The Traditional Representation of Women

Carol Clover wrote about her 'final girl' theory in her book ''Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film" 1992, suggesting that as horror films were progressing, so was the feminism portrayed in them. She doesn't say that every film is a feminist one, but does suggest that there have been advancements in this area. She suggested that 'the final girl' fought back in order to survive the film, and often outlived her friends or counterparts. According to Clover, the final girl always fights back, which is true of characters in more modern films such as Laurie Strode, Halloween 1978, Ginny Field, Friday 13th Pt II 1981, Nancy Thompson, A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984 and Vantia Brock, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1986. Although in some older films, such as Lila Crane, Psycho 1069, and Sally Hardesty, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 were saved and therefore survived the film, rather then fighting back to survive.

According to Clover, the final girl will fight back, meaning so is brave and strong (even if this isn't apparent at the beginning of the film, and these characteristics are developed throughout the film). This is the key convention for the final girl theory. There are also some other conventions, such as the girl being somewhat androgynous; not dressing in a sexual way, not having a feminine name, not being involved in sex. This is often emphasized by another character in the film being extra sexy and feminine, as a binary opposition to the characteristics displayed by the final girl. For example, in 'Halloween', the main protagonist and final girl, Laurie, is androgynous, she dressed conservatively, focuses on her studies, doesn't have sex like a lot of her friends are shown to do and fights back. 

In 1983, Jeremy Turnstall looked at existing research relating to how women were portrayed in the media, and concluded that women are shown as one of four roles:

• Domestic (The housewife and mother)
• Sexual (The sex object)
• Consumer (The Shopper)
• Marital (The Wife)

It is interesting to note that although similar numbers of men are fathers, husbands and sexual beings, that women are presented as being only these, whereas men are shown for their other achievements too.  In 1992, some research revealed that on screen, men outnumber women by 2-1 (apart from one later analysis that showed that men and women has equal screen time during prime time TV adverts). This makes it very hard to look at representation, as we have to group all women together, as we just don't see many types of women in the media (we mainly see young white women in films). For example Black women, lesbian women and older women have a very small proportion of screen time compared to young white women (Although this is still significantly less than we see of any type of man. For example, when watching the news, the male presenter is often middle aged, and not particularly good looking, whereas the female presenter is usually young and beautiful. 

Although as films went on, there seemed to be more and more female protagonists and 'final girls' For example, Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien, or Lara Croft. This could be seen as feminism taking one step back and two steps forward, as although these females are the main character and get lots of screen time, and are shown to be strong, brave and can fight their own battles, they are also often shown in skimpy outfits, and along their story lines being saved by men. For example, Lara Croft is meant to be a world renound archaeologist and explorer, but when it comes to her adventures, she is often dressed in short shorts and a very tight t-shirt (Not to mention the ridiculous size of her boobs and how obviously perky they are). This shows that progress is never straight forward, and that every generation has its own gender ideology. Along with these strong, yet sexualised female protagonists, there are also major steps back, such as women in bikinis being used to sell motorbikes or cars (this being said, it is becoming more common for men to be used as a sexual object for advertising too)

An advertisement where a man is sexualised:

An advertisement where a woman is sexualised:



The portrayal of women's lifestyles in one out of two categories of women's magazines such as Women's weekly are defined by the three C's; Cooking, cleaning, and caring. Showing women's only interests to be their homes and children, rather than having other hobbies separate from their family lives. The other categories focus on fashion and beauty, making it seem that apart from the three C's, women's only other interest is looking good for the men in their lives.

Laura Mulvey wrote 'Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema' in 1973, which suggests that much commercial cinema puts the viewer in a voyeuristic position, using long shots working up the female body, and using POV shots from the view of an 'appraising heterosexual male'.  This is what is described as 'the male gaze'. The usually male protagonist is who we take the point of view from, at a female counterpart often in a compromising position (E.g The Cabin in the Woods when we are looking at Jules topless from the point of view of Curt who was underneath her).

Throughout all this, women are still being sexualised in the media, and so are men, but males being shown in that sexual way seems to cause more controversy in society than it does with women. For example, Cosmopolitan removed their male centrefold in the 1980's (but this may be due to the fact it was seen as more comical than sexual).