The Lobster Dance

This favoritism of a monstrous child killer [Freddy Krueger] over a strong, well-rounded female protagonist says a lot about both our antipathy toward women and our glorification of violence toward women.

Here’s an article from Lady Geek Girl and Friends that takes a look at rooting for the monster over the female characters in a horror film: “Sexualized Saturdays: Choosing Monsters Over Women.”

The horror genre, particularly slasher films, regrettably seems to try to get the audience to sympathize more with the monster than with any of the heroes, most of whom are women. Siskel & Ebert do a great discussion of this issue in a video called “Women in Danger” where they discuss these slasher films and how they often encourage audiences to identify with the villain to the point where people may even be rooting for him to “cut the bitch.”

I’ve written about A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 2; I tried to watch ANoES3: Dream Warriors and barely finished it, so I’m excited to watch this meta-horror in A New Nightmare.

Read more about A Nightmare on Elm Street and its women characters here on Lady Geek Girl and Friends.