Carol clover in men, women and chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male core target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?

Carol clover in men, women and chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male core target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?

It’s suggested that horrors are becoming or have become a progressive genre, while others say that is it merely conservative like other genres. During the course of this essay I will be trying to uncover whether or not the genre is a clear choice or if it is a mix between the two. To help illustrate the points I wish to make I will be using the films “The Shining”, “Eden Lake” and “Halloween”.
A way in which I can understand is by looking at the visibility of female characters. First I’ll look at Halloween, In Halloween there are less main male characters than women (approximately 5) you’ve got the main protagonist Laurie, her friends Linda and Annie, Judith Myers, the nurse and the babysitter. This is strange for this time as it was made in 1978 where you’d expect it to be quite in tune with the rest of the time period and have males dominating the numbers compared to females. In The Shining (1982) there are around 8 men which in contrast to the number of women are much more. There is only Wendy, Woman (who exits the bath tub, who you could class as two), the twin girls and the hotel secretary who make an impact in the film at all. This is very much keeping in turn that the horror genre certainly at this point is a conservative one. We move onto Eden Lake where there are only slightly more boys because of the group/gang. The women in the film are Jenny, Café woman (mother), Paige, Caring woman, the woman who slaps her child and Paige’s mother. As this film was made in 2008 and the fact that it is only slightly more males because of the gang, it shows that over the time that changes within society are now being slowly introduced into media texts such as film.
In the media usually women are seen as one (or more) of four roles: Domestic, Sexual, Consumer or Marital/familiar. In Halloween we look at the roles that they contribute to in the film. They are sex objects, domestic and familiar. This is because Annie and Linda are both sexually active teenagers creating a negative attitude towards women. Linda is shown during the film before and after her sexual encounter these are the only notable moments in which the film heavily features her this then classifies her as the sexual role. Annie is shown prancing around care-free in her underwear and then as she prepares to meet her boyfriend she is killed. Also during the film they are shown to make food and cook popcorn and to babysit which is usually a females’ job, Annie later in the film spills butter on her she then cleans it up further stereotyping her in to this domestic role. Annie also is the town sheriffs’ daughter meaning once again that she doesn’t have her own identity or has created her own identity she is merely just the sheriffs’ daughter. Her identity much like Judith Myers as being “the killers’” sister/victim has been formed through the relationship of another which in both these cases are women. There are no cases of “consumer” during this film although the 3 other roles have been used and rather extensively. In The Shining, the main woman is Wendy she is portrayed as a weak, feeble and domesticated woman her part was well played by the actress Shelley Duvall I found that she presented Wendy as you might expect from this hospitable environment, when she was shouted at by Jack on multiple times she held herself in such a recessive way that further enforced her role. On a few rare occasions she challenges this role and is seen dressed in overalls doing Jacks hotel maintenance work, which of course is a strange concept for a woman to be doing (in media texts). Wendy is also portrayed as a familiar having a role in the film directly linked with her relationship with being wife to Jack and mother to Danny. The woman from the bathtub introduces the sexual role to the film as she is objectified by Jack’s point of view when he enters room 237, we see her as a sexy, beautiful and young woman. These points therefore suggest that as three of the four roles have been fulfilled, society and time may go on this does not mean the horror genre does. Lastly on women’s role in the horror genre we apply it to the film Eden Lake. In this film we are introduced straight away to our main protagonist called Jenny, she is a school teacher who teaches the very young, they will have probably only been at school for a year and Jenny consequently complies with one of the roles a familiar she is defined by her relationship with the children giving the audience reason to believe that she is caring and emotional in her stereotypical job, it could be argued that her role is undermined by the fact that she is employed and not a housewife or domesticated. This role of being a familiar is further reinforced by her later in the movie when she accepts her boyfriend (Steve) engagement ring meaning that she wishes to marry him and be for example Mrs Steve. A few points in the film she could be viewed as being sexual, for instance we are put in the view of the gang and watch Jenny through some binoculars when she is wearing a bikini this is quickly reversed as she covers herself up and us as they audience are made to feel perverse. Jenny and Steve are also seen having foreplay but Jenny herself is not made out to be objectified by this. I found the character Paige in Eden Lake an interesting one in the way that she doesn’t have a role but has elements of a sexual one, the first confrontation between Jenny, Steve and the gang she remarks “you looking at my tits!” it’s clear to the audience that this isn’t the case and we question why she is trying to objectify herself towards Steve? Her role within the group is also a peculiar one she is reasonably passive but as seen from the quote I included she is aggressive towards the “outsiders”. At the end of the film Paige is seen to run away from Brett after she deems that enough is enough and her morals kick in after the horrific events, she is seen running and looking upset, distraught and for the first time looking weak which I find intriguing as although from the conventions in this film have been progressive it appears at this point it swiftly comes back to being conservative and putting women back in their “correct place” in the media.
The male gaze is another way in which we can analyse how women are represented in the media. In Halloween Laurie is seen as androgynous therefore she isn’t objected by men as she is “man-ish” in her clothing and her look, just by looking at her name it could be used for either a man or a woman. Because we as the audience don’t objectify her she doesn’t die in the film. Whereas Annie, Linda and Judith Myers are all objectified which results in their death when they attempt to/have had a sexual experience. In the shining throughout the film we identify with Wendy who like Laurie is androgynous, this is a good and useful technique used in horror film which forces the main target audience (Male 15-24) to identify with the masculine female character, this is strange to make your target audience identify with the opposite sex. Although at the end of each film they become the final girl where they take control of the situation and are the ones who deal with it, this then helps the audience recognise with the final girl rather than affecting their sexuality. As all the films have a final girl it could be perceived that the genre is progressive this could be considered to override the minority cases of the conservative objectification of women. Carol Clover exercised this point of view by saying that men are willing to identify with on screen females in horror films even when in fear and pain. She also states it’s important for there to be this identification instead of a male gaze.
Narrative issues underlying in the three films are that in Halloween the amount of deaths involving women outnumber the deaths to men 3:2 and only one of the men’s death is on screen, this continues with the deaths in the shining, then in Eden Lake the ratio of deaths of men to women is almost the opposite to Halloween this could be a resultant of the gang conflict and the leader Brett picking “the weak” off and some being killed by Jenny. The narrative doesn’t especially have a pattern across the films but is seen to become more progressive as time goes on.