Is there a name for the phenomenon where if you see a movie poster with only a single human on it, and that human is a woman – then it's most likely a horror movie, and if it's not a horror, it's most likely a thriller?
Has anyone done some research into the percentages on this?
It feels very much like just yet another way patriarchy/systemic misogyni shows itself. A lone man can be a hero, a lone woman, either a victim, evil or disturbed.
@anne_twain @forteller Here's one data point: On the first page of https://letterboxd.com/films/decade/2020s/ I found 11 out of 72 posters where a woman is the only person whose face or full figure is shown. More than half of those (6/11) are in the horror genre. Only 1/11 is in the action genre:
The Substance (horror, sci-fi)
Anora (drama, romance)
Nosferatu (fantasy, horror)
Pearl (horror, thriller)
Past Lives (drama, romance)
X (horror, thriller)
Babylon (comedy, drama)
Barbarian (thriller, horror)
Black Widow (action, adventure)
Alien: Romulus (sci-fi, horror)
Companion (thriller, horror)
@anne_twain @forteller Repeating the exercise for male characters, I get 0/10 in the horror genre and 3/10 in the action genre:
Mickey 17 (comedy, adventure)
Soul (family, comedy)
Top Gun: Maverick (action, drama)
The Boy and the Heron (adventure, fantasy)
The Whale (drama)
A Complete Unknown (drama, music)
Thor: Love and Thunder (action, fantasy)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (adventure, action)
Oppenheimer (drama, history)
The Batman (crime, mystery)
@anne_twain @forteller Or to take another approach:
Of the top 72 horror movies’ posters on Letterboxed right now, 9 feature a man/boy alone, while 22 feature a woman/girl alone.
Of the top 72 action movies’ posters on Letterboxd right now, 26 feature a man alone, while 3 feature a woman alone.
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ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘
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