Representation of Women in Horror

1. Who wrote about the “final girl” in 1992?

Carol Clover

2. In what book did they write about the “final girl”?

Men, Women and chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

3. List three traits of the “final girl”/three ‘conventions’.

Virginal, androgynous and the ability to fight back against danger.

4. Who wrote about existing research on women’s roles in media texts in 1983?

Jeremy Tunstall

5. What were the 4 roles mentioned?

Sexual, domestic, consumer and marital.

6. In 1992 research showed that men dominated women on-screen, but by what ratio?

2:1

7. What was the only genre in which the ratio of males to females was more equal?

TV adverts

8. Name one of the three problems with the findings

Men were still shown to have an occupation, unlike the women which were shown.

9. Why does the reading suggest that Ripley (Alien) is ‘more progressive’ than Lara Croft (TR)?

Lara Croft still has the sexual female character role who wears revealing clothes and attracts male attention as well as being feisty and a dangerous female you can fight her own battles. There is still the voyeuristic view of the male gaze present with this character. However, Ripley does not have this feminine attraction that Croft has.

10. What are the 3 ‘C’s when discussing the portrayal of women in some lifestyle magazines?

Cooking, cleaning and caring.

11. Who wrote 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'?

Laura Mulvey

12. (Briefly) describe what is meant by the ‘male gaze’

When the audience are put in the perspective of a man watching the film, making the female characters seem sexualized.

13. Give an example

In Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho', the audience are shown Janet Leigh's character through a peep hole in the wall. She is in her bathroom having a shower, so the audience are put into the position of Norman Bates who is watching her (making her seem as though she is the object, and we, as Norman, are the subjects).

14. Which magazine removed the male centerfold in the 1980s and why?

Cosmopolitan. Women laughed at it rather than finding it sexy.