Spooky Season is officially upon us. I read a lot of horror and thrillers but especially around this time of year, without feeling the need to balance the dark with an occasional romcom. I’m intrigued by the mysterious and supernatural elements of course, yet perhaps the most compelling ingredient of these genres for me is the examination of evil, both human and otherworldly. Essentially, what makes a monster?
At its core, a monster is anything that does not conform to a specific society’s understanding of “natural” or “normal.” The threat of a monster arises not only from its behavior, but from its very existence. Notice how even the language I’m using to describe “it” is dehumanizing. We create monsters by excluding, by othering.
I’m not arguing all monsters deserve sympathy or pardon (though as a reader and writer I find the ones who do more complex and therefore more interesting). What I am proposing is that how we write monsters matters. We have the power, as creatives, to perpetuate what systems of power condition us to fear, or to interrogate those assumptions. This is how writing becomes a revolutionary act.
In my own reading (and writing, I’m sorry to admit) I’ve identified ways in which traditional monsters can be problematic. Take the witch, for example. An ugly old hag, jealous of her younger, more attractive rival. Even as a child, this dichotomy baffled me. Why does a woman who is clearly wiser, more experienced and powerful care in the least what some teenage girl is doing? The message presents a dangerous (and false) binary: aging and power in females equals evil, youth and innocence equals good.
Other monsters arise out of stereotypes grounded in sexism, racism and ableism, just to name a few. The next time you describe a monster in your own writing (human or otherwise) stop to analyze. Are there aspects of your description that could be harmful to already marginalized identities? Personally, I’ve decided never to write monsters with limb differences. Another approach could be to write the typical problematic monster and allow characters to examine their own fear: what do our aversions say about us?
I believe the more diligently we investigate our fears, the better writers, and people, we become.
Image by Etienne Marais from Pixabay
I was going to say something like “It’s getting harder and harder to tell the monsters from the good guys these days,” but that seems a tad callous, so I guess I won’t. LOL. Nice, thought-provoking article!