WHAT is Women in Horror Recognition (WiH) Month?

WiH Month came from the crazy brain of Hannah Neurotica (me) who is the creator and editor of Ax Wound: Gender & The Horror Genre. It is a month to celebrate all the women in the horror industry. Not just actresses but fx artists, writers, directors, female fans, etc. For a real indepth answer to this question please read the WiH Manifesto & the article I wrote for Fangoria ‘Prepping for Women in Horror Month’!

Why is it in February?

Honestly there is no deep significance but when I came up with the idea I immediately thought of Feb because often it has 28 days. And ya know, the menstrual cycle. Plus the hearts and horror combination always makes me happy.

WHEN did it start?

This feb 2010 will be THE FIRST ever WiH Month! It is going to (hopefully) keep growing and getting bigger every year.

WHY is it only one month?

People have asked me why its only one month when in fact every day we should recgonize women. Well, Of course silly head! However without a time set aside to actually acknowledge our existance this won’t happen in any large scale way.  Just like with any other awareness month the key is the word “AWARENESS” when you have  time set aside or an event to recognize something you are making people AWARE of the need for it and the lack of support out there. Women have long been fans and workers in the horror scene as well as the general art and film scene but given very little recognition.  Most of them are invisible and we have to dig deep to even find out about them. As Heidi Martinuzzi points out not one woman was asked to direct a short for the Masters of Horror Series on Showtime but its not like we are lacking in women directors. As I said, we just don’t have that AWARENESS of them, not to mention lack of funding to make women visible. Girls also were not taught that this was an okay profession while boys were and still are encouraged to be more technical with cameras, etc while girls are not. Girls who like horror are seen as oddity and not part of the majority. And when I was interviewed on CBC RADIO about women and horror viewership the people at the station were shocked that this was not a new phenomenon- that we have been around and are growing more and more every day. Not to mention all the studies done on horror viewers have had male subjects. Carol Clover writes about this in her Book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws:  (from WiH Manifesto:)

In Carol Clovers wonderful book Men, Women, and Chainsaws she writes in her introduction: I want to stress, before I pass on to other matters, that the bias of my book is even more extreme than the bias of the overall horror audience. My interest in the male viewers stake in horror spectatorship is such that I have consigned to virtual invisibility all other members of the audience, despite the fact that their loyalty and engagement can be just as ardent and their stake in the genre just as deserving of attention…”

It is about time we give ourselves this much deserved attention.

Now all that being said please don’t limit your events/awareness to just one month. That is in your hands

What Can I Do to Show support?

There are many many ways to show support and get involved. You can post a link on your website/facebook/twitter/myspace, write about the event or women you admire in your blog, host an event  big or small, film fests, conventions, house parties, art shows, readings, fx makeup skillshares, donate blood and document it- literally bleeding for women in horror while supporting two good causes (send in pics to prove it!), do anything your creative brain can concoct and share it with us. You can also write to local, underground, and mainstream media about lack of press and support for Women in the industry and keep an eye out for bullshit articles about how women are flocking to horror like its some new thing. Tell them we have always been here and just because they decided to write a token article about us doesn’t mean we are small in numbers. SUPPORT women in horror by buying and viewing there films, reading female horror authors, checking out their art, etc.

You can also do something creative! Make a short film, write a story/poem, do something you never thought you could and put it into the world! Of course tell us all about it <3