Women Portrayed in Horror Films Essay Example

Horror films have always been more attractive to the male viewer than to the female viewer. Why is that? Usually horror films mainly present the audience with very graphic mutilation and the raping of females, more so than their male counterparts. Horror films have always depicted females as either objects or as the victim of a horrible act. In Linda William's essay "When the Woman Looks," she says that "there is not that much difference between an object of desire and an object of horror as far as the male look is concerned" (Jancovich 63). That is just the way horror films are, and they will probably not change anytime, because the women in the films usually grab the attention of males. This is why horror films are usually more pointed at the male view. Some males like to see women depicted as the punisher because they like seeing evil women in these films precisely for their viewing pleasures, sexual and otherwise. An online essay defines horror as, "its true subject matter is that of the struggle for recognition of all that society represses" (Niver). Although horror films as well as film noir films are usually fictitious, the violence depicted among women is real and they show the dark side of the human experience especially in women.

In some horror films, females are "often asked to bear witness to [their] own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation and murder" (Jancovich 61). Women, who have been traumatized by violence in any way, have to live with their emotions and feelings regarding their situations everyday of their lives. Witnessing a rape or sexual assault is hard for a woman to watch especially if they have been a victim of one of these horrible acts of violence. It is scary to see something like this happen on film because at any point in a women's life, she is vulnerable to an attack like this. According to Analyzing Moral Issues, "rape seems to be a uniquely human phenomenon" (Boss 358). Susan Brownmiller argues in her book Against Our