fully or partially nude, dead women are far more likely to be sexualized than males. Often this is justified by the murdered women being the victims of sexual crimes, while other times the purpose seems purely to titillate the audience. Feminist literature is stocked to bursting with analysis and condemnation of this trend.

 

 

 

* An ad series for the ''[[Hitman]]'' video games featured assassinated victims of the main character. The two female victims in the series are both sexualized, with one dressed in lingerie and the other naked in her bathtub.

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* You can't throw an amputated ear without hitting one of these in ''[[Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service]]''.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Most [[Slasher Film|slasher films]] are based around the concept of naked or partially clad girls getting killed.

* The first victim in the first ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' movie had on just a skimpy robe which was worn open and fluttered around her otherwise nude body.

* The [[Alfred Hitchcock]] movie ''[[Frenzy]]''.

* In ''[[The General's Daughter]]'', the woman of the title is found naked, strangled, and bound to the earth. It turns out {{spoiler|she was recreating a previous sexual assault when a psycho soldier found her and killed her.}}

* In ''[[After Hours]]'', the protagonist discovers Rosanna Arquette's naked body in her bed after she has committed suicide by sleeping pills. He had rejected her advances out of fears that she had terrible burn scars, so he pulls the blanket off of her and inspects her body, finding only a tattoo.

* In ''[[Rivers Edge]]'', a teenager leaves the naked body of his murdered girlfriend at the titular river's edge and shows it to his group of friends, who then swear to silence.

* ''Whispers in the Dark'': Deborah Kara Unger is killed by Alan Alda and her naked body is later discovered hanging from the ceiling.

* In ''[[Underworld Evolution]]'', Selene kills Andreas Tanis' vampire concubines. After she leaves, he dumps their naked bodies in the dungeon.

* In a rare male example, the blind butler in ''[[Murder By Death]]'' is discovered sitting at a desk, naked. When Dora Charleston wonders aloud what anyone would want with a naked body, her husband [[I Love the Dead|whispers into her ear]]. She smirks incredulously and exclaims, "Oh, that's... tacky!"

* The entire plot of the indie comedy ''[[Drop Dead Sexy]]'' revolves around the theft of the dead body of a beautiful blonde by two small-time crooks so they can hold it for ransom from her equally crooked husband {{spoiler|who had her murdered in the first place}}. The blonde's body, originally clad in a nightgown when the protagonists remove it from its coffin, spends most of the movie stripped down to bra and panties. In a lengthy scene in a morgue, the nude body of another attractive woman, half-covered by a sheet, is prominently featured.

* Joaquin Phoenix gets a little too excited by naked, dead [[Kate Winslet]] in ''[[Quills]]''.

* The [[Film of the Book]] of ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'' was accused by some critics of doing this with the fourteen-year-old protagonist.

* The 2010 film ''Drop Dead Gorgeous'' ([[Name's the Same|not the one in the Film namespace]]) features a model who dies part-way through a fashion shoot, so the crew completes the shoot with her corpse. The dead model's resulting popularity is a satire on the fashion industry for forcing models to lead unhealthy lifestyles and for presenting lifeless expressions and poses as sexy.

* The title character in Frank Sinatra's "Tony Rome" sequel, ''Lady in Cement.''

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Edgar Allan Poe]] famously said, "There is nothing more poetic than the death of a beautiful woman."

* The fully illustrated ''Who Killed Amanda Palmer'' by Neil Gaiman.

 

* In ''[[Twin Peaks]]'', Laura Palmer's body is found naked and wrapped in a sheet of plastic.

* ''[[CSI]]'' episodes often feature young, attractive, female victims in very limited states of dress.

* An ill-advised episode of ''America's Next Top Model'' had the contestants made up as "sexy" corpses who had each been murdered in a different way "by a jealous model," complete with fake wounds, bruises, etc.

 

* This is a recurring theme in Serbian artist Dead Body Collection's works. Heck, instances of such have shown up on his covers, such as "Throat," "Catoptrophobia," "She Is Like Winter" and "I Slice Her Body, Over And Over."

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [http://www.kottke.org/08/07/the-most-beautiful-suicide Evelyn McHale], photographed minutes after committing suicide by leaping from the Empire State Building in 1947. Called [[Peaceful in Death|"the most beautiful suicide"]] by some.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Giallo]]