Today is March 8, also known as International Women’s Day (a notable highlight in the larger celebration that is Women's History Month). I hope you are all celebrating this momentous occasion accordingly, spending every waking hour of your day cheering on women and femmes as they fearlessly fight off the forces of evil in ways only they can. At the very least, I hope you send a nice (and not creepy!!!) message to the women in horror in your life.

I have said it before, but I truly feel that one of the reasons that I became drawn to the horror in the first place is that it is a genre where women and femmes not only play key roles, but so often get a chance triumph (and usually over male oppressors who deserve every hack and slash coming to them). This goes not only for characters, but also creators, with some of the freakiest films of all-time coming from women writers and directors (let's face it: but no man could have adapted Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho like Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner, and no one else could have made Raw as disgustingly perfect as Julia Ducournau). 🙌

I am very proud to be part of the current Dread Central team, which is led by a particularly kickass woman in horror: editor-in-chief and absolute found footage freak Mary Beth McAndrews. So often horror spaces are gatekept by men who get angry when a woman dares to know more about a certain subgenre than them, judge a film's quality over how much cleavage its female lead bares, or credit something that a woman made to a more well-known man (see: Nia DaCosta's recent reworking of Candyman). But the fact is, women are the most passionate and creative horror lovers I know, finding infinite strength (and joy!) in seeing people who look like them do anything and everything they can to survive in spite of the odds. 

Just recently, this feminist was watching Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a film directed by a man (John McNaughton) that many still consider to be misogynist. And yes, what Henry and Otis do to girls, women and children is absolutely abhorrent. But the film also does a really great job at showcasing how unsafe it is to be a woman out in the world, with Otis's sister Becky offering a view into the traumatic pasts (and tragic futures) many women carry with them for no reason other than a man felt a need to assert his power over her violently. 

If you do anything today, please take a moment to consider how many horror films and series you love that wouldn't exist without women. At the very least, maybe reflect on how many pieces of horror content you consume that are actually made by women, and how you can increase that number tenfold? And no, I will not be giving you a curated list of films to start from because as women have done for many, many generations, you can do that work all on your own. 💋