Perspectives

Cultural perspective

The story “My Girl in Skin-Tight Jeans” (1981) appears to be influenced by the portrayal of serial killers in popular media, especially the movie Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock. The narrator shares the following similarities with Norman Bates, the main character in the movie: his mother’s inheritance, his isolation, his compulsive tidiness, his dislike for vulgar behavior, the repression of his sexual impulses which find release in murder. There is also a small hint in the story about the narrator’s strong affection for his dead mother, to whom he refers to as “my dear mother.” (p. 93, l. 8)

The focus on mentally disturbed killers is also a general trend of the modern horror genre. Even though Boyd's story is not necessarily a full horror stor...