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Monday Mini: Sexism in Haunted Houses · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and welcome to Steffane. Never told
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: you a production of iHeart Radio. And yes I am
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: still by myself. But Samantha, we'll be back soon. We've
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: just got a lot of vacation going on, and a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: lot of work trips going on, and also some COVID
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: going on, so I am making a lot of things
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to make that possible. But yes, today, speaking of vacation,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I am getting ready to go to Universal who's not
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: a sponsor in Florida, to go to the last of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: us haunted house among all the other haunted houses, but
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  Speaker 1: that was the one I was like, Okay, immediately, I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: have to go. I've already picked out all of my
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: low key cosplays. I'm very I cannot imagine Samantha. There
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: are a few things I can imagine her wanting to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: do less because she doesn't like you know, she doesn't
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: like statues coming to life. She doesn't like anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: So I just don't foresee her enjoying it. But I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: love a good haunted house. I have been to most
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  Speaker 1: of the big ones in Georgia. When I was growing
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  Speaker 1: up in my small town, that was one of the
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  Speaker 1: things you did every Halloween was you went to the
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  Speaker 1: Haunted House and the different teams every year, and there
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  Speaker 1: were some big ones. There are some famous ones near
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  Speaker 1: me that I've been to and have very much enjoyed.
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  Speaker 1: I've also been tricked by some of the religious ones,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but I've done the thing. I've been to Universal for
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this before Moreland once too. I really really enjoy it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm very very excited. I've been trying not to spoil myself,
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  Speaker 1: but also I've kind of spoiled myself about this a
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: lot of house because I'm so excited that I keep
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: seeing headlines about it and like, oh wait, let me see.
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  Speaker 1: But it got me thinking about, of course, kind of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: how haunted houses are sexist in a lot of ways,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: or they can be. So I was thinking about this
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  Speaker 1: and I found an article called how sexism haunts the
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  Speaker 1: Haunted House industry and the sociologist and actors trying to
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  Speaker 1: exercise the gender stereotyping demon and I found it on
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Atlas Obscura. It's by Kate's Golmumbyevsky. I hope I didn't
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: butcher that completely, but I wanted to read some quotes
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: from it because I do think a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: when I go to a haunted house. What it devolves
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  Speaker 1: to is there's the women who are victims and the
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  Speaker 1: men who are monsters. And that's being very general, but
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that is general for a reason. And I was also
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: thinking because a friend of mine was texting me the
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  Speaker 1: other day and she was like, I'm watching this movie
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: that we both like, hell House LLC. It's about a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: haunted house that goes wrong. There's several movies in that genre,
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  Speaker 1: but in that haunted house, the final scare is a
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: woman who's changed up the wall, who's barely closed. And
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  Speaker 1: I was just like, yep, I've seen this. There's also
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  Speaker 1: I've been to a few quote adult haunted houses, and
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  Speaker 1: they are almost always women who are scantily cod who
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: are getting tortured, or sexy women monsters. They're just sexualized.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, and that's what a lot of this article found.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: So here's a quote. While these character dynamics are common
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in the haunted house industry, they're part of a larger pattern. Ericakeavistad,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a professor at the University of Southeastern Norway who studies
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: horror literature, notes that within the genre, there has history
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: been a real tendency to depict women as victims. Also,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I hope not butchering your name either. The quote was
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  Speaker 1: because that points to film scholar Linda Williams theory that
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  Speaker 1: horror movies use the depiction of female victims to elicit
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  Speaker 1: an audience's emotional reaction. It's more socially acceptable for women
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  Speaker 1: to express fear than it is for men. Becaustad says,
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  Speaker 1: it's also possible that seeing a man in extreme distress
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  Speaker 1: might be more upsetting to audiences than seeing a woman
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  Speaker 1: in similar circumstances. We are just more used to seeing
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  Speaker 1: women as suffering objects, she says, So that's the going
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  Speaker 1: back to the women as victims. I think we are
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  Speaker 1: more used to seeing women that way. We are more
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  Speaker 1: used to us to having your final girls, or even
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  Speaker 1: not your final girls, but seeing them suffering, seeing them
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  Speaker 1: being punished, and garnering more sympathy for them, especially white women.
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  Speaker 1: But it is we're more comfortable with that, We're more
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  Speaker 1: used to that, and that's brightening. I think that's it's
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  Speaker 1: not good that that's what we're more comfortable with seeing.
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  Speaker 1: Not that I think haunted houses just inherently have a
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  Speaker 1: certain level of discomfort. I've certainly been to some that
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  Speaker 1: have made me very very uncomfortable. But the fact that
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  Speaker 1: it is depicted this way and kind of reinforces how
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  Speaker 1: we do see women that way is something that we
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  Speaker 1: should ask ourselves about, I think. And then the quote
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  Speaker 1: goes on female monsters very much tend to be represented
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  Speaker 1: in relation to sexualities. Is kevistad Male zombies are just zombies.
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  Speaker 1: Female zombies are sexy zombies. In addition to observing haunts,
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  Speaker 1: the article also included some research around people who work
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: at haunted houses, performers who work at haunted houses specifically,
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  Speaker 1: and so what they found was that, in their mind,
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  Speaker 1: surprisingly many women work alongside their children. Quote some have
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  Speaker 1: stories about protecting their children from sexually inappropriate behavior from
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  Speaker 1: both patrons and fellow workers. I think that is also
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  Speaker 1: important to note the harassment of the performers. And there's
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  Speaker 1: a reason why so many haunted houses are very strict,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: have very strict rules no touching, because it can go
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  Speaker 1: that way as well. And some of that is, you know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: people freaking out and maybe hitting, which I'm not saying
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  Speaker 1: is okay, but some of it is that, and some
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  Speaker 1: of it is much more malicious than that. And then
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  Speaker 1: I don't think it will surprise anyone. But most haunted
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  Speaker 1: houses are owned by men, and they're the ones that
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  Speaker 1: are sort of planning out these scares, these story lines,
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  Speaker 1: and that can you know, run down to like costuming
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  Speaker 1: and all that stuff, which is important. This article did
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  Speaker 1: highlight one hunted house owned by women, who's trying to
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  Speaker 1: flip the script on this, trying to make it where
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  Speaker 1: that's not the status quo anymore. And I would love
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to check that out. I would love to do that.
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  Speaker 1: I do feel like you can. I mean, I guess
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  Speaker 1: it's obvious, but there's so many tropes you see in
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  Speaker 1: hunted houses where you're like, oh, here's your creepy little girl,
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  Speaker 1: here's your like sexy nurse who's going to kill you,
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  Speaker 1: and versus what the men, the male monsters are, which
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: is not sexualized or anything like that. There are ten
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: houses haunted houses at this universal thing. They are haunted
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  Speaker 1: like areas, spaces, mazes. So I'll report back as to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: what I see. I do know that one time I
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: went there and I went to one that disturbed me greatly.
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  Speaker 1: That was just like a dude, kind of a mad
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  Speaker 1: scientist type that was dismembering women. That's my memory of it.
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  Speaker 1: It's possible that I was just that's just what stuck
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  Speaker 1: out to me. But we'll see, we'll see. I am excited,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, I would love to see more haunted houses
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  Speaker 1: owned by women and planned by women. I think that'd
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  Speaker 1: be great. If there's one that you know of or
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: one that you've been to, please write in. You can
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: email us at stephidamom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff I Never Told You.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: We also have a tea public store and a book
• 8:45
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• 8:47
  Speaker 1: dot com or wherever you get your books. Thanks it's
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christina or executive producer Maya
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and our contributor Joey. And thanks to you for listening
• 8:55
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• 8:57
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