The Primitive in 1950s Horror Films
- Categories
- Article/Artikel
- Magazine Title
- Genders: Presenting Innovative Work, in the Arts, Humanities and Social Theories
- Magazine Year
- 2004
- Magazine Number
- 40
- Creator
- Gonder, Patrick
- Thesaurus
- films, gender, seksualiteit, vrouwbeelden, vrouwelijkheid, mannelijkheid, racisme, 1950-1959
- Description
- Besides paying attention to how black people, especially black men, were described in horror movies in the 1950's, author also looks how women were presented in these movies. Coloured people were pictured as being primitive while white people as being civilized. The connection between white femininity and black masculinity had to be managed very carefully since it poses a real threat to white patriarchy. White women represent the possibilities within evolution, of both forward and backward movement: they mark the space between the civilized and the primitive, a position of intense and anxious visibility, as contrasted to the relative marginalization or invisibility of women of color. In these films, the primitive beast and the victimized white female refuse to stay fixed in the evolutionary temporal schema, and the male body is revealed to be something other than the perfection of evolutionary development.