Gender and cinema wondering.

[prog]

Based on the dismissively tiny survey of friends I have so far taken (me, one male friend, two female) I wonder if women tend to find the live-burial scene intrinsically and deeply upsetting in a way that men don't. Not to say that I felt no suspense in watching it, but that it certainly didn't carry the same raw-nerve discomfort that my female pals desribed. I find this more interesting because the character wasn't in immediate peril (compared to other scrapes she gets into), but this gets singled out as an especially harrowing scene. Part of me suspects that it's playing on something hardwired, there. Thoughts? Refutations?

(Would it have been different if the scene were the same length, but Thurman's character kept her cool from the start, instead of fighting to regain it after spending a minute panicing? Even if that alone the triggering factor, I'd still bet there's a gender-reaction split here.)

Comments

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

I remembered reading positive reviews of the film where the critic would mention about the live burial scene being disturbing/making your skin crawl, etc. Now, I don't remember whether those critics were males or females, and I started going through rottentomatoes.com to try and see if I could find the information, but as it was not immediately available, I sour graped my (does what I did to 'sour grapes' disturb you?) search by declaring that even if I had found, say, that all the reviewers on rottentomatoes.com who said anything about the burial scene and found it hair raising were all males, my find would still not be statistically significant. It'd be meaningless ot me.

As far as my own reaction goes, I was not too wigged out about it, but I think this is because I "knew" or felt pretty sure, that she would get out of it. So I kept wondering, "I wonder how she's going to get out of this?"

Here, I found a "does not prove anything" quote by a male reviewer: "For sheer claustrophobic terror, nothing rivals the live burial of Beatrix at the hands of Bill's ruthless brother."
http://www.nationalreview.com/hibbs/hibbs200404230830.asp

Okay, I found something that means more to me:

From
http://www.vrphobia.com/closed.htm

"About one in ten people suffer from some sort of claustrophobia-from mild to marked-with about 2% of the population suffering from severe claustrophobia. The fear begins in childhood in approximately one-third of claustrophobics, and more women appear to suffer from this disorder than men."

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I didn't find the live burial especially upsetting or harrowing. Like you I thought it was interesting, and especially so because of the lack of "immediate peril,"--and the climb out through loose dirt which I thought was brilliantly done.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

i don't consider myself clausterphobic on a day to day basis, but i will admit that i thought that part of KBII was disturbing. she spent more than a minute panicking, which is maybe why it had more of an impact for me.

i don't think changing her reaction would have made a difference for me. it's really the concept.

it's a toss up, though, which was more disturbing for me: the buried alive part of II, or the orderlies boinking comatose patients in I.