While I’m a bit late to the Yellowjackets train, I’ve picked up the show last week and have been slowly working my way through. My interests, besides the supernatural and cannibal aspects, lie within the relationships between the girls in theYellowjackets soccer team. Each girl seems to have differing levels of friendship with each other on land, and that seems to be changing tenfold once they become deserted on the island. The best friend duo Shauna and Jackie seem to be so close… yet, Shauna has been having sexual relations with Jackie’s boyfriend, Jeff.
This story/friendship in the show is interesting to examine for many reasons. Both Shauna and Jackie approach their relationships with Jeff differently. Shauna uses her body as a vehicle to get closer to him, while Jackie seems to provide the emotional/status connection for Jeff. Jackie is the more confident and outspoken of the two, constantly seen giving advice and encouragement (and sometimes discouragement) to Shauna. Shauna is more reserved and lets Jackie assume the dominant role in their relationship, even if she doesn’t like this. Of course, I think this provides enough reason for Shauna feeling inferior to Jackie and then seeking out her boyfriend. By offering Jackie’s boyfriend sex, the one thing Jackie herself will not offer him, Shauna feels as if the power dynamics in their relationship are equal.
Again, this is all just my take. It serves to contextualize the near-abortion scene between Shauna and Taissa on the island. Shauna finding out she is pregnant on the island seems to be either payback for going after something of Jackie’s without her knowledge, or, a possible unity for everyone in the show. Prior to the scene I am interested in, Taissa has already seemed to be catching onto the fact that Shauna is hiding something that she especially does not want Jackie to know about. This is implied through her glances at Shauna and Jackie’s interactions and the poignant scene where Shauna fakes her period with deer’s blood to prove to Jackie that she is still a virgin. Her suspicions are finally confirmed when Shauna reveals to her that she is pregnant with Jackie’s boyfriend’s child in the attic. This becomes a strong bonding point for the two, and Taissa expresses her support for Shauna despite the moral ambiguity of the decisions that got her here.
Following this, Shauna has been mulling over her pregnancy for days, or weeks (?), at this point. She seems to see no other option for peace with Jackie besides aborting the child she conceived with Jeff. And Taissa is following.
Taissa is following, so much so that she notices Shauna’s disappearance from the group at a time when no one else does. She runs after Shauna, screaming her name in hopes that she has not gone through with what Taissa knows she wants to. Taissa knows Shauna wants an abortion, and while maybe in another context that decision would be supported, there are no safe abortions on this island. Taissa’s affinity to Shauna as a woman, and as a survivor of the circumstances they are in, leads her to rush to help.
Taissa sees Shauna almost insert the hot, straight-wired hanger into her and tells her to stop. She gets there and offers her help, regardless of how wrong Shauna may have been for doing what she did.
This scene really reminded me of Ahmed’s “Affinity of Hammers” piece. While Ahmed was directly addressing TERFs and the lack of affinity with trans women, I feel as though some of her ideas may be applicable to this situation.
It’s hard to imagine what one would do in the world of Yellowjackets. Stranded on an island with people you know as teammates, some of whom you love and some who you don’t. It’s a tough situation. It’s even harder for one to imagine having sympathy for Shauna, who has put herself in a situation that is definitely not ideal for their circumstances. Her being pregnant and the eventual birth of her child will change their way of surviving– likely for the worse. And it’s all because she got with Jackie’s boyfriend. But Taissa accepts this, and understands that in order for them to all prosper, Shauna must be supported. Ahmed conceptualizes privilege as an illness, one that is individual in experience as, “we are inflamed by something when or because we come into contact with it”(226). Therefore, it can also be understood as something that afford someone the ability to avoid said illness, if the privilege is enough.
On land, Shauna may have had the privilege to be able to get an abortion and continue to be friends with the unknowing Jackie. But on this island? She cannot afford to do so. Her decision will haunt her until she confronts it. Taissa’s affinity to Shauna can be seen as stemming from her lack of privilege as a black lesbian, who understands the assumptions and misunderstandings that may come with the group knowing Shauna is pregnant. But she also understands that it’s irreversible, and there must be support and work done to keep the group afloat.
One reply on “Solidarity in Yellowjackets”
Your analysis of Yellowjackets through the lens of Ahmed’s “Affinity of Hammers” is really thought-provoking, especially in how you frame Taissa’s support for Shauna as a kind of radical affinity. I agree that the scene in the attic reveals the complexities of friendship, guilt, and survival—how affinity can emerge not from shared morality but shared vulnerability. I was especially struck by your idea that Taissa’s support is informed by her own marginalization as a Black lesbian, which gives her a different understanding of shame, secrecy, and survival under pressure. This makes her empathy toward Shauna feel not just personal but political. Your point about how privilege functions differently on the island is also compelling; what Shauna could have hidden or resolved in the world before is now exposed and uncontainable. This breakdown of social order forces new solidarities, and Taissa’s response exemplifies a feminist ethics of care that resists judgment in favor of survival and mutual support.