Gender In The Slasher Film Essay

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Films are universally known to generalize individuals especially in relation to their gender. Though they contain different themes, movies follow a similar pattern; the beautiful, innocent woman is recused by an attractive, strong male. In Carol J. Clover’s article, “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film”, she explores a new emerging pattern in horror cinema where the woman herself becomes the hero. Clover’s purpose in writing her article is to help her audience become familiar with the idea of cross gender identification. This is where the male audience is compelled to associate themselves with the strong independent female. In this essay, I will analyze how Clover uses female characters in horror films to display the visible adjustment in terms of gender representation through her various examples in slasher movies.
Slasher films invite and target a male audience to identify with the female protagonist. Clover defines slasher films as, “The immensely generative story of a psycho killer who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he himself is subdued or killed, usually by the on girl who has survived” (195). This “female victim-hero”, who has survived the raft of the villain, is known as the Final Girl. The Final Girl, is introduced at the beginning of the film and undergoes character development as time goes on. She is the only character to survive till the end. The Final Girl is solely the only person to understand that something is amiss, the person who senses some sort of threat, and ultimately is the person whom defeats the weak, male villain. “The image of the distressed female who is the sole survivor; she alone looks death in the face, but she alone also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued or to kill him herself”, explains Clover (198). Through her bravery and use of physical action against the killer, the Final Girl, who was once viewed as a clear feminine individual, now has become a more masculine character in the eyes of the male audience. In the past, it was standard for the audience of a film to identify with characters of their own gender. In horror films, this is reversed where the male is easily killed and the audience is forced to associate with women. Clover believes that viewing a film is a “permeable membrane” (214), meaning that it is possible for people to identify with characters of any gender. She says, “The categories masculine and feminine, traditional embodied in male and female, are collapsed into one and the same character- a character who is anatomically female.” (Clover 208). The male killer though providing a phallic representation, his masculinity is often compromised. He is often a virgin or unable to have sex. He sometimes has a split personality between himself and a female. Similarly, there is an essence of transsexuality
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The Final Girl, who is the last character standing by the end of the film, represents an adjustment in terms of gender representation. The female character possesses both masculine and feminine characteristics. This mixture of personalities allows the male audience to connect with the female character without feeling as if his manhood is being taken from him. Although the Final Girl is a female character, she strategically embodies both genders which allows all audiences to connect with the

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