Men, Women, Chainsaws and Why I Still Miss Buffy

Posted by Lilka

[Trigger warning: Use of misogynistic language, in the post and the links. I discuss sexist portrayals and violence against women in the horror genre, including sexual violence, and have embedded a video that depicts some of these things. Some of the film descriptions I link to may also be disturbing or triggering. At least one of the linked videos is NSFW (the others, it may depend on where you work!).]

[Spoiler warning: I potentially spoil some minor plot points in The Vampire Lovers, Shambleau, Jenifer, Deadgirl, Carrie, Teeth, Misery, and Bride of Frankenstein. Major ending spoilers for Perfume and Martyrs. Some spoilers for Supernatural, especially in the embedded video, but nothing from the last couple of seasons. Almost all links contain spoilers.]


So, I'm a fan of horror. Movies, books, comics; anything that promises me a creepy doll, a supernatural menace, an eldritch abomination or just a really good scare, I'm there for. And I feel sympathy for people who raise their eyebrows when I mention this. One friend said to me, “Oh, I'd like to get into horror fiction too. It's just so hard to find the good stuff that isn't all blood and rape,” and I could only agree with them. While I would say horror is no more prone to Sturgeon's Law than any other genre, horror's usual subject matter means that the crap is often, well, crappier; more violent, more gratuitous, more enraging, more difficult to read or watch. Horror fiction is by its nature often reactionary – it's about the intrusion of the abnormal into normal life and (usually) the eventually re-assertion of the status quo. That being the case, it's not surprising to find the annals of horror fiction littered with bad guys who are in some way othered: demons dressed in S&M gear, predatory lesbians (link NSFW), really offensive metaphorised representations of people of colour.... And of course slasher movies are particularly infamous for the tendency of the victims to be black, sexually active or generally behaving in non-societally approved ways.

Besides the general kyriarchical mess, though, there are two things that make it tough for me specifically as a female fan of horror, and it's those that I'd like to talk about more in this post.

On the Sexualisation of Women in Fiction

Posted by Jenni



Before I begin this post in earnest, I would like to draw your attention over here (warning: possibly NSFW (lots of drawings of women in not very much clothing at all): http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/#ixzz1YifXb88y

Whilst, yes, it’s another post about comics (I just really like comics…) but it’s one of the clearest examples I’ve seen discussing the problems of sexualising women characters. If you don’t have time to read it (though I highly suggest you do!) skimming the pictures will help, since I will refer to the characters as examples throughout. The main thing I want to discuss in this post is simple – the difference between a woman acting in a sexual manner, and a writer/reader sexualising a woman problematically, and how this then plays into ‘real life’.

Just for those of you who might not be able to see the pictures, some quick descriptions of the type of image can be found at the bottom of this post.

Dancing for the Eyes of Men (triggers for rape culture)

Posted by Annalytica

I wrote "Eyes of Men" to explore the conflict between being a feminist and being sexually attracted to women, in a culture where attraction to women is represented as something which is only experienced by men, and which almost always involves some degree of objectification.

The song is about becoming aware that the way I look at women is shaped by the way I see men looking at women, and the by way male perspectives on women are represented in fiction and the media. When objectification is frequently represented as an intrinsic part of sexual attraction, it is difficult to reconcile attraction with respect. As a queer feminist woman, this is an issue I struggle with, and one I wanted to explore. In the fight against the kyriarchy I believe it is important to examine the ways in which we internalise oppressive attitudes and ways of relating to others, and to become aware of how we are each complicit in perpetuating oppression. For me, exploring  how I personally have internalised objectifying ways of looking at women is part of the process of challenging the culture of objectification.