Where Are the Women? Unfriended

More than one girl in an ensemble plus a female villain are good things. But the most prominent of the girls is treated in a retrograde, gendered way.

BASIC REPRESENTATION SCORE: +10

+10

Is there a female character with significant screen time who grows, changes, and/or learns something over the course of the story? (for an ensemble cast, or a film with a male protagonist) [why this matters]

FEMALE AGENCY/POWER/AUTHORITY SCORE: +10

+10

Is there a female villain or antagonist? [why this matters]

THE MALE GAZE SCORE: -5

-5

Is a woman introduced by the camera crawling up her body (either front or back) from her feet to her head? [why this matters]

GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE: -5

-5

Is there a female character who is primarily defined by her emotional and/or sexual relationship with a man or men? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE: -10

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

The film features an extended sequence of slut-shaming, in which a teen girl is castigating for having had sex, but not the teen boy she had sex with, and this is the fulcrum upon which the plot hinges. Her behavior — but not his — is treated as something so terrible as to be world-shattering.

TOTAL SCORE: +0

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: More than one girl in a horror-movie ensemble of teens plus a female villain are good things. But the most prominent of the girls is treated in a pretty retrograde, gendered, double standard-fueled way, and mostly wipes out the positives.

Click here for the ongoing ranking of 2015’s films for female representation.

NOTE: This is not a “review” of Unfriended! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Unfriended.

See the full rating criteria. (Criteria that do not apply to this film have been deleted in this rating for maximum readability.)

This rating is brought to you without paywall restrictions by my generous Kickstarter supporters. If you missed out on the Kickstarter and would like to support this project, you may:

• become a monthly or yearly subscriber of FlickFilospher.com
• make a pledge at Patreon
• make a donation via Paypal