How Women Are Represented In The Horror Genre

‘Carol Clover in Men, Women and Chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?’

In the media today there are debates whether women are shown progressively or conservatively. In some ways the media shows a higher visibility of men, but in other ways of media males and females can have the same visibility which shows a more progressive way of representing gender. Jeremy Tunstall (The Media in Britain 1983) looked at researched to show how gender is represented in the media. His overall research told him that women are emphasised in 4 different activities; domestic, sexual, consumer and martial. But don’t we see numbers of males showing a father, husband role? Yes, but it does show in the media they have less to say about these male roles.  You can see that their family status is irrelevant in the media, for example in an action film the role of the male is the hero or villain showing strength, power and courage. You tend don’t to see his family status at all. In 1992 men were seen on screen more than women, outnumbering them by two to one. Although research in visibility on TV has shown that men and women are shown equally, but males were shown more likely than females to have an occupation, males were shown more out of the house or home than females.

In action movies female protagonists are presented in a objectified, sexualised way. Exploitation of women’s bodies in the media represents a conservative way of representing gender. Even though today there are many more male models used in advertising and the general media, could this show signs of equality? Laura Mulvey in her famous essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ shows you that the cinema puts you in the eyes of a heterosexual male. Using the camera cinema presents the women as an objectified sex object. So the audience is put into the eyes of the male. This is called the male gaze, camera techniques help create it. The use of close ups (CU), point of view (POV) and reaction shots of the male character identify him as the subject. Then other uses of long shots, tilts up the body showing only certain body parts, e.g. the legs, chest or face. The parts that are considered sexual. This helps the audience look at her and helps to show you what a heterosexual male would be feeling towards this.

But how does horror show these well known representations? In the book, Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol Clover she argues the identification of females and roles of the female character, looking in more detail than the ‘Male Gaze’.  Carol Clover talks about ‘The Final Girl’ in her book. Relating to horror as towards the end of the film there always seems to be a final girl.  This sometimes is used to show identification with females. The final girl always seems at the end of the film to turn monstrous and heroic and defeats the villain showing power and a different side to herself. In the films that I am analysing I will tell you how the final girl is represented in each way.  The core audience of the horror genre is male. And they accept the point of identification Carol Clover argues in her book that it is related to a males experience of the masculine idea, of being a victim to a bully for example. So with horror having a weak hero who is female shows a difference in other film genres.

The first film we watched was Halloween (1978), the film shows an equal visibility of female and male characters to therefore this shows a progressive representation on visibility. The roles of the female characters show a conservative representation of gender, by 3 of the younger female characters having roles of sex objects, and the other characters of females are used as a domestic role. The final girl Laurie is shown in a domestic role, she is a quite a boyish character with relates her being the final girl in the film. Although in some certain parts of the film she shows quite a feminine side to her character acting like the ‘damsel in distress’ when she acts quite weak in battling against the villain. Also her name can be a males name, so this shows another reason and point of her being the final girl, also the fact that her other friends are more sexually active than her and much more girlie throughout the film. So I think this is playing around with the role of the film a bit, although most of the female characters so a conservative representation, Laurie is the protagonist and is the final girl. In the film there are some parts that show the male gaze, more focused on the friends of Laurie, like when Linda shows her bare chest off in a scene, although the camera in my opinion doesn’t focus on her nude body reflecting her as a sexual object as she is the one that is making herself come across as a object rather than a subject. Although there are other parts of the film where the camera focuses on parts of the women’s body when one of the female characters is getting undressed.  But Laurie is not objectified; she is shown as the subject not an object unlike the other girls. So you can argue that the use of male gaze shows the female characters conservatively or progressively. The narrative of the film shows that more women die than males during the film, so therefore this represents the narrative of the film conservatively.

In class we also watched another horror film called The Shining (1982) where again I will argue whether the film shows represents gender progressively or conservatively. By the visibility of the gender in the film you can see that it is shown conservatively, there are less women characters than male characters. The roles you can see of the females in the film are sex object, domestic, and martial. The role of the sex object is shown by one of the female characters fully naked walking out of a bath tub, but this gaze is complicated as she is then shown as an old, unattractive women. Wendy who is the mother of Danny in the film shows her role as domestic and also martial, by the fact she has a caring role- mother and that she looks after her family. Also the boss of the hotels secretary shows a domestic role, where she goes and makes a cup of tea for her boss. Although this is showing a conservative representation of gender, Wendy also is shown as the protagonist where she starts to do Jacks jobs.  The narrative of the film tells us that there is equal deaths during the film, therefore this represents the gender as progressive.

 The last film we watched in class was Eden Lake (2008), I will also analysis this film to help illustrate my arguments and points whether horror films represent gender progressively.  In the film men outnumber women by 8-5. Therefore this shows the visibility of the genders in the film is conservative. As there is only really one main female character in the film her roles show that she is martial. As even though she has a job her job is a teacher of younger children which shows that it is related to caring. Also there is a part of the film where there is a female waitress; this also could be related to domestic. And the young girl in the gang is passive as she is in the gang with the guys, which shows a progressive side to the roles. There is also a point where Paige refers to objectification as a way of insulting Steve, who is a main character. But overall the roles of the women in the film show a conservative representation.  The narrative of the film tells you that more men die than women, and women aren’t punished any more than men.

To conclude I think that horror represents gender progressively at a equal extent to representing it conservatively. As in the films I have looked at there is a mixed of telling the audience and showing them how it shows a conservative representation or progressive. In Carol Clovers book it tells you that she thinks in some ways it shows a conservative look at genders, but as the use of a final girl turning monstrous and powerful this mixes the idea of it. Overall my opinion is that it depends of what type of horror you are watching, and by the evidence of my 3 films I have analysed you can see that there isn’t really one type that is stronger than the other.