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 identified 4 main character roles for how women are represented in the media; domestic, consumer, sexual, marital. Jules was represented as sexualised as she fitted the dumb blonde stereotype whose main interests are getting drunk and having sex. She may have also have connotations of consumer as she chose to die her hair and wear more exposing clothes; to fit in with society/get popular maybe? Dana is not represented as sexual even though conversations about her engaging in the activity occurred. This is because Dana is more conservative with the way she dresses and behaves, and to fit the storyline there has to be a 'pure' female.

2. How is Dana typical of Clover's 'Final Girl' theory? Please mention: the ending; Dana's appearance and her actions during the film. At the beginning there were signs of her being a 'bookworm' as she wanted to bring her coursework with her to the cabin, which shows she is an academic, so perhaps not interested in learning and not typical teenage activities. Also being portrayed as the nonsexual female, unlike her peers who pair off with one another. Even though she had a love interest with one of the male characters, she made it clear there would be no sexual activity. Her appearance was represented as plain and conservative, no bright colours or bold clothing which connotes she likes to blend in with the background and not be centre of attention. She has brown/ginger hair which links with the stereotype in horror films of blondes being dumb, i.e Jules who gets killed due to her decisions. Throughout the film and to the end Dana fought back when she and her friends were being attacked, which shows she does not play a passive role as she is not willing to accept her fate if there is a possible revenue of survival.

 

3. Jules undergoes mental and physical transformations during the film, what are they and how do they cause her to become a horror archetype? Mentally her attitude changes as she becomes more sexualised throughout the film, as she spends more time with Curt. Until they finally are about sex with each other which is where she meets her brutal death. She gets drunk at the cabin whilst the group participate in truth or dare, alcohol fuelled Jules accepts her dares and her sexual behaviour increases (dirty dancing by the fireplace and on the males). Her intelligence seems to in fact decrease showing little common sense, but in a conversation with Holden Dana reveals Jules was a 'pre-med' student which shows before her personality transformation she was also an academic. She dyes her hair to blonde which perhaps means she wants more male attention and to stand out more, the opposite of Dana. All of these alterations to what would be the 'real' Jules have made her into the horror archetype of a dumb blonde teen who is highly sexualised. This character role is always/one of the first to die due to her decisions which she makes during the narrative.

4. Is Mulvey's Male Gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? Think about framing, camera angles and POV shots. I agree that it is exemplified in the film because of many examples shown, to begin with one of the first shots revealed Dana standing in her room half dressed, and the pov of the shot is like somebody is looking into her window, something an 'appraising heterosexual male' would do/like to see. Secondly, the framing when Jules is dancing by the fireplace zooms in on her whilst the others are just watching, the pov shot mimics Curt's view, as the other males don't seem to be enjoying it. The camera tilts up/down to admire Jules' figure. Another would be when Jules walks over to the Wolf's head on the wall of the cabin. It comes from a very low angle and focuses on her legs and behind.

 

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? This happens when Jules and Curt are about to sleep with each other, this part of the film has features of soft porn (showing Jules half naked), as Curt and Jules are in the height of their activity this is where Jules gets attacked. Her death is seen as important because this is her punishment for being sexually active and arousing the males in the audience. As Jules becomes the female victim, this somehow acts as a lesson to be learnt for the other female characters.

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 think they are objectified and provide satisfaction for males (Jules - simply seen as a sex object) but I do think they represented in more than one way. Dana and the female technician were not sexually objectified, and were both focused on succeeding and were not giving up easily. A big contrast between these females and Jules were that they were both aware of their surroundings unlike Jules who did not really pay much attention to nearby danger. Revealing the message that if you don't pay attention, concentrate you will die - even like the female technician in the end.