I'm doing a research project for media, and i've decided to look into the role of women in horror films.

 

Now even at this moment i've not thought of a narrower research question, but I need primary research so I would be most grateful if you could help me with obtaining this research by telling me what you think about the roles of women in horror films. Like, do they reflect how women are actually shown in soceity? Personally I don't. I think in the majority of horror films (well the bigger ones) a la, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Halloween etc. the women are the main characters as they portray more emotion than men, so it's easier for the directors and writters to get that sense of fear across to the women. And also has the role of women in horror films changed since 20 years ago? Or is it still generally the same now?

 

All replys not matter how large they are would be most grateful.

You need to check out a few books... Carol J Clover's "Men, Women and Chainsaws" and Barbara Creed's "The Monstrous Feminine", both excellent academic, critical works on gender issues in Horror. True they were written some time ago, but there's still a lot that's relevant, especially Clover's chapters on "The Final Girl" phenomenon in "slasher" films, where the "good girl" (ie, the one who doesn't have sex..) always seems to win through (well, at least until the sequel at any rate...LOL).

 

Frankly, I think the "Torture Porn" phenomenon has led to far worse objectifications and sexualised violence of women than any of your "Texas Chainsaw Massacres" or "Nightmare on Elm Streets"... I went to see "Scar 3D" the other day, and frankly I was pretty disgusted by the incredibly lingering, sexualised torture of the teenage girls and felt the need to go home and have a shower after watching that. One woman, aged about mid-20s I reckon, actually got up and walked out the cinema after an especially charming scene where the killer cuts out a teenage girl's tongue in incredibly graphic detail; there was absolutely NO on-screen violence shown towards the killer's male victims at all.. It was a grubby, nasty piece of fukkin' trash, made all the worse by the 3-D effects, absolute fukkin' PURE mysoginy, I really am concerned about the male script-writer's attitudes towards young women to be honest....

 

 

i did my independent study on this.

 

definetley read carol j clover's "men, women and chainsaws" book.

You need to check out a few books... Carol J Clover's "Men, Women and Chainsaws" and Barbara Creed's "The Monstrous Feminine", both excellent academic, critical works on gender issues in Horror. True they were written some time ago, but there's still a lot that's relevant, especially Clover's chapters on "The Final Girl" phenomenon in "slasher" films, where the "good girl" (ie, the one who doesn't have sex..) always seems to win through (well, at least until the sequel at any rate...LOL).

 

Frankly, I think the "Torture Porn" phenomenon has led to far worse objectifications and sexualised violence of women than any of your "Texas Chainsaw Massacres" or "Nightmare on Elm Streets"... I went to see "Scar 3D" the other day, and frankly I was pretty disgusted by the incredibly lingering, sexualised torture of the teenage girls and felt the need to go home and have a shower after watching that. One woman, aged about mid-20s I reckon, actually got up and walked out the cinema after an especially charming scene where the killer cuts out a teenage girl's tongue in incredibly graphic detail; there was absolutely NO on-screen violence shown towards the killer's male victims at all.. It was a grubby, nasty piece of fukkin' trash, made all the worse by the 3-D effects, absolute fukkin' PURE mysoginy, I really am concerned about the male script-writer's attitudes towards young women to be honest....

That's what it is. Sex sales, and defiantly for the last 20 or so years it has done in these 'horror' movies.

That's what it is. Sex sales, and defiantly for the last 20 or so years it has done in these 'horror' movies.

 

With "Scar 3D" in particular it just seems, the younger and prettier and the more they bleed, scream, beg for their lives and cry, the better.... I found it even worse than films like "Hostel 2" or "Captivity" chiefly because of the clearly very young age of the on-screen female victims... The script-writer even goes so far as to make the point that the girls are 17, therefore underage (in the States...), it's all just a bit grubby really.. There's even another scene in which a young girl goes wandering around the forest wearing only panties, saying to her boyfriend who refuses to have sex with her "If you wont take my virginity, then I'll find someone who will" (I dont know of ANY girl or woman who would ever do something like that, unless it's in the sicko, pervy fantasies of male Hollywood scriptwriters of course...), needless to say, she ends up dead... This is just pure, vile titilation.. It was always pretty obvious in films like "Halloween", "Buffy" and "Friday 13th", that the "teens" were all about age 20 or over...LOL.

 

I dont really so much object to the use of sexuality in horror films, but there ARE ways of going about things that dont seem so nasty as this... The typical 80s slasher film was simply not as vile or unpleasant as "Scar" was, it was just a bit of 'stabby stabby' and that was it really.. I think also that if one is to look at films like "Martyrs", "The Ordeal", "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" and "Haute Tension", these are modern horrors that ALL use sexuality, but then do things in such a way within the text to completely dumfound all expectations of the genre...

 

If I was Rooney, I would be looking to perhaps compare and contrast a "typical" slasher or torture porn film with one which subverts the conventions of the genre like the ones I just mentioned.... "Haute Tension" I think is particularly a good one to go for, the questions this film raises about the role of women in Horror are pretty interesting I think...

Cheers for that Grimly. I'll e-mail the woman whose in charge of the media section of books in my library and see if she can get it in for me. Comparing slasher and torture porn films may be a good thing to look at too. I definitely think since the turn of the century in a lot of horror films women are just sex objects, and they go through an orderal in skimpy clothes for no reason. I mean, i'm not complianing (!) but there is no real point to it. It just seems that some pervy scriptwriter likes the idea.

 

What would be the alternate title for torture porn films too? Well, the less graphic title anyway, I don't think the examiner would be too keen on that vocab! :lol:

:lol: ^

 

I don''t know if you'd find it relevant, but practically most horror/thriller-porn slasher type films are written, produced and directed by men. :lol:

:lol: ^

 

I don''t know if you'd find it relevant, but practically most horror/thriller-porn slasher type films are written, produced and directed by men. :lol:

 

Yeah it's really useful, as it shows that feminism and sexism still exists in todays soceity, and that men are often portrayed as the dominat sex in horror films, or women are just used as sex objects. It's like in The Hills Have Eyes - the daughter gets raped and just screams, where as the guys try and fight the mutants. The 2nd one is a bit different, but that's because the women are military based.

What would be the alternate title for torture porn films too? Well, the less graphic title anyway, I don't think the examiner would be too keen on that vocab! :lol:

 

The official "movie term" is 'gorno' ^_^

Yeah it's really useful, as it shows that feminism and sexism still exists in todays soceity, and that men are often portrayed as the dominat sex in horror films, or women are just used as sex objects. It's like in The Hills Have Eyes - the daughter gets raped and just screams, where as the guys try and fight the mutants. The 2nd one is a bit different, but that's because the women are military based.

 

And as a result, noted exception 'Alien' has actually been cited in feminist writings/research.

What would be the alternate title for torture porn films too? Well, the less graphic title anyway, I don't think the examiner would be too keen on that vocab! :lol:

 

If it's a piece of academic research, how could they really object to the term if it's in the proper context...? :huh: You must be at least a Six Form College student, so surely using more adult terminology in the proper context cant be frowned upon by an examiner who should be familiar with the terms anyway....

 

I've not actually even heard the term "Gorno" before tbh, sounds to me like some attempt to try and soften the terminology and make it sound almost "cuddly" in a way....

 

Yeah it's really useful, as it shows that feminism and sexism still exists in todays soceity, and that men are often portrayed as the dominat sex in horror films, or women are just used as sex objects. It's like in The Hills Have Eyes - the daughter gets raped and just screams, where as the guys try and fight the mutants. The 2nd one is a bit different, but that's because the women are military based.

 

 

Feminism has been all but ignored or completely marginalised, which is the whole problem... The male-dominated media has managed to do quite a successful job of rendering Feminsim undesirable, even to women through linking it to Political Correctness and - shock, horror - Lesbianism.... The media have put about the ridiculous assumption that ALL Feminists are/were "man-hating dykes" who wanted to castrate all men... Er, well, that just is not borne out by the facts at all, as the vast majority of the most high-profile Feminists had male partners or were married.... :lol: Feminists weren't any more likely to be Lesbians than non-feminist women... Feminism didn't equate to anti-male any more than the Civil Rights movement equated to anti-white..... Feminists were/are merely pro-Woman and wanted to bring exploitation of women to the fore, and frankly, if you look at what's going on in the media and in the wider world with the traffic of young women particularly from Eastern Europe and Latin America into sexual slavery, well, dont they actually have a bloody good point....?

 

 

If it's a piece of academic research, how could they really object to the term if it's in the proper context...? :huh: You must be at least a Six Form College student, so surely using more adult terminology in the proper context cant be frowned upon by an examiner who should be familiar with the terms anyway....

 

I've not actually even heard the term "Gorno" before tbh, sounds to me like some attempt to try and soften the terminology and make it sound almost "cuddly" in a way....

 

I'm 2nd year at college. :lol: But it's just examiners are funny sometimes, some would have no problem marking it, whilst others would... is pretty PC.

Not sure if you've looked into it, the Final Girl theory is one to look into in retrospective.