Representation of Women

Representation of Women

Traditionally, women are represented in horror films as the damsel in distress and are usually being attacked by the killer because they have committed a sinful act. There are sources that say horror films and the slasher sub-genre are famous for portraying women as hyper-sexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first 5 minutes as punishment for their carelessness. The stereotype of the dumb blonde is supported by the book “Studying the Media an Introduction” by Tim O’Sullivan, and say that the dumb blonde stereotype usually includes; blondness, seductive body language and strong make up. This is shown in the film Scream, by the character Riley who gets killed in a very stereotypical way. They are traditionally represented as the victims and men represented as the monster and hero. The book “Men, Women and Chainsaws” by Carol Clover back this up – “The functions of monster and hero are far more frequently represented by males and the function of the victim is represented more commonly by females. Female monsters and female heroes, when they do appear, are masculine in dress and behavior and often their name is unisex (i.e. Laurie, Jesse).” This extract explains the typical symbol of men and women in horror films and the roles they play – men are the heroes and villains; women are the victims and only heroines if they have masculine attributes. 


Horror films also tend to follow the common narrative structure of a male killer on the hunt for male victims, of who he kills one by one, until he is left to face up to the remaining female victim who kills him and becomes the hero. This theory is known as the ‘final girl’ theory and is supported by Clover’s book – “A psycho killer, who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one until they are subdued or killed, is usually killed by the one girl who has survived.” This suggests that when the female character plays the role of the hero and survives from the killer’s actions to kill or capture the villain herself, women are represented as strong and therefore, women have empowerment over men (feminist ideology) - this is the modern representation of how women should be represented, which has been shaped by feminism as well as modern culture. However now with the influence of feminism and modern ideologies women in reality are more successful therefore the representation of women has changed in horror films to intelligent women who try to figure out who the killer is and stop them. 


Women were traditionally represented as the damsels in distress such as in “Psycho” who are punished for their sins by male villains; this reflected our culture at the time. However with the influence of feminism and our new ideology of women being more powerful and in control, our modern culture no longer sees women as victims but as strong women in both hero and killer characters, like in “Jennifer’s Body”. The horror genre itself is influenced by what our culture identifies as horrific. Subjects such as war, terrorism, global issues and political issues all affect what society fears. This has what has changed the horror genre and why women are represented now as strong, powerful heroes and even killers because women have more power in society; which is the fear of traditional anti-feminists. Whereas a global fear is terrorism which is why the horror films today such as “Saw 2” focus less on male and female representation and more on working together to escape from death.


Laurie Strode shows a good example of the development of a “final girl” in horror films as she was able to defeat Michael Meyers in Halloween H20 through her experiences in Halloween and Halloween 2 as well as when she came to accept the fact that Michael Meyers was her brother. Connolly also talked about “the male gaze and the gaze of the male monster” in the Halloween series. She added that “final girl” characters were able to achieve empowerment and thus save themselves through adopting the male gaze. She could not independently kill her brother in the first two Halloween films because she didn’t successfully adopt the male gaze, due to her still being scared and fearful; she depended on Dr Loomis to save her. However, through the Halloween series, we can see Laurie evolving into a ‘final girl’ character while developing characteristics such as anger, ferocity, aggressiveness and even overcome her fears.

Another example of a ‘final’ girl’ character would be Nancy Thompson from Nightmare on Elm Street. In the first movie (1984), Nancy was able to destroy Freddy Krueger by facing her fears and confronting him. She devised a plan to set booby traps around her house and watch Krueger be pulled out of the dream world and into reality. He got injuries caused by the traps set around her house, meaning she was able to save herself without the help of another.

 
Another horror film which goes against the conventions of representations of women is Carrie. However, she is portrayed as a killer and not a heroin. Seeing Carrie being bullied by the other girls in high school and how she was scared of her first period as she did not know what it was, made the female audience sympathize for her. She descended into madness with her telekinetic power, that she had tried so hard to repress and contain, and she used it to kill everyone at her high school prom. Miss Collins who was an encouraging teacher and Tommy who had asked her to prom and maybe was in love with her, also perished because her rage and hatred were finally unleashed when the bucket of blood fell on her after she was crowned as prom queen. This is the reason for Carrie making the audience afraid of her, instead of feeling sympathetic towards her. It sends out the message that a female villain can have as much power and strength as a male villain.