Out of curiosity...

[pantryslut]

Can you name for me some feminist horror writers? (Use as loose a definition of horror as you like. I ain't the genre police.)

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Well, Mary Shelley, I would say...

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Also along those lines, Elizabeth Gaskell. And somewhat more more recently, though not quite the the modern genre style, Shirley Jackson.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with Gaskell* (look! an excuse to change that!), but Shirley Jackson, definitely.




* (eta) I mean, I know her name.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Gaskell's horror (Gothic, ghost stories) were mostly short stories and novellas. I think of her as a feminist because she wrote strong female protagonists wrestling independent agency out of rambling serialized Victorian novels. I've only read a few of her horror stories, and don't recall the titles. My memory is a real mess this summer, so I can't recall how much of the feminism of the long novels carried over to the short stories.

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

My friend cbpotts wrote Gadarene, a Victorian horror novel with a trans protagonist.

[errantmeme.livejournal.com]

Sherri S Tepper... Feminist Science Fiction Author who drifts into Horror territory. I found Sideshow and The Awakeners particularly gross/creepy.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Several women on this list, though no telling how much they qualify as feminists.

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

I'd add Poppy Z Brite (docbrite) to the list.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

as would I

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

How about Margaret Atwood & The Handmaid's Tale?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a good way to get around the gripes (not mine) about her implausibility and such.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Question: do you mean "people who are feminists who write horror" or do you mean "people who write horror that has a feminist sensibility"?

In both the first and second categories, I would say Kit Reed and Kelly Link.

In the first category, I would say Nancy Kress--Dogs is a pretty classic horror novel, despite Kressian SF windowdressing about viruses blah blah, but not particularly feminist.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I meant the second sense: writers of feminist horror. Kelly Link had definitely occurred. And Suzy McKee Charnas' "Boobs," of course.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, lord, yes, boobs! Kit Reed's Thinner Than Thou is certainly meant as feminist horror. I don't know how well it succeeds--I don't love her body politics--but it seemed clear to me that that was her intent. An argument could also be made for The Baby Merchant as feminist horror.

I would suggest that Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching can be read as feminist horror.

And of course "The Screwfly Solution" keeps me up at night. Alice Racoona James Sheldon Tiptree, Jr. always very very scary.

Not to forget The Yellow Wallpaper, which also keeps me up at night. And maybe even Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"?