Do Women Write Horror or Paranormal?
I recently read in the Guardian about an argument regarding the role of women in writing horror. The article expresses the view that female horror writers are getting pushed into the “ghetto” of paranormal romance – “not to say it is in any way inferior.”
I read both genres and I have lamented the lack of female writers in horror, while more and more men are writing in paranormal. I know there are great female writers in horror – besides the ones mentioned in the article, Elizabeth Massie comes to mind. But if you think about horror, you think about the biggies and those are all men: Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Clive Barker.
And yet, horror owes it’s birth to Mary Shelley, inarguably the mother of horror. So where are the women?
Well, it could be argued that many of them are currently writing paranormals. I won’t say just paranormal romance because that’s not really fair to some of these writers. Jes Battis, L.L. Foster and Kim Harrison don’t write romances, they write urban fantasy. Their books may have romantic elements, but then, so do Dean Koontz’s.
Despite what the article would have you believe, I think women are not taking their absence in horror lying down. Instead, they are forging ahead by working in a new genre and taking it to new heights. Women like the ones above are giving readers more to chew on that just your standard version of horror.
What do you think? Are women under-represented in the horror genre? Is paranormal romance the “ghetto” version of horror? Tell us in the comments.
Nicole
I read both genres and I have lamented the lack of female writers in horror, while more and more men are writing in paranormal. I know there are great female writers in horror – besides the ones mentioned in the article, Elizabeth Massie comes to mind. But if you think about horror, you think about the biggies and those are all men: Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Clive Barker.
And yet, horror owes it’s birth to Mary Shelley, inarguably the mother of horror. So where are the women?
Well, it could be argued that many of them are currently writing paranormals. I won’t say just paranormal romance because that’s not really fair to some of these writers. Jes Battis, L.L. Foster and Kim Harrison don’t write romances, they write urban fantasy. Their books may have romantic elements, but then, so do Dean Koontz’s.
Despite what the article would have you believe, I think women are not taking their absence in horror lying down. Instead, they are forging ahead by working in a new genre and taking it to new heights. Women like the ones above are giving readers more to chew on that just your standard version of horror.
What do you think? Are women under-represented in the horror genre? Is paranormal romance the “ghetto” version of horror? Tell us in the comments.
Nicole
posted at 12:07 PM
8 Comments:
Similar debates have popped up in Sci Fi also, so I think it would be apt to point out that Mary Shelley was the mother of science fiction (in addition to her horror contribution).
I would say these are two separate genres that may sometimes contain overlapping elements. Neither genre is less or more than the other. A genre is a tag for shelving in may ways; it is the writing that defines the quality of any story. Today there are many books that cross the boundaries of genre. But yes, I would also say that women are under-represented in the horror genre.
Totally depends on your definition of horror.
The paranormals I read, Kim Harrison, LL Foster, Simon Green, Rob Thurman, Jenna Black, are not to me horror books.
Now Nancy Collins Sonja Blue series I would consider more horrific.
Nancy Kilpatrick writes horror, Poppy Z Brite writes horror.
I totally think there are not a lot of women writing horror.
The real question: Why is paranormal romance labeled a "ghetto"? Because it is written mostly by women. This entire issue is really about how women are devalued no matter what genre they write. Once men take up writing more paranormal fiction, then it will be less of a ghetto because, well, men are writing it now. So obviously it has validity. But romance of any sub-genre will always be the ghetto of literature because it will remain written primarily by women. Another example of the more things change, the more they stay the same. We've still got a long way to go, baby.
To me, horror has to be scary. If it's not scary, it's not horror. Paranormal romance isn't horror. But...sometimes romance is frightening. Like dim heroines confusing stalking for courtship? There's your horror right there! ;-)
I think as in all things, we need to just forget about gender and simply go for authors who do well with what they write. i don't think any woman should be scared of writing whatever genre she feels like, and likewise no man should shy away from any genre he wants to tackle. If that results in more women being in one genre than another, so be it. There are differences between the genders, and a woman's perspective might be best for a certain genre. No problem there.
I would have a problem if anyone's chances of success in any genre is affected by what gender they are. Now that would be just wrong.
Furthermore I agree that the perception of paranormal romance being the gutter is much more worrisome than the lack of female writers in the horror genre.
This is a fascinating topic. I think it's more of a complex question and answer. Tess above has a key point: genre has finite labels for books. There are many female suspense authors but they are generally writing "romantic suspense" -- out of choice or because they're women and thus are better marketed as romantic suspense than straight thriller? Many female thriller writers take gender neutral pen names. And looking at the paranormal authors who are more urban fantasy bordering on horror, many of them are beginning to take gender neutral pen names.
I'd argue it's because of readers--the bulk of horror (and science fiction) readers are men, while all the other genres the majority of readers are women. Fair? Nope, but your career rides on sales and you want to maximize sales, so you attempt to appeal to your core target audience especially while you're building a readership.
And the other thing is, how do you define "horror?" Stephen King is known to be *the* horror writer, yet his stories, while horrific, often have happier (or quasi-happy) endings, such as THE STAND. Ditto for Koontz.
I'm writing a short story in the Horror Writers Association anthology and to get a feeling, I read BLOOD LITE which was their last antho. I didn't feel that all the stories were "horror" in the classic sense, though some were more so than others.
Anyway, this is a complex issue but there will be a shake out and many of the authors tagged as paranormal romance will find their audience in the horror or fantasy area, while others will find their audience in the romance area. This is what happens with romantic suspense every cycle as well. I'm writing a new series that I call a supernatural thriller, but is being marketed as paranormal romance. Why? Because there is no shelving category for paranormal romantic suspense. There is a romance, but it's a multi-book romance, not tied up completely at the end of the first book. And because I write romantic suspense and am shelved in romance, to change shelving completely would make it harder for my readers to find me, which would be bad.
Cheers!
I write horror and I am most decidedly a woman...some of us are not quite published (agented and hopeful, though!), but the genre needs some serious female perspective.
Thanks for thought provoking piece.
~Rey
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