by longhairedgit
In Welsh’s sample of 50 popular horror films like Halloween and Sorority House Massacre, male characters were more likely to be victims of short, graphic, and serious acts of violence like stabbing, strangulation, or burning. Though most of the violent acts were quick, they were gory. Female characters, though, were more likely to be victims of less serious and less graphic forms of violence, such as stalking or confinement.
Overall, women were generally depicted in constant states of fear, helplessness, and prolonged terror. For example, 90 percent of scenes depicting psychological aggression involved women, often accompanied by close-up camera angles of the attack and depictions of the victim’s suffering. Perhaps not surprisingly, female characters were also more likely to be featured in sexual scenes—but not in sexually violent scenes, contrary to some prior research in this area. The gender of the perpetrator also mattered: 72 percent of the time, it was a male, while females were the perpetrator less than 7 percent of the time.
The scariest part of Welsh’s study may be how it confirms gender stereotypes of victims: slasher films teach that women are more afraid, more helpless, more promiscuous, and more likely to facilitate their own demise.
