Men, Women, and Monsters: Gender and Its Role in Horror

GP: "More than any other genre it seems that horror games include a fair amount of female protagonists. There are certainly many male leads as well, but the amount of women is striking when compared to most other types of titles out there. Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Resident Evil, and others have all had a female lead at least once and probably will have even more in the future. Is there a reason for this?

There must be something about the genre of horror itself that leads to this trend. How are men and women presented in the world or horror games? This is my attempt to see what exactly gender has to do with horror."

[jc48573]

well, I used to believe in this thing about female protagonists being more scared or weak, but I actually have a different take now. I think it has more to do how men view about women in horror games, films,etc. I actually felt Heather in Silent Hill 3 going from the "wtf" to a woman that knows how to stand up for herself. Maybe Heather is not really a good example, but I guess I had the impression she was weak because I was being biased. There are other games like Rule of Rose where the female lead is extremely weak, but I think it was done intentionally in order to make the game more scary which it's not something I support. I think the wtf sensation is something I prefer as it's more believable. Women are strong in their own way, which may not seem strong to men because they simply don't think exactly the same. I know women know how to take care of themselves just fine, so men are just being a little overprotective.

[GamePodunk]

Good points! Thanks for the comment, jc48573.

[ATi_Elite]

Everyone knows fear.....
it's just that some of us male or female can put the emotion of fear aside instead of letting it override our senses and just get the job done like.........

U.S. Military Personnel
Firefighters
Astronauts
the people who change the light bulbs way on top of the antenna's way on top of Skyscrapers. (not for a Billion dollars could i do that shite!)

male/female characters in video games don't matter as Amnesia The dark descent (male) Silent Hill (female) are both great games. Actually in Amnesia you don't even fight back as your character runs and hides in closets like a little Bee-yotch!!

My only concern is what gender are the Monsters?

[LordMe]

Strength is not a gender thing, it's an individual thing.

I know plenty of weak willed, pathetic men and women, on that same note I know some of both with an iron will.

That said in the media it all falls into stereotypes, men need to be tough as nails and women need to be scared and flailing about.

Also it falls into the way the brain works for both.
A man's brain works more with logic, where the brain of a woman uses more emotion.

To me it all depends on what the story calls for, that's how I look at it, Dead Space 2 was one of my favorite horror games, and Isaac did not act afraid all the time. Just because it's horror does not mean the main character needs to flail about helplessly.

[Pekolie]

women are usually smaller than men which can make an individual zombie or whatever the "foe" is potentially seem scarier.

I would like a female protagonist in Dead space since it would be a nice change of pace but i think it all comes down to how good the character actually is with voice actor and personality.