Representation of Gender In Horror

Males in the media are often shown to be dominant, strong, active, intellectual and independent with authority, while females are shown in an opposite light. They are portrayed as passive and obedient with a focus on their physical beauty which is defined by their sexuality and emotions.

In 1992, research was collected to see how the media represented gender. The results showed that men outnumbered women 2:1. Eden Lake (2008) backs this research up as the number of male characters dominated female characters 11:6. However, some horror films are progressive and challenge this rule. Halloween (1978), showed six main female characters whilst having seven main male characters.   

Jeremy Tunstall, The Media in Britain (1983), said that in the media women are represented in four forms; domestic, sexual, consumer and familial. In Halloween, Lynda, Annie and Judith are represented as sexual objects, Judith and Lynda are basically in the nude while Annie is just in a shirt when they are murdered.They all have sexual relations with their partners and as a consquence of this Mike Myers kills them because of his physcological view towards sex.  In The Shining (1982), Wendy is represented in two ways; one being that she is familial as she is Jack’s wife & Danny’s mother and two that she is portrayed being domestic as she is in the kitchen making Danny a sandwich.

Laura Mulvey talks about the male gaze in her essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (written in 1973 and published in 1975). She says that the camera looks at the women through the eyes of men; denying them any right to be a subject but instead an object for the male audience. This is called sadistic objectification which means that the male audience enjoys and takes pleasure out of the woman who is being objectified. In mainstream films it is normally the male protagonist who looks voyeuristically at the woman. Mulvey and others argue that mainstream films are part of the sexist ‘regime’ as it denies the woman any rights to be an individual in the film and society. It is humiliating and degrading for any woman to be represented as a ‘sex object’ for males to take pleasure from.

Some horror challenges the male gaze and says ‘women are not an object for males, but can be a subject as well’. In Halloween, we are placed into the point of view of Mike Myers when he sees his sister in the nude apart from a pair of panties, when Annie is in the laundry room wearing only a shirt and when Lynda is naked in bed. Even though this part is sexist Laurie is the final girl who is never objectified and instead becomes a subject. The Shining has a similar approach; the vision of the woman in the bath has an interesting point to it as there is a long shot of her completely naked but after Jack kisses her, she turns in a corpse. It makes the audience think that they shouldn’t have seen her as an object. Eden Lake also undermines objectifying women. The boys in the gang look at Jenny through a pair of binoculars while she is in a bikini. This is clear evidence of voyeurism in films and it makes her into a sex object. However, instead of cutting to the boys it cuts to Jenny covering herself up as she is uncomfortable, making her the subject and not an object.

Carol Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws (1992), is well known for her concept and analysis of “the final girl”. It is Clover that suggests that the beginning of a horror film is in the perspective of the killer and as the story progresses we shift towards the final girl; identifying with her. Laurie in Halloween is a good example of a final girl. She is virginal unlike her two sexual friends who die. She is androgynous, a character that can be identified with by both female and male members of the film’s audience. Compared to her friends she is a tom-boy; she wears jeans and not ‘seedy’ clothes that show off too much skin, her name can be used either by girls or boys, and finally her voice is deep and masculine. While Laurie is Myers' intentional victim, she stays alive because of her virginity and is not sexualised.

In James Marriott’s book Horror Films, the term "reactionary sexual agenda" is used. This means the traditional views of sex should only be ‘performed’ within marriage and seeing as the teens are sexual they have to die. John Carpenter (the director) says the reason that the teens die is that they're not aware; they are distracted by alcohol and sex. Laurie is aware and throughout the film senses that somebody is "stalking" her. She has more on her mind like her studies and her job as a babysitter. She's not distracted by alcohol, sex and boys like Annie and Lynda. Clover’s “final girl” most of the time survives the killer and danger.

However, Eden Lake breaks that rule. Jenny after escaping the monstrous gang of teenagers she is killed, supposedly, by the fathers in the bathroom. Her death is portrayed in restricted narration as we only hear her screams while in Brett’s bedroom. In this film, twice the amount of male characters die or are punished than female characters.

Masochistic identification is a major part of narrative in horror. It allows the audience (young males) to identify with the female protagonist. In Carrie (1976), Carrie is relatable and boys can identify with her. She is a teenager teased after her first period by the girls in gym class who throw tampons and sanitary towels at her shouting “plug it up”. Males can relate to this as they probably have been teased before; “the popular boys pull down your pants in gym” as Stephen King puts it in his analysis of Carrie. Puberty can be a confusing and horrific time; Carrie believes that she is dying as she has no idea why she’s bleeding during her first experience of menstrual cycle. Clover states in her book that there is a “possibility the male viewers are quite prepared to identify not just with screen females but screen females in the horror-film world, screen females in fear and pain.”

In conclusion, the media can be sexist towards women as suggested in the 1992 research. Horror challenges this view by creating female protagonists like Laurie in Halloween who are as strong as any male. However in some areas, horror remains sexist like Eden Lake which features more men than women.