The male gaze dominates the film industry, and even more so the horror genre. Women are devastatingly underrepresented in the production of horror movies, with just 5.9% of horror directors being women from the years 1988-2017. Men create movies for other men, crafting films that represent male desires and visions. A key element of appealing to the male gaze is the misogynistic portrayal of women. In horror movies, this manifests as women depicted as helpless, passive victims and objects of desire or violence. Not only do the representations of women in horror movies show how men truly think of women, but they also create a self-fulfilling prophecy portraying women as deserving of violence and punishment.
Although the main elements of slasher films include hair-raising screams and brutal and bloody attacks, women disproportionately experience these acts of violence, especially compared to other R-rated movies in different genres. Violence against women is not only shown more often, but also for longer periods of time on screen. While deaths of male characters are obscured by fog or other obstacles, female deaths are much more graphic. The brutal murders of female characters depict the lead up, act of the killing, and a shot of the aftermath, burning the image of a brutalized woman into the viewer’s mind. Furthermore, the female scream is a staple of the horror genre, perpetuating the notion of an emotional, irrational, and helpless female.
While women’s murders and screams of terror may seem like a simple staple of the horror genre, they also have implications for women outside the big screen. Horror movies normalize violence against women and the idea of the female victim. Women are constantly shown as weak and helpless before the male villain, reinforcing the idea of the subordination of women against men.
Furthermore, the reasons for the violent deaths of female characters stand out compared to the often ambiguous disappearances of male characters. Women in horror movies are often punished for their promiscuity. As seen in the movies Halloween and Friday the 13th, each female victim is killed either directly before, after, or during sexual activity. This insinuates that sexually active women are deserving of punishment, and even further, death. Additionally, the murders of the women characters are often sexualized. For example, in the movie Psycho, the main female character, Marion, is killed in the shower. The scene shows a long shot of her bare, bloody body in the shower. Like the long, brutal depictions of women’s murders in the film, these tropes carry misogynistic messages stemming from the male gaze.
Similarly, another trend in horror movies revolves around rewarding women for their sexual and moral purity. Many horror films depict the “final girl” trope, which features a female character as the last person standing. The final girl trope is extremely common, and is featured in many of the most well-known slasher films, such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Throughout the film, the final girl stands out compared to other women. She’s portrayed as innocent, boyish, and virginal. She is rewarded for her purity by outlasting the other characters, yet she is also punished. Some argue that this punishment takes form in the final girl’s repeated confrontations with the villain, violent encounters, and long-lasting trauma, which can reflect women and other marginalized groups’ real life experiences.
It seems as though women in horror films can never win. Like expectations of women in real life, female characters are punished for both being too sexual and not sexual enough. It’s jarring and eye-opening to see the violent reality of the male gaze broadcasted on screen. As the saying goes, life imitates art, and the misogynistic representations of women on screen expose the versions of women that men want to see: women as helpless, brutalized, and morally perfect victims.
International Studies major with a passion for gossip and chai lattes.
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