Pseudopod 230: Girls Gone Insane

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 230: Girls Gone Insane

By John Jasper Owens

Nossa Morte seems to no longer be online, but another of John’s stories can be found in DAY TERRORS at Amazon.com

Read by George Hrab.


“It came in the mail, a little package like Netflix uses, but white cardboard. Grass stain on the back along with a deep scratch, the address handwritten and smudged, like it had been handed off in the rain. No return address, postmarked Maine.

A DVD. No note, no explanation. A hand-written label read “Girls Gone Insane 16” in blocky felt-tip writing.”



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[LaHaine]

This was an average episode of Pseudopod. The revenge story was predictable, you could guess really early what's on the DVD. Otherwise, the setting of the story is nice.

[ElectricPaladin]

In a lot of ways, I liked this story. I enjoyed the creeping horror of it, the gradual realization of the guilt this guy has been living with and the terror that will be inflicted on its author. The writing and reading were both excellent - nearly perfect in fact. Girls Gone Insane was excellent paced. That said, there was one thing about the story that bugged me.

Girls Gone Insane tripped my feminist sense. It isn't that the story was about the sexual exploitation of women, slut-shaming, and the consequences therein - it's that none of the women in this story had any agency. They were victimized, punished, ignored, and destroyed. Even when they finally took action to get revenge, it was at the urging of a man, and with his help. I think the story would have been better - or at the very least, more distinct from the rest of the revenge porn genre - if the women had enjoyed more agency.

That said, I wouldn't go so far as to accuse the story of being bad, just unexceptional, and a few small changes would have made it really interesting.

The title had me thinking of a Girls Gone Wild/H. P. Lovecraft mashup. Don't know where that would have gone...

[zoanon]

I totally agree with electric paladin. it weirded me out that they needed to use the very drug they had been abused with to get revenge.

[eytanz]

I mostly agree with Electric Paladin, though I should point out that there is one female character with agency, which is the current girlfriend (who plays the DVD).

[ElectricPaladin]

I mostly agree with Electric Paladin, though I should point out that there is one female character with agency, which is the current girlfriend (who plays the DVD).

Nah. She was scene dressing.

I totally agree with electric paladin. it weirded me out that they needed to use the very drug they had been abused with to get revenge.

That I actually kind of dug. It was neat when they used his own drugs to turn the tables on him. It reminded me of the Maenads.

[kibitzer]

I really liked this story. The reading and the gradual reveals had me in from the first, and the whole atmosphere kept me there to the end. My reaction was emotional rather than intellectual; I found myself sick with sympathy for the protag's old girlfriend. And the description of the barn scene was creepy. Creepy, I say! An excellent story.

[iamafish]

The title had me thinking of a Girls Gone Wild/H. P. Lovecraft mashup. Don't know where that would have gone...

tentacle porn. Basically japan.

[Unblinking]

Great narration, great title (a good example of a title that makes you want to hear the story).

I'm not a huge fan of revenge stories in general.  Besides Inigo Montoya's anyway.  So it had an uphill battle for me to like it to begin with.

IMO the title overpromised.  I thought it was going to be an alt reality twisted version of Girls Gone Wild, where instead of young women taking their tops off, it would be young women having their minds hollowed out by a visit from the Elder Gods or some such thing.  A revelation of systematic drugging of Girls Gone Wild is horrible enough, but it still didn't really seem to match the title.

The story did a reasonably good job of revealing the backstory.  But nothing much happened in the present.  The protagonist, in particular, never did anything in the now-story OR the backstory, except leave his classified government research keys in a jar on the counter like a dumbass.  He sat passively while his roommate ruined a lot of people's lives.  Then he sat passively while his own girlfriend's life is ruined.  And then when he gets a new video that dredges all that up, he again does not affect anything, his girlfriend is even the one to run the video.  Everything in the story had already happened and so there was a big lack of tension for me.  There was the question of what was on the video, but I figured it was either revenge, or the videomaker sending a taunt.

What bothered me more than anything was the act of drugging the girls to fulfill his own revenge fantasy.  Their lives have been ruined by a widely witnessed loss of control, and somehow this wider loss of control is supposed to make everything better?  The story itself said that this drug does not force you to do what you don't want to do, it removes your consideration of your consequences.  That means that whatever you do, is something that you wanted to do, something that's a part of you that you're not comfortable seeing in the open.  Imagine if one of these girls catches a glimpse of this video, probably when it's been leaked to the press, see a video of herself cutting a man's limbs off with a chainsaw, that would be something from which she might never mentally recover.  It's one thing to imagine revenge on a person, another thing entirely to see what kind of atrocities you are actually capable of, what kind of messed up psychosis you have lurking behind the mask of society.  Imagining that was certainly very good horror, but I got the impression that wasn't the reaction I was supposed to get from that (or it probably would've been center stage, a story told by one of the girls as SHE came across her video and had to try to cope with seeing that).  I got the impression instead that I was supposed to approve of the contents of the video without thinking about it too much.

[eytanz]

Wait, the girls in the revenge DVD were not drugged by the brother. They took the drug knowingly. Whatever the consequences of the revenge, they were willing accomplices in it.

[Unblinking]

Wait, the girls in the revenge DVD were not drugged by the brother. They took the drug knowingly. Whatever the consequences of the revenge, they were willing accomplices in it.

That's not the impression I got.  I thought they were drugged already and the mixing of the drinks was a show for the camera--getting someone to take that drink is easy if they're already out of their gourd.  Maybe I misread that.

But even if I didn't misread that, I don't find the prospect of any of those girls coming across the video later any less disturbing.  It's one thing to abstractly say "God, I'd like to kill that bastard", and another thing entirely to see a video that you don't remember where you are severing limbs from his living body with a chainsaw.  The guy made the original videos is probably already dead by the time of this story, so his pain is over, but this last video has the potentially to cause irreperable psychological damage to the girls therein--the publicly released videos are bad enough for the social damage they caused but the girls can justify that reasonably that by being drugged unknowingly.  I don't know if it would be more horrible if they were entirely conscious of their choice to take the drug for the last video (then they'd have no excuse in court when this hits the press, and would know that it was 100% on their consciences and knowinga bout the messed up portion of themselves beneath the surface) or if he gave it to them (the loss of control, and would know that they've got some f'ed up portion of themselves hidden beneath the surface).

[ElectricPaladin]

Wait, the girls in the revenge DVD were not drugged by the brother. They took the drug knowingly. Whatever the consequences of the revenge, they were willing accomplices in it.

For whatever it's worth, this was my impression also. I thought the story was quite clear that the girls developed a glassy stare after drinking.

[Unblinking]

Wait, the girls in the revenge DVD were not drugged by the brother. They took the drug knowingly. Whatever the consequences of the revenge, they were willing accomplices in it.

For whatever it's worth, this was my impression also. I thought the story was quite clear that the girls developed a glassy stare after drinking.

Maybe that was just me adding that part because I find it hard to believe that anyone would willingly take that drug and willingly videotape the result.  Especially someone who has unwillingly taken it before and had her life ruined by the tape.

[Listener]

IMO the title overpromised.  I thought it was going to be an alt reality twisted version of Girls Gone Wild, where instead of young women taking their tops off, it would be young women having their minds hollowed out by a visit from the Elder Gods or some such thing.  A revelation of systematic drugging of Girls Gone Wild is horrible enough, but it still didn't really seem to match the title.

That.

I thought the story was somewhat average, but was made better by a great reading.

Perhaps it wasn't so much that the girls wanted to use the drugs to get revenge, but that they were so ashamed by what they had done that they were unable to confront their abuser without them. They had Fiona's brother for protection, but... well, I haven't been in a situation where I did something on camera and then regretted it, but I have been in a situation where I needed to confront someone who had victimized me personally. It's really hard, even if the person who did it is completely powerless. It helps to have a little something to get you going.

Kind of a side note, but given the items the girls were going to use, it seemed like Marco wouldn't have lasted very long. Sharp instruments = lots of bleeding, especially in the hands of amateurs. Blunt ones can kill too, but I think Marco would've lasted longer. Just saying.

[Unblinking]

Perhaps it wasn't so much that the girls wanted to use the drugs to get revenge, but that they were so ashamed by what they had done that they were unable to confront their abuser without them. They had Fiona's brother for protection, but... well, I haven't been in a situation where I did something on camera and then regretted it, but I have been in a situation where I needed to confront someone who had victimized me personally. It's really hard, even if the person who did it is completely powerless. It helps to have a little something to get you going.

I'm surprised that any of them even want to drink alcohol anymore.  I would think that the loss of control would terrify them after their experience.  I can understand wanting a little something to get you going, "liquid courage" so to speak.  But it seems that with that drug they have no idea what they'll do.  At least with alcohol, if you have a beer you're probably going to loosen up a bit but without all the embarrassing stripping and dismembering (unless you're really a lightweight).  With this stuff, hell, maybe they all just think that Fiona's brother an asshole and they end up dismembering him too, or each other.  Or maybe some of them have secret masochistic tendencies and they turn weapons on themselves.  If one has hidden masochistic tendencies and the part of your brain that analyzes consequences is not working, so that you're not thinking about scarring or going into shock or bleeding to death, that's sort of a problem.  And the moment of event horizon is when you swallow the drug, after that you can't back out in any way.

In any case, the more I think about it the less it makes sense for any of these women to choose to take the drug again.  It's like they aren't thinking ahead to consequences at all.  Which I think is why I assumed they were all already secretly drugged, because that's the only way they could make such a poor decision.  That seemed like the only rational explanation, unless the past taking of it caused damage to the same part of the brain that the drug affects.

[eytanz]

In any case, the more I think about it the less it makes sense for any of these women to choose to take the drug again.  It's like they aren't thinking ahead to consequences at all.  Which I think is why I assumed they were all already secretly drugged, because that's the only way they could make such a poor decision.  That seemed like the only rational explanation, unless the past taking of it caused damage to the same part of the brain that the drug affects.

There are plenty of people in the world who take all sorts of drugs or alcohol even though they have had really bad experiences. Some of them are addicts, but others just think that their life sober is bad enough that the temporary enjoyment of the drug outweighs the consequences.

In this case, I think most of the women felt that their lives were already destroyed, and that their desire for revenge outweighed the feeling of loss of control. They took the drug, I think, for two reasons - the first is to ensure that they go through with it, and the second is because they wanted to turn the guy's drug against him. Rational or realistic? Probably not. But I think that it makes more sense to me that the story is being less realistic than assume that an event that happened in it (the women deliberately drinking the drugs) was a sham and that the real drugging happened off-camera and off-story. I don't disagree with you that that may be a better story - I just think that that's not the story we have here.

That said, this argument is a bit of a distraction from the main point of the story in my eyes; for me, the rather simplistic condemnation of the Girls Gone Wild phenomenon, and the very contrived revenge scenario, are not what's interesting about the story. What's interesting is the character's history, and his guilt at how he treated his former girlfriend. That felt very believable to me, and very, very, horrible.

[stePH]

The title had me thinking of a Girls Gone Wild/H. P. Lovecraft mashup. Don't know where that would have gone...

tentacle porn. Basically japan.

What's a late '70s British glam band have to do with the subject? 

[kibitzer]

The title had me thinking of a Girls Gone Wild/H. P. Lovecraft mashup. Don't know where that would have gone...

tentacle porn. Basically japan.

What's a late '70s British glam band have to do with the subject? 

Don't go beatin' ur Tin Drum.

[matweller]

I had two thoughts on the girls taking the drugs to do the deed. One side was that there was a certain irony in the guy getting offed by his own creation that they appreciated. As if to say, "When you did this to us last time, you got all the benefit. Now, lets see who gets what they want when we take it on our terms." The other thought was that in the case of revenge, the removal of all inhibitions would be the only way to make it truly horrifying. Despite what movies and the military teach us, I would wager that 99% of the population does not really have the stomach to truly and deeply hurt someone physically. Most of us would be stopped by our humanity or guilt or a variety of other emotions. By taking the drug, they were in a way saying, "This is going to get messy, and I want to make sure it gets as nasty as possible."

[stePH]

tentacle porn. Basically japan.

What's a late '70s British glam band have to do with the subject? 

Don't go beatin' ur Tin Drum.

Just remember that gentlemen take Polaroids.

[Unblinking]

I don't disagree with you that that may be a better story - I just think that that's not the story we have here.

I'm not arguing with you there.  I'm pretty sure that you're right, there was not intended to be any pre-drugging, that was just my own mental interpretation despite contradictions in the text. 

I had two thoughts on the girls taking the drugs to do the deed. One side was that there was a certain irony in the guy getting offed by his own creation that they appreciated. As if to say, "When you did this to us last time, you got all the benefit. Now, lets see who gets what they want when we take it on our terms." The other thought was that in the case of revenge, the removal of all inhibitions would be the only way to make it truly horrifying. Despite what movies and the military teach us, I would wager that 99% of the population does not really have the stomach to truly and deeply hurt someone physically. Most of us would be stopped by our humanity or guilt or a variety of other emotions. By taking the drug, they were in a way saying, "This is going to get messy, and I want to make sure it gets as nasty as possible."

Yeah, I assume those were what the author was going for.  What bothers me though is that the guy they were supposedly having revenge on probably died very quickly from blood loss.  But the ones perpetrating the revenge will have to live with this guilt for the rest of their lives.  Especially when it leaks to the press, as it inevitably will.  And when they end up in jail because they willingly ingested the drug with the intent to do torturous murder.  So I'm just not sure their revenge worked all that well. 

[matweller]

Somehow I doubt the larger body of "Girls Gone Wild" participants have ever demonstrated a concern for long term repercussions.

[Unblinking]

Somehow I doubt the larger body of "Girls Gone Wild" participants have ever demonstrated a concern for long term repercussions.

Maybe that's true of the real life videos.  For all I know, many of those women were drugged as well (a truly chilling thought), but I have no way of knowing one way or the other.  Regarding the story, though, if you buy into the premise at all, then there's no reason to think that these girls normally have a lack of concern for long term repercussions.  These girls only participated in those first videos when they were drugged; criticizing their decision-making skills based on that doesn't make much sense.  Presumably the drug was necessary for them to participate, or what was the point?  If one dismisses their ability to make decisions so readily, then the drug becomes extraneous. 

For the final video, if their ability to gauge the consequences is so poor that they'd actually choose to take that drug, then their ability to gauge consequences is so poor that the drug probably wouldn't work any discernible difference upon them. 

[ElectricPaladin]

Somehow I doubt the larger body of "Girls Gone Wild" participants have ever demonstrated a concern for long term repercussions.

Maybe that's true of the real life videos.  For all I know, many of those women were drugged as well (a truly chilling thought), but I have no way of knowing one way or the other.  Regarding the story, though, if you buy into the premise at all, then there's no reason to think that these girls normally have a lack of concern for long term repercussions.  These girls only participated in those first videos when they were drugged; criticizing their decision-making skills based on that doesn't make much sense.  Presumably the drug was necessary for them to participate, or what was the point?  If one dismisses their ability to make decisions so readily, then the drug becomes extraneous. 

As far as I can tell, the women in the real life Girls Gone Wild videos are only self-intoxicated.

However, you want to hear a real life horror story? Girls Gone Wild is basically a rapemobile of epic proportions. The producer, a few of his buddies, and at least one camerman have been repeatedly accused of taking drunk girls into the van and forcing them to have sex - and not just coercing a drunken hookup, but violent rape.

Then, when they are accused, they use their victims' participation in the video to smear their character and invalidate their accusation.

Damn, I can hear the Pseudopod theme playing in the back of my mind...

Source (among others): http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/girls-gone-wild-boss-accused-rape

[Swamp]

The title made me extremely wary of this story, but I also thought it might be a Lovecraftian hook.  I have to admit that the idea of Joe Francis, ur...I mean Marko, strung up for his victims to enact revenge had a certain appeal, and it was certainly horrorific, exchanging one sin for another. 

I like how the story does not dwell on the pornography, but on the damage that it does to those involved.  Pornography as the expression of free speech is the biggest crock sold to the public today.