When Women Look

Linda Williams Theory ‘When Women Look: A Sequel’ Critically analyses the relationships between gender, identification and pleasure in horror films and pays attention to the ‘perverse structure of seeing that operates in the genre’. (1983, P. 29) In this theory Williams explains that when women spectate horror films or when the female characters are shown, they identify with the monster figures. ‘The flash of sympathetic identification’ between the women and the monster’ (1983, P.27)’ as both women and monsters represent ‘potential threat to a vulnerable male power’ (Williams,p.24). Williams explains that women identify with the monster as they are the ones controlled by the patriarchy. In other words,‘she not only sees a monster, she sees a monster that offers a distorted reflection of her own image. The monster is this a particularly insidious form of the manly mirrors that patriarchal structures of seeing hold up to the women’ (Williams, P. 24). Williams also suggests that women can be the ‘active’ viewer but in result are punished for having the ‘active’ view as according to Laura Mulveys ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ in which Williams extending on Mulvey’s theory, men have the ‘active’ view when looking at women so the women are the ‘passive’ viewer, the ones being looked at Mulvey,1975, P.4). 

Williams suggests that women in horror ‘often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder’. (Williams,1983, P.17) This can be reflected in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ 1960. In the shower scene, we are presented with a shot of a fully naked woman in the shower cleaning herself. When Norman enters the bathroom all we see through the mid shot is the woman standing there and screaming, she is a ‘witness to her own powerlessness’ as she doesn’t fight back, she lets the murder happen. The close up of the screaming clearly shows the viewer that the woman is vulnerable, and unwilling to defend herself. Instead she screams in fear. Us, as the spectators, know that she is the Victim not the ‘heroine’ as she is the ‘passive’ female. Mulveys definition of ‘passive’ is a woman who is the bearer of looks and that ‘active’ view is the man’s view for looking at the women. This is where Williams expands on Mulvey’s theory by debating that though women can be presented as the ‘active’ viewer when they are presented as ‘heroines’ are always get ‘punished in the end’, for being the ‘active’ viewer as they ‘undermine the legitimacy and authentic subjectivity of this look.’ Whereas the ‘passive’ female character is the one being looked at, not the bearer of the look. 

The ‘active’ and ‘passive’ viewer is presented in Michael Powell’s ‘Peeping Tom’ (1960) where Mark, the main protagonist murders women who would class as ‘exhibitionists’. Lauren Mulvey suggests that an ‘traditional exhibitionist role’ is that ‘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 (Mulvey. 1375, P.837). Mark shows his victims themself in mirror as they die whilst filming them, captioning and showing these women the fear on their faces and consequently, according to Williams, the ‘monsters’ portrayed within. ‘Thus what Mark films is his victim at the moment of death looking at her own distorted reflection and not, as in the conventional look of horror, back at the monster’ (Williams,1983, P.27). Mark’s victims are ‘a prostitute, a movie stand-in, and a pornographer’s model’ all implied to be exhibitionists with their careers, using their bodies and their erotic image for male pleasure. These victims ‘have willingly accepted their positions as exhibitionist spectacles for his camera’ (Williams,1983, P.27). 

Williams suggests “Peeping Tom” is self-conscious meditation on the relations between a sadistic voyeur-subject and the exhibitionist object he murders’(Williams, P.26). A voyeur is someone who takes pleasure in looking at someone in secret, and a exhibitionist is someone who takes pleasure in being looked at. Using the word ‘Object’ to describe the women Mark murders implies that these female characters that had the ‘active’ view had to be punished and killed for objectifying themselves for the male gaze. Edward Snow’s ‘theorising the male gaze :some problems’ explains the male gaze as ‘that female can only function for the male-only as an object is sadist spectatorial possession’(Snow, 1989, P.30). When Mark holds up the mirror to his victims, showing the reflection of them to themselves could suggest to the female spectators that the reflection of the monster is ‘only to punish her for this very act, only to demonstrate how monstrous female desire can be’(Williams,P.35). This is implying the ‘monster’ these women are seeing ‘offers at least a potentially subversive recognition of power and potency of non phallic sexuality.’ suggesting that women can identify with the monster as the monster doesn’t have a penis. Mulvey suggests that men aren’t threatened by women as they have been castrated by men, so they don’t pose a threat because of their ‘lack of a penis’. Williams expands and says ‘the male fantasy that women are castrated, mutilated what men would be if they had no penises’ (Williams, P.34). This creates benefits of sexuality, helplessness and incapability for the women, so the man feels more in power as they put the women in that position. It is ‘precisely because this look is so threatening to male power, it is violently punished’ (Williams. P.26). 

We also are introduced to Helen who is a young woman who lives on the flat below Mark. Williams classed Helen as the ‘nonsexual “good girl”’ (Williams, P.29). Mark explains to Helen about how he used to document his childhood by creating films, as Helen becomes curious of these films, going to look at them, she instead finds the murders Mark documented with his camera instead. Helen’s character being categorised by Williams at the ‘good girl’ which Wlliam groups with ‘the one virginal babysitter who survived the attacks of the monster in halloween(1978)’ the ‘sister in psycho, who survives Norman Bate’s final attack’ Williams says that these women all categorised as ‘pure of heart’ as ‘the woman’s power to resist the monster is directly proportional to her absence of sexual desire’ (Williams, P29). This suggests to the spectator that the female characters act ‘oblivious’ to the sexual desire, this is implied as Helen is the only one of female characters who lived and ‘refused the mirror’ (Williams, P.29). This is because Helens character ‘is simply a result of her status as a nonsexual “good girl”’, suggesting that ‘she is portrayed as ignorant of sexual desire altogether’ (Williams, p.29). This implies that she isn’t explicitly being a exhibitionist, she isn’t purposely making the male characters look at her in a sexual manner. Helen is doing it because that’s what the patriarchal society wants her to be, she does it without noticing that she is doing it. Williams suggests the reason Helen was able to ‘resist the monster is directly proportional to her absence of sexual desire (Williams, P.33). At 1.53.31 Helen is presented with the knife and mirror to her face whilst Mark is recording her, when Helen looks into the mirror she sees a distorted image of herself, although she is able to look away suggesting that she doesn’t see the monsters that the other women saw in the reflection. As Helen is represented as the ‘good girl’ she can’t do wrong and she is able to look away. 

The 1996 horror movie Scream directed by Wes Craven also can suggest Williams ‘Women to Monsters’ theory and also ‘often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder’. (Williams,1983, P.17). In the opening scene we are introduced to Casey, here she answers the phone to Ghostface. Here her and boyfriend get murdered after talking to Ghostface. As ghostface is wearing a costume, the characters in the film and the audience both do not know who the killer could be. Regardless of the killer’s gender, the characters and viewers are made to be scared of the costume and the actions of the character, not of the person underneath. Yet the characters and the audience will assume that the killer would have taken the role of the man due to the typical role of the female characters to be the victims.  At 20.09 our main characters, Sidney, Billy, Stu, Tantum and Randy, talk about the murders and how the couple was found. When the characters are talking about what the police asked them about, the police ask the male characters if they like to hunt, when Tatum highlights that they didn’t ask her about if she likes to hunt. Stu replies ‘ cause there’s no way a girl could’ve killed them’. This shows the male character, Stu, to be a typical patriarch, which we later find out that he is one of the murderers, therefore suggesting that he believes his actions are above the threshold of a woman’s capabilities. Tatum replies calling out Stu for being ‘sexist’ could suggest that she has enough confidence that she can stand up for herself and women. The unusual occurrence of a woman sticking up for herself could also reflect the time period. As this film was released in 1996, there are more modern themes like the discussion surrounding sexism. This is less likely to occur in Peeping Tom, as it is an older, 1960s text where women did not have as much freedom to discuss these issues. Though Stu replying saying ‘it takes a man to do something like that’ could suggest that he isn’t comfortable in his own masculinity and for a woman to say the ‘ killer could easily be female’ as it is ‘basic instincts’ could suggest that he regards himselfs higher then he does women. Tatum replying to Stu’s ‘takes a man to do something like that’ she says ‘or a man’s mentality’ this suggests that women acting like men is such a taboo, that they are seen as monsters. Women can’t do anything in the active view, or do something to pleasure themselves, without being seen as the ‘monster’ because it isn’t what the patriarchal society wanted. 

When Ghostface asks Sidney why she doesn’t like scary movies she replies ‘what’s the point? They’re all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door’ this is a great example of Williams theory where she implies ‘often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder’. This example of self awareness from the female character acts as a postmodern characteristic of the horror genre, which engages the audience as they are satisfied by the realism of the text. This is because Sidney is able to summarise the typical plot of a horror movie which conforms to patriarchal representations of women, as ‘big-breasted’.  This suggests that though Sidney is talking about other horror movies created around the same time as scream, the premise of horror movies are the same where the women are there for the villain to kill or sexualise. They are not there to beat the antagonists, as this could lead to the female characters being shown as the monster, as they would be seen to be more powerful than the male characters. This would be threatening to the patriarchy, and therefore would engage less male spectators as a result. Therefore, to maximise audience and profits, the producers continue to sexualise and victimise the female characters to conform to industry expectations, which are catered towards a male ‘active’ viewer.  

‘Women to monsters’ can also be shown in the bathroom scene at 45.32 as we follow Sidney into the bathroom. Sidney goes to the bathroom at school to calm down after the night before, where she was attacked by Ghostface. In the scene before, the audience is told that Sidneys mother was raped then murdered a year before sidney was attacked. In the bathroom scene the viewer follows Sidney, this is where Sidney overhears two female students talking about how they believe she is making the whole attack up and how she is doing it ‘for attention’. From this, Sidney hides in the bathroom stool to hear what they say next. When the girls leave the stool and go over to the bathroom mirror, now looking at themselves and talking about how Sidney’s mum was a ‘slut’ and how she deserved to be murdered. The mise-en-scene of the outfits of the two students, one wearing a cheerleading outfit and the other in a small top with tight jeans. This is sexualising their appearance, as the figure hugging clothes highlight their feminine features. This conforms to the expectations of a female character in the horror genre, as they are being objectified, and are there to be looked at. When they are in the bathroom, Sidney is listening behind the stalls after victimising Sidney and her mother, they continue to say that ‘maybe [Sidney] a slut just like her mother’. Also saying that Sidney’s mum was a tramp. Sidney in the scene, ‘often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder’. (Williams,1983, P.17) It could be suggested that although the antagonists aren’t actually committing a murder, they are talking about it in a disrespectful manner by degrading the mother and the daughter, suggesting that it was deserved due to their gender, and not once did they blame or mention the actual man that committed the crime. 

Sidney’s Mother, who was ‘raped, mutilated, and murdered’ could be descrided as an exhibitionist, as it is said in the movie that she slept around. Sidney’s mother presented herself for the male gaze as wanted to get noticed by men. This could support Williams’ theory ‘women to monsters’ as the antagonists are talking so rudely about a dead woman and victimising Sidney by saying she is doing it for attention. According to Van Zoonen’s theory women are represented as domestic, sympathetic, kind and sexualised in media products. Therefore the complete subversion of the stereotypical representations of women can act as a form of pleasure for the female spectator as these are refreshing, new representations of women. In this scene these characters are not domestic, as all they are doing is gossiping and just spreading rumours. In the quote ‘her mother was a tramp’ they are speaking ill of the dead, the adjective tramp implies that they have low levels of respect for her, therefore they are not conforming to the expectations of a womens roles of being kind and sympathetic. However they aren’t fully subverting Van Zoonens theory as these characters are still sexualised in this scene by their costume. This subversion of the typically female representations presents these antagonists as monsters as they are negatively portrayed due to plotting the demise of the female protagonist, whilst actively disrespecting her dead mother. 

Overall the spectators can identify with the aspects of gender. For example, the subversion of stereotyping is relatable for a female viewer because although women are demonised and made to seem like monsters, they’re portrayed to be powerful whilst doing so. Women are viewed as monster-like across ‘Peeping Tom’ and ‘Scream’. Even though this portrayal may seem harmful, it can be refreshing for a female viewer who is used to seeing repeated representations of women as sexual objects and victims. This is an example of pleasure that a female viewer may experience whilst engaging with the horror genre. A male spectator can also identify with the sexualisation and victimisation of women within the genre. This benefits the men who enjoy being active viewers and watching women be passive. The sexualisation of women, and seeing women as victims is expected of the genre, as it is a historical convention, reflecting the typical portrayal of women in horror films, and in the media as a whole. 

Filmography 

Peeping Tom, 1960, dir Michael Powell

Scream, 1996, dir Wes Craven 

Bibliography 

Van Zoonen, L., 1992. Feminist theory and information technology. Media, Culture & Society, 14(1), pp.9-29. 

Williams, L., 2015. 3 When the Woman Looks. In The Dread of Difference, 2nd ed. Gender and the Horror Film (pp. 17-36). University of Texas Press.

Snow, E., 1989. Theorising the male gaze: Some problems. Representations, 25, pp.30-41.

Mulvey, L., 1989. Visual and other pleasures. Springer.