From DAY OF THE WOMAN
Physically, sensory, or mentally disabled women have been popping up in horror films from the very beginning. THE MAN WHO LAUGHS is often regarded as the first horror film, and the female lead was a beautiful, blind woman. From the very beginning of the horror genre, the damsel in distress character was the quickest way to write a story. "Girl needs saving from someone or something, man saves girl from someone or something, girl is indebted to man and thanks him by kisses or marriage, the end." Whether it was because male writers needed to make their female characters SUPER vulnerable or whether they needed an excuse to make a woman "weaker," adding a physical/mental/sensory disability to a woman became a quick way to differentiate female characters from the usual damsel in distress. The beginnings showcased disabilities as a major reason for the demise of female characters. 1959's THE TINGLER had a creature that could only be killed by screaming. The death in the film that acts as the catalyst for the entire movie was centered around a woman who was a deaf/mute, and therefore, could not "scream for her life." We can't have a woman be brave enough not to scream when frightened, so we must make her mute…
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