{"id":218,"date":"2017-05-20T00:34:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T04:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/?p=218"},"modified":"2017-05-20T00:38:26","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T04:38:26","slug":"gender-in-pop-culture-is-there-a-sinister-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/uncategorized\/gender-in-pop-culture-is-there-a-sinister-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender in Pop Culture: Is there a Sinister truth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a feminist, I\u2019m often totally disgusted by pop culture\u2019s treatment of women in so many regards. \u00a0I remember being a little girl, watching Disney princess movies and wondering\u2014why do I need a prince to save me? \u00a0Why couldn\u2019t I just save myself, or perhaps, save the prince? \u00a0But these were just little kid thoughts, I did not spend hours questioning the patriarchal framework of Disney movies. \u00a0These issues became more apparent as I grew up. \u00a0Not too long ago, I read about how, even at the editing level of movies, the male perspective is favored and women are there to, essentially, be looked at by men. \u00a0This claim totally had me. \u00a0I was ready to watch hours of film and shit on each and every one about how misogynistic and awful it was. \u00a0But then I saw a horror film. \u00a0I had never really seen one before, so it totally blew me away. \u00a0Everything was so weird and atypical of what I\u2019d anticipated in film. \u00a0I was utterly confused. \u00a0I thought I\u2019d understood gender in pop culture, but this film made me question my beliefs. \u00a0But of course, I didn\u2019t want to change my beliefs. \u00a0I love being right about things far too much. \u00a0At the same time, I couldn\u2019t just ignorantly hold views that could be totally inaccurate, so I watched another horror film\u2014<\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not sure how <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i> stands in comparison to horror film as a genre\u2014it was honestly just the first horror movie I saw on Netflix. \u00a0I\u00a0know how fun digging around Netflix can be, but as busy college student, just watching a movie was already a stretch. \u00a0Nevertheless, I was able to give up one pleasant evening in Williamstown to indulge in academic horror film consumption. \u00a0I live my life with no regrets, this decision included. \u00a0So the movie began and within the first few moments I could tell that a man was indeed the main character\u2014there would be no final girl here. \u00a0The final girl is a horror film motif describing the last girl alive who usually defeats the evil male killer by adopting typically male characteristics and, along the way, getting an audience of all genders to sympathize with her and see from her perspective. \u00a0The first horror film I watched, <\/span>Silence of the Lambs<\/span><\/i>, had this feature, and in turn, casted uncertainty onto my view of movies as inherently favoring men. \u00a0So picture me, all smiley in the middle of horror movie, mind you, because alas, I am not wrong about the sexist framework of movies after all! \u00a0But this thought was oh so premature. \u00a0It did not take long for the film to do some interesting things, making me question myself all over again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Before discussing this male lead in g\"\"reater detail, you should know the basic story in <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i>: the male lead moves to a house to investigate and eventually write a book about a family who was mysteriously murdered there, but the incident is eventually interpreted as a pattern and his family is next. \u00a0As you probably have guessed, they die. \u00a0So then, who is this male main character? \u00a0How is he portrayed in the story? We can begin with listing who he is not. \u00a0He is not: epic badass fighter masculine guy. \u00a0This, right away, sets him apart from the typical men that come to my mind in pop culture. \u00a0In fact, he writes books for a living, one of the least macho professions. He is also fairly scrawny and weak looking, definitely not strong enough to take care of himself. \u00a0He is, however, a smart and fairly brave man, which are qualities of a typical man\u2019s portrayal. \u00a0So the male lead is an interesting mix of masculinity and femininity and is seen, at least at the very end, as a weak victim. \u00a0He is drugged and murdered by his own young daughter and an androgynous weird looking boogie man. \u00a0I mean come on, any macho man could have defeated this iconic duo\u2014but not Sir Writesalot here. \u00a0Okay so we\u2019ve established that he isn\u2019t the toughest of men, but this really means nothing on its own. \u00a0It is much more interesting to think about how this characterization affects an audience. \u00a0First of all, viewers of all genders likely identify with him to some degree because he is the main character. \u00a0I still think that male main characters are the most universally identified with, even when the agenda is not misogynistic. \u00a0To some, the reasoning for this is that there are a disproportionate number of POV shots from the male perspective which, in turn, makes the male perspective the norm and forces it on everyone. \u00a0I personally understand this phenomenon as a consequence of male leads dominating film, though I was, at one point, totally convinced by the former. \u00a0Now, however, I see the claim as true in some situations, but inaccurate in that it cannot be understood as all encompassing. \u00a0This idea is particularly lacking in the horror realm. \u00a0In interpreting identification with the male lead while watching <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i>, it has little to do with forcing the male perspective upon the audience and more to do with the fact that he possesses qualities of both genders. \u00a0This is quite strange if you think about it. \u00a0Here is man that is manly and feminine and is identified with differently by men and women because of this. \u00a0But all identification is with him as a person. \u00a0This is not forcing us to believe that men are the best and that as women, I am here only to be looked at by a man\u2014not even a little bit. \u00a0This is telling us that, perhaps, gender should not be thought of as binary. \u00a0Men can be masculine and also feminine to some degree. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Now, you are probably curious about the male lead\u2019s killers\u2014the boogie man and the murderous child\u2014too, as you should be, considering that they\u00a0are both essential in explaining the film itself as well as its further implications. \u00a0So let me start with the boogie man. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what preconceived ideas you have of what a boogie man looks like, but I\u2019ll explained<\/span> Sinister<\/span><\/i>\u2019s very own for you. \u00a0The boogie man is lean and pale, with dark makeup and long black hair. I believe the common assumption is that the boogie man is, in fact, a man, but this is not so certain from looking at him. \u00a0Makeup and long hair are typical features of women, while the long lean frame is more along the ones of a scrawny male. \u00a0These characteristics, combined, make the boogie man appear to be quite androgynous. \u00a0However, even with all of the uncertainty in the descriptors, for most of the movie, you never get a good glimpse of him anyways. \u00a0He is always faded and appears briefly, at least until the end. \u00a0As viewers, we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what this boogie man is. \u00a0But even when we understand it as a man, it is difficult to see him as such. \u00a0We have preconceived notions of \u201cman,\u201d so we are quite confused by this monster\u2019s lack of clear gender. \u00a0But the monster\u2019s twisting of gender is even more complicated. \u00a0The female horror film audience has been studied and understood to actually identify with this monster much more than men do. \u00a0I can vouch for this to, as I found myself strangely drawn to the boogie man while watching <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0I was oddly satisfied whenever Mr. Boogie made a scare, particularly during a scene where his figure makes direct eye contact with the male lead from the bottom of a pool as a family is drowning. \u00a0This may seem like something only a psychopath would feel, but trust me, I am not alone, though this may not at all rid you of judgement in my direction. \u00a0But that\u2019s what I\u2019m getting at here\u2014this, outwardly, makes no sense. \u00a0Why the hell would weak and scared girls identify with this monster? \u00a0This same study also showed that female audiences don\u2019t look away much at all from the films, as many believe to be true. \u00a0These two findings each help to explain the other. \u00a0Let us first try to understand the identification bit. \u00a0Monsters live in a world that is dominated by men who are trying to hunt and kill them. \u00a0Now, at least in my life, I do not have men trying to murder me, but I do live in a society hounded by the male gender. \u00a0On the grounds of this shared experience, does it not makes sense to relate? \u00a0I think it does. \u00a0And why would a girl want to look away when she sees a monster sharing her experience and coming out on top? \u00a0The monster\u2019s androgyny is interesting as it is, but adding female identification with this monster gives way to a whole new and perplexing idea. \u00a0Women identifying as a monster may, at least for a brief moment, feel power to rise above the man, who is portrayed in this film as a weak victim. And male viewers, who rarely identify with the monster, are being defeated. \u00a0This seems to me strategically feminist. \u00a0Women are given power that is not a, so called, norm\u2014all from identifying with a creepy, androgynous monster.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"
\nSo far, we\u2019ve got a feminine, yet manly male lead, and an androgynous monster, both very strange compared to gender as many understand it…so what\u2019s with the child killer? \u00a0The boogie man is followed around by an ever growing group of devil children, each of whom he\u2019s made murder their family. \u00a0This film, for reasons I will soon bring to light, chose to make this devil child a girl. \u00a0So let us discuss this devil girl as a concept. \u00a0Girls are young women and are, therefore, children of innocence, purity, and civility by association. \u00a0This makes them most susceptible to corruption. \u00a0But when these young girls are corrupted, they gain a lot of power\u2014their weakness became their strength. \u00a0This particular girl fits all of these ideas. \u00a0She is a seemingly sweet and innocent as a talented little artist, but her innocent and sweet art becomes devilish when she begins to paint murderous children and the boogie man\u2019s sign. \u00a0Furthermore, she uses her family\u2019s freshly murdered blood to paint innocent girly animals, one being unicorns, all over the walls. \u00a0I\u2019m picturing unicorns painted in blood right now actually, and let me tell you, it is quite unsettling, and rather disgusting. \u00a0This child\u2019s ultimate display of evil innocence, however, is when she leaves a note with her father\u2019s drugged coffee reading\u2014\u201cGood Night Daddy\u201d\u2014meant to indicate that he is about to die by her hand. \u00a0But in any other context, this is just a cute note any little girl who loves her father would write. \u00a0This girl, as a young female, is given enough power to kill her father, the male lead, and the rest of her family, through evil innocence. \u00a0This is weird when looking at the bigger gender picture. \u00a0A little girl, seen as the weakest of all people, has an unfathomable amount power\u2014enough to murder her entire family. \u00a0Compared to her brother, who often gets night terrors because of the haunted nature of their home, she seems even more powerful, as she is feeding off of the murderous and evil energy. \u00a0So even on the level of children, gender is super messy. \u00a0This little girl should be the weakest character in the entire film if we don\u2019t veer from what we think of as normal gender roles, but she is nearly the most powerful, second only to the rough and tough Mr. Boogie. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure how people identify with this child in general, but I, personally, found myself in awe of her. \u00a0I mean, who doesn\u2019t fantasize about a little girl working with a monster to rise above the man. \u00a0What I\u2019m saying is, this is the dynamic duo of my dreams. \u00a0I identify with the male monster and feel a connection to the child at the same time. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, I can clearly see a gender story. \u00a0It seems to be feminist in nature, as there are no totally masculine characters at all. \u00a0The male lead, who is the most masculine of all characters, is hardly manly. \u00a0He is weak and pitted against the powerful evil beings\u2014a monster whom women identify with, and a badass, devilish girl, whose innocence is her power. \u00a0This story alone is pretty weird in terms of understanding gender. \u00a0It has subverted everything I think of as typical gender roles, and everything I thought was typical about gender in film. \u00a0It is not forcing the male perspective on viewers, but rather giving females more power in terms of the female character, and promoting female identification with the most powerful characters. \u00a0So I should feel totally in support of the evil side, but there is still a part of me identifying with the feminine aspects of the male lead as well. \u00a0On top of this, the idea of siding with evil seems morally unsettling to me. \u00a0And what does it mean that even though the male lead is weak, he is still on the side of good in a good versus evil scenario? \u00a0With all of this in mind, I am, honestly, still trying to piece together how I feel about each character. \u00a0Regardless, my one definite take away is just how goddamned confusing gender is in this movie. \u00a0<\/span>Silence of\u00a0the Lambs<\/span><\/i> was not an anomaly, as <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i> threw some mystifying gender stuff my way just the same. \u00a0I cannot mindlessly continue to think that all movies inherently favor the male when I\u2019ve shown myself just how untrue this can be. \u00a0In a way, the lack of clarity in <\/span>Sinister<\/span><\/i>\u2019s gender bending emphasises this point even more\u2014gender is just too confusing to make broad claims about. \u00a0You can look for patterns and try to understand each film\u2019s individual gender story, but there is not one all encompassing truth. \u00a0But I\u2019m fine with this\u2014I can\u2019t wait to spend hours of summer freetime analyzing various movies and finding out what each one has to say about gender. \u00a0Will there be any correlation? \u00a0Or will the crazy confusion prevail in its purest form? \u00a0There\u2019s only one way to find out, and I intend to do so. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This essay was written in the style of Chuck Klosterman<\/span><\/p>\n

This essay was read by Chloe Henderson<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

Cherry, Brigid. \u201cRefusing to Refuse to Look: Female Viewers of the Horror Film.\u201d <\/span>Identifying <\/span><\/i>Hollywood\u2019s Audiences<\/span><\/i>. Ed. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby. London: BFI Publishing,\u00a01999.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clover, Carol J. <\/span>Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.<\/span><\/i> S.l: British Film <\/span>Institute, 1993.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creed, Barbara. \u201cBaby Bitches From Hell: Monstrous Little Women in Film.\u201d Scary Women. N.p., Jan.\u00a01994.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mulvey, Laura. \u201cVisual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.\u201d <\/span>Media and Cultural Studies : Keyworks. <\/span><\/i>Eds. Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a feminist, I\u2019m often totally disgusted by pop culture\u2019s treatment of women in so many regards. \u00a0I remember being a little girl, watching Disney princess movies and wondering\u2014why do I need a prince to save me? \u00a0Why couldn\u2019t I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}