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Representation of women in horror films
Representation of women in horror films
Representation of women in horror films
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There are people in today’s society that are always looking for a source of adrenaline, a thrill. They could find this source from jumping out of a plane and opening a parachute to watching a scary movie. The genre of horror has become a major part of the film industry some films even have a cult following such as the film series Paranormal Activity. Horrors films are built to scare the audience watching the film and are made through the uses of suspense and/or gore. These films have become a large part of today’s culture and what is being represented in horror films takes influence on society. The images presented on film influences how the audience views certain groups of people. The way hegemonic masculinity and femininity are being represented is repeated and has in turn become a trope that has placed itself as a normal ideal in the minds of those who watch horror …show more content…
Tropes are a way of telling a story that is repeated in different situations with different contents. For horror films, tropes are used in presenting personalities of characters based on their gender and their race. This analysis will be focusing on the gender tropes presented in horror films. There is the strong white man who solves or fixes the horror the characters are going through and the weak white woman who always needs to be saved and at most times are seen as useless to the rest of the characters in the films. These tropes have become part of the hegemonic masculinity and femininity that is represented throughout horror films. People accept these representations by the repeated occurrences and these repetitions become naturalizations. Tropes and naturalization frame the narrative of horror
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton Publishing, 1992.
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
One of America’s famous actress film director and producer Katie Aselton once said,” I don’t love horror movies with something surreal happening. That doesn’t work for me. What’s terrifying is something that could actually happen to me and what I would do. I don’t know how to throw a punch, and I’ve never had to do it.” This quote shows connection to King’s article. I’m starting to consider that everyone has a crazy side. Why We Crave Horror Movies explains the reason people want to go see horror movies. The average person enjoys the horror movies because they are in a safe environment knowing they can not be harmed. By discussing the argumentative strategies such as ethos, logos,
There has been a large variety of horror films produced throughout the last fifty years. People are always going to be frightened and scared by different types of horror films. But, what type of horror film scares more people, and were men or women more frightened by these horror films? Each one of the horror films had its own agenda to frighten its audience using several different methods of horror. Some of these methods were more so directed at the female audience than the male audience. Most horror movies show the female as being vulnerable, because in real life females are defenseless against monsters.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned. (Horror Films)
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
What are the main roles that female actresses typically portray in horror films? Maggie Freleng, an editor of VitaminW, a website that contributes toward the female empowerment movement, expresses her belief that women are cast in “poor and stereotypical representation of women in the horror genre.” Some roles that many women portray that are seen as stereotypical is the sexually promiscuous women and the saved virgin, evil demon seductress, the overly liberated woman, and the most common role the damsel in distress. The possible reason that women are cast with these roles is because of the belief that women are seen as too dimwitted, overemotional, uncoordinated, weak, and incompetent to survive in a situation much like those in horror films. Anne T. Donahue, an author of Women in Horror: The Revenge an article in The Guardian verifies the belief of the females portrayed as the damsel in distress stereotype with the statement, “We see them [women] waiting for a man to save them, we see them running, bloodied and terrified, we see them tied and cut up,
Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas. Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers. However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s. The model is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.
The overall purpose of Carol Clover’s essay “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film” is to illustrate the repetitive, predictable aspect that Slasher
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.
The reading by Barbara Creed titled “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, is an in-depth examination on the role of women in horror films. Creed challenges the commanding patriarchal view, which frequently puts the woman in the position of the helpless victim. She argues that when the feminine is constructed as monstrous, it is frequently done in conjunction with its mothering role and function. Creed’s main thesis supports that the prototype of all cinematic definitions of monstrosity related to the feminine is linked to the woman’s reproductive body. Creed elects to use the term “monstrous feminine” instead of female monster, because for Creed it is the “femininity itself that is monstrous” (41). It has been unfairly
The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).