Verified by 
A recent internet meme bemoaned the depiction of women in horror movies, suggesting that they are all presented as helpless, over-sexualized victims. I suggest we take a second, closer, look.
First—a bit of comparative anthropology. Humans tell stories as naturally as fish swim (1). And, it turns out that the stories we tell by day are quite different from those we tell by night. During the day we talk of practicalities and gossip. But, at night, around the campfire, we tell those tales of myths and legends, histories and folklore, that allow us to make sense of our world (2).
Are you sitting comfortably…?
Enter the Dragon (Lady)
Throughout the whole of Bantu Africa is a mythological figure called “Wise Girl” who regularly saves the rest of the group from ogres and other monsters. One of the most famous of these is G!kno//’amdima of the Jhosa (3)who stars in a series of “bawdy… scatological…and violent tales” with themes “of…murder and blood-vengeance…sex, birth, and the balance of power between men and women”. (4)
Throughout these tales the Wise Girl usually sees the danger from the start, is ignored (sometimes even ridiculed), but through her courage and resourcefulness, defeats the evil and saves the day. She’s smart, investigative, kills monsters, and provides a point of identification for the audience—both male and female. (5) Sounds familiar? Well, she should. She is a well-known figure to anyone who watches modern horror films. Flickering screens have replaced campfires, and the "Wise Girl" of the Bantu has become the "Final Girl" of modern horror.
Your “Amazon” Order has Arrived
“Final Girl” was a term introduced by the feminist scholar Carol Clover in her (1993) book “Men, Women and Chainsaws” in which she dismantled the oft-repeated idea that females in horror films are always helpless sexualised victims. (6)Twenty years on the work of dismantling is still needed. Why is this? I leave this as an exercise for the reader.
“Final Girl” has its own TV trope entry and is well-known among horror devotees. As Clover demonstrated twenty years ago, Final Girls are distinguished by their courage and resourcefulness, their investigative abilities, and the fact that they kill monsters and save the day. In other words—they are the living spit of the Bantu Wise Girl.
And, guess what? What modern genre is known for its “bawdy, scatological references, violence and themes of vengeance, sex and the balance of power between men and women?” The horror genre, that’s what. Maybe people around the world have more in common than might be supposed.
Damsels Causing Distress
Classic examples of the Final Girl in modern films with horror themes abound. Some of the more famous include Ripley in the Alien series, Laurie Strode in the Halloween series, and Sidney Prescott in the Scream series. Other leading female characters that draw on the Wise Girl archetype are Chris in Friday the 13th Part 3, Lisa in Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Alice in Nightmare on Elm Street IV, Maggie in Nightmare on Elm Street VII, Jess in Black Christmas, Stretch in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, and Jannicke in Cold Prey. Even more recent characters that make either explicit or arch references to Final Girls are Dana in The Cabin in the Woods, Erin Harson in You’re Next, and Abigail Breslin in the eponymous Final Girl. Do I even need to mention Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this connection? Ok then. Buffy.
These heroines are not new. One of the first horror films of them all—Nosferatu (1922)—has the character of Ellen who uses her skill and courage to defeat the vampire. She dies at the end, so is perhaps not a classic Final Girl, but her sacrifice is conscious and to save others. So—she is definitely a heroine and not a mere victim.
Other (Deadly) Females of the Species
Now, I have deliberately avoided the women in horror movies who are perpetrators of horror themselves—because I want to say something about that (and what it tells us about human nature) at a later date. There are also a whole host of ambiguous characters in films like the Descent and Switchblade Romance that I have left out for reasons of not wanting to spoil things for folk who haven’t watched those movies yet. And, there are some characters (like Sally Hardesty in Texas Chainsaw Massacre) that make it to the end of the story by sheer luck, and that some (not me) might therefore say are Final Girls. I have left all these all out as well.
I wanted to draw attention to the Final Girl/Wise Girl similarity only. However, I hope I have at least made a dent in the idea that being helpless screaming sexualised prey are the only roles for women in horror.
Some folk lament the lack of strong female role models in film, literature, and computer games (don’t go there, Rob!) (7) Might I suggest that these critics look just a teeny bit harder at the data in front of them? Strong female role models abound in all cultures—but you have to actually want to find them. After all, being a victim is also a role that people can adopt if they so choose. Or, they can choose not to. Other options exist, and they always have.
Happy Halloween.
Thanks to anthropologists Cathryn Tonwsend and Helga Vierich for sharing story details. Any mistakes made in interpreting or reporting these are entirely my own.
For a more detailed exploration of female villains in horror--check out
King, R. (2015). A regiment of monstrous women: Female horror archetypes and life history theory. (http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2015-00535-001/). At some point I had better get around to blogging about these scary ladies too...
1) Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
2) Wiessner, P. W. (2014). Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201404212.
3) How do you pronounce “G!kno//’amdima”? Beats me. “G!” is a voiced uvularised plosive click. Do not attempt to make this sound at home without the help of trained professional stunt linguist. Or a native Jul’hoan speaker.
4) Biesele, M.A. 1993. Women like Meat: The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. That quote comes from page 23.
5) Bleek, W, and Lloyd, L. 1911. Specimens of Bushman Folklore. London: George Allen.
(See pages 403-433 for a selection of !Kung/Ju/hoan materials)
6) Clover, C. J. (1993). Men, women, and chain saws: Gender in the modern horror film. Princeton University Press.
7) http://porlawright.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/gamergate-the-players-and-t… dismantles some of the nonsense around female characters in computer games
