500 words on the representation of young women in horror films.

Write 500 words on the representation of young women in horror films. You must research this first and you must provide clear examples from horror texts. Remember the analysis of representation must be made through media forms.


The media uses ways to portray genders; in particular females. The initial thought that comes to mind when we think of women in horror films is victims who are usually brutally murdered and the first few to die by the murderer / deranged stalker, etc., who is a male. This showing us as the audience that men are perhaps superior to women, and even stronger mentally and physically. Films like 'Scream' portray women as pathetic and weak. and yes, sometimes annoying... 

In the opening scene in one of the scream films, there are two girl best friends who are enjoying a night in, when suddenly a suspicious male masked ghost knocks on the door and disrupts there whole evening. Although they know there is trouble, they keep answering the phone to this man and then eventually he is in the house. This 'Horror, Spoof' portrays women as being pathetic, dumb and stupid. We notice that women are usually the people in films who open the doors for trouble; which in some ways creates a realistic belief that women in society are dumb, annoying and pathetic. Its a rather obvious trait that the media uses to make women look stupid, they make avoidable situations approachable, by making the female in the film bring the trouble in.

Throughout the media, we generally see genders being stereotyped; which can mean women being presented as ''objects'' mainly sexually and emotionally orientated. Women are usually seen as the more 'emotional' gender, as where as men are seen as tough, more masculine   and less emotional characters. Women usually are portrayed to not make there own choices/decisions, and our dependant on others when a problem occurs. Years ago, women being portrayed all the time in this negative way was seen as normal and this is what most film directors would stick too (as this is what everyone knew). However, we could argue that perhaps because the media had this strong negative influence against women, it detached the female population from challenging the ways of the media. Marie Wilson however, decided she would not allow this negative influence to go on and she stated ''You cant be what you cant see'' stating the media portraying these women as weak, dumb characters will cause an influence of the popularity of women to act like this. However, if this convention were to be stopped, perhaps we would see a more strong, feminist society. 

The presentation of female visibility in Horror Films is different compared to other media forms. The main female protagonists can turn into the 'Final Girl' and are therefore presented until the end of the film. The likeliness of this 'Final Girl' influence is fairly low in the horror media form than any other, as they do not want to break the convention too much and allow women to play a masculine, strong role; as they believe this is not what people want to see.  

Age can affect the presentation of women. We tend to see all variety's of male characters,  age,class and race, as where as we only usually see young females, mainly white, pretty, and sexy. This leading back to women being seen as 'sex objects'. It is known that older male actors are usually more well known than older female actors. Male actors such as Michael Cane and Matt Smith. For women, we could only associate a successful older actor, with lets say.... Dot from EastEnders. This contrast between the two is a big difference, and this yet again shows us that Males are seen as Superior to women actors. 

In horror films there seems to be an imbalance with the presentation of women, there are usually seen as extremely strong, or extremely weak- Varied female protagonists do not tend to occur within horror films.

Horror, unlike most other forms of media, shows gender in a much more respected way, women can be portrayed as being more active rather than passive. There passive roles are usually portrayed in other forms of media. In some horrors like 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' we notice that Buffy is the hero in this (and she's blonde). She is usually the character who 'Saves The Day' in which we do not see often. 

The Final Girl Theory-
The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films (particularly slasher films) that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween   Friday the 13th and many more. This opens doors in the media for women to be represented as characters that 'save the day' unlike the usual perception of women. 

In conclusion, In the genre of Horror films, females are usually presented as weak, and dependant on others, however... it is more common nowadays to see women used in films as 'The Final Girl' or the 'Girl Who Saved The Day'. However, This influence on women in the film industry leaves many people questioning whether or not women are seen as objects rather than characters.