Shitfit #1 - Lack of female voices in ARGs/unfiction/online horror series
I watched this documentary yesterday, which I highly recommend if you’re interested in these topics. Anyways, one thing I noticed that really irked me is the lack of female creators in the horror space online. I was talking to someone on Reddit after I posted there asking about female creator recommendations, and while yes, I agreed with them that gender doesn’t matter when a created product is good, that doesn’t change the fact that I feel underrepresented. This isn’t just a YouTube problem, it’s a problem in the entire horror genre. In my research on horror, I found this article on women in cinematic horror. While I do think a lot of the problems with the lack of diverse voices in online horror overlap with cinematic horror, I still have a feeling that it still doesn’t line up. The Internet is much more accessible. In the documentary mentioned above, it is said that the over-saturation of analog horror is because of how easy it is to make. Anyone with an iPhone can make something. I ask then, where are my ladies at? Surely not every woman interested in horror is as lame as me and simply lacks motivation and self-discipline. I only need one hand to count online horror creators I know of that are women. I thought that was my fault, I used to be really bad for only consuming content made by men for internal misogynistic reasons, but I’ve outgrown that. I am actively looking for female creators! When I asked Reddit, I got null. Not even other members of the community can think of any. Now I do know that this is partially caused by the anonymity usually involved in ARG/unfiction/online horror. The creators usually pretend they’re a character who’s “found a tape” or whatever. But come on. I’m going crazy here and don’t know what to do about it.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “Well, you said that you don’t care who makes someone as long as the product is good!” This is true. I don’t really know how to explain the yearning I feel. The creator and their identity do influence the content. Women’s roles in online horror are usually reduced to acting, which is fine! Acting is super cool and I have seen some really good voice acting in horror series, but that’s the same problem cinematic horror has. We get a lot of horror movies about women but directed by men. LAME! Yawn. There are things about women that I feel could make bomb-ass horror content. For example, a lot of analog horror is about the horror of your reality being undermined, which like 99% of the time is represented by the government lying to you or an evil force using the TV to subliminally influence you. Bestie that actually happens! Go watch a cleaning product commercial compilation and the lead role in that commercial is going to be a woman, because cleaning is all we do, apparently. Shit like that is everywhere. Look at ads for make-up in any time period. Woman’s issues and the shit forced upon them are so underutilized in the online horror community. The fact that it’s a “funny joke” online right now to comment on the colour of a woman’s clit? That you can find comments like that on posts of newborns or little girls? That we’re powerless to stop it and it will continue no matter what we want? That’s pretty scary! If you think I have gotten away from my original point, you’re wrong. What I am saying is that there are many underutilized real horrors to be inspired from, and it would be nice to see issues I and other women face in online horror, and more female creators in general. This post is only touching the surface of under-representation in online horror, there sadly is not a lot of diversity.
If you have any recommendations, give me them. If you are hesitant about creating online horror, don’t be. I will eat that shit up! Thanks.
