Since Halloween is creeping closer, my friends and I have been watching a good deal of
horror movies. I soon realized that the portrayal of women in this genre is an interesting topic to look into. Most theorists label the horror genre as male-driven or male-centered, but is this really the case?
For those of us who have seen a few horror movies, you have probably noticed at least one common theme. There is always a female sex object in the movies who is running without a bra or just naked in a shower. I assume that this lust and fear combination is targeted towards our basic primal drives. When trying to search for “women in horror films” in google, many of the results had to do with “top 10 hottest women in horror” and “horror women babes”.
However, it is uncanny how often only a woman survives. This may not seem that important, but it forces the viewer to identify with the last character alive and root for his/her survival. I looked at the top 100 horror movies of all time and randomly chose 20 to see who the survivor was. Of the 20 popular movies, 16 had women only survivors. Some of these include Halloween, Scream, Alien, and Silence of the Lambs. From the ones I have seen, the women survivors tend to make good quick decisions and are brave in doing what they have to do.
In the movies where the main character is a male, a female partner also tends to survive. She usually helps the male in some way, and it is in their partnership that allows them to pull through. This all raises the question if women are offended by horror movies and if the surviving women are an attempt at making the genre less sexist. It seems to just be a matter of opinion.
References
http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
http://www.best-horror-movies.com/100-greatest-horror-movies.html
7 comments:
I think women are portrayed as more vulnerable than men, even though in horror movies they think fast when making stressful decisions. In these movies women are more likely to be targets or victims. Even if there are two main characters, the woman is the one who screams and runs away (possibly lacking clothing!). Personally, I am not offended by the portrayal of women in these movies--they tend to think faster in a scary situation than I think I would ever be able to.
I think that in more modern horror films, the female is more likely to get herself out of the dangerous situation/away from the killer, but if you look at older horror/slasher movies, the female characters were usually the first ones to die, and they were in vulnerable situations when they were found (the shower or dressing room is really a common example). It almost makes a link in the old movies between the villain attacking the woman and sexuality? I am fine with the way that women in horror movies are portrayed now, even though I can't watch them, because I get scared!
I agree with the comments and the blog post. I feel that horror movies always have women in distress and men are usually macho. There have been examples of men who have been emasculated in horror movies by women. Movies such as Scream show a woman killing the villian while the nerdy man runs away.
I have to agree as well. When looking at today's horror films there's always a woman that is vunerable or in distress. However despite the situtation, the female character usually survives.
I also found it interesting how John stated that in modern horror films women are used as sex objects. In addition to women being found in vunerable situtations, there are numerous instances where women are portrayed in nude scenes. When looking at horror films over the decades, one can see some parallels. I think that it is consistent that women are usually found in vunerable situtations; however, one would have never seen a woman nude or portrayed as a sex object in older horror films as much as in today's generation of horror films.
I agree with myblogid with how times have changed and how women are now portrayed as more thinkers and are able to survive. I also agree that I get too scared to watch horror movies, but these are just observations from what I know.
Brenda
It may not seem sexist to have the woman survive, because she is usually smart and brave. Is sexism the reason she does survive? Maybe horror writers fear that audiences would not respond well to a woman being brutally murdered and a man surviving. This could be an example of sensitive feminism. A surviving man could make all women seem weak. I notice that in many horror movies, the woman is what the killer is after. In films like "Scream," "Halloween," and "Prom Night" the killer was originally after the women. These women were the only ones to survive, but many of their friends die because of them.
I think it is very important to note that women are usually the last and only survivors in horror movies. They always seem to be in the situation with a male, who ultimately dies. Usually, women are the targets of the attacks and males attempt to save them, but die in the process.
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