Originally posted on Instagram 1st October 2022
If there’s one genre that has (almost) always had women at the front and centre, it’s horror. From damsels-in-distress, to villainesses, to the iconic ‘final girl’ (more on her later…), women often take a starring role, which perhaps explains why women are drawn to horror, be it as creators or viewers.
Women have also taken something of a leading role when it comes to the creation of horror as a genre in itself. Mary Shelley is a name almost synonymous with horror, and we can also count Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Gaskill among famous writers of the genre. Many techniques used today in horror films were pioneered by a woman: Alice Guy-Blaché.
HOWEVER…
None of this is to say that horror has treated women particularly kindly.
Women’s bodies have been used and abused throughout the genre, with the male gaze posing a problem just as it does in other genres. On average, female characters take twice as long to be murdered as men, the camera taking time to run up and down her (slim, white, curvy) body as she screams and dies.
Female virgins are a fairly standard trope, often becoming sacrifices, thus doing damage to all women, virgin or not.
Then we have the monsters.
When women are monsters, it is often (not always) the case that their motives are actually, kind of understandable. We may even cheer them on – honestly, I love a woman who is off the rails insane.
But.
Most of the time, it’s probably not the director’s intention for us to sympathise with her – that’s why she’s the villain. In many cases, womanhood is the evil in the film – going back to the virgin trope, it implies that women who aren’t virgins are tainted in some way.
Some films – for example, Carrie, connect becoming ‘a woman’ (getting her period) with becoming monstrous.
The narrative is changing. Women in horror are becoming more powerful and less victimised – the scream queen damsel-in-distress is slowly being replaced by women who take charge of their own fates.
Films like Get Out, The Witch, Midsommar, and It Follows show female protagonists taking back their agency and subverting stereotypes – she turns into a survivor.
However, there is more change that needs to be done, especially when it comes to non-white, non-cis bodies. Women from minorities are token characters that are put in as stereotypes or to be easy victims – and that’s when they are cast.
See also:
- Blog post: Regina Maria Roche
- Blog post: Paula Maxa
- Bitesize History: Final Girls