Representation of gender

To what extent do you think horror’s representation of gender challenges dominant representation?

Representation of gender in media texts has changed a lot throughout the last century, women have become more independent and have begun to live their own lives without having to play stereotypical roles such as doing chores or being sexual objects. This idea of women changing roles has both been supported and rejected by different media texts. Jeremy Tunstall argued that women were shown to be domestic workers who cooked and cleaned, sexual objects for men to view, consumers who liked to shop, or marital women such as housewives. These roles are very obviously shown to the audience however male roles are not usually mentioned in media texts. There are also problems with visibility; in a lot of cases men outnumber women in media texts, “in 1992 research demonstrated that on screen men outnumbered women 2 to 1.”Women are shown in adverts to be unemployed, house-dwelling consumers, though less so than in the past. Some people argue that we are moving backwards, giving examples such as comparing the newer character Lara Croft with Ripley from Alien and how these characters are shown differently in a sexual way. In this essay I will be looking at multiple media texts which show different views towards this idea, including three horror films which are may give some information on the change in women’s roles. I think that overall horror has a very broad view of this change of roles for women, I think that what I have seen through the three films that I have studied can be interpreted as women being punished for changing roles, but the final girl can both enhance this idea by making the girl go through all of these horrific events or fight against this idea by saying that she comes out alive whereas everyone else dies. My thoughts are that women are being punished for changing roles in the horror genre, this is especially thrown out there with the shining, because it is obvious that Wendy is taking Jack’s role of looking after the hotel, whereas in the other films these differences can be discrete and if they are present then the whole idea of punishing can be challenged by the death of other characters in the film.

The male gaze is an idea which has been brought forward by a theorist called Laura Mulvey, she believes that “much commercial cinema puts the spectator into the position of an appraising heterosexual male” by using certain camera techniques to present women not as people but as sexual objects. Putting the audience in the shoes of the male protagonist by using point of view shots which are often long shots which tilt up the body of the woman certainly supports the idea of the male gaze. Examples such as Lara croft and Buffy have been brought forward to support the argument that even if the main protagonist is a woman then they can still be shown as a sexual object. John Berger thought that women see themselves through a “loop of masculinity” which is to put themselves into a man’s point of view when they look at how they are dressed, how their hair is, etc. Relating the male gaze to the three films that we studied does make it very obvious that this idea is reasonably accurate. In Halloween there is a significant link between people being murdered being sexually active, this doesn’t just happen to the girls, one guy gets killed in the process but the male gaze does apply to those killings. The male gaze cannot really be applied to the shining; there is only one part which really relates to this theory. There is one scene which involves a POV shot from Jack looking at the bathtub woman, this is a very significant camera shot which is often used when trying to use the male gaze. Apart from that one scene the male gaze cannot be applied to this film, although it does apply very well to the idea of “the final girl”. Through watching the film Eden Lake I have found that there is one scene close to the beginning of the text which shows a male gaze view. After the couple set up on the beach, Brett starts looking at Jenny with binoculars. Here we see another POV shot which is very iconic towards the use of male gaze in films. When pointing out factors which relate to male gaze you could also mention the clothes which Jenny is wearing, she wears a very girly dress, comparing this with some of the other character in other films such as Wendy from the shining. Wendy is wearing work overalls which is a much less feminine form of clothing compared to a dress, this can connote to a higher use of the male gaze in Eden Lake compared to the shining which is fairly obvious as you progress through the film. I think that through these films you can see that the male gaze does play a part (or at least the ones which I have studied) and that it is shown to be a bad thing to look at a woman and see her as a sex object, Laurie in Halloween survives because she isn’t sexually active and is not identified as part of the male gaze. Jack in the Shining is humiliated by a women in the bathroom when she transforms from an attractive woman to an old hag, and Brett in Eden Lake is thought to be some sort of a paedophile as he stares at Jenny through his binoculars. I think that the use of the male gaze to show women as sex objects is challenged in the horror genre to show that this kind of behaviour is sick.

Carol Clover in “men, women and chainsaws” argued that within the horror film media there is often a “final girl” this girl is often the main protagonist or a different important character that plays a key role in the narrative. The idea of this final girl is that she is the one who is left alive at the end of the film for a particular reason, this can be shown through a character like Laurie in Halloween, and she is left alive because she is more aware of what is going on. The final girl often has more masculine properties towards her representation in the narrative; this makes it easier for a male audience to identify with this character and therefore attracting a higher amount of male viewers. Wendy in the shining is another good example of the “final girl”, she isn’t the only character to survive in the film but she does fight back against Jack compared to everyone else. Eden Lake has a different example of the final girl; Jenny obviously plays this role because she escapes, kills a few people in the gang and is scarred in the process. The general idea of someone escaping from this type of scenario would make someone think that a male character would play this role, killing people for revenge, getting transformed from a pretty woman to a mud covered monster. This transformation is especially emphasised with a POV shot after she has killed one of the gang, Jenny is looking into a mirror at herself thinking about what she has become. The difference between these films are the uses of the final girl, in Eden lake Jenny dies at the end which challenges the properties of the final girl because she does seem to contain all of them except that key idea of her surviving. From studying these films and looking closely at the female characters it is obvious that the idea the final girl is evident in each of these horror films and that it does range from mere survival to taking revenge on the monster, and we can also see the abstract example of Jenny’s death. I think that these films use the idea of the final girl in a progressive way; the creators of these films almost rewarded the female characters for being masculine which might promote the change of roles for women into a masculine form.

From looking at these films you can see that the use of both the male gaze and the final girl are evident, but I think that the idea of the final girl is more effective. Although the male gaze is used, it is used in a way to show that it is a bad thing to see women as sex objects, through the deaths or humiliation of characters. Obviously through the use of these events it is shown that females are higher above males, this sort of behaviour is something to be frowned upon and therefore putting the male characters in the wrong. The final girl is used very effectively in each of these films, the characters playing these parts are very obvious and most of them survive except from Jenny, but you could argue that the only reason Jenny dies is because she is overcome by 3 people, in which case practically anyone would be killed. I think that the use of the final girl in each of these films shows that the film creators are going for a progressive view of this change of roles for women, that the old sexist view of women as sex objects or feeble characters who can’t live without their husbands is on its last moments and that this idea is moving in the completely opposite direction. The female characters in this film show that men are weaker than women and that maybe the whole sexist idea could possibly be moving towards men being the weak feeble characters who are the people to be frowned upon.