Blog Post #2





Within our project we would like to represent the issue of women being common victims of murder and assault. We wanted to subtly execute the idea of misogyny and vulnerability in women through the genre of horror. Women both in horror movies and in movies in general can often be represented as damsels in distress.


For example, the psychological thriller The Silence Of The Lambs shows a twisted serial killer whose victims are only women. This is criticized because it portrays women as the victim of male violence and is a major criticism of the genre as a whole. However, it can’t be denied that statistics show that women are the most common victims for murder and rape. It can even be argued horror films work to dive deep into women’s fears of the real world. The horror movie The Shining is also good example of a victimized woman where character Wendy Torrance is shown as neurotic and helpless in the eyes of her husband, but in reality she is only trying to defend herself and her son from her insane husband.


In some instances I do agree with the convention that many women happen to be victims of murder and assault, and is in fact a fear of many women. However, I disagree with the representation of women in the way that they’re helpless, defenseless, or weak. I also think that it should not be forgotten that men too are assaulted and abused, especially young boys.





In our project we will be retaining the idea that women are most commonly the victims of murder and rape because it is still important to recognize the amount of women that are murdered and abused every year. However, we will challenge the idea women are weaker than men and that they are unable to fight for themselves.