The Spectacle of Dying Women in Horror (and every other genre)
It has long been accepted that the horror genre has a problem with its treatment of women. As a horror fan, this is something I take as a given; I’m not surprised when a horror film is disgustingly misogynistic. There are few or no women with speaking lines; there are no women of colour at all; when there is a female character, she is only a device for the male character’s development; the woman dies brutally and almost immediately; the woman is either a virgin or a whore (and gets mutilated either way); the woman is to blame for the male killer’s actions. None of these things surprise me. Nobody really knows why horror movies in particular hate women, seemingly more than other genres, but we accept it. It’s disappointing, but what do we expect? To be seen as human beings? That seems highly unlikely. One trope that stands out to me as especially revolting is that of the beautiful dead woman in horror. You know the type: splayed out lifelessly and yet alluringly, makeup that was apparen