The horror genre is typically set forward as a genre for men alone. It is somehow thought that women tolerate the horror genre only because their male partners enjoys them. I would have to say that this is the farthest from the truth based on the fact that 38% of our readers are female. Two of our most talented contributors Mary aka DirtyGirl and Jamie Jenkins aka MovieMaven both know more about the genre then I do and are female.
The horror genre is dominated by strong women as well as us males. As far as whether the horror genre objectifies women I have to both agree and disagree. I recently read an excellent paper by Dr Jason Edwards written in 2007 where he makes a valid argument that the horror genre not only objectifies women but is a way for males to get off on women being victimized. In his paper he states that men prefer to watch horror movies where women are objectified and lack intelligence.
I find this plausible but also highly insulting. I will admit that I watched and loved movies like I Spit On Your Grave and the truly shocking Dead Girl but not for the gore but rather for the outcome. I want to see where it goes and when the end game is even more vicious for the instigators of the suffering it brings me great pleasure. I am a fan of justice and when a filmmaker wraps it in a tightly woven and brutal horror movie whether the victims are female or male is irrelevant to me.
I have said it time and time again I do not watch movies for gore and although I look looking at a pretty girl as much as the next its not reason enough for me to see a movie. I am also not a fan of movies that lack substance and are entirely focused on putting as much pain on the screen as they can.
Related Reading: Violent Femmes the Place of Women in Horror
I am mesmerized by films with a moral message and a vicious outcome like MARTYRS, Dead Girl or Surveillance ( which is directed by a woman ). I am also not a fan of horror films that cast their female leads based on great breasts and perfect teeth. Beauty much like gore does not make a good horror movie.
If you look back to the early genre classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th there is no question that women are being objectified. The remake of Friday the 13th got more buzz for the Jullianne Guill sex scene which really makes Dr Edwards point to a T. A really hot girl doing soft core porn who then finds herself impaled by the villain.
Although there is plenty of exploitation of women in horror movies there are a lot of very strong female characters in horror as well as female voices within the genre itself. American Psycho, Surveillance and the upcoming American Mary which everyone is buzzing about are brought forward by strong female talents.
Probably one of the most obvious filmmakers who has taken a shine in recent years to strong female characters is Neil Marshall. He has done it twice now first with his cave dwelling film franchise The Descent and more recently with Doomsday starring Rhona Mitra.
We do not have to look at the last 10 years to find a strong female character. Sigourney Weaver in the ALIEN franchise made an evolution through the franchise from a victim to one of the strongest women ever portrayed in horror. It was no man that brought down the Alien Queen it took a strong woman to get the job done right where Space Marines could not.
There is nothing weak about Kathy Bates in the film adaptation of Stephen Kings MISERY and Auntie Ruth from The Girl Next Door is far from a withering flower as she invokes untold cruelty on the neighbourhood.
Related Reading: 10 Most Terrifying Women in Horror
Frankly for every movie that objectifies women I can find a movie which shows off the power of a woman. I think that Larry Darren said it best on our facebook page when he wrote ‘ Ass kicking women make the world turn man. Beautiful, powerful what more could a man want’
The horror genre for me is not about objectifying women it is about getting an adrenaline rush from filmmakers who dont rely on peek-a-boo nudity and cliche carnage but rather try to up the ante and truly terrify us while telling a great story. So yes I agree that many horror movies do objectify women in horror movies but not all of them do and to chalk up the fans of the genre as perverts for that reason is wrong…. especially considering 38% of our community ( and growing ) is female.
Do you feel that the horror genre objectifies women more so then any other genre? I would like to hear your stance expecially if you are one of our many female readers.
You mention two of your staff are female- but how many staff do you have overall?
The horror genre in general has always objectified women- blame Hammer if you must, then the slasher genre. The worst thing now is the hideous trend for releasing the most awful movies with titles like Zombie Strippers and Nude Nuns with Big Guns that have no story or artistic merit, just gore and tits. What other genre is doing that?
Richard great comments. I think the genre does objectify women but not entirely. There are lots of great horror films that do not. As for our team there are 10 of us roughly.
That’s an 80/20 split make to female, which I think speaks volumes about horror in general. I run a horror message board, and our admin/mod staff are split 13 men to 2 women.
I wonder if this objectification is the cause.
Oh, and just for the irony, I thought I’d point out that you’ve got a ‘Hottest Horror Movie Victims’ gallery on this very site!
Hah the irony is not lost on me but saying a woman is hot is a tribute to me not objectification. Our readership is 38% female and when I noted our male/female split that was writers not forums which would change dramatically.
I think it’s far too simple to say objectification is a main cause because from my group of friends the women tend to not use message boards as a way to communicate. The guys, almost all of them use or at least have used a movie message board. The other thing is many of the films that are accused of treating women as objects are among the favourites of many of my female friends and as I have seen through more casual female horror fans on their lists as well. I think you are putting too many eggs in one basket trying to find out why not as many women watch horror as men. I mean is the only reason why romance films are watched mostly by women because such films promote an unrealistic demand upon men and create a mythical male character that has never existed and may NEVER exist? Well in part it could but it’s not THE reason. A lot of the time men don’t want to think too deeply about relationships with women when watching a movie.
I think the objectification that is obvious in a large number of horror movies, both old and new, contributes to a social viewpoint of horror, a stereotype. It’s not an entirely fair stereotype, but its definitely there. There is an undeniable male bias amongst horror fans, and its not just one thing that causes that- but the perception of what a horror movie is, in my opinion, a major factor.
When you say the “horror genre in general”, do you just mean films? Some have done what you say, of course, but do remember that the horror film preceded Hammer by more than half a century. And the modern horror tale goes back at least as far as Poe.
I used Hammer as the example as they really embraced the objectification element. I would argue that women are objectified in a sense in Dracula.
By horror in general I do include literature- though I really do mean it as a generalisation; there are of course exemptions and some of the early films and books were created at a time when the level of objectification wouldn’t be immediately obvious as the sensibilities of the day forbade anything too graphic. It’s far easier for me to point to the buxom beauties of Hammer, than to discuss Dracula’s feelings of ownership towards Mina Harker.
very insightful comments Richard I enjoy reading your take on the genre even if I disagree with some of it
I think in literature the exceptions are very considerable. Poe? Le Fanu? Blackwood? M. R. James? Lovecraft? Leiber? De La Mare? Aickman? Klein? King? I think pretty well the entire great tradition of horror literature, in fact – Machen too, though you might object to “The Great God Pan”.
Yes, but the majority you mention were writing before the 60′s, when it became more socially acceptable to objectify women in vibrant technicolor. It’s certainly less prevalent in literature, but its still there if you look for it.
I am female and lover of horror movies. I do feel that in some movies women are only used as eye candy but not in all. Dont think the % of females here represent the % of females that love horror movies in general, I have friends that like this type of movies but dont hang around in horror movie forums.
good to get a female perspective.
Is this a trick question?
no. is this a trick answer?
Do I think Horror films objectify women? Hmmm…maybe some of the older films would qualify. Especially the exploitation films of the 70s. That being said, some of those films are still interesting to watch even if they are objectifying women. I enjoy a good revenge film like I Spit on Your Grave, Thriller A Cruel Picture, or Ms. 45 even though the female lead spends most of the time naked, abused, and exploited.
It’s interesting that Hammer Horror is mentioned as a contributing factor, when quite a few female horror fans love those movies! Older horror films tend to use the “damsel in distress” storyline quite often, which personally I don’t find degrading. If that type of storyline is degrading then Disney is the biggest offender when it comes to damsels in distress because they always seem to need a prince to come and save them.
It’s not so much Hammer’s damsel in distress story lines as it is their damsels in not-much-of-a-dress outfits, and the way they use women on their posters.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it’s degrading, but then I’m a big Hammer fan, with a Countess Dracula poster framed in my bedroom.
The whole tits and arse thing in horror annoys me because much of the time it is tact on and used as a marketing tool. It’s pretty cynical and when aimed at young men plays to a sterotype that does a disservice to everyone. You can have female sex appeal in horror that much is obvious but when it used as a device to sell a movie in lieu of a strong script or powerfull acting it’s not doing anything for anyone. However what you also have to examine is what makes a strong female lead? Is it being violent? Something that is seen as a repulsive trait among men…? Is it being a woman in a film yet not being “hollywood beautiful”? I am pretty sure that if you make a character three dimensional and not a slave to convention that would make a a strong female character. Let’s not forget Kathy Bates in Misrey was a horrible deranged character yet she was a strong character and that in essence is what film needs. So long as there is justification in the character you have created and they are not used to adhere to negative gender roles for the sake of it a woman can be anything a man can be in the horror genre. That would be positive and negative. I also have to add people will enjoy films that do objectify women BUT that does not mean that the viewer see women like this outside the realms of the fantasy of a movie because it is after all just a fantasy.
I completely agree James with your comment on TNA for ‘appeal’. It is a common trend to cast people based on white teeth and great boobs. This have no merits to add to a horror movie.
You can’t deny there is some exploitation of Women but as a woman I’m not offended in the least because there is an equally growing trend in strong female characters and leads. Like DG says, horror isn’t the only culprit and Disney princess stories have a lot to answer for giving the impression that women need men to save them all the time. I recently saw Brave with my daughter and it was refreshing to see two very strong female characters who defended and saved themselves. Women are still seen as a weaker sex but I think the exploitation isn’t just because we are “weaker” but because we are better to look at. Strong women were not as attractive to men in days gone by. These days now times have changed, men prefer to have a strong minded woman.
Personally I resent the dynamic of “Beautiful woman only attract men” it’s just so utterly insulting. I am not sure if you have seen the Film The Miracle Mile (not horror I know) but the female lead is Mare Whttingham a great actress whom happens not to look like a “babe” the film revolves around he love for her man in the midst of an on coming nuclear attack on America from Russia. The relationship felt real, touching and heart breaking because you could relate to a couple that were not a typical hollywood couple. The female characters that I find unattractive are ones that are made supposedly strong and display nothing but negative and or damaging traits. This would be exactly the same for male characters as well. I do admit that if there is one thing I would like movies with strong female leads to stop doing and that is do not make such characters just to make men look stupid or at least don’t have a guy excessively stupid or negative just to make the woman appear more worthy. In some films I have seen this happen and it just creates more sexisim and resentment.
which is what I was saying. I like horror because I like the thrill of being terrified and I enjoy gore and violence on screen It has nothing to do with characters and actors appearance. I was mearly suggesting this could be the case in older horror movies where weak women who needed saving were more attractive to men who wanted to be masculine and dominant compared to today’s more liberal views and rightly so women having more presence in the modern world meaning they need more presence in the modern horror.
“Frankly for every movie that objectifies women I can find a movie
which shows off the power of a woman. I think that Larry Darren said it
best on our facebook page when he wrote ‘ Ass kicking women make the
world turn man. Beautiful, powerful what more could a man want’”
Don’t get me wrong, I love horror… *obviously I’m here*.. However, it does objectify women I don’t think the genre is unique in doing so, nor should it be singled out. Our culture objectifies women, and all media reflects that… But the above excerpt does little to empower and promote strong women… because although the beginning sounds good, the “what more could a man want”, articulates the real problem. Strong female characters in film should stand on their own, and not be mere reflections of male desire. A strong female character should exist because she DOES exist… and not because it’s what men value… The fact that is even noted, disenfranchises Strong female characters… :/
GREAT comments Jessica. Its always a treat to get such a well thought out comment on a tough topic.