In the past women in horror films were resembled as sex symbols, this was seen through making the audience view the character through ‘the male gaze’ in which Laura Mulvey suggests. This can be shown in the beginning of the postman always rings twice’, this is a black and white film made in the late 1940’s which really highlights the representations of women and the sexist culture of the man i.e having the last say like when the woman had to go to the man to retrieve her hair roller. There are many ideologies of a woman in a horror genre that many theorists have uncovered Jeremy Tunstall and Carole Clover being some of them.
One theory of the representation of women is the male gaze which potentially places the woman character in an objective position by using long shots and tilt upward frameworks, this doesn’t allow the viewers to identify or form a relation with the woman which makes her be seen as an object, where as the men are put in more subjective positions by capturing him with close ups and point of view shots this results in him having the upper hand because the audience is able to bond with him, making him the protagonist in the narrative structure and the woman to be victimised and inferior. Although more modern day horrors have these aspects of gender, they tend to be less obvious as they are put into protagonist roles and seen as a strong individual but the representation used by the mis‘en’ scene shows the sex presentation of the women for example Milla Jovovich in resident evil, she has a boyish personality, she also saves the day, however she still is put in suggestive clothing for example short tight shorts, strap tops and high boots. Another convention of wom
an within horror genres is the obsession with women’s body parts or exposure as it can represent vulnerability as well as sexiness which meet the criteria for a woman in a horror movie. Most women will be first seen from their feet up to their face which suggests that the woman’s body is more important than herself which puts her in a position of no status or power but an object that feeds the pleasure of men, this can also be shown through the amount of men compared to women there are on screen as well as the fact that men have more leeway in the age department, women that are old tend to be associated with being ‘’past it’’ however there are men on television that are in their 70’s for example Bruce Forsyth, but he is represented as wise rather than old.
It seems that women put in the protagonist position aren’t seen as part of the popular culture or in with the crowd such as meeting the stereotypes of a young girl teenager who maybe sexually active, up to no good and rebellious, instead she completes her work on time, doesn’t have a boyfriend and dresses prim and proper this could be to do with the government promoting the ideal female teenager by suggesting that ‘’bad teens’’ get killed or something bad happens and ‘’good teens’’ survive. This type of girl also tends to have a boy like name such as ‘Laurie’ out of Halloween, which is kind of an excuse for her to act erratically or brave. The ‘final woman’ is also put into the subject position but as she is subconsciously linked to male characteristics it is more accepted.
Jeremy Tunstall looked at a wide range of research on gender representation, he found that the overall result showed that women in the media were emphasised in four different areas being:- Domestic, Sexual, Consumer and Marital. This meant that generally women are seen as busy housewives, contented mothers, eager consumers and sex objects. Men are rarely shown in the nude and clarified by their marital status.
Carole Clover adds onto this by researching the extent to which horror reinforces these
classic representations. In her book she argues that the identification/objectification in horror texts is far more significant than the identification/objectification in many other genres. Clover suggests that instead of a sadistic objectification of women that takes place in many mainstream texts, many now provide the woman with a ‘masochistic identification’ which would lead back to ‘Laurie out of Halloween’.
More recent research that has been conducted was in 1992 which showed that males were more likely to be shown in an occupation than women, Males were also shown to be away from the home and out of the doors as well as being seen more as authoritative and females as consumers although this is far less now than it was in the past.
Horror genres have changed over time especially in the area of women’s representation, however evidence still suggests that sex, emotion, weakness and unreliability is associated with women and males are resembles as strong, rational and reliable. This distinguishes the characters gender within most horror films. Overtime these representations will change.
'The postman always rings twice' this movie shows the 'male gaze' from 4.00 onwards, it particularly highlights the point that women are connected with body parts rather than as a person.One theory of the representation of women is the male gaze which potentially places the woman character in an objective position by using long shots and tilt upward frameworks, this doesn’t allow the viewers to identify or form a relation with the woman which makes her be seen as an object, where as the men are put in more subjective positions by capturing him with close ups and point of view shots this results in him having the upper hand because the audience is able to bond with him, making him the protagonist in the narrative structure and the woman to be victimised and inferior. Although more modern day horrors have these aspects of gender, they tend to be less obvious as they are put into protagonist roles and seen as a strong individual but the representation used by the mis‘en’ scene shows the sex presentation of the women for example Milla Jovovich in resident evil, she has a boyish personality, she also saves the day, however she still is put in suggestive clothing for example short tight shorts, strap tops and high boots. Another convention of wom
an within horror genres is the obsession with women’s body parts or exposure as it can represent vulnerability as well as sexiness which meet the criteria for a woman in a horror movie. Most women will be first seen from their feet up to their face which suggests that the woman’s body is more important than herself which puts her in a position of no status or power but an object that feeds the pleasure of men, this can also be shown through the amount of men compared to women there are on screen as well as the fact that men have more leeway in the age department, women that are old tend to be associated with being ‘’past it’’ however there are men on television that are in their 70’s for example Bruce Forsyth, but he is represented as wise rather than old.It seems that women put in the protagonist position aren’t seen as part of the popular culture or in with the crowd such as meeting the stereotypes of a young girl teenager who maybe sexually active, up to no good and rebellious, instead she completes her work on time, doesn’t have a boyfriend and dresses prim and proper this could be to do with the government promoting the ideal female teenager by suggesting that ‘’bad teens’’ get killed or something bad happens and ‘’good teens’’ survive. This type of girl also tends to have a boy like name such as ‘Laurie’ out of Halloween, which is kind of an excuse for her to act erratically or brave. The ‘final woman’ is also put into the subject position but as she is subconsciously linked to male characteristics it is more accepted.
Jeremy Tunstall looked at a wide range of research on gender representation, he found that the overall result showed that women in the media were emphasised in four different areas being:- Domestic, Sexual, Consumer and Marital. This meant that generally women are seen as busy housewives, contented mothers, eager consumers and sex objects. Men are rarely shown in the nude and clarified by their marital status.
Carole Clover adds onto this by researching the extent to which horror reinforces these
classic representations. In her book she argues that the identification/objectification in horror texts is far more significant than the identification/objectification in many other genres. Clover suggests that instead of a sadistic objectification of women that takes place in many mainstream texts, many now provide the woman with a ‘masochistic identification’ which would lead back to ‘Laurie out of Halloween’.More recent research that has been conducted was in 1992 which showed that males were more likely to be shown in an occupation than women, Males were also shown to be away from the home and out of the doors as well as being seen more as authoritative and females as consumers although this is far less now than it was in the past.
Horror genres have changed over time especially in the area of women’s representation, however evidence still suggests that sex, emotion, weakness and unreliability is associated with women and males are resembles as strong, rational and reliable. This distinguishes the characters gender within most horror films. Overtime these representations will change.
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