The Monsterous Feminine

Horror and the monstrous feminine: An imaginary objection

The idea generated from classic mythology that there were ‘genderous monsters’, many of which were female. Medusa was the prime example of this. The irony held within her power was that turning men to stone meant making them ‘stiff’. This also means to give a man an erection, therefore even in death a man still has possession over his penis.

We are then able to question of horrors can invoke a similar reaction, they already scare us, make us feel sick and creep us out which as all intimate feeling that we share.

Abject= without dignity

Abjection= the state of dark depression

Within a biblical context the corpse is a form of waste and is the opposite of the spiritual and religious symbol. Worshipers of the soulless body are therefore prominent representation of inimical religions or evil. ‘Bodies without souls’ are the root behind our classic horrors e.g. vampires, zombies and witches. This is because of their decaying appearances and the idea that they are not religious beings and are made of evil. The werewolf signifies the collapse of boundaries between the human and animal form. Representing the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theory of the beast within man.  The introduction of werewolf’s as a new horror opened people’s eyes again to the possibility of there being a person who appears just like another but has the capability to perform acts so evil that they are not associated with normal human behaviour, rather a beast. Abjection will also occur due to the fall of society where individuals no longer respect the law and where there is hypocrisy, liars and traitors who hold a lot of power and control. E.g. bad triumphs over good, allowing Props' 8 character type’s theory to come into play where we get this idea that the villain has a stronger chance of success than the hero. This also links to Cohen’s ‘moral panics’ theory where we create horror from an event that may cause us distress or give us reason for concern. ‘Thus abject things are those which highlight the fragility of the law’

One example that came to mind was were the suffragettes and how they could have been seen as unholy and soulless beings, again highlighting the monstrous feminine as they fail to respect the law and are expected to just follow blindly to what they are told to do.

Abjection is a desire, a drive and a mad yearning. However perverse the please is we confront it. Viewing horrific images and being filled with a sense of terror is something that we have grown to desire. It is safe for us to do as we sit from the safety of the spectator’s seat and calmly watch the horror unfold as we eat our popcorn. This new state of relaxation has allowed humans to test their boundaries when watching something horrific from a safe position making us more likely to try it out and become hooked on it. It becomes an obsession and a new found way to prove bravery and strength.

Horror will most of the time play on the borders that we psychologically place e.g. man/beast, natural/supernatural, the idea of the ‘proper gender’, good/evil, normal/ abnormal sexual desire. All of these borders we place represent a state of order and the with it the belief that these two dimensions will be worlds apart from each other. However, horror will play on these boundaries and make us question if they really are worlds apart from each other or, if they are in actual fact closer than we think as they slowly become merged and the borders become blurred. As an example the natural and supernatural borders will test how strong we are with religion and how far it can help use before we become vulnerable to the evil. We see in horror films that the natural and supernatural borders are easily merged as the weak human form allows them to become merged and let supernatural triumph. Kristeva argues that the relationship between mother and child is one of much conflict. This could be where the child tries to break away and be free but the mother will do everything she can to hold them close. This unhealthy state of a relationship usually leaves the child resenting the mother and wanting to leave even more. The child will as a result of this look for some kind of escapism e.g. drugs, relationships, alcohol, possessing new powers/playing with evil to rebel. A good example of this is Carrie. In this case the mother is presented as the ‘Monsterous feminine’. One way in which the mother holds onto Carrie is through teaching her moral values and about religion.  Throughout the film we see Carries mother place strict rules and restrictions on her which are heavily influenced by religion. We know that she over exaggerates most things making Carrie hate her more. The fact that Carries mother isn’t like others angers her more and in this case makes her out to be a victim of bullying as a result of her lack of knowledge on life due to her mother absence of teaching. This ends with Carrie killing her. This is also seen in Psycho where the mother teaches her son about women being impure and horrid creatures. We can see here that religion is used as a way to purify and cleanse the soul.

Kristeve argues that there are 2 practises of our rituals of defilement. Excremental looks at someone’s identity from the outside. Therefore excremental and its equivalents (decay, infection, disease, corpses etc) will look at the threat to society. Menstrual is something that threatens from within. These are the dangers presented with identity (social/ sexual) e.g. relationship between sexes, internalisation, identity of each sex.

Kristeve argues that women live in a world of with no shame and men live in a world of shame, Modern horror films will play a lot with the audience when it comes to blood and gore to explore this idea. The movie Carrie had a really good example of this where the pigs blood represents menstrual blood, making women out to be pigs. This makes fun of the fact that women live with no shame as in this scene Carrie is made to look like a fool and has been shamed as the fact that she is now a woman is known to the whole school. The mother speaks for the religious symbol here as she identifies a woman’s sexuality as the root of all evil, and therefore menstruation is a sign of sin.