Females 18-25; It’s a powerful demographic. Their malleable personalities make them a prime target for people of influence who at every turn are telling them how to live their lives and how to spend their money.
More so than in product advertising, mass retailing, or young adult novels, film and television provide useful examples of how representation of girl culture muddies the water for young women battling the resistance versus conformity war.
Oler writes that the horror films of the 1970s, notably Carrie, The Fury, and The Exorcist were created at a time when the genre was obsessed with female menstruation, thus laying the groundwork for horror films that for the next 20 years would continually portray the womb as the incubator for all things evil. The not so subtle message being portrayed is that women are the source of all things evil and that because a woman’s womb is a vessel for evil, the only way to protect herself (and arguably the rest of the world as well) is to lock her vagina and throw away the key. Oler explains that the link between femininity and the possession of demons or supernatural powers echoes the historical view that women, particularly when they are menstruating, are cursed and unclean and as such, more susceptible to evil.
Girls of horror films suffer from the fact that they are too female. As a result, they are punished by having to bear the curse of some sort of evil. By contrast, the survivor of a slasher film generally triumphs as a result of transcending her gender by employing the smarts and resourcefulness to overcome her menace. In the former, the predominantly male audience is manipulated into perceiving the female subject as a mere object to which they can only react with fear and terror. The female subject of the latter is also objectified, but here is easier for the male audience to relate to as she generally has characteristics more male than female. Easy to relate to but also objectified for the male’s sexual pleasure.
Neither role is preferable over the other from a feminist perspective but it does seem the slasher chicks are more popular with both male and female modern audiences and in my opinion have been contemporized as heroines. A quick glance at television and movie listings reveals a variety of programs and films featuring hot women in roles that I define as “badassmotherfuckers.” I like some of these women and confess I would jump at the chance to actually be Honey West, Emma Peel or my all time favorite [comic book character] Modesty Blaise. But I feel guilty about it. Sarah Michelle Geller, Jennifer Gardner, Jessica Alba, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman and countless others have some degree of sex object tied to their character and are almost without exception, controlled by a male. Is my attraction to these characters, perpetuating negative representations of women on the small and the silver screen?
Driscoll might sum up my quandary as dramatic tension. The portrayal of women in television and film has created a tension between ideas of resistance and conformity as related to female identity and my love-hate relationship with characters now described as sheroes is not uncommon. Youth is a time when status quo is responded to by an almost constant vacillation between conformity and rebellion. One would hope that by adulthood this incongruence would be resolved but because our media is such a dominant force in our society, social norms, definitions, boundaries, morals, and identities are constantly being reinvented and reevaluated by all ages and both genders.
Without doubt, television and film has helped advance the image and definition of “woman.” Female characters have more choices now and more power as a result. Additionally, audiences have more choices with whom they identify. But it doesn’t take a close analysis to see that choice is allowed only within certain parameters, that choices are carefully defined and that every choice has a consequence.
If you’re a fat girl who ignores teasing and accepts others with flaws, then you win a bout of popularity. An angel who follows Charlie’s instructions will be compensated with a new wardrobe, a trip to an exotic locale and a hairstyle that isn’t compromised by a night’s sleep but will never be the boss. A doctor, lawyer, judge or social worker who dedicates her life to helping others will earn the accolades of her peers but you can bet her personal life will always be unfulfilling. Theft of expensive clothes from a department store or unauthorized use of daddy’s credit card is behavior worthy of harsh punishment unless you donate the goods to charity or an ugly and unpopular classmate who needs a makeover. And a teen girl with a drug or alcohol problem will regain the love and acceptance of her family (but not always her peers) if she suffers through an inpatient treatment facility.
It’s important for us to remain mindful of the fact that the characters and entertainment properties discussed here are fictional. Often written by men, female characters and the situations in which they are placed are creations of the writer’s imagination. Generally, we have no way of knowing what emotional or environmental factors may have contributed to and may present cause for the creation of any given character and her related story but we can assume that contemporary writers of screen and television have had at least some exposure to the same horror and slasher films and other portrayals of women that have historically portrayed women in a variety of negative lights. No doubt, the portrayal of women in film and television has influence, if only subconsciously, over a writer whom knowingly or not has the power to instruct the audience on how to relate to characters in given situations. Like it or not, what’s portrayed in the “reel” world transcends the screen and can have a dramatic impact on how women or any other subculture or group is perceived, treated, and defined in the real world.
References
Zurawik, “Year of the Heroine” p. 27
Girls, pp. 203-234
“Bloodletting, Female Adolescence in Modern Horror Films” by Tammy Oler (Bitch, issue 21)