Women in #Horror Month 5 - Horror Hags?

I asked female horror authors to share their thoughts on what made them horror fans for  WOMEN IN HORROR MONTH. 

Today we discuss what being a woman who writes horror means... 

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The question is: What horror film or book first grabbed your attention and made you a horror fan, and why?

* See Women in Horror Month post 1 with Stevie Kopas, Suzi M and C.A. Verstraete 

* See  Women in Horror Month post 2 with Karina Fabian, Jaime Johnesee and Claire C. Riley 

* See Women in Horror Month post 3 with A. Carina Barry, Melanie Karsak and Lori R. Lopez

* See Women in Horror post 4 with Sarah Lyons Fleming and Chantal Noordeloos.  


* See Women in Horror post 5 - Jaime Johnesee explains why it's good to be a Horror Hag. 

* See Women in Horror post 6   - with Vickie Johnstone, Pembroke Sinclair and Julianne Snow.

Today, we take a slight topic detour to discuss what Women in Horror Month means. It should mean the celebration of women who write horror. Simple, right? But it also took a different connotation this year.  Here's a good take on it by author Chantal  Noordeloos. 

Jaime Johnesee, author of The Misadventures of Bob the Zombie,  shares her view here on being a "Horror Hag."

Why Being a HAG is a Good Thing 

by Jaime Johnesee

I'm so excited to be here. I want to thank Christine for letting me guest post on her blog and you guys for reading the post. I also want to buy you all ice cream sundaes, unfortunately my finances prevent that from happening. Perhaps one day.... At any rate, I decided today to speak about hags.

 Hags are typically depicted as old, ugly women that either bully and browbeat or trick people into situations. Women who write horror were recently referenced as looking like hags by one disenchanted author and many women were offended by this. I instead took up the hag mantle because I like to take a word meant to offend and hurt and give it a different face and feel.

I'm a HAG (Horror Author Gal) and I'm proud of it.

 In times past throughout literature hags were generally harbingers of doom, or they were the reason that men were wrongly led to their death. They were portrayed as evil witches of old that would kill anyone or anything to get what they wanted. When people think hag their mind typically goes to something like Shakespeare'switches in Macbeth. They see hags as old crones with thin wispy white hair, horribly ugly visages, and mean and spiteful hearts.

(Image: Three Witches, Henry Fuseli 1783)

           

            Today people prove every day you don't have to be ugly and hag-like to be evil.

•  I'd rather be called a hag than a Westboro Baptist. 
• I'd rather be called a hag than be called a liar. 
• I'd rather be called a hag than be called an idiot. 
• I'd rather be called a hag than be told I'm a woman and therefore can't write horror.

 If writing things that will horrify someone is hag-like then, dammit, I'm proud to be a hag and am in good company!

 I guess I am just of the opinion that hag isn't the worst thing in the world to be called. I'd rather be known as a hag than known as someone who can't write. 

Let's face it. If looks were what mattered in the horror genre there'd be a lot of amazing authors that would never have been read. 

Luckily, the reality of the situation is that the way a person looks --and what gender they might be-- have nothing at all to do with their ability to craft a good story. 

Stay strong, believe in yourselves, and write the best damn stories you can no matter what. 

* Comments (in good taste) are welcome. 

* Come back tomorrow for the last of  the authors' views on what made them horror fans.