The Problem with Describing “Final Girls” as Virgins
Let’s dig into the data.
“There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie! For instance, Number 1: You can never have sex. Sex equals death, OK?”
We know the above lines by Randy, geek hero of Wes Craven’s Scream, as well as we know “I’ll be back”; “You talking to me?”; and “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The idea that only virgins survive slasher films seems as undying as the slashers themselves.
It’s discussed here.
And here.
Here again.
Also here.
According to TV Tropes, a Final Girl–the term was coined by Carol Clover in her 1992 book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film — will “almost certainly be a virgin” and avoid “Death by Sex” (which has its own entry).
There are even novels centered on the Final Girl mythos
- Final Girls (Riley Sager)
- My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Stephen Graham Jones)
- The Final Girl Support Group (Grady Hendrix)
As Scream fans know, Randy makes his Final Girl speech during a showing of Halloween, though he did not originate the claim. It’s been…
