MovieChat Forums > Play Misty for Me (1971) Discussion > men stalkers vs. women stalkers

men stalkers vs. women stalkers

posted 11 years ago by intofilm
13 replies | jump to latest

According to an academic study http://www.utc.edu/Outreach/TransformationProject/stalkingbehaviors.php
75-80 per cent of stalkings involve men stalking women. Also, if you just read the news every day, you ssee this is the pattern.
Yet there seem to be more movies about the opposite.
Why?
Is it because most of the writers, directors, and producers are men, so they find it more intriguing to think of a woman being that obsessed with a man?
Is it because women wouldn't want to pay to see a woman being terrorized by a man, it would be too scary?
Is it the Lucy Brown effect? Charles Schultz ("Peanuts") said he had Lucy bully and boss the boys because in real life bullies and bosses tend to be males, and reversing it made it more interesting.

At any rate, I get tired of women being portrayed in this misogynistic way, when it is so far from reality, and it is really they who are typically the victim of a male.

[–] Gambit771 11 years ago

Celebrity stalkers are overwhelmingly female. Did your research tell you that?
Also most stalker films are men staking women.
More than 80% I would say so cinema is unrealistic and sexist but not in the way you want it to be.
And the women almost awaits end up beating up or killing the man. Doesn't happen that way in real life so it's part of the misandristic, feminised media's strong woman/evil man tired cliché.
Gotta keep the feminist happy.

[–] DeputyDippity 10 years ago

That's awesome, but you left out the word "reported." Let me help you...

"75-80 percent of REPORTED stalkings involve men stalking women."

I also changed "percent" back to one word, and I should tell you that the link is dead.

Now you can go back to your misandrist paranoia.

I`m sorry for my lack of manners, but I`m not used to escorting men.

[–] Ultrasade 10 years ago

Posts like this really irritate me. There are lots of movies portraying men as psycho killers/stalkers (probably more than those with women) so there clearly isn't any bias. Granted there is alot of misogyny in movies and female characters are often over emotional, childlike and selfish or cold, humourless and selfish.
However you cant lable any film that shows women in a negetive way as misogynistic. There are just as many crazy women as there are men.

Please consider me as an alternative to suicide

[–] jayhawk-18 10 years ago

What's interesting though about the film is Dave's character also displays stalking tendencies. It starts with him hanging around Tobie's empty house, soon afterwards he literally runs through traffic after a woman he thinks is Tobie, then there is the long dialogue with Tobie during which she makes it quite clear she wants to move on but he won't take no for an answer. In a way he's only getting a taste of his own medicine.

[–] renatom1 10 years ago

Movies about women stalking men are more interesting precisely for the reasons stated: more men stalk women than the other way around. When a man stalks a woman, we think he's just some psychopath. When a woman stalks a man, we think she's some kind of misunderstood victim; therefore we want to know what makes her tick. Furthermore, as a society we have a hard time understanding how a man could be in a position where he is stalked since, after all, most men think they would love to be the object of a woman's obsession. Movies like these tell us otherwise.

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

'What's interesting though about the film is Dave's character also displays stalking tendencies. It starts with him hanging around Tobie's empty house, soon afterwards he literally runs through traffic after a woman he thinks is Tobie, then there is the long dialogue with Tobie during which she makes it quite clear she wants to move on but he won't take no for an answer. In a way he's only getting a taste of his own medicine.'
-------------------------------
He's getting a taste of his own medicine by being terrorized by a psychopath with a knife because he's trying to find his girlfriend, according to you. He was not stalking his girlfriend, but trying to find her. Nor was he looking for his girlfriend with ill-intent. If Tobie felt stalked, she certainly would not be making love to him, and wanting to reconcile. The hidden meaning you think you found does not exist, and you likely would not think it's exists if the roles were reversed. People did to call innocent things "stalking" then, like today's paranoia and cynicism.

[–] InherentlyYours 10 years ago

I think you just wanted to use the word 'misogynistic'. I dislike men being portrayed as wannabe rapists, which is misandry
If you thought about it, female-stalker films are on in proportion to reality

[–] Times_Up 8 years ago

There's a *beep* ton of movies about psycho men though. Ever watch the ID channel? These women exist.

We’re trying to pretend as if these comic books don’t exist. - David Goyer on the DCEU

[–] mizhub 8 years ago

Regardless of the validity of that 'study', could it be as simple as Evelyn fell into that 20 through 25% of female stalkers?

[–] mobocracy (891) 7 years ago

I think there's a bunch of overlapping phenomenon. Women stalkers are probably less likely to become physically violent because they believe they are mismatched against men, and they probably rely more on psychological stalking (constant phone calls, showing up inappropriately at work, etc). Men don't report women who stalk them until it gets really bad (violence, destructive or dangerous behavior), possibly even because they somehow sympathize with the woman or feel embarrassed about their own caddish behavior or they don't want to be perceived as vulnerable.

I think what mostly ends up happening to men is that they have sex with a woman and there is a grossly disproportionate understanding of what kind of commitment is being expressed. How much is deliberate dishonesty and how much is wishful thinking I don't know, but probably a lot of both. The women decides she's been "used" (rightly or wrongly) and is super mad/jealous/angry, and proceeds to make the guy's life hell.

Most men I know have had this experience at least once, and one guy even had to get a restraining order when the girl showed up at his house at 3 AM a few times screaming and throwing eggs at his house, and he had legitimately dated her for a couple of months before breaking it off.

I heard a woman's side of this -- neighbor's daughter (she was 23) went on a date, decided the guy really liked her and had unprotected sex because she wanted him to like her (lied about being on the pill). It turned ugly when the daughter got pregnant and demanded he marry her. Finally she told her mom, and her mom made her get an abortion which the guy paid for. The mom felt bad for her daughter, but blamed her for being naive and manipulative.