Women In Horrors

[tamarag]

has anyone got any views on how the representation of women in horror movies has changed since the 70s? this could be in slasher, zombie, whatever...do u think they really have changed or just been made more active to satisfy feminists? any replies would be GREAT:p

[The STE]

Ignoring the fact that being more active IS changing, I think women in horror movies have had it better than the femenists would have us believe. Especially in the 70's, if you were a guy in a slasher movie, you were fucked. The survivor was always a girl. Sometimes a guy would also survive, but never by himself. Yes, one could argue that the surviving girl is always the one who never has sex and is all nice and semi-subserviant, but this would be ignoring the fact that 99% of the time, the people who are having the sex in the movie are acting either stupid or irresponsible about it.
Horror movies nowadays usually have the sub-Sigorney Weaver badass empowered lady type, and while I'm not saying there shouldn't be any badass women in movies, the character(s) is usually cookie cutter and I'm starting to get a little tired of Michelle Rodriguez.

Just be glad SFF isn't here or this would turn into a thread of her bitching up a storm about the vast male conspiracy against anything with ovaries.

[Shazbut]

I just simply compare the screaming, terrified girly of the 50's with the assertive, almost androgenous, Ripley's of today. (Ironically, an early draft of the script had Ripley as a man).

It's always been about good vs evil - and the hero always won.

Up to the 70's, women were still screaming and hiding behind the men but I think we began to see a slight shift, in that the hero was not going to experience a happy ending. It was better to have a negative ending to a film as opposed to good getting the better of evil.

I dont think the kick ass females today are there to satisfy the feminists - I think it's just a shift in mindset. But regardless of the likes of Sigourney Weaver being able to give us a feasible *female* action hero, we still maintain many men as the iconic hero - our Bruce Willis's, etc.. It just makes a nice change having the woman doing the action bit.

Apart from Sigourney, Geena Davies in "Long Kiss Goodnight" is another prime example.

[Zero]

check out Carol Clover's book _Men, Women and Chainsaws_ - very detailed and smart book about gender and horror!