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Are slasher movies demeaning to women?
Posted by Arashmania • 7/24/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: anatomy, ethics in the movies, horror and slasher films, hostel, philosophy, women studies
I was watching the documentary "Going to Pieces" about horror films and that question came up. I personally don't think they are, but I am open to hear opinions on the topic.
Although the horror genre is not my favorite, my latest post deals with ethics in movies like Hostel and Anatomy
arashworld.blogspot.com/2008/07/hostel-vs-anatomie-dangers-of-world.html
User Comments
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I think they can make women seem a clueless and helpless. I'm not realy big on them at all.-
Add to that hotter than average, with a tendency to either lose their clothes or wear sprayed-on apparel. Or, as in the case of one of these examples, very wet apparel, most of which has been lost.
I know they're spoofs, but I'd say that the "Scary Movie" series got it about right.
(See www.imdb.com/title/tt0175142/ , IMDB)
Depends on what's meant by "demeaning," I suppose.
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I love slasher movies - is it demeaning? well, only if you really feel demeaned by a totally fictitious movie, I suppose.
I get a kick out of slasher movies where the dumb helpless women get knocked off first, and the strong women end up saving the day. But that's more recent, I suppose.
I mean, there really are people out there like that, that run all flamboyantly, scream, cry, and utterly fall to pieces or are otherwise worthless in the area of common sense and personal defense. They deserve to be monster food in these movies! -
No - Just the ones with the sleep over parties where they're all in panties.
After all, those are the kinds men like the best. -
Sleepover parties, or slasher movies?
Heh. -
Uhhh...
Yes, those two can be confused with one another. lol -
No, silly, which "ones" to men prefer best, sleepovers or slasher movies?
Boy that emotiacon withdrawal has you bad! -
Yah… my head is all foggy...
I can't think properly...
I'm irritable!!!
FREAKN A!!!
@_@
Ummm...ok.
Which do men prefer?
A slasher movie with sleepovers.
That one is easy.
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The documentary also pointed out the fact that usually the sexually promiscuous (often blonds) get killed off early, while the "good" and "decent" girls survive. that would be a quite conservative view ...
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Oh yeah, the morals of the story are pretty heavy handed in a lot of those movies.
The girls are making out in the back of a car and wham! Monster food, while the guy gets away
Then again, there aren't all that many reasons to wander off into dark, secluded places alone or almost alone than sexual promiscuity, so it may just be a matter of convenience, movie wise.
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I read an academic article (the final girl) which argues that horror films actually empower women.
www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/final_girl.html
I also listed having a girl as your protagonist as one of my 10 commandments of horror. Women and children are viewed as being vulnerable. This is why a film like The Omen is so scary when it portrays a child who is pure evil. This is also why women tend to be the protagonists - it is easier to relate to the powerlessness of a woman due to the stereotypes of weaker sex, fairer sex, etc. My reasons were not academic though, I just like seeing girls running around in lots of fake blood.
Hostel is not a good example of the horror genre as a whole. Hostel is considered part of the torture porn or gorno craze. True to style, Hostel is a horror teen movie that has scenes of torture and buckets of blood merely for the sake of having torture and buckets of blood. Horror films typically provide social commentary through some metaphor - an aspect that traces its origins to George A Romero's methods in his Night of the Living Dead.
Romero himself is critical of the gorno sub-genre and Hostel in particular, because he feels it is devoid of metaphor.
You have a great blog!-
Thanks for the insight and genre clarifications. Oh yeah, and thanks for the praise!!!
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if your referring to Scream P1 yes if your referring to I Spit On Your Grave then no.. lol -
As a womanist, I have to say of course YES they make women look idiotic, helpless and very unstable. When in reality women tend to be the most calm in high tensity situations because we have less testost. However, to be fair; men are often portrayed as the "scary" person in the first place. So women are shown as the bimbo victems, and men are shown as the crazy killers. I mean, honestly either way it sucks.-
Actually, in the most popular horror franchises the same woman repeatedly survives the onslaughts of the antagonists (Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, etc). Women in horror are generally portrayed as survivors who can deal with difficult if supernatural conditions, so your claim that they make women look idiotic is unfounded.
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People save the woman in the end to gain the favor of their audience. During the movie the woman is usually flailing about, falling all over, and usually with NO BRA. Unfounded? I think not, buddy.
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And on average more men get slaughtered than women.
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Clearly, you are not familiar with the horror genre so your ignorance is excused.
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YO! No need to call me ignorent. Sorry I don't spend all my time watching horror flicks. This forum is to state opinions, and that's mine. So chill. Geez, horror film-nerds are so SENSITIVE!!! Lol.
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It's not name-calling. Ignorant means that you don't know. By your own admission, you don't spend your time watching horror films, hence you hold an uninformed opinion about the portrayals of women in horror films. And you admitted it.
"The final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims (sex, narcotic usage, etc). She sometimes has a unisex name (e.g. Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney). Occasionally the Final Girl will have a shared history with the killer. The final girl is the "investigating consciousness" of the film, moving the narrative forward and as such, she exhibits intelligence, curiosity, and vigilance."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Girl
That hardly seems demeaning to me, but then again I am a chauvinist. -
I said I don't spend ALL my time. But I've seen a lot. The Halloween movies, Elm street, Scream movies, the Hitchcock films, a lot of foreign films. I know they have some twisted endings and such. But from a woman's stand point (and I saw that other people said the same) women tend to be portrayed as a little flimsy during the movie. Since u don't have a vagina...maybe YOUR ignorence is keeping u from seeing the light.
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Last time I checked opinions were formulated with a brain and not with a vagina.
I have provided you with links. You may peruse them at your leisure and see why my opinion holds more weight than yours.
Ironically, you list some of the exact films which portray women as heroes. Or sheroes. Whatever. -
Ah, but by your own admission a feminine woman will not work (or is not credible?!) as the survivor in a horror film. Why did Sigourney Weaver have to shave her head and run around in a little tank top, flexing, to kick some alien booty with a big gun? -
Because Alien is a sci-fi flick and not a slasher film. In sci-fi and related sword and sandle epics, women are typically portrayed as men with breasts. Red Sonja is a classic example of a sword and sandle epic which features the Amazonian woman you refer to.
The topic refers to slasher films. A slasher film is a brand of horror film where there is a psychopath (typically middle-aged man) who kills a bunch of normal people (typically teens). Ultimately, the scenario ends in a final girl situation, where the final girl is one of the teens who is typically feminine in the traditional sense of the girl next door.
Apples and oranges, but a good point nonetheless. It is true that the final girl typically has to adapt by becoming tougher and meaner than she ordinarily would be, but this progression is typically shown in a slasher flick. I don't feel it is accurate to say that the final girl is not feminine or acts in an unfeminine way. All the classic slashers, from Psycho to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Friday the 13th to Halloween, have distinctly feminine final girls.
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Good question. I'm a big fan of 70's grindhouse movies, and even though they were really brutal, the characters were very innocent, minus the killer of course. I don't mean to sound chauvinistic by saying this, but there is one common stereotype that could be degrading. The girls who never get away have big breasts and can't run as fast, and that one girl who always escapes at the end has no breasts, and so she has an unfair advantage. However, a slasher film wouldn't be worth watching if we didn't know exactly how it was going to play out. My favorite is a movie called Pieces, and it is absolutely hilarious and really grimy at the same time. The perfect combination.-
Pieces is crap. I love it. I should review it for my blog.
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Personally, I hate women in horror movies. They always fall down and it's unbelievable how they can beat up a stronger-than-normal man.
Or better yet, after they actually knock the killer down, why the hell aren't they jumping up and down on his throat to kill him?
In fact, I hate how no matter who it is, they can run away from the bad guy and the killer still catches up to them by walking!
timesobserver.blogspot.com-
In the slasher tradition, a woman typically combats and beats the protagonist. This is how Freddy's Dead concludes.
"Both Maggie and Freddy end up in hand-to-hand combat against one another after Freddy tries to earn Maggie's sympathy. Maggie continues to battle Freddy, enraged by her knowledge of what he has done. Eventually, Maggie stabs Freddy in the stomach with his own glove, and then sticks a pipe bomb in his chest, causing him to explode. Maggie manages to evade the blast and tells both Doc and Tracy that Freddy is dead. This is the first movie in the Nightmare series to end without hinting that Freddy may still be alive."
Oh oops. Spoiler
I love women in horrors. -
Flamingpoodle, I do love horror movies though. But I just wish they can make the woman or girl more believable.
timesobserver.blogspot.com
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No, they are demeaning to society as a whole.-
Please motivate?
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I think theyr'e more demeaning to people in general. It's sad how many people watch this kind of junk...personally I have nothing against violence if it's plot necessary, but violence just for violence's sake and graphic at that just makes the whole race seem very neanderthal. -
no...their entertainment imho -
I saw this one called Sasquatch (i think), about a man who was in a wheelchair and was staying next door to these vacationing college girls. All of the girls got eaten by this big foot thing, but not the man in a wheelchair. I mean come on, even the guy in a wheelchair outran the thing. But the girls with big heavy breasts had no chance! -
Remember that Friday the 13th movie that came out and when it was the black girl's turn to get killed she put up a good fight, THEN she got killed. Now that's what I like. (I think it was the Jason series) I've seen so many.
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