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?

Tunstall’s four character roles for women were- Marital (women are meant to be good wives)/ Domestic (they should be good cooks and cleaners and stay at home)/ Consumers (they are to do the shopping)/ Sexual (they are seen as sexual objects).

In The Cabin in the Woods (CITW) there isn’t really a stay at home housewife role as they are all teenagers. Yes, Dana isn’t sexualised and sensible in relation to the others, she isn’t a marital figure either. Jules is definitely the sexualised one as she is seen half naked and in revealing clothes. 

 2. How is Dana typical of Clover’s ‘Final Girl’ theory?

Dana (far left) seen in clothes
much like the males are dressed in

Dana is very much typical of the ‘Final Girl’ theory. She is hardly sexualised and, towards the end, she fights back against the monsters. Being less sexualised and fighting back fits into the ‘Final girl’ theory and is backed up when she is the last one to die. Or so you think. The film throws in a twist when her friend lives too and the two die together when the roof collapses. However, the film even states the ‘Final Girl’ theory in the way that the ‘producers’ of the whole thing say that the sexual girl dies fist, then the Braun, then the Scholar person ad then the fool and that the virginal, ‘final girl’, can live or die, just as long as she is the last one to die and has suffered. 

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 film you see Jules saying that she has dyed her hair blonde. This is shortly followed by one of the people underground saying that they put a chemical in it that increases pheromones and ultimately will turn her into the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype. Later on you see the chemicals taking effect as she becomes even more sexualised and is seen provocatively dancing and even making out with a wolf head. A few minutes later you see her half naked in the woods with her boyfriend (Chris Hemsworth) and then see her beheaded. This fits in with a typical horror archetype in the way that the sexualised female normally dies first. 

4. Is mulvey’s male gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? (framing, camera angles, pov shots)

There aren’t an overly large amount of scenes where camera angles or framing is necessarily done to suit the male audience. However, Jules is never seen covered up in clothing although her first dress isn’t really that provocative. Nevertheless, she is later seen dancing sexually in short shorts with the camera pointing upwards and is then shot in a close up as she makes out with the wolf head. In the woods she is seen with her shorts off and then a close up of her face as she makes sexual noises. The camera 
then shows her, wearing nothing on her top half,
 from the point of view of the ‘producers’ underground. 
This puts the male viewers in the perspective of 
the characters involved and does back up Laura
 Mulvey’s theory. After that, however, no one
 else is really sexualised although you could say
 that the male audience may identify with Dana 
and be rooting for her to survive (as one of the 
‘producers’ underground actually says that he 
is rooting for her too).

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?

As I have just stated, the audience are made to be voyeurs when Jules is undressing and is on top of her boyfriend in an undressed state. You could also say that we are voyeurs when the zombie family are throwing the bear trap at Jules and dragging her to them, and also when they behead her. Earlier on in the film we are voyeurs from both Dana’s and Holden’s perspective when they are looking through the mirror and Dana sees her reflection but 
Holden sees her looking at herself and starting 
to undress.

   6. Summarise the way women are represented in CITW. Are they objectified and there to provide satisfaction for heterosexual males and/or do they fulfill another role/purpose?

 

I think, especially for the plot of this film, that the women in CITW fulfill another purpose other than simply satisfying the heterosexual male audience. Yes, Jules is sexualised until her death, but she does die very close to the beginning and they needed her to be this sexualised female as it is the ‘whore’ that needs to die first. Dana isn’t sexualised, and she is in the film until the end, so you could argue that this film isn’t just there to satisfy the audience, 
but to get across the plot in a better way. Although,
 as I have already stated, it could still be to satisfy
 the audience in the way that the heterosexual 
male could identify with Dana as she is androgynous
 and fights back, and they are rooting for her to win.