Event Title

Women of Horror

Presenter Information

Andrew Harrison, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 285

Start Date

9-4-2012 4:00 PM

End Date

9-4-2012 5:00 PM

Student's Major

Theatre and Dance

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Heather Hamilton

Mentor's Department

Theatre and Dance

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

Horror films have often been labeled as being sexist and objective towards women. The analysts who have postulated on this topic have neglected the evolution of the heroine and even of the killer. The examination of women in horror films provides a new prospective of the role of females in society and their subsequent portrayal in the media. What has been neglected is how gender equality has progressed and translated to horror films. Heroines and female killers have gained in strength, intelligence, and power. This gradual change has a direct correlation with altered status of women in society. In horror films women have gone from men save them, to defending themselves, to now working alongside men and even having to save the men. One of the side effects of this progression is a change in terminology. The idea of a final girl: the heroine who remains standing at the end of the film. At the time, that was enough. As the films and the heroines have grown, survivor girl and even a survivor couple should be included in the vernacular. This project is a chronological study of the strides that have been made for gender equality, how the political and societal climate affects horror films and vice versa. It reapplies the analysis of horror scholars to account for the current status of women in society. Looking at the horror genre will open a discussion of the advancement of women and the struggle they have gone through to get here.