The Bad Boy Appeal

Traditionally horror has been viewed as a masculinegenre, saturated with submissive, weak females. Both horror films and literature often depict womendying violent deaths at the hands of a stronger male. More recently, female characters in horror fictionhave repossessed their power and authority, equallingthe strength and cunning of their male counterparts. This new trend is particularly evident in thetelevision series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with thecentral heroine having greater physical prowess thananyone else, male or female in the world. Thisfeminist revisionism of horror in the nineties,saluted the Gothic fiction era where horror wasconsidered a woman's field.'The Bad Boy Appeal' studies the representation offemale sexuality in the young adult horror fiction ofL.J. Smith and the manner in which she reclaimshorror from its perceived place in the masculinesphere, specifically by assigning her femalecharacters the principle roles.