“Obliteration of the Unfit”: Disposable Other Bodies and Economic Privilege in the The Purge Film Series

Madison Grant’s eugenicist ideas dwelled on the infamous aspiration to obliterate the unfit and undesirable elements of society that constitute a burden on the public. The Purge film series (2013–2021) comments on the elimination of the undesirable elements in American society in a very similar vein. The series consists of five films and presents purging as a political tactic of the New Founding Fathers, who urge their citizens to commit any crime once a year for twelve hours. The film series portrays how the government, the privileged, and white supremacists use these twelve hours to dispose of the poor and undesired elements of society, who are identified as the homeless, the colored, and the immigrant. Conquered by the consumerist world, the victims of the purge are objectified, for the upper class hunts them to cleanse the United States from masses that become burdensome to the American economy. This paper aims to answer the questions of bodies that are inclined to be labeled as disposable; the limitations of capitalism for the colored, immigrant, the homeless, and the Other; consumerism as a protective asset for the privileged few; and the eugenicist concept of eliminating those whose very entity is dangerous for the governing class in The Purge film series.