Horror, unlike many genres around it, generally identifies the audience with a protagonist of female gender. Considering the target audience for this genre is young males (only just in front of young couples), this is a rather strange perspective for that audience to view from.
Continuing on form this point, not only are men placed into an opposite gender throughout the entirety of the film but also, they are placed in a position of weakness as they are hunted or tormented by the evil that shall inevitably kill off companions. Perhaps what film makers within this genre do to make up for the fact that the audience are in an opposite sight of gender, is to make that lead protagonist androgynous. This meaning that the lead female will have male characteristics etc. An example of which is within ‘Halloween’ (1978), the lead female: Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) had many characteristics about her that linked in with this theory. Even the character’s name herself could quite easily be given to a man. In conjunction with this she was matched with a heavy, un-sexual manly attire and in the climax, the ability to face and conquer the evil faced before her.
In relation to the previous point, Jeremy Tunstall (The Media in Britain 1983) conducted a lot of research into the representation of women within the media. He concluded that there were four main types of females shown within the media. He explained that the media emphasised there: domestic, sexual, consumer and martial nature. This is expressed in the Horror genre particularly, as within some texts I have studied, such as the ‘The Shining’, ‘Eden Lake’ and ‘Halloween’. All lead females have matched at least 3 of the 4 criteria set out in this research. For example in ‘Eden Lake’ (2008), the lead female: Jenny (played by Kelly Reilley), fitted the sexual, domestic and martial characteristics. She worked in a play-school (domestic), was newly engaged to her boyfriend and was looked upon sexually by the youths that then did torment her.
Looking at more detail into the sexual characteristic, it is a largely argued on point that horror films incorporate this value hugely into the films. Looking at ‘Halloween’ as an example, it is shown that all the female characters that die, are doing something sexual, whether that be the process of sex or the sexual teasing of the audience. Both of Laurie’s friends seem to fit with this as they both die during a sexual act. In fact this value is presented even at the very beginning of the film where the first female is brutally murdered with her top off after engaging in sex. This relationship between death and sex seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout the genre and largely it is the females that die because of it. Perhaps this is a conservative viewpoint, that the females that engage in sexual activities shouldn’t and therefore are punished and the ones that are seen as more virginal, such as Laurie – therefore she survives. It could be suggested that females within Horror and indeed all media have two perspectives to them: Virginal or Sexual, Sexual leading to their death.
In contrast to the way that women are viewed (stereotypically), men are seen in much higher positions of power within the media. However, within the Horror genre, they are seen to be somewhat useless and lumber some in helping the victims. Within ‘Halloween’ the police fail to track down the killer, to the point where the audience begin to mock them for their pathetic attempts. As well as this, research into the media suggests that men are shown to be dominant, strong, active, independent etc. This once again is absent in the Horror genre and in many cases they are killed off early (Eden Lake) or reduced to the threat itself (The Shining).
Research also suggested that men outnumber women on the screen 2:1, but once again within the Horror genre and following research on the three texts I have studied, women and men over all texts are shown equally and take over the roles mentioned in the previous paragraph. Horror seems to be going against all the conventions of usual media (stereotypes), but in retrospect to all the Horror films that have been made, it seems to have worked as it is one of the most successful genres in the cinemas to date.
Linking on from previous points made, ‘The Male Gaze’, is a theory supported heavily by theorists such as: Laura Mulvey in her famous essay: “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Where it is suggested that cinema puts the audience into the position of an ‘appraising heterosexual male’ by adopting technical camera strategies which present women as objects to be looked at and men as subjects who do the looking. The camerawork used ranges from POV (point of view shots) to the use of long shots etc. to fragment the body into parts to be looked at. But once again, horror seems to take this convention or theory and turn it on its head. As referred to before, the audience are being placed into a female protagonist viewpoint, which raises many issues over what the actual viewpoint in horror is.
Horror represents gender in a variety of ways and is argued upon hugely between theorists. One the one hand they could be seen as stereotypical, matching 4 core values and dying if they go against them, this could be seen as a somewhat conservative view point of Horror. In counter argument to this, some theorists suggest that Horror is the more progressive of all the genres and shows gender in a completely different light, as it is twisted by placing the audience in a strange viewpoint or by playing against normal stereotypes. The Horror genre has the capacity and ability to go against other genres conventions as it itself is so different and the audience expect to be put in these different positions, which raises the question of why, if the target audience is young males, do they enjoy being put in a female viewpoint that is subjected to torment?
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