Yes, "The Final Girl" IS an excuse.

The article "Is the Final Girl an Excuse" explores the author's interpretation of why many male-directed horror films have lone female survivors at the end of the film. As noted in the article, these "final girls" are often initially "morally pure," intelligent, cowardly, etc. with androgynous names that transform into horror-kicking aggressive heroines in order to stop the villianous figure. For instance, in the film Buffy the Vampires Slayer (which I first saw over the summer, and is in fact a parody of the horror genre of sorts), Buffy is the sterotypical dumb blonde cheerleader only concerned with fashion and boys. However, when she's confronted with her destiny, she undergoes an extensive training regimen and actively seeks out the vampires with her newly gained martial arts skills. Again, although Buffy is not a true example of what a 'final girl' is, her qualities and transformation are typical of what a final girl will go through (minus the training sequence).

After going through two case studies and analyzing why males might identifying with the Final Girl, the author assumes that males enjoy rooting for the Final Girls because those girls are not whores, they act more like men, which consequently makes it okay for the men to do whatever while the whores are being tortured and not feel guilty because "not all women are like that." I have to say that I agree with the author's point of view, that the Final Girl's only true purpose is to tell men that it's okay to masturbate or fantasize about raping/killing a whore, because she's a whore. She's not a REAL woman like X (the final girl). How does this frame of mind carry over into real life? Is this one of the reasons why men will sexually assualt a woman at a party and not call it rape, because 'she dressed like a whore and was drunk so she was asking for it?' Is that why many men will assume that teenage girls that dress a certain way must be sluts because they show so much skin? Ultimately I think there is more to the Final Girl thing than was discussed, because if men are taught that it's okay to fantasize about the whores in horror movies, that acceptance has to carry over in real life somehow.