DRtL Episode 52: The Monstrous Feminine!
Welcome back! Joining us for another episode of Don’t Read the Latin is Jillian Venters from Gothic Charm School! This time, in the wake of election results that are arguably more terrifying than any movie we’ve ever discussed, we decided to get our feminist rant on and sat down to talk about The Monstrous Feminine — the idea of women as monsters in horror movies and pop culture.
Along the way, we discuss Gothic romance novels, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, the role that Mad Max: Fury Road played in the beginning of Jen’s relationship with Handsome Boyfriend Jim, and we wonder why the hell Marvel keeps burying pretty actors under way too much prosthetic makeup, and we wrap it all up with the topic of older women having a voice and taking up space in our society. We don’t necessarily do a great job of sticking rigidly to our topic in this episode, but we sure hope you’ll think it’s an interesting conversation. Check it out.
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Bibliography
Books we mention in this episode:
- The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, by Barbara Creed
- Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, by Carol J. Clover
- Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction, by June Pulliam
- Bad Dreams, by Kim Newman
- Angels of Music, by Kim Newman
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Mister Babadook
As mentioned in this episode, Jen’s copy of the crowdfunded prop replica/movie tie-in book from The Babadook has finally arrived! Here are some pictures of just how gorgeous it is. Click to embiggen:
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Admittedly, I am revisiting this podcast episode for the *humblemumblemany*th time, but I’m revisiting it after my relationship with the monstrous feminine came back and flat-out tackled me while I was watching Moana. I’ve been relating to monsters since before I figured out that creating horror gave me the power that had eluded me while I was busy trying to be good (admittedly, I was eight when I figured out I could tell pants-wettingly scary stories if I put my mind to it). The villains were allowed to be confident and different and unattractive, and that was a big deal to me as an awkward, clumsy, introverted and sensitive child.
But the ones I relate most to are the monsters whose origin is in being made a monster by someone else’s hand.
A lot of this comes down to sexual assault, which is metaphorically or literally at the origin of many monstrous metamorphoses of women. And that makes it all the harder that there’s that thing inside me that links itself to the fangs and hellfire set, because they’ll almost never win. The only victory allowed those monsters in much of fiction is in becoming beautiful and good and tame, in forgiving and setting aside their own emotional states for the sake of the now (presumably) contrite offender.
I appreciate the point you made about the way that fiction denies women their dark power, because it’s totally true. Just this once, I want to see the world burn, you know? I would rather see the growth that so many audiences expect come from the ashes of a great fire than from snuffing that fire out and pretending that it never happened, metaphorically speaking.