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Gender representation. By Victoria Moore. Introduction . I will be looking at George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ -1963 and Wes Cravens ‘Scream’-1996.
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Gender representation By Victoria Moore
Introduction • I will be looking at George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ -1963 and Wes Cravens ‘Scream’-1996. • I will be analysing the way in which females are represented and how this coincides with the expectations and views during the time of production.
The women of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ • Barbara – She cannot cope after the death of her brother and loses her sanity. • Judy – Practically invisible throughout. • Helen – Shows a spark of rebellion but remains inactive about doing anything about it.
...continued • The women have inactive roles in trying to survive. • The male characters don’t give them a chance to have an opinion as they are actually never consulted. • Example: Tom ignores the women standing in the room all together and tells Harry and Ben, “We’d all be a lot better off if all three of us were working together”. • Ben responds to Barbara’s state of mind by knocking her unconscious with a hard right hook.
Women’s roles in the 1960’s • A large majority of American women were either Housewives or Mothers. • The second wave of the movement for equal rights took place after becoming somewhat dormant due to the war. • Not a lot of difference was made by the movement until later in the decade.
The women of ‘Scream’ • Sidney Prescott – starts out as a helpless victim but eventually breaks the sterotype to save atleast three people and herself. • Gale Weathers – she is quite an empowering character, she is in a male orientated profession and she also puts up a good fight with the killer. • Tatum Riley – gets killed in the garage whilst wearing a miniskirt and revealing top.
...continued • Both Tatum and Gail have a tendency to order the male characters around, this is a complete role reversal in comparison to N.O.T.L.D. • In the final fight it is up to Sidney alone to take on the killers and she successfully outsmarts them, with a little help from Gail in the end.
A comparison • Both directors, Romero and Craven, seem to deliberately use the female characters to spark controversy. • Additionally both directors have claimed they used the films as a ‘nod’ to previous horror films and how women have a certain stereotypical role of being the victim or the ‘damsel in distress’. • George Romero, I find, included carefully thought out quotes to mirror the views of the time some of which I have mentioned earlier. • In ‘Scream’, in particular, it is mentioned throughout that there are certain rules to follow to survive a horror film, yet this is all turned on its head when Sidney becomes the heroine.
