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V. `You'll Like This !! It's Feminist!' Representations of Strong Women in Horror Fiction
Lisa Lazard Feminism & Psychology 2009 19: 132 DOI: 10.1177/0959353508098627

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V. Youll Like This Its Feminist! Representations of Strong Women in Horror Fiction
Lisa LAZARD

In this article, I will discuss the ways in which strong women characters are constituted in the 2005 film The Descent (Marshall, 2005). In doing so, I will unpack representations of these fictional women with a view to articulating the implications that they have for challenging both problematic feminine positionings and heterosexism(s). While the film The Descent can be read as falling short of offering a challenge to heterosexist understandings of femininity, it will be argued that viewing horror films as monolithically problematic for women may overlook the subversive potential of this genre. I will begin by outlining the plot of the film and then explain why the film became of interest to me as a feminist psychologist.

FRIGHTENING FEMININITIES

The film The Descent is located in the genre of horror/thriller. Representations of women in horror fiction have long been of interest to feminist theorists (e.g. Clover, 1992; Creed, 1993, 2005; Halberstam, 1995; Humm, 1997) largely because particular forms of problematic versions of femininities and masculinities have been reproduced through this medium. For example, women have been depicted in horror films as monstrous, weak, mentally unstable and victims of male violence (e.g. Humm, 1997; Pinedo, 1997; Rieser, 2001). At first glance, the film The Descent appears to depart from such characterizations of femininity in that the main characters are women who take up non-traditional gender positionings. More specifically, The Descent is about six women friends who are extreme sport enthusiasts embarking on a caving expedition. Unbeknown to five of the
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women, the leader of the group Juno unilaterally decides that they should discover and name an uncharted cave system. The trip becomes fraught with danger in the form of a cave-in, injury and attacks from grotesque creatures. The film was recommended to me on the basis that its feminist not only because the lead characters were women, but also sportswomen. Movie reviews discussing the characters, however, appear more polarized, with these fictional women being variously described as strong, feminist or anti-feminist (See, for example, Hanke, 2006; Wilmington, 2006). However, the aim of this article is not to draw boundaries around what may or may not be feminist or to make judgements about whether the application of these terms is appropriate (e.g. Capdevila et al., 2006). Rather, I want to explore two questions that these positionings, together with the film itself, raise: in what ways can these fictional characters be read as strong, and to what extent do these representations challenge particular cultural images of femininity that posit women as inferior to men? To address these questions, I will focus on how the women characters are represented as sportswomen and as fighters.

STRONG WOMEN AND SPORT

Sport has been conceptualized as a key institutional site in which hegemonic masculinity is supported and reproduced (e.g. Connell, 2005; Whitehead, 2002). Thus sport has become interwoven with notions of being a man (e.g. Whitehead, 2002). For example, physical competence in this arena is understood as indicative of a proper masculine identity (Choi, 2000). Whilst increasing numbers of women participate in masculinized sports, there appear to be tensions in constructing acceptable feminine identities therein. As Griffen (1998) notes, dominant representations of sportswomen who participate in masculinized sports are framed by heterosexist understandings of what it means to be a real woman. Such sportswomen are often constituted as deviating from normative heterosexual femininities and are othered by their positioning as lesbian and/or butch. The women characters in the film The Descent dispute the conceptualization of sport as a masculine pursuit. Their participation in extreme sports depicts these women as strong and capable of masculinized pursuits that they do in the absence of sportsmen. The only male character in the film appears briefly at the beginning where he is shown both as a spectator and as caring for his child while his partner is white-water rafting. This characterization of heterosexual relationships appears to challenge normative feminine and masculine positionings of passive women and active men. However, despite their non-traditional sporting activities, these women are not positioned as lesbian and/or butch. These women negotiate a sporty feminine image and explicit reference is made to the lead characters heterosexual relationships. This latter construction could be read as offering a challenge to heterosexist representations of the sportswoman as other discussed above.

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Feminism & Psychology 19(1)

Similarly, representations of physical fighting in this film trouble normative gendered constructions of aggression. The two main characters Juno and Sarah are shown successfully fighting and killing often-masculinized creatures that attack the group. According to Whitehead (2002), physical aggression is predominantly constructed as a masculine preserve through which real men can dominate other men and women. Thus, these womens acts of violence could be read as destabilizing gendered constructions of aggression and resistance. However, the subversive potential of this construction of womens aggression is undermined by the portrayal of Sarah and Juno as other. Juno deviates from particular normative notions of femininity throughout the film and is often located in masculinized positionings. For example, through her decision to dupe the women into entering an uncharted cave for kudos, Juno is depicted as an ambitious risk-taker. Juno is also marked as the other woman when it is revealed that she had an affair with Sarahs late partner. Junos infidelity coupled with the above duplicitous acts position her as the antithesis of what women should be like collective, caring and relational (Burns, 1999: 410). This portrayal of Juno becomes relevant to her status as fighter. It could be argued that Juno as aggressor does not compromise normative femininities because she is other. Representations of Sarah, on the other hand, are intimately interwoven with the loss of both her partner and child in an accident. Through reference to her grief, she is positioned as mentally unstable, which is implied through dreams/hallucinations of her child. Indeed, Sarah is depicted as increasingly unstable after her late partners infidelity is revealed during the expedition. Sarahs ability to fight is depicted as stemming from her distress about the betrayal. In contrast to the other fighting scenes involving masculinized creatures, Sarahs first fight is with a feminized creature in bloody water. This image of womens violence is a prelude to Sarahs final act of aggression where she confronts and wounds Juno, leaving her vulnerable to the cave-dwelling creatures. Through these characterizations, women fighters are represented as mad, bad and other. Whilst infighting is common in horror films and works as a device to add tension, the explicit link made in this film between infidelity and womens aggression reproduces gendered notions of power struggles between women. Here, the other woman rather than the unfaithful man is blamed and punished by the woman partner (e.g. Burns, 1999).

STABILIZING SEXISM(S)?

In summary, these representations of other(ed) women undermine this films potential to construct feminine subjectivities capable of destabilizing gendered positionings and challenging heterosexism(s). From a feminist psychological per-

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spective, I would argue that such depictions of femininity in fiction are important because fictional representations are sites within which audiences negotiate understandings of gendered subjectivities (e.g. Pinedo, 1997). Horror fiction as a site where such negotiation takes place is interesting precisely because horror has often reproduced problematic gendered relationships. However, as Pinedo (1997) notes, the construction of women in horror is complex, with women being positioned as victims but also as intelligent, resourceful and capable of resisting violence as is the case here. I am not suggesting that the latter construction of women in horror is entirely unproblematic, but rather that this genre might offer a space in which to challenge problematic femininities.

REFERENCES Burns, A. (1999) Power Between Women: The Constructed Otherness of Other Women, Feminism & Psychology 9(4): 41013. Capdevila, R., Ciclitira, K., Lazard, L. and Marzano, L. (2006) If I am Woman, Who Are They? The Construction of Other Feminisms, Psychology of Women Section Review 8(2): 2330. Choi, P.Y.L. (2000) Femininity and the Physically Active Women. London: Routledge. Clover, C. (1992) Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Connell RW (2005) Masculinities. Polity: Cambridge. Creed, B. (1993) The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge. Creed, B. (2005) Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Griffen, P. (1998) Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Hanke, K. (2006) The Descent, accessed 21 January 2008. Available: http://www. mountainx.com/movies/review/descent.php Halberstam, J. (1995) Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Humm, M. (1997) Film and Feminism. Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press. Marshall, N. (dir.) (2005) The Descent. UK: Path. Pinedo, I.C. (1997) Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Rieser, K. (2001) Masculinity and Monstrosity, Men and Masculinities 3(4): 37092 Whitehead, S.M (2002) Men and Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press. Wilmington, M (2006) The Descent, accessed 21 January 2008. Available: http://www. calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-descent4aug04,0,757831.story

Lisa LAZARD is a Lecturer at the University of Northampton, UK. She is currently working towards her PhD, which broadly focuses on the discursive

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Feminism & Psychology 19(1) construction of sexual harassment. Her current research interests lie in the general areas of gender and sexualities, gendered violence, feminist social psychologies and discourse analysis. ADDRESS: University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK. [email: lisa.lazard@northampton.ac.uk]

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