Date of Award
8-2025
Degree Type
Report
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
English
Committee Chair(s)
Jeannie Thomas (Committee Chair)
Committee
Jeannie Thomas
Committee
Christine Cooper-Rompato
Committee
Dustin Crawford
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the “Final Girl” trope, a hallmark of slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s, as it appears in detective procedural television show Psych to analyze what changes in the trope’s usage says about broader changes in American culture. I engage with two key episodes, “Scary Sherry: Bianca’s Toast” and “Tuesday the 17th,” which contain the program’s most direct engagements with the Final Girl trope. Ultimately, I conclude that Psych rejects the hyperindividualism embedded in the Final Girl and some of the trope’s more binary gender norms, while also failing to interrogate other aspects of the mythical norm such as race and (dis)ability which are also embedded in the Final Girl trope.
Recommended Citation
Crosby, Cassidy, "The Final Girl Without the Slasher: Final Girls, Gender, and Community in Psych" (2025). All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present. 119.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports2023/119
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