THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN RELATION TO THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (GODDARD, 2012) 1. WHAT WERE JEREMY TUNSTALL’S 4 CHARACTER ROLES FOR WOMEN AND DO THEY APPLY TO THE CABIN IN THE WOODS?
Jeremy Tunstall looked at a variety of existing research regarding gender representation, and eventually argued that there were only four activities which seemed to make up women’s’ personalities. The four different character roles for women Jeremy Tunstall came up with are sexual, domestic, consumer, and marital. Looking at The Cabin in the Woods, I can see that at least one of these roles can be applied to one of the two main female characters. Jules would be considered to have a sexual role. Throughout the whole film, we are constantly reminded that Jules is a sexual character and that there isn’t much else to her personality. We never learn much about Jules besides the fact that she’s dating Curt. This definitely confirms that Tunstall’s sexual female character role does exist. Personally, I don’t think any of the other roles apply that closely to Dana. I do think that she has the traits of being
domestic as she’s portrayed as the ‘motherly’ friend. She’s the one to be looking after all of the other characters, and making sure no one gets hurt.
2. HOW IS DANA TYPICAL OF CLOVER’S ‘FINAL GIRL’ THEORY?
Carol Clover, an American professor of Film Studies, published a book called Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. One of the most noted contributions would be the Final Girl Theory. Clover argued that the horror genre is not as misogynistic as previously thought. One of her elements written about the Final Girl theory was the gender fluidity. Making the Final Girl androgynous/gender fluid allows her to be identified with by the male audience. Typically, the Final Girl is the only masculine looking one out of her friends, which I think definitely applies to Dana in The Cabin in the Woods. Whilst her only other female friend is very feminine and sexual, Dana is less bothered about her own appearance but still manages to look quite feminine. Personally, I don’t think Dana is 100% typical of the Final Girl. One of the main traits of the Final Girl is that she’s virginal, but Dana isn’t. Though Dana isn’t as sexual as Jules, it’s made clear that she isn’t actually a virgin. She just presents herself that way by dressing quite conservatively, and not wanting to have sex with Holden later in the film. Thinking about the overall idea of the Final Girl, it doesn’t even really apply that well to The Cabin in the Woods because there are two characters who make it to the end of the film, but end up dying anyway. Though Dana survives until the end and fights off the villains, Marty also survived which essentially scraps the Final Girl theory from this film. Dana then ends up being killed with Marty, so she doesn’t survive even though she made it to the end of the film, which is an important element of the Final Girl. I
think though Dana has various different traits which fit in with the idea of the Final Girl, she doesn’t fit the role 100%. The fact that she dies at the end with another character is the main reason for her not being a typical Final Girl.
3. JULES UNDERGOES MENTAL AND PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS DURING THE FILM, WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW DO THEY CAUSE HER TO BECOME A HORROR ARCHETYPE?
The character of Jules does undergo both mental and physical transformations which lead her to become a horror archetype. Six horror archetypes which can be seen throughout a lot of different horror movies are the jock, which can definitely be applied to Curt in The Cabin in the Woods. There is also the nerd/stoner which Marty takes the role of. There’s obviously the virgin/final girl which is undoubtedly Dana’s role. There are two other archetypes, which TCITWs seemed to blend into one character. They consist of the ‘token minority’ and the ‘nice guy’. Holden would be considered these characters because he’s not white, and he looks after Dana without expecting her to have sex with him. This would be considered a ‘nice guy’ in today’s society. Finally, there is the dumb blonde/cheerleader which Jules takes the role of. This character is usually not very bright and are essentially the female version of the jock. She is an object of desire, and usually very easy for the audience to hate and for the villain to kill. Jules is the first character to die within the film. However, at the very start of the film, Jules wouldn’t be considered stereotypical. There are a few changes that happen in the film, which then lead her to become stereotypical. One of the physical changes would be the fact that she dyed her hair blonde. Though we don’t see her with
any other hair colour, we are told at the start of the film that she dyed her hair blonde in time for the trip. This immediately makes her stand out as the ‘dumb blonde’ who always dies first. In terms of mental transformations, Jules does undergo one major change which isn’t actually caused by herself. When both Jules and Curt are in the woods, Curt tries to convince Jules to have sex with him there. When Jules says no, the technicians watching from the underground facility intoxicate both characters with a drug which fades their rational thinking and increases their sexuality. Obviously when the drugs take effect, Jules suddenly wants to have sex with Curt, which immediately makes her become even more stereotypical of the ‘cheerleader’ character. The character usually has not much personality, and is always sexually driven. After Jules is introduced to the drug, she becomes the ultimate stereotype.
4. IS MULVEY’S MALE GAZE THEORY EXEMPLIFIED IN THE FILM AND IF SO, HOW?
Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who came up with the theory that a lot of cinema puts the spectator into the heterosexual male position, using various different camera techniques to present the women as objects to be looked at and men as subjects who do the looking. Mulvey, along with many others, argue that mainstream films are part of the sexist regime which denies women subjectivity and forces culture to view women as objects for male pleasure. One of the cinematic techniques which is used to create a ‘male gaze’ is the use of long shots, and tilts up the women’s body from a male POV. This encourages the audience to look at her as being sexually displayed for male pleasure. This is used various times throughout The Cabin in the Woods. We are immediately met with one of those shots at the very start of the film, where the camera pans up Dana’s body as she’s walking around her bedroom in her underwear. When Curt enters the room with Jules, he makes a comment about Dana’s underwear and she remembers that she doesn’t have any trousers on. One of the other more prominent moments which really does exemplify the Male Gaze theory within the movie, is where Holden discovered the one-way mirror/window. He watches Dana start to get undressed without her even suspecting someone is watching her. He does end up stopping her from getting completely undressed because he knows it’s wrong and he is the
‘good guy’ character within the film. This gives the idea that any other guy would’ve just watched her because they were taught women are there to be looked at by men. The last moment which shows evidence of the Male Gaze theory, which I picked up on, is where Jules is about to get undressed in the woods to have sex with Curt. We are shown that all the men in the facility are watching the cameras, talking about how they want to see her naked. This, again, enforces the idea that men are allowed to look at women’s bodies whenever they please, and that women should comply because they’re objects.
5. IN THE FILM WE, AS AN AUDIENCE, ARE MADE TO BE VOYEURS; WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT IN REGARDS TO REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTER?
Voyeurism is obtaining pleasure from seeing people naked/looking at sexual objects secretively. The audience of The Cabin in the Woods are made to be voyeurs at various different points within the movie. The first time we, as an audience, are made to be voyeurs is at the very start of the film. We are shown Dana walking around her bedroom in her underwear. We know that she’s doing this in private, and doesn’t want anyone to see her, but we are forced to watch her. If it was the same situation but with a male character walking around in his underwear, we wouldn’t feel wrong for looking at him. The male body is normalised within society. Nobody is phased when they see a man not wearing a shirt. However, because the female body has been sexualised by society, we feel wrong looking at a woman in her
underwear. The idea that a woman must cover up her body in order to be treated respectfully has been forced upon us. And any woman showing more than a certain amount of skin would be considered below everyone else. Another moment within the film where the audience are made to be voyeurs is when Jules and Curt are both in the woods about to have sex. We are shown all of the men in the underground facility watching them, anticipating Jules getting undressed and we are made to feel part of them. The audience is made to feel like they are doing wrong by watching both characters in an intimate moment, who believe they are completely alone. I think this is important in regards to representation of characters because both the female characters are sexualised in the film, and making the audience voyeurs helps to enforce that. This ties in with the idea of the ‘male gaze’ and the idea that women are only here to please men. The audience are forced into the eyes of a heterosexual male, where sexualising women should please them.
6. SUMMARISE THE WAY WOMEN ARE REPRESENTED IN THE CABIN IN THE WOODS. ARE THEY OBJECTIFIED AND THERE TO PROVIDE SATISFACTION FOR HETEROSEXUAL MALES AND/OR DO THEY FULFIL ANOTHER ROLE/PURPOSE?
In my opinion, both the main female characters in The Cabin in the Woods are objectified and sexualised throughout the movie. I think Jules is more than Dana, and Dana has other roles within the movie. Jules is made out to be this unintelligent, sex-obsessed, typical blonde character. There is nothing else to her personality, and the only things she really talked about, or did, involved the objectification/sexualisation of her character. Dana was also objectified at various points within the movie, but being the final girl meant that she had more purpose than Jules. There is a moment in the movie, where Dana is kissing Holden and he wants to take things further, but Dana says she doesn’t want to. Though he says he’s ok with it, we can see he’s clearly disappointed and annoyed. This enforces the idea that Dana should have done it because women are there to please men. The audience are made to feel bad for Holden because Dana denied him. This definitely proves that women are objectified, and are reduced down to be nothing more than an object to please men.