The document discusses gender representation in horror films compared to other media. It notes that in most media, women are often portrayed as sexual objects or in emotionally-oriented, passive roles while men are typically heroes portrayed in active roles. However, in horror films, women can take on more active roles as protagonists, sometimes even as the "final girl" who survives until the end or defeats the monster. While horror films still show lower visibility of women overall, they present a more respected portrayal of women than other media, with females sometimes portrayed as the true heroes.
2. Introduction
In the Media we generally see gender as being very
stereotypically presented which can mean women being
presented through media as ‘objects’ mainly sexually and
emotionally orientated. Throughout the media they are
presented to be beautiful and much more emotional compared
to men who are stereotypically seen as being much more tough
and less emotional. They can be represented as part of a group
such as a group of friends or a family, they tend to work and
think of part of a team, they take the role of a helper they are
generally the leader.
3. Men are usually the heroes in typical media forms, they
tend to take on the active roles whereas women tend
to take on the passive roles, and there is a definite lack
of female role models compared to the amount of male
role models. We know what types of relationships men
have with the characters, as their roles are made out to
be a lot more active, we focus on their actions a lot
more.
4. Visibility in the media has always been an issue when
thinking about gender representations. About 20 years
ago the visibility of men to women in media was men
outnumbering women 2:1. Proving males are much
more dominant within the media.
Women can be seen as sexual objects, in media we are
often presented with women in the nude or wearing
revealing clothes whereas we never really see men in
the nude, showing the difference between male and
female presentation.
5. The presentation of female visibility in horror films is
different compared to other media forms. The main
female protagonists can turn into the final girl and are
therefore present until the end of the film. The visibility
of women in horrors do still however remain quite low
as more often than not they are alone and not working
as groups which they often do in other media forms.
6. Age can affect the presentation of women. We tend to
see all variety of males: age, class, race whereas we
tend to only see young females of white race, who are
considered to be young pretty and sexy. Many film stars
who are male tend to be a mixture of young and old.
We never really have any older women actresses who
are exceptionally well known.
7. In advertising, A women's body if often exploited in a
sexual way to sell products using the ‘male gaze’ which
is where the viewer is put into place of the males eye,
usually to objectify women or to identify with the male.
However, more recently we have seen changes in this,
men have become objectified in media such as adverts.
For example; in perfume adverts men are often seen as
sexual objects, i.e: Calvin Klein adverts. A compelling
argument could be as a female viewing this advert, are
we meant to be viewing it using a female gaze.
8. Horror, unlike many other forms of media, shows
gender in a much more ‘respected’ way, women can be
portrayed as being more active than passive, and their
passive roles are normally conveyed in other forms of
media. In certain horrors they can even be seen as the
heroes, or the characters that save the day.
9. The final girl normally lasts to the end of the film,
either by defeating the monster or actually turning into
the monster. This type of female strength and anger is
not usually presented in other forms of media. The
males are mainly the aggressive types, stereotypically.
However, in horror films you do normally have a male
protagonist, they generally get defeated and the female
takes over. There tends to be three groups for male and
females in films; the useless characters, the hero and
the monster, gender be represented through any of
these categories
