Does Gender Impact The Kind of Horror You Like
 

Hi,

I was wondering, does anyone feel like their gender impact the kind of horror you like? Although this is probably aimed more towards women, I mean both ways, so do you feel like you don't like slashers because as a woman you find them mysogenistic or any guys don't like Gothic horror (Interview With a Vampire) because the romance element in it is too strong.
Or is your gender ever commented when you mention the fact that you like horror or it's certain subgenres?
For example, a few times people have told me I look like a horror fan and by me being a guy in my early 20s, they expect me to love slashers, body horror etc but I never felt like any of my tastes were influenced by me being a guy.

I don't think Gender impacts my viewing.

Although, I'm not sure that I'd want to see something like I Spit On Your Grave with a male lead getting raped by other men.

As far as being gender specific. Typically guys like Horror movies and women don't. That is of course a complete generalization, but I've taken a young lady or two, to a movie before and had her say you'd probably rather see "some Chainsaw movie" instead of "Dirty Dancing 7: Latin Love in Cuba". And if I say yes, I get, "ugh, typical guy".

Also most normal guys like Slasher movies. I can't think of any friends from high school who didn't like Freddy or Jason, Michael Myers or Leatherface in some way, shape or form.

If you didn't you were probably the 15 year old kid whose parents wouldn't let him see anything rated higher than G or PG. I just felt sorry for those guys.

I'm female, almost 36 years old... I don't think it has THAT much of an influence, except... well, I'll get to that in a minute :)

I always liked the gory slasher stuff, I was never bothered by nudity - I never cared much for "Interview with the Vampire", even though the movie came out when I had the perfect age for it.

Buuut... I have to admit that the anti-hero has a certain effect on me. In real life, I am absolutely not into "bad boys", but in fantasy land where safety and security and all those nice things never come into consideration, some of the horror movie villains can be pretty attractive.

As a little girl, I had the biggest crush on Vincent Price, and I still think that many of the characters he played has a sort of romantic quality to them, even if they were villains. Oh man, his portrayal of Roderick Usher... daydream material :D

And although I HATE that whole Twillight/cute vampire thing, some of those early vampires certainly did have a romantic quality too... I'm thinking of Bela Lugosi and Christoper Lee here.

No impact here as a 21 year old female. Although, my dad and I would watch movies together when I was little. He would take me to see the newest SciFi and horror movies. He also showed me the ones that he loved growing up. I also have always liked villians in movies and I would root for them at times, especially monsters. I am like Mrs. Bickerman(Betty White) in Lake Placid, "I'm rooting for the crocodile.I hope he swallows your friends whole". So I think it stems back to my dad introducing me to these films and ever since then I have always being more into horror and SciFi. :)

As far as subgenres go: I like monster movies, slashers & serial killers, body horror. (especially films from the 1980s), satanic/demons, some b-horror & horror comedies.

I have gotten a lot of surprise from people when they realize my interest and love of these films, I guess because I am female. My boyfriends digs it. We watch movies together all the time.

I don't think that gender really has an influence. If it does, the influence is minimal. I also don't agree with the generalization that women don't like horror movies, but men do. Actually, I think in reality an equal or greater number of women like horror movies (than males). I think that that generalization is an older, stereotypical view of things (no offense). Personally, (I am a male) I like all types of horror movies (except torture porn, such as Hostel or Human Centipede) with slashers and gothics being about equal. Also, I don't think slashers are sexist, anyone who thinks that must have been sleeping during the film. The reason being that nearly all men that are in slashers are killed (often more brutally than women). While, most often the final survivor is often a tough, independent woman (for example, the characters of Sydney in Scream or Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street). Ultimately, I believe that gender has little to no influence on the type of films watched and that there are an equal or greater number of women who like horror movies (compared to men).

I think I like a little bit of everything, from the dark and violent to the camp and cheesy so I don't think it has much impact. Lets be honest here, and this is something that probably most men wont want to accept, but if you are a guy watching horror or action movies (widely regarded as the two most 'manly' movie genres) you have to accept that you have watched and probably enjoyed a large proportion of homoerotic cinema.... I'm 32, so I grew up watching mostly 80's and early 90's action/ horror which is probably the most prolific era for gay subtext that most kids my age growing up were completly oblivious to at the time. Lost Boys, Nightmare on Elm Street II, Top Gun, Interview with the Vampire, Commando, Over the Top... Topless, well oiled men, Phallic imagery everywhere, physical domination, and plenty of man on man action.... Pretty much sums up alot of the stuff I grew up watching. :eek:

Going by the movie stereo types, yes, the movies I see mostly correspond to my gender. But type of horror movies, I don't think so. I haven't seen any stats on ratio of males/females that see war, action, sci-fi, documentaries on history, etc, but I assume there is one. I don't tend to want to go see something like “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”, but loved When Harry Met Sally and Terms of Endearment.

I also have no desire to see Vampire Diaries or Twilight. Generally speaking, one could say that's gender related. But I liked the TV series 'Being Human', which probably isn't much different than Twilight. I don't think I'd hate them (Twilight type), just looking for something I think would have more interesting ideas, substance, meaning to me, as opposed to pure 'soap'.

I was into gothic horror, or classics, when I was young; then a phase into general slashers and the 'jump out of the closest' shocks, but that faded. That changed into looking for 'more substance' (again). But I don't think gender is related there.

Hmm... I have to be honest, I disagree, but that's based on personal experience (as a female myself). The reactions I run into from other woman again and again as a horror fan are very negative. And when I finally do meet a woman who says she likes horror, it's almost always the very light stuff (no gore), OR it turns out she means Twilight and the like.

Gender, per se, doesn't have much of an influence on what type of horror someone watches. This is actually a problematic question as it is extremely heteronormative. I also don't agree with the generalization that women don't like horror as much as men. I think it's just generally assumed that women don't like horror, without anyone actually asking them. It's also important to remember that the plural of anecdotal isn't data so just because a lot of the women you've met don't enjoy horror, it doesn't mean it applies to the larger population (not saying that anyone is, just saying this in general).

However, just like with everything, preference is different for everyone and gender doesn't always have much to do with it. A lot of people don't like to watch movies with women getting raped, beaten, stalked and murdered (so pretty much nearly every horror movie). I don't think it's necessary that horror movies look like pornography, nor do I think rape is ever necessary for most horror movies. The way women are treated in horror is ridiculous, problematic, formulaic and unoriginal- this holds true no matter what your gender, it's all the way you think and your preference.

(not only am I a fan of horror but I also study gender, psychology and sociology)

I actually think it would be interesting if someone did a research study in psychology on this subject to determine if more men like horror than men. Personally, as I mentioned, I don't think it is the case, but it would be interesting to see some statistics to back up or possibly refute my claim (that women and men enjoy horror about equally).

I completely agree with this as well because my anecdotal evidence contradicts Kandarian Demon's, for instance (no offense). From my experience, I actually know more women who love horror movies than men. Thus, our two experiences are completely different and it is unlikely, if not impossible for both claims to be true. That is why I think, as I mentioned, that there should an empirical research study to investigate these different claims.

It kind of is (and I say this as someone who definitely do not fit into the heteronormative box in any way - trust me LOL), but all of us, male or female, are influenced by what we are taught, even if these things aren't a natural part of our psyche. I am not suggesting that woman, by nature, do not like horror movies, but I am suggesting that a lot of them have been raised and influenced in a way that will make a great number of woman dislike it. Hope that makes sense...

That is of course true, and also - a lot of people tend to say what they think it expected of them, because "we" all want to fit in. This is true for women AND men.

If we have been programmed to think that certain things are not manly or ladylike, we will often pretend not to do them or like them even if that's not really the truth - well, I wouldn't, but a lot of people would. We might even assume that these stereotypes are true without doing our own "research".


Well, to be honest... I don't think that torturing a man or chopping him into little pieces is in any way better than raping a woman (I'm not saying that's what you think, btw). There are certain movies of the torture porn kind that I personally do not enjoy watching, but my limits are my limits no matter what the genders of the characters are.

However if someone DOES enjoy that type of movies, well, then it's still only acting after all, and I think that if brutality towards women is not to be accepted but it's ok if it's done to a man - not only is that very far from "equal rights", but it's also kind of labelling women as "the weaker sex that needs protection".

Just my opinion of course... I actually find this conversation really interesting :)

It makes a lot of sense from a psychology standpoint. Its socialization. That is the only reason we have these "gender specific" activities engraved in people's minds because we were taught that way.I know that I was taught different. That is why I think my dad's influence played such a big role is why I generally like things that are stereotypical male activities like watching horror films and playing video games.

I'm not a big fan of gender stereotypes. That being said one could make an argument that a woman would identify more with female characters than a male might, so when watching women raped, tortured, killed, etc., a woman might have a more personal and visceral reaction. Where there is misogyny, a woman might react differently that a man as she identifies with the victim.

I can't stand exploitation, and maybe that's because I'm a woman... But my fiancé isn't a fan of exploitation either... And he's a guy, so...

People can make an argument either way as to weather or not gender dictates what One watches - I think it's more about your personal genre tastes and what characters you identify with. I have very few friends who like horror movies in general - In terms of movie genre stereotypes I have to deal with it's the assumption that because I have boobs I must like tripe such as Dirty Dancing or Pretty Woman... That bothers me more than people who find it "interesting" that I love horror.

I don't know... I'd say it probably depends on who that man is.

Most people I meet online assume I'm a guy because of the things I'm in to.

As a kid I loved Dr Who, Star Trek and action movies. Growing up I started to watch more and more horror/thrillers and now I'll watch anything, slasher, rape revenge.. it doesn't matter.

I've always liked horror/thriller books and as a teenager I spent a long time researching serial killers, trying to get inside their head and understand them.

Around our house we have freddy's glove, the phantasm ball, the hellraiser cube and other things.

I've actually been completely categorized into horror by everyone I know, "oh they won't enjoy that it's not horror".

I am also a big anime fan and I love card craft and baking.

Going by the research I could gather the percentage of women enjoying horror films is very similar to men. However, this isn't really the case with women admitting to it or going to cinema to see a horror film, with some women actually claiming they're aware that they're not supposed to like horror films and so they don't advertise their love of the genre. I do think a lot of the stuff we think is caused by gender is caused by the pressure society puts on us to perform what is expected of our gender.

However, it does seem like women are more likely to like Gothic and suspense based horror as compared to men preferring slasher and body horror.

Does anyone ever feel pressured to like/dislike certain genre films because of their gender? As a guy the one thing I can say is a certain bias against liking rom coms that comes from other men.

Personally, I'll watch pretty much anything horror that seems interesting. Which is quite different to me in real life - I absolutely abhor mysogyny and ill-treatment of women in real life. To the point where I find it difficult to tolerate most male company for too long.

Perhaps that is part of the reason that I find horror films that contain sexual violence (either implied or overt) the most disturbing. But that is part of the thrill of horror for me - to find content that really pushes your own personal boundaries and confronts you with things that disturb you in real life. Confronting one's own fears in a relatively safe way, knowing that it's "just a movie". However see the same thing on the TV news and my reaction is much different.

I'm a girl and I watch most types of horror movies. Slashers are my favorite, which is more stereotypical for guys to like I guess. I just love the deaths, they're my favorite part. My least favorite type would probably be ghost movies.. I just don't really like them. But I still watch them anyway.

I love slashers, but I really love ghost movies too. Those types of movies are the most likely to scare me (ghost movies). my least favorite would be torture porn, I always thought the genre was generally poor (although there are some,very few, good films in the genre, such as the first Saw film, although it is perhaps the lightest of the torture porn films).

Negatory. And quite honestly thats like asking female pizza fans if they all prefer vegetable toppings.... cause that should appeal to them. Applying sexist stereotypes to a fan base is not really an accurate way to learn about consumer preferences.

There is a difference here though. No-one criticises a girl if she gets a meat feast pizza but there is a certain social stigma to do with women and horror, especially violent, gory, sexual horror. Women are expected to dislike it or at least be the terrified, squealing girl clinging onto her man's arm. The question is not really whether biological gender affects taste in horror cinema but whether the way society expects you to perform within your gender affects the way you behave and your tastes.

I have never thought that because I know multiple women who like horror movies. Honestly, I think more women like horror movies than is assumed. Additionally, I have never met a woman who responds to horror movies the way you describe (this is not to say that I don't know any women who dislike horor just that they don't respond the way you described).

I think that's probably because we tend to associate with people who share our interests, so if you meet women who like horror they'll stick in your head. I do agree that the stereotype isn't correct, but I think its still out there, I've met a lot of women who didn't like horror films. Also, just by going to cinema on a Friday night I've heard more women squealing than I thought possible.

Most of the women I know do not like horror movies, though I have known a very few exceptions.

I myself love horror movies, but remember, I am not a chick!

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