Post: Jessica
The month of February has always been a conflicting time of year for Spinster # 1. This has been due to the fact that some of my major life changes have happened during February’s the last couple of years, which has then exacerbated some of my mental health struggles. This year’s February has not been any different with a divorce process starting after a year’s separation, dealing with infidelity in one relationship and then ending another relationship among other daily struggles and choices. Seriously, like, what the fuck? There were many times I wanted to throw in the towel in this game called life...
However, since embracing my love of the horror genre and becoming an active member/contributor in the community, I feel that I find strength in this month by celebrating Women in Horror. The films I have watched this month and the articles/blog posts I have read continued to fuel the fire to just keeping pushing through each hard decision or overwhelming emotional moment. Seriously, when you watch a film like Raw and see the struggles that Justine must learn to control and overcome like cannibalism incited by a sexual awakening, you realize that “Hey, if she can take that on, what am I stressing about?”. That is what I find fascinating and inspirational about the role of women in horror films, that our strengths and resilience is consistently highlighted whether or not it is beautiful or monstrous.
Over the years we have seen more and more women using the horror genre as a forum to create conversations around topics such as depression, rape, body image, motherhood, racism, classism, and so much more. The feminine perspective is being added to the conversations that have been prevalent in the horror communities and it has been fantastic. Another thing is that it has been wonderful to be involved with the Spinsters of Horror and to be able to be apart of the experience. When I approached Kelly in July last year with an idea to do a podcast and website, I knew I wanted to do something that celebrated the uniqueness of being a woman who likes horror.
We knew from the get-go we were going to be a project that had strong feminist elements to it. We love celebrating the fact that we are women who love a good horror movie and can also hold our own by headbanging to our favourite metal bands.
Women in Horror month is an opportunity to not only celebrate some of the fictional female horror heroines (such as Sidney, Laurie, Alice, Nancy, and Ripley) that have appeared on the silver screen, but also a time to pay tribute to the women behind the scenes from writing, directing, producing, singing and more. It’s amazing to see them just creating something within the genre that explores the unique horrors of being a woman. It has been amazing to be a contributor in the horror community and engaging with other fantastic, creative, intelligent and beautiful women who celebrate their love of horror. This month has been both inspirational and motivating for me
There were times this past month when I felt like life was getting so out of control and I was so overwhelmed. Through celebrating Women in Horror, I found that I was able to find the strength to take back control in my life. The quote “Not in my movie” from Sidney at the end of Scream constantly came to mind. Like Sidney, I was not going to allow other people in my life to dictate how my movie is going to play out.
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