The Representation of Women in Relation to The Cabin in the Woods

1. What were Jeremy Tunstall's 4 character roles for women and do they apply to The Cabin in the Woods?

There are 4 character roles which Jeremy Tunstall discovered when looking at a variety of existing research on gender representation. These consist of;

• Domestic
• Marital
• Sexual
• Consumer

Domestic relates to the running of a home, so when relating this to women, this can refer to the idea of 'stay at home' mums whose main task in life is supposedly to clean and look after the house.

Marital women can be described as women who are eager to get married and have children with their male partner. This can tie in with domestic quite easily.

Sexual can tie in to the idea of male gaze, meaning these women are on the screen for the purpose of entertaining a male audience by showing them women in a way that sex could be an idea that crops up into their mind (e.g. half naked girls).

Consumer women are those who are shown to be all about buying things, these type of representations where women 'go to the mall and leave with the mall'. 

In 'The Cabin in the Woods', we are shown some of these character roles, though perhaps in a more ironic kind of way. We have Dana, the main protagonist who cares for her friends and stands as the voice of reason. For this reason I feel as though she has some traits of the Domestic role that Jeremy Tunstall talks about. We also have Jules who shows traits of having a Sexual role, especially in the game of dares when she kisses the wolf head, and also the sex scene in the forest. While these roles are shown quite explicitly and obvious to the audience watching, we are shown that the movie is extremely self aware and that these character roles are fulfilled purposefully to work with the plot.

2. How is Dana typical of Clover's 'Final Girl' theory? Please mention: the ending; Dana's appearance and her actions during the film.

A typical 'final girl' has many traits that we have come to expect when viewing a horror genre, and I believe that Dana does qualify as being one. She survives until the end of the movie, she has brunette/ginger hair as opposed to blonde (where the hair colour blonde would be more common with a more sexually orientated female character), she is strongly shown to be a well educated woman and she puts up a good fight when in danger. While her character does in fact work as being the final girl, the actual film shows that it is aware of this theory and even refers to Dana as the '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?

At the start of the movie, we are made aware that Jules had recently dyed her hair blonde. In the horror genre, we have come to expect female characters with blonde hair to not be the final girl, and to perhaps to fulfil stereotypes of the sexual woman role. There seems to be an obvious theme in the horror genre of less-intelligent, sexual women being either the first, or one of the first few, victims of the antagonist, and commonly their death would take place during an action that shows these traits. This is the case in 'The Cabin in the Woods', as she is affected by chemicals released by the scientists which make her hormonal, causing her to want to have sex in the woods, which then leads to her death.

4. Is Mulvey's Male Gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? Think about framing, camera angles and POV shots.

There are a few examples in The Cabin in the Woods in which Mulvey's Male Gaze theory is exemplified. One example of this is the scene in which Jules is dancing next to the

fireplace. In this scene, we are shown Jules from a point of view shot of one of the guys sitting on the sofa at a low-angle. I guess the low angle could signify Jule's domination over the male characters in the scene, due to her sexual empowerment that she seems to have over these men. The point of view shot can also imply that we are supposed to be viewing this scene from a male perspective, regardless of our own gender.

6. (Briefly) 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?

I feel as though the way that this film represents women is divided between Jules and Dana, who both hold a different set of values typical of the horror genre. Jules is objectified and, although obviously self-aware, shown to be in the movie to provide satisfaction to heterosexual males. This representation is shown by use of male gaze, her general personality of being less-intelligent and more sexually orientated and further connoted by her skinny figure, blonde hair and choice of clothing (jean shorts that show a lot of leg). Dana, on the other hand, is shown to be our main focus throughout the film

and has most of the responsibility of making decisions within her group of friends. The general power relationship in this group show Dana as being on top, and this connotes that she is in fact there to fulfil another role. Her brave attitude in the face of a crisis, along with her strong ability to survive shows her to have, what we would assume when looking at these types of films, a much more masculine personality, which is further connoted by her darker hair colour and less-revealing clothes.