The Monstrous Feminine

Barbara Creed
 This is a Marxist, feminist theory based on Freudian psychoanalysis - Barbara Creed. The monstrous feminine contradicts the Male Gaze, where women are seen as weak/submissive.

 The patriarchal side of view is that we hate our fathers and love our mothers. We wish to be in charge, replace our fathers and be the dominant figure, and you are almost one with your mother. Mother and child (Male).

 However our mothers are physically different from us. They have a lack and so society views women as threat of castration. therefore they are seen as horrific/dangerous.

 When we notice the lack, we grow apart from our mothers, meaning we psychologically stepping back from our mothers, and so we grow out of the pre Oedipal space, in order to move one.

 Creed suggests that this is evident within some horror texts. The representation of the final girl is influenced by this lack. The final girl is not overly feminine, however not masculine either.

 Equal status is given to the girl and the monster, by simply giving them both equal space within a frame, in a single shot.

 Man's fear of birth. Examples from Alien, Alien emerges out from a male figures stomach. This helps represent women as monstrous, because they undergo something along these lines, during the event of giving birth, also the alien grows inside the body, just as a baby would inside a woman. Another example from the film Alien, is when the monster is pushed into the air lock, in a space ship (Sometimes referred as the mother board) which is then opened by the woman, making the monster exit the spaceship, which can also be symbolically referred to giving birth. The woman defeats the monster who is trying to harm her, and also the monster carries the threat of castration, which is now taken over by the woman, so the woman now seems to carry threat of castration.

 Within our narrative, our final girl symbolises a mousy, nerdy, brunette girl, not too feminine but also not masculine in any way. However when she under goes a sexual event, she becomes monstrous (The event that could lead to giving birth). She becomes monstrous herself, at some point in our trailer, we have given the girl/killer (monster) equal status within a single shot with another girl/boy, to emphasise on Creed's theory, we have also chosen to break conventions by making our killer a female figure, and our final girl is in fact a male figure.

Summary of Barbara Creed's Theory Which Women Are Seen As Monstrous Within Horror Texts.

• The final girl is seen as a motherly figure.
• We the male audience desire to return to the pre Oedipal space we grew out from.
• Disrupted by monster/killer trying to kill the final girl.
• the final girl eventually kills the monster/killer. Usually with a knife, within horror texts.
• This leaves the male audience no where. They are subconsciously confused as to how the final girl now appears to be the monster, she is now considered abstract/horrific.