Representation of Gender in Psycho (1960)

The 1960s was an era where 2nd Wave Feminism started to populate. Women wanted equal rights and the media at the time recognised the Women’s Liberation Movement but did not promote its ideals and instead used it to appeal to the public’s interests. Betty Friedan’s ideology of how women were only presented as love interests, personal servants and objects linked in to this heavily during the 1960s in which traditional views were held and heavily influenced the horror genre with how women were used as victims.

The movie represents the main female protagonist as a stereotypical woman of the 1960s era. They oversexualise her by placing her on the poster in only her underwear to make her look 'submissive' and portray the ideology of her being harmless. This reinforces how women would be obedient by obeying others therefore being the 'perfect woman'. Using David Gauntlett's theory of identity, it could be said that the female is presented in this way to influence the woman demographic to aspire to be like this ---'perfect role-model' despite it following harmful, traditional views. Furthermore, the woman's body language of her wide-eyed appearance reinforces her gentle behaviour, as it resembles her innocence and purity which would appeal to the male audience at the time who wanted this type of 'love interest'. Van Zoonen’s ideology could be applied to Psycho as she could see the female character contributing to social change as she is allowing more exposure to women by having a popular role. Though the passiveness of the woman as well as her characteristics damage the representation of women instead of benefitting them.

This poster reflects poorly on the genre or horror as it moves away from the spine-chilling engagement and instead portrays it as some type of romance or cheap erotic film. The use of placing the female on the poster highlights her as being controlled as well as dominated through a means of sexualisation rather than the fear of generic horror tropes such as the undead and supernatural. This is further reinforced by the two images of men in red. It automatically stereotypes the protagonist as a classic female victim against her male oppressor. This could represent the real-world situations in the 1960s in which women were seen as inferior to men. Also, the image of the man with little clothing contribute to the audience's 'shared conceptual roadmap' that a man with a strong, haired chest is seen with the connotations of a 'bear' and so naturally more powerful than others. This is harmful to the representation of women as it could contribute to empowering the audience's ideologies of being superior to women according to George Gerbner’s theory of repeated representation can shape people’s beliefs.