Women of Horror
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.
Women of Horror
CSU 285
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.
Recommended Citation
Harrison, Andrew. "Women of Horror." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 9, 2012.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2012/oral-session-16/3
