Women in Danger Films 80’s

This is a movie review from the 80s showing “women in danger films” and their overt messaging.

Over 100 slasher films were released between 1978 and 1984 at the cusp of the 1970s women’s movement; always depicting graphic sex and violence. Imagine during the civil Rights movement they had 100 films depicting black people being murdered by a white serial killers. Sexism was so normalized people didn’t think twice about it. Still, women's groups for publicly outraged at the time. The retelling of U.S Cinema history says this was feminist somehow, but this is obviously untrue. The U.S. capitalist propaganda machine was on in full force against women's liberation. '80s movie reviews by Siskel and Ebert reveal a special sneak preview episode about this phenomenon. It really make you wonder about today’s films.

Growing up with these movies always on television as a little kid it really did affect me. A child's minds very impressionable or a teenage mind. In the movies the sexually adventurous girl was always killed by the serial killer along with her boyfriend and the sexually conservative one lived. 

     Is especially true in the Friday the 13th trilogy they made 12 movies of that. Over and over and over again same movie. Summer camp camp counselors, people have sex then serial killer murders everybody. Loook at the tage lines

    The violence in television is intense. I heard the average kid watches about 2 years worth of television by the time they're 18. Would cell phones kids spending 6 hours a day on them is probably more. I must have seen a thousand people murdered in movie dramas thrillers by the time I was 20. 

   No wonder I had a sense of the world that I would be unsafe being a sex worker. When in reality what happened is that I ended up working as a stripper and getting exploited by my employer. So the reality of the violence in the world is always the opposite of what media tells you it is. And you're only going to learn that through life experiences what things in media was true and what things turned out not to be true.

(     I don't think the base of your brain ( whats known as lizard brain) understands the difference between a simulated murder and an actual murder. Your frontal lobe understands that you're just watching a movie but the back of your brain the fight or flight does not. The lizard brain handles simple survival urges like feeding, mating, and defense.  

  • Involves the amygdala, which detects threats and processes fear

  • Controls innate and automatic self-preserving behavior patterns

    • Is responsible for the "four Fs": Feeding, Fighting, and Fleeing

     When we make decisions about our lives who date where to work. how we feel about our bodies. Media is a powerful influencer.

  • This video points towards a history of intimidation designed to limit women’s agency through fear at a young age.

  • This mediascape of fear is the product of a culture bent on controlling women’s bodie

  • Sneak Previews - Women in Danger Films - Siskel & Ebert https://youtu.be/BpdCOyXV4Oo?si=E83zarvBeamPL_oG

  • Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment https://youtu.be/dmBqwWlJg8U?si=H60JWuH5IX5JSpEx

  • Noam Chomsky - Propaganda & Control of the Public Mind https://youtu.be/9shpeKIXCMc?si=zl3S9FOLkOueyljC

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