WHEN THE WOMAN LOOKS On Femininity & Horror WHEN THE WOMAN LOOKS »Whenever the movie screen holds a particularly effective image of terror, little boys and grown men make it a point of honor to look, while little girls and grown women cover their eyes or hide behind the shoulders of their dates. There are excellent reasons for this refusal of the woman to look, not the least of which is that she is often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation and murder.« Linda Williams When the Woman looks OURS IS INDEED AN AGE OF EXTREMITY. FOR WE LIVE UNDER CONTINUAL THREAT OF TWO EQUALLY FEARFUL, BUT SEEMINGLY OPPOSED, DESTINIES: UNREMITTING BANALITY AND INCONCEIVABLE TERROR. IT IS FANTASY, SERVED OUT IN LARGE RATIONS BY THE POPULAR ARTS, WHICH ALLOWS MOST PEOPLE TO COPE WITH THESE TWIN SPECTERS. FOR ONE JOB THAT FANTASY CAN DO IS TO LIFT US OUT OF THE UNBEARABLY HUMDRUM AND TO DISTRACT US FROM TERRORS, REAL OR ANTICI- PATED- BY AN ESCAPE INTO EXOTIC DANGEROUS SITUATIONS WHICH HAVE LAST-MINUTE HAPPY ENDINGS. BUT ANOTHER ONE OF THE THINGS THAT FANTASY CAN DO IS TO NORMALIZE WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY UNBEARABLE, THEREBY INURING US TO IT. IN THE ONE CASE, FANTASY BEAUTIFIES THE WORLD. IN THE OTHER, IT NEU- TRALIZES IT. SUSAN SONNTAG THE IMAGINATION OF DISASTER Body Genre »The body spectacle is featured most sensationally in pornography‘s portrayal of orgasm, in horror‘s portrayal of violence, blood and terror, and in melodra- ma‘s portrayal of weeping. Body genres hinge on the spectacle of a ›sexually saturated‹ female body, and each offers what many feminist critics would agree to be spectacles of feminine victimization. Like all popular genres, they address persistent problems in our culture, in our sexualities, in our very identities. The deployment of sex, violence, and emotion is thus in no way gratuitous and in no way strictly limited to each of these genres; it is instead a cultural form of problem solving. Their very existence and popularity hinges upon rapid changes taking place in relations between the sexes and by rapidly changing notions of gender – of what it means to be a man or a woman. To dismiss them as bad excess whether of explicit sex, violence, or emotion, or as bad perversions, whether of maso- chism or sadism, is not to address their function as cultural problem-solving. Genres thrive, after all, on the persistence of the problems they address; but genres thrive also in their ability to recast the nature of these problems.« Linda Williams Film bodies: Gender, genre, and excess THE MALE GAZE SLASHER THE FINAL GIRL THE FEMALE SPECTATOR RAPE-REVENGE THE MONSTROUS FEMININE POSTFEMINISM THE MALE GATHE WOMAN AS THE PERFECT ZE PRODUCT THE BEAUTY OF THE WOMAN AS OBJECT AND THE SCREEN SPACE COALESCE; SHE IS NO LONGER THE BEARER OF GUILT BUT A PERFECT PRODUCT, WHOSE BODY, STYLISED AND FRAGMENTED BY CLOSE-UPS, IS THE CONTENT OF THE FILM AND THE DIRECT RECIPIENT OF THE SPECTATOR‘S LOOK. LAURA MULVEY IN THEIR TRADITIONAL EXHIBITIONIST ROLE WOMEN ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY LOOKED AT AND DISPLAYED, WITH THEIR APPEARANCE CODED FOR STRONG VISUAL AND EROTIC IMPACT SO THAT THEY CAN BE SAID TO CONNOTE TO-BE-LOOKED- AT-NESS. WOMAN DISPLAYED AS SEXUAL OBJECT IS THE LEIT-MOTIF OF EROTIC SPECTACLE: […] SHE HOLDS THE LOOK, PLAYS TO AND SIGNIFIES MALE DESIRE. LAURA MULVEY THIS FETISHISTICALY SOFT-LIT, SLOW-MOTION MONTAGE OF MARI DRESSING IN ›THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT‹ – FEATURING FRAGMENTED CLOSE-UPS OF WET SKIN, STOMACH, BREASTS, CROTCH, DRIPPING HAIR AND SUN-DAPPLED FACE – IS PRACTI- CALLY A STEP-BY-STEP CINEMATIC RENDERING OF LAURA MULVEYS PARADIGM. THE SEQUENCE FUNCTIONS TO INTERPELLATE THE VIEWER AS IDEOLOGICALLY COMPLICIT. MARTIN FRADLEY THE WOMAN AS ICON, DISPLAYED FOR THE GAZE AND ENJOYMENT OF MEN, THE ACTIVE CONTROLLERS OF THE LOOK, ALWAYS THREATENS TO EVOKE THE ANXIETY OF CASTRATION LAURA MULVEY IN A WORLD ORDERED BY SEXUAL IMBALANCE, PLEASURE IN LOOKING HAS BEEN SPLIT BETWEEN ACTIVE/MALE AND PASSIVE/FEMALE. THE DETERMINING MALE GAZE PROJECTS ITS PHANTASY ON TO THE FEMALE FORM WHICH IS STYLED ACCORDINGLY. LAURA MULVEY Those straw dogs outside were practically licking my body. I applaud their good taste. Thats not funny. Well maybe you should wear a bra. Are you saying I’m asking for this? I’m just saying that maybe you should be a little more modest and you’d be looked at with a bit more respect. So you’re saying that if I put on THE WOMAN DISPLAYED HAS FUNCTIONED ON a bra then I’ll gain more respect? TWO LEVELS: AS EROTIC OBJECT FOR THE CHARACTERS WITHIN THE SCREEN STORY, AND AS EROTIC OBJECT FOR THE SPECTATOR WITHIN THE AUDITORIUM. LINDA WILLIAMS I LIKE WOMEN, ESPECIALLY BEAUTIFUL ONES. IF THEY HAVE A GOOD FACE AND FIGURE, I WOULD MUCH PRE- FER TO WATCH THEM BEING MURDERED THAN AN UGLY GIRL OR MAN. DARIO ARGENTO THE USE OF SUCH CLOSE-UPS FOR THE HEROINE STRESSES THAT, UNLIKE THE HERO, SHE IS VALUED ABOVE ALL FOR WHAT HER APPEARANCE CONNOTES, FOR HER BEAUTY AND SEXUAL DESIRABILITY. ON THE CINEMA SCREEN ITSELF, THE SHOHINI CHAUDHURI WOMAN AS EROTIC SPECTACLE IS THE PERFECT FETISH. THE CAMERA FETISHISTICALLY ISOLATES FRAG- MENTS OF HER BODY (FACE, BREASTS, LEGS) IN CLOSE-UPS. THE FETISHISTIC REPRESENTATION OF THE NUDE FEMALE BODY INSURES A MASCULINIZATION OF THE SPECTATORIAL POSITION. MARY ANN DOANE IN THE CLASSICAL NARRATIVE CINEMA, TO SEE IS TO DESIRE. BLINDNESS IN THIS CONTEXT SIGNIFIES A PERFECT ABSENCE OF DESIRE, ALLOWING THE LOOK OF THE MALE PROTAGONIST TO REGARD THE WOMAN AT THE REQUISITE SAFE DISTANCE NECESSARY TO THE VOYEUR’S PLEASURE, WITH NO DANGER THAT SHE WILL RE- TURN THAT LOOK AND IN SO DOING EXPRESS DESIRES OF HER OWN. LINDA WILLIAMS THE PARADOX OF WOMAN AS ›CONSTANTLY SPOKEN OF‹ WHILE SHE HERSELF REMAINS ›INAUDIBLE‹, DISPLAYED AS SPECTACLE AND YET UNREPRESENTED. TERESA DE LAURETIS SEX, INI LIKE THIS WOMEN, ESPE- UNIVERSE,CIALLY PROCEEDS BEAUTIFUL FROM GENDERONES. IF – THEYNOT HAVE THE OTHERA GOOD WAY FACE AROUND AND FIGURE, I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO WATCH THEM BEING MURDERED THAN AN UGLY GIRL OR SLASHERSEX, IN THISMAN. UNIVERSE, PROCEEDS FROM GENDER. IN HORROR, COUNTRY DWELLERS ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY REPRESENTED BY ADULT MALES WITH NO FAMILY ATTACHE- MENTS. THESE MEN LIVE BEYOND THE REACHES OF SOCIAL LAW. THE COUNTRY IS A PLACE WHERE THE RULES OF CIVILIZATION DO NOT OBTAIN. THE PROBLEM IS PATRIARCHY RUM AMOK. CAROL CLOVER VICTIM-IDENTIFED SLASHER FILMS HAVE ALWAYS EXPRESSED FEMALE ANXIETIES ABOUT GENDERED POWER RELATIONS, FEARS THAT RUN THE GAMUT FROM COERCIVE AMOROUS ADVANCES THROUGH TO THE BRUTAL REALITIES OF VIOLENT SEXUAL ASSAULT. MARTIN FRADLEY SO THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH THE WOMAN’S LOOK AT THE MONSTER IS MORE THAN SIMPLY A PUNISHMENT FOR LOOKING, OR A NARCISSISTIC FASCINATION WITH THE DISTORTION OF HER OWN IMAGE IN THE MIRROR THAT PATRIARCHY HOLDS UP TO HER; IT IS ALSO A RECOGNITION OF THEIR SIMILAR STATUS AS POTENT THREATS TO A VULNERABLE MALE POWER. LINDA WILLIAMS TORTURE THE WOMEN! THE TROUBLE TODAY IS THAT WE DON‘T TORTURE WOMEN ENOUGH. ALFRED HITCHCOCK THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THE VICTIM FUNCTION THAT WANTS MANIFESTATION IN A FEMALE, AND SOMETHING ABOUT THE MONSTER AND HERO FUNCTIONS THAT WANTS EXPRESSION IN A MALE. SEX, IN THIS UNIVERSE, PROCEEDS FROM GENDER, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. A FIGURE DOES NOT CRY AND COWER BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN; SHE IS A WOMAN BECAUSE SHE CRIES AND COWERS. AND A FIGURE IS NOT A PSYCHOKILLER BECAUSE HE IS A MAN; HE IS A MAN BECAUSE HE IS A PSYCHOKILLER. CAROL CLOVER SEX, INI LIKE THIS WOMEN, ESPE- UNIVERSE,CIALLY PROCEEDS BEAUTIFUL FROM GENDERONES. IF – THEYNOT HAVE THE OTHERA GOOD WAY FACE AROUND AND FIGURE, I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO WATCH THEM BEING MURDERED THAN AN UGLY GIRL OR MAN. ‚Torture the women!‘ The trouble today is that we don‘t torture women enough.“ Hitchcock IN HORROR FILMS, THE WOMAN’S LOOK AT THE MONSTER OFFERS AT LEAST A POTENTIALLY SUBVERSIVE RECOGNITION OF THE POWER AND POTENCY OF A NON-PHALLIC SEXUALITY. PRECISELY BECAUSE THIS LOOK IS SO THREATENING TO MALE POWER, IT IS VIOLENTLY PUNISHED. LINDA WILLIAMS THE FINAL GIRLSHE‘S THE LAST SURVIVOR THE FINAL GIRL IS WATCHFUL TO THE POINT OF PARANOIA; SMALL SIGNS OF DANGER THAT HER FRIENDS IGNORE, SHE REGISTERS. ABOVE ALL SHE IS INTELLIGENT AND RESOURCEFUL IN A PINCH. CAROL CLOVER WHEN THE FINAL GIRL ASSUMES THE ›ACTIVE INVESTIGATING GAZE‹, SHE EXACTLY REVERSES THE LOOK, MAKING A SPECTACLE OF THE KILLER AND A SPECTATOR OF HERSELF. THE FEMALE EXERCISE OF SCOPIC CONTROL RESULTS NOT IN HER ANNIHILATION BUT IN HER TRIUMPH; HER TRIUMPH DEPENDS ON HER ASSUMPTION OF THE GAZE. CAROL CLOVER IT‘S A SHARED MASCULINITY, MATERIALIZED IN ALL THOSE PHALLIC SYMBOLS-AND IT IS ALSO A SHARED FEMININITY, MATERIALIZED IN WHAT COMES NEXT: THE CASTRATION, LITERAL OR SYMBOLIC, OF THE KILLER AT HER HANDS. THE FINAL GIRL HAS NOT JUST MANNED HERSELF; SHE SPECIFICALLY UNMANS AN OPPRESSOR WHOSE MASCULINITY WAS IN QUESTION TO BEGIN WITH. CAROL CLOVER IF A WOMAN CAN NOT BE AGGRESSIVE AND STILL BE A WOMAN, THEN FEMALE AGENCY IS A PIPE DREAM. BUT IF THE SURVIVING FEMALE CAN BE AGGRESSIVE AND BE REALLY A WOMAN, THEN SHE SUBVERTS THIS BINARY NOTION OF GENDER THAT BUTTRESSES MALE DOMINANCE. ISABEL CRISTINA PINEDO SHE IS WHAT THE KILLER ONCE WAS; HE IS WHAT SHE COULD BECOME SHOULD SHE FAIL IN HER BATTLE FOR SEXUAL SELFHOOD. THE MONSTER’S DEATH IS AN EXORCISM OF THE POWER OF THE FINAL GIRLS SEXUALITY.