My thesis examines how women and gay men are invited to watch contemporary slasher films in similar ways, identifying with characters and narratives in accordance to their cultural experiences. This suggests that spectatorship is not necessarily determined by gendered and sexual identity, as film theory assumes. Rather, spectatorship is influenced by the heteropatriarchal discourse that dictates the cultural experiences of women and gay men. Here, I develop a conceptual framework that enhances the criticism of slasher cinema via feminist and queer theory, demonstrating how gay male audiences might identify with female characters.
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