Representation of women in horror.

Within the horror genre, Carol J. Clover released her book ‘Men, Women and Chainsaws’, in which her ‘Final Girl’ theory was developed, changing popular and academic conceptions of gender status in horror films. Her theory suggests that the audience begins to see themselves in the eyes of or the perspective of the killer. As suggested by Clover, the final girl will often have a unisex name such as ‘Georgie’ or ‘Bobby’ reflecting in the idea that the final girl avoids situations, those in which make other female characters the victims. For example: Sexually, being involved with drugs or a female character being naïve.

        Another factor considering representation is how stereotypically males and females are presented in the media. Males are shown to be dominant, strong and independent and are also shown to have more positional power and authority over women. Females in the media however, are often shown more representative of their sexuality and are also shown more emotionally. In some cases, females can be seen with a focus on their physical beauty or defined or more familiar due to relationships with men.

        Jeremy Tunstall (The Media of Britain 1983) carried out research based on gender representation in the media, arguing that the representation of females in the media emphasised women into four categories; Domestic, Sex Objects, Consumer and Familiar (Recognisable through a male).

         Many theorists, one in particular Laura Mulvey (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema) suggest that the media puts the audience or the viewer in the perspective of an heterosexual male by using technical camera work presenting women as a sex object in the view of a man as the subject of looking. This is called the Male Gaze/ Techniques involved in portraying a ‘Male Gaze’ could be the use of a close up, perhaps not of the face of a female but another objectifying body part often followed by a camera tilt towards the body to reveal the character. Point of view and reaction shots are shown often to encourage the identification of the male as a subject.

Female Identification in Films:

In the film Halloween (1978) the visibility of females is approximately equal compared to male characters in the film making this a non sexist view and also progressive in industry. In the category of female roles, the film is found conservative. Although Annie is the main protagonist, every other female character in the film has a stereotypical role. In example; Linda, Annie and Judith Myers are given the label of sex object and each become the victim after a sexual encounter. Other characters such as the babysitter and the nurse have a domestic role. With a death count of 3 over 2, the film is proven to have a sexist view over the sexually active female characters involved. The stereotypical final girl in this case, ‘Laurie’ is perceived as a more masculine, more stable, un-objectified female. Although, she does come across as the weaker character, in comparison to Mike Myers, she is the only female character to stand against the killer.

In the film The Shining (1982) the visibility of females is less than the visibility of males, making this film conservative in this category. The roles of the females in the shining are as follows; ‘Wendy’, although the main protagonist, she also has the roles of a consumer, in example when the butler shows her the kitchen space and the food storage areas. She is also seen in a domestic view as she has the roles around the hotel to clean and to care, however to the end of the film she begins to pick up male roles for example when she checks the boiler, which would normally be Jack’s job. She is also seen familiarly as she is recognised mostly through her husband in many situations. Although ‘Grady’s Wife’ is not seen at all throughout the film, she is categorized to be familiar as she is mentioned throughout. The only women in the film, seen as a sex object is the bath tub woman, however as her appearance changes we can almost see how Jack has crossed some sort of boundary by looking at the women in a sexual way, when  he shouldn’t have. This is also how the audience is put into the ‘Male Gaze’ the camera objectifies the woman in a sexual manner, first of all with a camera tilt of the woman climbing out of the bath. However, the death count of men compared to women is equal, telling us that women in the film are not killed for being vulnerable of objectified any more than the male characters. Overall, the film is quite progressive rather than conservative in the way that most categories of females in the film are said to be non-sexist.

In the film 'Eden Lake' (2008) Men outnumber women, eleven to six, showing in this case it is conservative. In comparison to the other earlier films studies, they each contain atleast two women appearing to be sex object, whereas in Eden Lake there is none. Although, the young girl in the gang 'Paige' objectifies herself in dialog with Steve. Jenny, the protagonist in this case, is shown as a domestic female, showing her more caring occupation of a school teacher as seen at the very start of the film, although not particularly seen as a sex object there is a scene in the film with a point of view shot from the gang looking at Jenny sunbathing on the beach. The waitress of the cafe however, we see as a different kind of domestic, although she is seen as i kind of women doing a female orientated job (waitressing) in context with the film she has a much more manly part. Also in comparison to the other films, the 'final girl'/protagonist is Jenny.