Gender Roles In Horror Films

Gender Roles in Horror Films

Before we can begin to discuss gender roles in horror films we need to establish the reason behind horror films. A horror film is created to scare the life out of an audience. People have a strong and almost grotesque desire to be brought to the brink of total fear without the real possibility of being in danger. With the help of bad lighting and even worse music scores a horror film is packed with intensity and gradual emotional build-up that eventually has the viewer gasping for air when they suddenly see the flash of a blade that comically, they actually knew was coming. Horror movies have also been titled “Slasher” movies. You never see the villain using a gun or a blunt object to do their dirty deeds. Deaths by a gunshot or a 15 pound rock are too quick and leave no opportunity for screaming. The weapon of choice of every villain in these movies are usually whatever the audience would like least to be met with; a butcher knife, a meat hook, or a chainsaw. All weapons of choice usually tie into blue collar work as if to say any one of these everyday workers could go home after work with their tools and carve up your family.  Horror movies are easy to produce. The storyline is almost always the same; an evil villain who at one point was traumatically bullied by the same type of people they set out to kill. The main point in all horror films is simple; be careful of who you hurt, be nice to everyone and don’t ever take advantage of a female.

The male roles in horror films, both villain and victim are completely chauvinistic. The villains are looked at to be big, scary, larger than life, strong and man-handling. They have a “super human” ability to endure amass pain; gunshots, stabbings, electrocutions and burns. These villains have absolutely no feelings. They are portrayed as “rapists” who are always looking to capture, embarrass and torture women. The Villains also tend to capture their target along with or in front of their boyfriends or a male who has a love interest with the woman. Doing so ties the male viewers into having to think about what they would do if faced with that same situation, which is, let’s be honest, one of the most horrible things imaginable. People are petrified about having to witness a rape or mutilation of someone that they love and care about. Once again, for some reason, our society lives to think about these gruesome situations and loves to be pushed to the brink of complete fear. These villains in horror films or “slasher” films never have the audience feeling bad or sorry for them; they are depicted as pure evil, unable to feel human emotion or pain and willing to rape and kill anyone of us at any time.

The male victims in horror films are always the popular high school football jocks. Once again, rehashing the fact that the storyline for these movies are steady and simple allowing plenty of audience creativity within themselves. The victims in these movies live in their letterman’s jackets and are all over six feet tall and have collegiate athletic frames. The jocks usually find themselves only weeks away from entering college to play football under a scholarship or have some other kind of promising future lying ahead of them. Popular high school jocks are typically stereotyped as big time partiers and women degraders. The reason we see the same type of male characters in these horror films are because we all went to high school and we either were the jocks, hated the jocks or wanted to be the jocks; it is easy for everyone over the age of 13 to relate to these characters. Just as in every horror movie, the main point is that the saints survive and the sinners die; it is easy to understand why the jocks always end up decapitated and not breathing toward the end of the movie. One reason they wind up in the afterlife is the way the males are always depicted as tough, aggressive and eager to fight these villains who challenge their manhood at an instance without thinking of the possible outcome of death by the chainsaw the villain is swinging in front of their face. However, just as female roles in horror films always have one “main girl” who survives, there tends to be one “good guy” who lives; typically the most nerdish guy in the group who previously led the audience to believe that they are worthless and destined for failure.

Females in horror films are portrayed in an even more stereotypical fashion than high school males. Movies, television and commercials have stereotyped women to be able to maintain the perfect idea of a woman; a perfect figure, perfect hair, perfect make-up, perfect form, even when dealing with grueling, masculine activities. This portrays the life-long idea that women should always remain proper, elegant, beautiful and gentle. The idea of a perfect woman is why in horror films we witness these obvious and cheesy female stereotypical roles. The majority of horror films depict the female characters in more instances of fear, screaming and cowering than males, because frankly, our society’s media has branded women as weak and non-resourceful. Throughout all horror films the female victims are the party girls and the most “sexually experienced.” They are usually all killed while the pure, innocent virgin lives to tell the tale everyone wants to know about; this also supports the claim that these horror movies push the previous fact that women are to remain pure and as good as a woman can be. Women are also shown in these movies as horrified to fight or attack the killer until they are forced to defend themselves. In these movies, they never portray a woman to be able to figure out how to defeat the evil “man” who seems to outsmart them and be one step ahead of the girl. The villain usually dies by a stroke of pure luck while the woman is defending herself because she has to, leading to the everlasting idea that women in horror movies will always be a sex symbol that guys hope to see naked before they are killed out of the movie.

In the rare occasion a horror movie arises with a female villain, they are typically not as attractive as the female victims. The female villain is portrayed to be everything a male would never imagine a female to be; dangerous, evil and violent. Okay, so maybe I’ve met a few females with those traits, but female villains in horror movies are inhumanly characteristic. With a female villain, a flashback or storyline always plays a large role in the beginning of the movie to explain what or who said or did to hurt this poor girl’s feelings. Again, the obvious point is shown to always treat a woman or girl with respect… or else. Hell hath no fury like that of a woman!