Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectatorship in Classic Horror Cinema, Berenstein Rhona

The first book to explore the gender dynamics of classic horror film, Attack of the Leading Ladies addresses the roles of women both on- and off-screen. Combining close textual analysis with the study of advertising campaigns, reviews, fan magazines, and censorship material, the author presents an in-depth look at such films as Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. X, Dracula, King Kong, Mad Love, Svengali, and White Zombie.

Using performance analysis in new ways, Attack of the Leading Ladies challenges established views of horror cinema that suggest a rigid sexual division of labor, with men as monsters, heroes, and viewers, and women as on-screen victims. Berenstein details a genre marked by shifting gender roles. Monsters, heroes, and heroines, she asserts, do more than fulfill traditional expectations: they also throw into question the stability of gender categories and the supremacy of heterosexuality.

Building on the concept of the sadistic male gaze and the more recent notion of a masochistic male gaze. Berenstein addresses the complex spectatorship patterns posed by a genre so concerned with role-play and disguise, a genre that appealed to men and women viewers in the 1930s. Attack of the Leading Ladies offers a new model of spectatorship-as-drag where the viewing process itself becomes a mode of performance, and where spectators adopt and discard both traditional and transgressive viewing behaviors.