Horror is Woman

Danielle
DeVor

There is a myth that Horror is a genre only men and boys read and write. I think this stems partially from an outdated idea that women cannot handle blood and violence. Talk to anyone who has given birth and I think there isn’t any question as to the level of blood and violence women can stand. That being said, let’s start acknowledging the fact that, just like any other genre, Horror is for anyone who likes it. But, I’m going to go a bit further. So far, in fact, that I will say I don’t think Horror would be a genre without women. In fact, women are extremely important to the genre.
Let’s take a couple steps back.
George Balanchine, the famous choreographer and co-founder of the New York City Ballet, used to say, “Ballet is woman.” He wasn’t wrong, not really. At the time, everyone just watched the ballerinas do the seemingly impossible balancing on their toes and the men served as a prop for the most part. But, suddenly, in 1974, Baryshnikov came on the scene and blew all of that out of the water. No longer did people think of Pavlova and Fonteyn when one mentioned ballet—they thought of Baryshnikov with his high jumps and good looks.
From that point forward, while there would still be no classical ballet without women, men had their place, too. No longer were men considered a stage piece for the ballerina. They became the superstars. The focus had simply changed.
Now, I imagine you are wondering what ballet has to do with all of this. It’s not like there are many Horror ballets. However, what occurred in the ballet world is an example of what happens when you take a time honored tradition and begin to pay attention to what wasn’t quite evident before.

Read the entire article in the October 2017 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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