Family Splatters: Rescuing Heteronormativity from the Zombie Apocalypse

Abstract

Although many scholars argue that zombie narratives position the apocalypse as a new way to imagine social relations, recent cinematic and televisual examples of the genre feature the resiliency of the heteronormative nuclear family as the central formation from which a new social world is to spring. By analyzing 21st-century zombie narratives that have been among the most financially successful (e.g., Zombieland; AMC’s The Walking Dead) or innovative (28 Days Later; Shaun of the Dead), this study maps neoliberal ideological representations of heteronormative family relations as a key feature of popular contemporary zombie media. Moreover, these new familial narratives rely on strong female characters who, despite impressive survival skills, consistently embody essentialized feminine difference and ultimately choose to return to a traditional domestic sphere. Overall, we demonstrate why contemporary zombie media has yet to fulfill its potential to radically reimagine social relations in transformative ways by instead working to recenter the heteronormative family as the essential feature of a functioning society.