Research Journal #3

 Lazard, L. (2009). 'You'll like this-it's feminist!'Representations of strong women in horror fiction. Feminism & Psychology, 19(1), 132-136.

Claim:

these representations of ‘other(ed)’ women undermine this film’s potential to construct feminine subjectivities capable of destabilizing gendered positioning’s and challenging heterosexism(s). From a feminist psychological perspective, I would argue that such depictions of femininity in fiction are important because fictional representations are sites within which audiences negotiate understandings of gendered subjectivities.

Paraphrased:

Analyzes women and female characters in the horror genre by using the horror film the Descent as a case study, using specifically the image of the athletic ‘fighter women in film and how the use of  the ‘other’ woman damage the films ability to challenge traditional gender roles.

Summary:

Tells the synopsis of the film The Descent, saying that the group of women in the movie are sportswomen, and almost sarcastically remarks that the movie would be considered feminist by most because these women are “sportswomen”. It also brings up the lack of ‘sportmen’ or even men in general, commenting on the fact that the brief time you do see a man is actually to show that he is taking care of the child (swapping traditional roles) while his significant other is white water rafting. The two main characters, Juno and Sarah, spend the rest of the film revealing more about themselves and the article dissects these actions. Juno, a “fighter’ and referred to as the ‘other woman’ because of an affair with the other female characters late husband. This is revealed to Sarah during the excursion and the film ends with Sarah rendering Juno vulnerable to the creatures in the cave as a final retribution and the article relates this back to it’s feminist theme by saying that here the ‘other women’ is taking the fall, instead of the unfaithful man; and saying that Sarah, an obviously unstable and brash female character is once again acting  (typically) unstable. It concludes by rationalizing that the “construction of women in horror is complex”, and while the genre presently opens a lot of avenues for female characters, horror also offers a great “space in which to challenge problematic femininities.”(5)

Quotations:

The film was recommended to me on the basis that ‘it’s feminist’ not only because the lead characters were women, but also sportswomen.

“Their participation in extreme sports depicts these women as strong and capable of masculinized pursuits that they do in the absence of sportsmen.”

“Dominant representations of sportswomen who participate in masculinized sports are framed by heterosexist understandings of what it means to be a ‘real’ woman.”

However, despite their non-traditional sporting activities, these women are not positioned as ‘lesbian’ and/or ‘butch’. These women nego- tiate a sporty feminine image and explicit reference is made to the lead charac- ters’ heterosexual relationships. This latter construction could be read as offering a challenge to heterosexist representations of the sportswoman as ‘other’ dis- cussed above.

According to Whitehead (2002), physical aggression is pre- dominantly constructed as a masculine preserve through which ‘real’ men can dominate ‘other’ men and women. Thus, these women’s acts of violence could be read as destabilizing gendered constructions of aggression and resistance. However, the subversive potential of this construction of women’s aggression is undermined by the portrayal of Sarah and Juno as ‘other’.

Through these characterizations, women fighters are represented as ‘mad’, ‘bad’ and ‘other’. Whilst infighting is common in horror films and works as a device to add tension, the explicit link made in this film between infidelity and women’s aggression reproduces gendered notions of power struggles between women. Here, the ‘other’ woman – rather than the unfaithful man – is blamed and punished by the woman partner (e.g. Burns, 1999).

Research Journal #2

Terrones, Z. (2012). The Repressed Tension in Haute tension. Film Matters, 3(1), 25-29.

Claim:

She is the attacker and the attacked, simultaneously, to represent the same self (Clover 191 ) that exists in the viewer also; she is the symbol of the viewers themselves and thus of how our society functions. Marie symbolizes the repressed woman in the male-dominated society who wants to free herself from those clutches to become whole and receive the satisfaction that is yearned for.

Paraphrased:

The female protagonist in the film is a symbol for the female struggle to break social restraints and achieve freedom.

Summary:

The article is using the film “High Tension”, or “Haute Tension”, a French film directed by Alexandre Aja in 2003. The film follows two women, the protagonist of the film being a sexual repressed female with a alter persona that just happens to be a male. The film portrays the events following a sudden snap in this women’s mind, a sudden gender and psychological flip triggered by sexual fantasies surrounding her female friend Alex. The literal moment that switches the personas is the protagnist’s climax while masturbating to Alex. The article dissects the reasoning behind this character, and how she both further instates the ‘unstable and monstrous female’ trope that plagues horror and also the repression our patriarchal society puts on women, especially sexually. The author also elaborates on the physical aspects of the film. Marie, the protagonist of the film, is an all around androgynous looking character, with short hair and nondescript features. It explains that  “Her alternate physical form creates an exception, giving her the liberty to be in control and dominate, things she could never do in a female form”(2) also going on to quote  published film professor Carol Clover, saying that  ‘what de France's (Marie) character emphasizes to the spectator is that "masculinity and femininity are more states of mind than body" (Clover 188).’ The article concludes by putting an emphasis on the symbols created by Marie’s character, and how “she is the symbol of the viewers themselves and thus of how our society functions.”(4)

Quotations:

"The horror genre is one that follows preset rules in a vast majority of its films, thereby establishing a well-known relationship that the audience has come to expect between the female victim and the male killer - along with the sexual and social repressions it connotes.(1)"

"This reladonship is based on the genre's male superiority and women's passivity, which parallels the female status of the real- world patriarchal society that views it."

"that the horror genre can convey the idea of "the overthrow of patriarchal capitalist ideology" that can come about as a response to the repressions that the institution creates - even if only through symbolism in the medium. One of the repressions it creates is the woman as an Other: she is given neither the same status nor importance as a man in the male-dominated society in which we live."

"the denial to women of drives culturally associated with masculinity: activeness, aggression, self- assertion, organizational power, creativity itself" (Wood 167)"

"Classically, the horror film used a male or monstrotis killer as a mirror to the Otherness of the woman, or to reinforce the idea that there is pleasure in "masculine subject positions punishing or dominating feminine objects" (Williams, "Film Bodies" 6)."

"to demonstrate that she is not separate from the male: she too has sexual feelings that must have an outiet; she too is strong- vkdlled and assertive. Yet, this release comes too late. It is no longer a healthy outcome but a gruesome aftereffect as a result of being hidden for so long; she can no longer withhold and withstand the repressed. Why must her liberation be so violent? Well, the woman, like the monster, is feared because it represents the feared "potency of a different kind of sexuality" (Williams, "Alien the Woman" 20) than the one of the dominant group."

"Could it be that not only do horror films represent the tumultuous dichotomous reladonship that exists between the subconscious and conscious selves? Or is there more to it — like an innate urge and pleasure in female desecration because of the conditioning received from society to view the female form as inferior?"

Research Journal #1

TAYLOR, R. (2012). Demon(ized) women: Female punishment in the 'pink film' and J-Horror. Asian Cinema, 23(2), 199-216. doi:10.1386/ac.23.2.199_1

Articles Claim: “The rejection of gendered expectations constitutes a positive act of female autonomy and refutes the traditional expectations imposed by a phallocentric society. While female identity is fluid and polymorphous, phallocentricism is rigid in its perpetual decline, a condition exacerbated by feminine rejection of the traditional position of matriarch in favor of individualistic professionalism. The masculine, ‘relegated’ to the female position of domestication following economic disenfranchisement, brutalizes the woman for her (perceived) role in his redundancy and, thus, it is the male that is monstrous”

Paraphrased claim: The relationship between male and female characters in ‘J-horror’(term for Japanese Horror) and ‘pink films’ (‘broad cinematic term used to categorize a wide variety of Japanese films with adult content/soft-core pornography) and how women characters in horror are fighting traditional gender roles.

Summary:

            Historical context is given as to the origins of Japanese cinema, establishing that it was spawned from the transition of Japan from a “militarized male’ figure to a “self-sacrificing maternal figure”(2) after the bombing of Hiroshima. He then flashes forward to 1960’s Japan, where ‘pink films’ were becoming quite popular, mostly because of the attempt to “reassert patriarchal dominance”(4). This leads right into the fetishization of these women, and how these films are showing this women, sometimes literally bound and tortured, and their suffering is only for the sexual gratification of the male audience. In other words, female pain is male pleasure. Taylor moves from there to dissect the 1972 ‘pink film’ Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, a movie about women forced into a male run prison. Taylor uses examples from the movie like the woman’s menstrual blood leading dogs to the hiding place (women are subordinate by nature) and the final act of castration when the female protagonists bites of the male wardens tongue , and finishes him off by stabbing him with a knife (symbolic penetration). Female Prisoner uses the ‘pink film’ genre to not put down women, but instead show the threat they pose towards Japan’s patriarchal society. Taylor finishes the article with examples of ‘J-horror’ like The Grudge and Ringu to render the female sympathetic by “depicting masculinity as oppressive and brutalizing” directly from the female’s perspective. He concludes that though pink films and J-horror are different, they both show that female ascension within society is inevitable.

Quotations: 

"This transition can be interpreted as an embodiment of a recognizable transforma- tion taking place within general society where women began to become more fully integrated into the employment environment and other public spaces. ‘Women were increasingly breaking out of their traditional space as okusan (wives within the home) and entering society for the first time in significantnumbers’ (Standish 2005: 52–53)."

"The pink film was framed by exploitative eroticism and (usually) amalga- mated multiple genres and styles into one narrative, such as soft-core pornog- raphy, erotica and exploitation cinema."

"Much like the pink film, J-Horror shares a central thematic concern for mascu- linity’s attempted domination over women whose rejection of subordination threatens male primacy."

"Through the appropriation of masculine behaviors, the ‘Final Girl’ feminizes her (male) assailants and often penetrates them with knives, bullets, chainsaws, etc. and, in doing so, poses a threat of castration to masculine discourse."

"While female identity is fluid and polymorphous, phallocentricism is rigid in its perpetual decline, a condition exacerbated by feminine rejection of the traditional position of matriarch in favor of individualistic professionalism."

"In doing so, women are presented as sympathetic victimized avengers while men are repositioned as monstrous (the monstrous masculine)."