Its frustrating when non-horror people come into horror spaces and ask why we like violence and watching people suffer and sexism and all other manner of moral hand-wringing, but i also find it frustrating when horror fans (myself included) attempt to sincerely engage with these questions. Like 9 times out of 10 the question is either being asked in bad faith, or the asker is genuinely confused, and neither of those types of people are prepared for a proper answer about how horror reflects the cultural landscape or the complex relationships between the genre and gender and race etc and they definitely aren't ready to hear about the real facet of sexuality and eroticism in basically all horror media
horror is an easy target for pearl clutching but you can subject pretty much any genre to the same criticism if you frame it poorly enough. Oh you like romance movies? So you enjoy watching men stalk women and violate their boundaries? You think cheating is okay? You think its cool when women give up their careers to get married? I dont like or watch romance movies but based off my limited understanding thats what they're all like, etc
i think we need to just start responding to bad faith questions about horror with "yeah i thought it was awesome when The Killer fed all those teenagers into a wood chipper"
