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Guest Post by Colleen Wanglund: Does Misogyny Exist in Horror?

There is nothing new about sexism and misogyny in the geek community.

Some of the things women have experienced are daily things that don’t seem like they’d be a big deal on their own, but stack up over time (I’m not going to link to it, but just search “feminist gamer bingo” and you’ll see the kinds of comments many geek women hear). Some of them are more obvious incidents, especially at cons. Cosplayers (people who wear costumes to represent a particular fictional character) in particular often face harassment, but it’s not limited to them– con attendees, authors, and panelists have all experienced disheartening behaviors due to their gender. Author Ann Aguirre wrote about her own experiences at cons not that long ago, and caused enough of a flurry to qualify for an interview at Publishers Weekly (link here). There continues to be a belief that the way things are now– both the actual treatment of geek women and girls and the representation of women in the media they consume– is okay, or at least to be expected. It’s not, and it’s important to be having a conversation about it. (Here are a couple of links that have contributed to that conversation- this article from  author John Scalzi, this article from Dr. Nerdlove, and for a slightly different and more personal take, this article by Mercedes Yardley. And, of course this awesome video from the Doubleclicks, which drives the point home with clarity).

Mostly, though, discussions on the treatment of women geeks have been focused on science fiction, fantasy, comics, and gaming communities of various kinds, horror being the redheaded stepchild of genre fiction (although there is a fair amount of overlap).  I asked Colleen Wanglund, one of our reviewers who is very involved in the horror community and in Women in Horror Month (held every February) if she would share her thoughts on misogyny and sexism in horror, and here is what she had to say.

 

 

Does Misogyny Exist in Horror?

I’m a geek—and unashamedly so.  I’m also a woman, which to some seems to be a contradiction.  So it distresses me to read about other women’s bad experiences within the realm of geekdom.  While I have been to some big conventions—namely New York ComicCon, Chiller, and Horrorfind—I personally have only had good experiences.  I’ve also been to my local comic shop on many occasions and have never gotten weird looks or been made to feel uncomfortable.  My daughter Darlene (you know her as the artist who created Horatio P. Bunny)(editor’s note: Horatio P. Bunny is the mascot for MonsterLibrarian.com) is a cosplayer—that’s costume player for the uninitiated–and has been to many more conventions than I and she has been the victim of the sexism that has taken hold.  I was shocked to hear some of what she has told me recently, and quite frankly, it disturbs me….A LOT.

This started out as a piece on the horror world, but let’s face it, there is a lot of overlap between horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.  We see it in everything from comics, movies, anime, manga and literature to video games, toys, cosplay and role playing games.  What’s got me riled up is the fact that many so called “geeks”, regardless of genre and whether they are fans, writers or other participants think that women cannot have the same interests as deeply as the men.  There are plenty of stories of convention goers angrily confronting female cosplayers, thinking they are only out for attention.  They have questioned these women to determine if they have the appropriate knowledge to be a geek.  There are stories of sexual harassment and assault, as though men think they can treat these women any way they please.  Ironically, the men who attend the various genre conventions don’t seem to mind the Booth Babes—women hired to work the booths of companies specifically to attract the male convention goers.  Women aren’t the marketing targets, although they attend, too; or maybe  the businesses there think women are not worth the effort to attract toward a particular booth or product.

What is interesting is that for every story of a woman being harassed, or accused of sleeping with a publisher to get their book in print, there is a story of women being treated with respect, and welcomed into the community of their choosing.  I have spoken to a number of female horror authors who have said their experiences have been nothing but good when it comes to dealing with other male writers, editors, or publishers, both through long-distance business dealings and in person at conventions and other events.  Some have even told me that if anything, the only bad experiences they may have had have come from other women.

Even looking at movies, women are forever portrayed as the damsel in distress having to be saved from the likes of Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface and Freddy Krueger.  But not so fast.  There is also the phenomenon of the Final Girl, the girl left standing in the aftermath of a crazed psychopath on a killing spree.  The Final Girl is no helpless female. On the contrary, she has survived and (usually) been responsible for the demise of the psycho.  And of course there have been plenty of badass heroines, including Ripley (Alien), Sarah Connor (Terminator), Alice (Resident Evil), Laurie Strode (Halloween), Heather (I Spit on Your Grave), Kristy (Hellraiser), and most recently Katniss (The Hunger Games), among many, many others.

So does misogyny exist in horror?  Or sci-fi and fantasy, for that matter?  I think it depends on who you talk to and how their own experiences frame their opinion.  Is it outright hatred of women?  I can’t say for sure. For some, I think it’s just arrogance to think women can’t participate in geekdom.  For others, I think it’s fear—fear of losing what these male geeks and writers have thought of as their domain.  One thing I do know is that it seems to mirror society, in general.  Women are always getting the short end of the stick, no matter how successful they become.  We see it with women who work behind the scenes in the horror film industry, with the male to female ratio of published stories in horror, the number of publishing houses run by men versus women, and in the ratio of awards given out to women in all aspects of the horror industry. While on the one hand it’s a good thing to see horror film festivals and book publishers focusing on the women in the industry, I also think it’s sad that these steps must be taken to give hard working women the recognition they deserve.

Either way, women have to work harder than most men to be successful in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, or whatever it is they are pursuing.  This is the reason behind the annual Women in Horror Recognition Month.  Taking place every February, the brainchild of Hannah Neurotica aims to bring to light all of the women in the horror film industry, both in front of the camera and behind it.  My personal involvement came about because I wanted to ensure that women in the horror literary industry also received their due.  There is support for women, both from other women as well as men.  Not all men are clueless.  Most of the men I have dealt with as a reviewer and writer have been nothing but supportive and respectful.  However, not everyone is so inclined to give their fellow writers, directors, gamers or fans the respect they deserve….and this is not going to change overnight.  But I believe it is changing.  The Viscera Film Festival and Bleedfest showcase female moviemakers.  In the literary world, an annual award given for “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic” is named for Shirley Jackson, female author of such notable works as the short story “The Lottery” and the novel The Haunting of Hill House. 

Have I answered the question “Does misogyny exist in horror?”  I think there is some measure of misogyny and sexism but I don’t think it is as bad as some may think.  Again, this is dependent upon the individual’s own experiences.  It’s the remnants of a patriarchal society that is still struggling with women’s equality.

 

Colleen Wanglund

 

 

 

 

Posted on August 11, 2013 by , Reply

Teens Are Shameless Readers

Elissa Gershowitz has written recently in Horn Book about the trashy books teens read, and how sharing that they’re reading them to an adult (like, say, the librarian) makes them “avert their eyes”. I think she’s wrong about that. I’d say most librarians these days have a pretty relaxed attitude towards kids’ reading tastes, and are more likely to capitalize on those tastes than judge them. And, more importantly, kids reading what they LIKE to read aren’t ashamed of their tastes. They just don’t read their preferred texts around people who don’t respect their reading choices or take away what they want to read– they find people who are excited about those books, and will give them what they want. Whether adults include or exclude kids’ favorite books on the basis of  whether those books are “trash” or “quality literature”, those books are everywhere. Gershowitz argues that most trashy books have no staying power (some don’t, some do, just like any other kind of book). Mostly, I don’t think writers write their books with the intention of writing classics, with the exception of those literary types bent on writing the Great American Novel.

Gershowitz asks what makes one trashy book the standout above all the others of its kind. Well, today I would say a lot of it has to do with marketing. I was a newly minted children’s librarian widely read in science fiction, fantasy, and children’s books of all kinds, when I first encountered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (widely considered trash by authorities in the field of children’s literature). My reaction was that it was a pretty good fantasy novel. It wasn’t an instant takeoff– I returned to school at the end of 1999 and hardly heard boo about it. A year later I walked into a Hallmark store and almost crashed into an overwhelming display of  Harry Potter merchandise. I read both Twilight and The Hunger Games before they became massive hits, too. What makes these books “standouts” of epic proportions is cross-marketing that is completely immersive and overpowering. It’s impossible to include Twilight in the same category as some of these other books Gershowitz mentions.

As someone who grew up during the time in which Forever, Go Ask Alice, and Flowers in the Attic were published, I believe those books are standouts in part because they address taboo topics in a frank way. They’re books my parents and teachers weren’t going to put into your hands.  They’re not especially didactic, and the protagonists speak right to you. Yes, even Cathy Dollanganger, locked in her attic in a horrifying situation as gothic as it gets, reflects back pictures that storm inside our heads. On that, I think Gershowitz and I can agree. And there’s some of that in Twilight as well, although where the book stops and the marketing starts is difficult to measure.

Contemporary YA novels are hard to compare because so much of what was taboo at that time is no big deal today. A series like Gossip Girl is like a soap opera on paper. 25 years ago those were (in theory, anyway) for adults only. The paranormal was a tiny piece of the market. With the popularity of Interview with the Vampire and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that changed. The world of children’s and YA literature today is not the same as the one I grew up with. That’s okay, but it makes comparisons difficult. The difference between what makes a book quality literature and what makes it trash changes with time.

But here’s the thing that’s different. Teens today don’t feel like they have to hide their reading tastes from the world. In places and with people who don’t respect them or their reading choices, they aren’t going to share them, but what happens is that those places and people become irrelevant to their lives. If adults don’t address those choices in a positive way, they will find themselves locked out. And reading ‘trashy books’ won’t stop with adulthood– but, for many, it will limit whether they choose to read anything else, or choose to read at all.

 

Posted on June 27, 2013 by , Reply

Angry Penguins, Anne Rice Returns, and Other Stuff.

Well, the drama from November, when Penguin pulled all their ebook titles from OverDrive (read: libraries) for dealing with Amazon, and then later decided it was okay for libraries to continue to check out ebooks they had already purchased but not new releases while they negotiated, has concluded for the moment, with Penguin choosing to stop releasing new ebooks to libraries at all and any Kindle versions to libraries at all. Instead of me summing it all up for you, I now present you with further reading: an article from Publishers Weekly that provides a basic summary, and some more information here. A bit of analysis shows that while this is extremely frustrating for librarians and library users,  it probably doesn’t do either Penguin or Overdrive much good, since it appears that now the only Big Six publisher making ebooks available to libraries is Random House, even though there is a huge demand for ebooks. So if you’re a small press publisher, willing to make it easy for libraries to work with you, this could be good news for you.

And a few tie ins to Women in Horror Month (kinda):

Anne Rice is back, this time with a werewolf book. Here’s an interview with her, published just a few days ago in the Wall Street Journal.

And this month Madeline L’ Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. You can argue that it’s science fiction or fantasy or both, and you’d be right, but it’s also terrifying. I liked this article that talked about how central women writers have been to the renaissance of science fiction and fantasy, especially for the young adult crowd. The author mentions extremely cool writers like Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Lois Lowry, all of whom came long before J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins ever hit the scene. Although it’s not addressed in the article, if you look at YA horror, I suspect you’ll find a number of women writers there too; Lois Duncan and V.C. Andrews were staples when I was growing up (although not as likely to be assigned reading in school). It’s interesting to note this, as these are frequently perceived as male-dominated genres… does that just happen when we grow up?

And Rose Fox, over at Genreville, notes that there are more starred horror titles (horror-ish, to use her exact wording) this year already than there were all last year. Woohoo!

 

Posted on February 13, 2012 by , Reply
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