Monster Misogyny: Difference between revisions
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The phenomenon in [[B-Movie|B Movies]] from the 1950s to early 1960s in which rampaging monsters/serial killers seem to focus their "random" attacks mostly on women. Usually young, innocent, vulnerable women. Although such films may show a man or two as victims, [[Double Standard|the real focus is on the ladies]]. For instance, if the movie includes a montage of attacks, expect every victim shown to be female.
This seems to be a wide-scale application of the [[Disposable Woman]] concept, sans any significant connection to [[The Hero]]; further, the deaths carry no more than the normal dramatic weight, and do not motivate the Hero to action any more than would male deaths. All other things being more or less equal, the director will simply ''choose'' to populate his movie with female victims. And then, of course, there are plots in which the killer will ''specifically'' target females.
One would assume, in this age of equal rights and feminism and all, that this would be a [[Discredited Trope]] or even a [[Dead Horse Trope]]. But no, the trope is alive and well. Apparently, the sight of women being terrorized on screen is just more... um... [[Fan Service|titillating]]. Or a good way to show just how evil your monster is by [[Kick the Dog|attacking poor defenseless girls]]. Also don't forget that [[Girls Are Really Scared of Horror Movies]]. Either that, or it's because this trope is based on
As a direct result of this trope, many slasher movies have a [[Final Girl]] (and one with no form of self-defense training at that), since audiences are somehow more likely to root for a young, nubile, defenseless ([[Missing White Woman Syndrome|white]]) woman on the run from a psychopath who gutted her friends like fish, as opposed to a man in a similar position.
If the women are abducted rather than killed, it's probably because [[Mars Needs Women]]. See also [[
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== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* In ''[[Ranma
* A [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[Witchblade (
* Just about any [[Hentai]] involving [[Naughty Tentacles]].
** Sometimes it's inverted; tentacle monsters will straight-up kill men, but will take their sweet time with women.
* In the first OAV of [[Vampire Princess Miyu]], all of the [[Monster of the Week|Shinma of the week]]'s victims were female: two schoolgirls, a college student, an [[Office Lady]] and a [[Housewife]]. Somewhat justified in that {{spoiler|Aiko, the girl "commanding" the Shinma, had her life "ended", therefore the Shinma believed he had to finish other female's lives as well since they had the lives that poor Aiko couldn't aspire to anymore.}}
** Also, more than one Shinma from the TV series and the manga preyed more on women than on men, or only on women. See the [[Mad Artist]] Roh-Sa, to start.
== Comic Books ==
* While men and women both die plentifully in works by [[Frank Miller]], the fetishistic way that women are killed, often while they're partially or completely naked, has led to accusations of [[Author Appeal]].
** [[Sin City]]'s male villains in particular are nearly always some variation of misogynistic [[Complete Monster]], to the point where in ''A Dame to Kill For,'' the second major [[Sin City]] story, {{spoiler|Ava, the titular [[Femme Fatale]], plays on Dwight's [[The Dulcinea Effect|violent protectiveness toward women]] by casting her perfectly innocent husband, Damien Lord, as one of these in her [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]}}.
* Unum is being created by a cosmic entity called Enmity, out of the souls of the armies of cruel villains such as Dormammu who [[We Have Reserves| treated them as expendable and sent them to their deaths.]] Practically an embodiment of hate, Unum's goal is to murder every hero in the universe, and [[Female Misogynist| despite being physically female herself]], decided to start with heroines. Why? Nobody knows, but at very least, [[She-Hulk]] was able to [[Heel Realisation| convince her to turn on Enmity]].
== Film ==
* The story goes that the memorable attack on the "Hitchcock woman" in ''[[The Birds]]'' was a result of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s [[Creator Breakdown|issues with that specific woman]].
* ''[[This Island Earth]]''. It's on the [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GIchwvJ-aNk/TMDaye49spI/AAAAAAAAVxQ/0oY5mRKbGZY/s800/this+island+earth+film+poster.jpg poster], for Chrissakes.
* Aversion: None of the spotlight deaths throughout the entire ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' series are female.
* ''Death Car On The Freeway'': a [[Made for TV Movie]] from the 1970s, in which a serial killer runs lone female motorists off the road and kills them.
* Subverted in ''[[Creature
* Partial inversion: In ''[[Grindhouse|Planet Terror]]'', not a single major female character dies (unless you count [[Brain Food|Fergie]]). Almost all of the male ones do. On the other hand, {{spoiler|a mutating [[Quentin Tarantino]] tries to rape [[Rose McGowan]] with his melting genitals}}, so it's not completely off-the-hook either.
** ''Death Proof'', the other half of ''[[Grindhouse]]'', stars [[Kurt Russell]] as a [[Serial Killer]] who specifically targets women. And yet ''Death Proof'' is also a deeply feminist reinterpretation of the [[Exploitation Film]], as the misogyny of the character is deeply unglamourized, and he is eventually killed by a particularly angry (and not even particularly sexualized, though quite sexy) [[Rosario Dawson]], [[Tracy Thoms]], and [[Zoe Bell]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|with cheers from the audience]].
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** On the other hand, it should also be noted that in the original film, the first to be taken by the monster are the women in the group. And let's not forget [[When Trees Attack|the scene with the tree]]. Sam Raimi has gone [[Old Shame|on record as saying he regrets coming up with that scene.]]
* ''[[Dragonslayer]]'', being a [[Troperiffic]] dragony story, naturally has the whole [[Virgin Sacrifice]] thing. Particularly clear {{spoiler|when the princess is torn apart and eaten by baby dragons.}}
* Semi-subverted in ''[[The Descent (
* Some might consider ''[[
* Parodied in ''One-eyed Monster''. Before I say more, here's the setup. A space parasite which takes over sexual organs lands on earth. It possesses [[Ron Jeremy]]'s penis. Needless to say, women get much longer sequences than men, for obvious reasons.
* Inverted in the spoof ''[[Monster in
* ''[[Humanoids From The Deep]]'' takes everything the 1950s horror movie monsters hinted at [[Mars Needs Women|when monsters kidnapped young women]], and updated it for 1980s exploitation sensibilities by [[Squick|showing monster-on-girl rape scenes]]. Quite infamous for its misogyny, despite being directed by a woman (though she claims producer Roger Corman added more explicit rape footage later, which knowing Corman, is probably true).
== Literature ==
* In the [[Dean Koontz]] novel, ''Shadowfires'', a [[Mad Scientist]]-turned-monster stalks his ex-wife out of (at first) murderous intentions. But after slowly becoming more animalistic, and {{spoiler|raping and killing and eating an innocent bystander}}, his desires towards his ex-wife turn more amorous and cannibalistic.
** Koontz does this a lot. ''Dark Rivers of the Heart'' was a particularly graphic example.
* In the [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter series]], all non-Lecter killers (Jacob Garrett Hobbes, Frances Dolarhyde, and Jame Gumb) specifically targeted women - Dolarhyde killed whole families, but it was the mothers that interested him. This is also a case of [[Truth in Television]], as many serial killers really ''do'' have serious issues with women. Lecter himself was far too much of a [[Magnificent Bastard]] to particularly care whom he killed, and it's implied that he had a fairly even split in terms of victims.
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** ''[[The Incredibly Strange Creatures]]'' (<small>whew!</small>). The killer murders two couples during the course of the movie. However, in each case, his target was specifically the woman; the men were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
** ''[[Horror of Party Beach]]'' includes two male victims alongside its '''twenty-four''' girl deaths. And that figure doesn't take into account the film's Female Victim Montage. Adding to the misogyny count, many of those victims were holding a slumber party at the time. Cue "panty raid" jokes.
{{quote|
** ''[[Horrors of Spider Island]]'', in which the entire victim pool is female. Except for one lecherous guy near the end. As the commentary said: "I wonder how this movie really feels about women."
*** On the one hand, this is somewhat justified as the plot is a [[Closed Circle]] (a troupe of dancers survived a plane crash and ended up on a desert island; their manager, the only man around, got turned into the monster). On the other, it also spends a lot of time focusing on scantily-clad and/or (supposedly) naked women doing things like swimming, dancing, and fighting one another. And supposedly the original German version was more explicit.
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* To hear [[Joss Whedon]] tell it, [[Buffy]] was designed as a deliberate subversion of this tendency, with the typical female victim rounding upon the pursuing monster and kicking its ass.
** Vampires most often try to chow down on victims of the opposite sex.
** Played straight with Warren Mears, an [[Ax Crazy]] megalomaniac who actually was outright mysogynistic.
*** Also with [[Sinister Minister|Caleb]] in Season 7.
* In the ''[[Star Trek:
* On ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'', the demonic blackface minstrel Papa Lazarou goes after women to make into his "wives". In a bit of a twist, though, all of the women are over 50, and he's just as dangerous towards men if they come across his path. Also, due to the format of the show, almost all the women are played by men in drag.
* Because he targets serial killers, [[Dexter]] is a heterosexual serial killer whose targets are mostly males.
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** Played straight in the first season though. The Ice Truck Killer targets only women, in particular, prostitutes. Again, this is similar to real serial killers, who (being primarily men) will target prostitutes under either some misguided "morals" that they have, or simply because they feel [[Disposable Sex Worker|they won't really be missed]].
== Tabletop Game ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'':
** The kelpie is a Monster Misandrist. A combination of [[Man-Eating Plant]] (the plant in question being seaweed), [[Enthralling Siren]], and [[The Vamp]], they not only limit their prey to males, females are immune to their charming powers. It is not known why, the most common theories being they were created for divine retribution against sailors for not honoring the sea gods (at a time when female sailors were rare, giving them exemption), or that they were created by the Evil Archomental Olhydra, who is herself a [[Straw Feminist]].
** Nereids are female elemental spirits who Zigzag and possibly subvert the Trope. They clearly do not like men and have powers that are detrimental only to males, a type of glamour about them causing men to be unable to physically harm them and viewing them as shy and flirtatious maidens. However, nereids are non-combative and do not go out of their way to seduce and enslave males, usually letting their pet [[Sea Monster]]s defend them, using a [[Kiss of Death]] on a human who will not take "NO!" for an answer. In fact, it seems far more common for unscrupulous pirates or mercenaries to enslave a nereid by stealing her shawl (her [[Soul Jar]]) making [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|this Monster Misogyny of a very different sort.]]
== Video Games ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Following the [[Real Life]] examples below, {{spoiler|Wrecking Paul}} from ''[[Everyday Heroes]]'' is a serial killer who targets women. Including, if no one else is available, {{spoiler|his own partners}}.
* In spite of whether or not you like [[Ctrl
* ''[[Shredded Moose]]'' was particularly horrible about this - Brew, the "hero", killed or abused women as a matter of fact; we were supposed to laugh at and approve his acts.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Neopets]]'' once had something called the "Terror Mountain Ski Lodge", where members of the staff were picked off by the Ski Lodge Killer. The first victim was a male, but then the killer killed 8 female staff members in a row. Eventually the killer went back to male victims (as there were only two women left).
* The [[
== Real Life ==
* A partial aversion - Serial Killers in the real world are usually attracted to a very specific category of victims; a common theme is that heterosexual killers will often prey almost exclusively on females and homosexual killers on males (assuming a male killer), although each has their own warped preferences. One British murderer, when asked why he chose a particular victim, claimed it was 'because she had red shoes'.
** On a similar note, religious extremists overwhelmingly target women that "break the rules" as well, and the punishment is generally much more severe. This can leak into serial killer territory (of the "visionary" variety) if one becomes certain that women's 'whoring' is the cause of the current town/state/country's moral decay.
** There is a specific type of serial killer that averts this: an "omnivore" will kill anyone, making them hard to catch.
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[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:Monster Misogyny]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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