Feminine Horror To Me?

There are few things I hate more than ‘feminine horror’. 

A lot of writers will try to mitigate and deny that this is a problem within our genre, while others will agree and say that it is an issue. The main reason no one can agree on whether this is a problem or not is because no one can really dictate to each other what is ‘scary’. We write about our fears, or what we believe are horrific parts of what life is, or what life means. Because no one can dictate what fears deserve to be written about, no one wants to come out with what ‘feminine horror’ is, or what the issue, or issues, around it existing are.

The main problem with a lot of horror coming out of women is that the topics are not for everyone. What I love about this genre is how open people can be about every single fear, how it opens conversations about what people are afraid to talk about, and how a good story can open our eyes. However, when a gender or sex is exclusively writing work about a specific group of people, cutting off the right for everyone to relate to it in some sense, horror stops being horror. What the genre is good at doing stops itself in the headlights of a truck. 

In my mind, feminine horror is horror that is almost exclusively what women are stereotypically afraid of. This includes such topics as rape, menstrual cycles, and miscarriages, but rather than these topics being explored in depth, female writers tend to write stories that are copies of each other. It’s rare to find a writer who will twist these topics into what hasn’t been seen before.

Obviously, as a woman, I might have one or two of these types of tales, and I apologize about that, but I hope that, unlike these other women writers, I’m able to add bits and pieces to them that will morph them from being just like all those other stories. It’s why, most of the time, if I accidentally write something that I deem, ‘female horror’, I will put it in my ‘void’ folder where my failed stories go. Whenever I’m digging for inspiration, I head to that folder to see if there is a way to fix any of those stories, no matter how many times they need to be rewritten.

Women tend to write what other women are scared of while, I find, men tend to write about anything and everything that’s scary. Women tend to stick to ‘women territory’. They write books by women, for women, as if writing for the entire audience, and not discriminating against any of them, is not on their to-do list. What is scary to them must be scary to the entire population… not just women — not just one-sided.

This is the part where I’m supposed to name names, and name books, that, to me, failed to meet the criteria of horror that is for everyone. However, I’m not going to do that. A lot of people will probably groan and say, ‘Why not? Don’t you need evidence to back up your claims?’ And, to that,  I will say, ‘If I do that, I will be making enemies in places I don’t want to make enemies.’ 

My entire life, I have been bitter and angry toward other female horror writers for forgetting that there are other people out there besides them and themselves. Every time I write something deemed, ‘female horror’, I roll my eyes and stash it away for later. Sometimes, these tales of mine get pushed into being published, but that’s only after family or friends were very, very loud about it. If they’re loud enough, I listen to their advice and hopefully eventually learn from it.

Because of my fear of writing only about my vagina and ovaries, I made a pledge to myself when I was very young: I would never write horror solely based on gender or sex. I would write for everyone, everybody, and every man, every woman, every human… and sometimes even dogs. This means, deciding on a topic before it’s written, just in case my brain wants to own an idea that is against my beliefs.

Anything is fair game. Anything can be considered ‘scary’, but it depends, most times, on how you write it. A narrator is the most important tool to utilize, and telling a story from the point of view of the right character is more important than the idea itself. Any story can be good… it just depends on who’s telling it. 

Even topics that fall under the umbrella ‘feminine horror’ can be lifted and changed into horror for everyone. That’s the most important way to make sure your work, as a woman, isn’t ‘feminine horror’. If you can reasonably say that the fear you’re tapping into is a fear everyone has, or has had, then you’re most likely writing for your entire audience — not just one sex or gender. 

Most of my stories don’t fall under this umbrella, but when they do, you can be sure they won’t be told in a ‘feminine way’. My entire life I’ve been told not to be a horror writer because I was a woman. My entire life people have told me I’m not good enough just because I have a Y chromosome, and, somehow, because of what I look like, am automatically a ‘pretty girl’. Women don’t write horror.

One Halloween, I was walking by a bus stop to get to where I was going. This guy in a Deadpool costume stopped me. Somehow, we started talking. I told him I was a horror writer and he said, “Let me guess one of your stories. You and your best friend walk down to Starbucks and find out it’s closed.” Ooh, burn. I was so pissed, so I spat in his face, “Actually, one of my stories is about a little boy who’s locked in a cage and is a pedophile’s one hundred eighty-ninth victim.” He was dumbfounded, and I walked away, proud.

First of all, that asshole has no right to be wearing a DeadPool costume. Second of all, this is the type of crap I’ve dealt with daily, being a female horror writer. Everyone, mostly men, have looked down their noses at me and have said, ‘You don’t deserve to write this genre because look at your face and your crotch.’ 

Being discriminated against daily, for working on a dream I’ve dreamed about since I was a little girl first learning how to speak, has taught me what women are ‘supposed to’ and ‘not supposed to’ do. From the very beginning of my journey to become an author, I have dealt with people who believe I write ‘what women would write’. Instead, I’ve fought to be able to do what I do because I love it.

I’ve had to train myself to think differently so I could do what I wanted to do, and shove it in people’s faces if need be. Training myself to think differently has opened up the way my mind sees fiction, people, and the entire world.

There are few things I hate more than ‘feminine horror’, because those stories teach others that people with vaginas can’t write this genre. This type of horror gives women a bad name, bad reputations, and deter others from reading their work based on their biological sex. If my everyday life hasn’t taught me where people believe I belong, then I wouldn’t be writing this article. There are few things I hate more than ‘feminine horror’, so most of my stories come from mundane topics, but attempt to speak to the bigger picture. Everything and everyone has a bigger picture, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone other than themselves.