Expand Your Mind

                                       The Roles of women as portrayed in horror films.

This article is talking about how there has been a change in how women are shown in horror films and instead of the females being the weaker sex, who often get killed, the article explains how this is no longer the case and that females are often shown as strong heroic characters in the horror genre also females are actually used as the main character who has to fight off and kill the antagonist, the article discusses how these women are usually not sexualised in obvious ways, e.g the clothes that they wear are plain and are usually baggy jeans and t-shirts, Laurie Strode from 'Halloween' is a key example of this.

The main feature in this article  the term of 'final girl' in horror films, and how there are more females being used to be the hero.The 'final girl' is that the person who survives and fights the antagonist, is the strong female character rather than a male.

''Women are always seen as needy,needing someone,usually a male has to save them from a killer'' final girl proves that now women are not always seen as being like this.

In this article the final girl also is shown as usually not being sexually promiscuous and still has her virginity, whereas the women/teens in horror films who flaunt that they are sexually promiscuous are usually one of the first people to be hunted down and brutally killed. This being the case for most horror films although the Scream films go against this as Sydney Prescott looses her virginity during the first film, but this shows that the final girl would not necessary have to have her virginity to survive as Sydney is still the final girl through out all of the scream films. Sydney Prescott does continue to defeat the antagonist through Scream 1-4. Although in most sequel's to the films, the previous final girl usually ends up dead, and has a new 'final girl' replace her.This is shown in the film 'Nightmare on Elm Street' as the 'Final Girl' dies during the next film and this suggests that the women still are the weaker sex as they do eventually end up dead even though more films are using the 'Final Girl'
   
Women playing the antagonist is also briefly mentioned in this article, and it uses the film Carrie to show that the final girl does not necessary have to be the protagonist but can in fact be the antagonist and she will still be the final girl who loses everybody because she ends up killing everybody.''Monstrous Feminine'' is used in the article to describe carrie. This quote shows that you can still be and look femminine yet be violent and monstrous at the same time.

I found this article interesting as it explains how women are shown in horror films as the character may not be shown as being promiscuous but they are made to look appealing to a male audience so that the film still appeals to a wider audience. Also it is interesting to see how 'final girl' has become more common since the 1970's as peoples views on women are changing.