Monstrous Bodies Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction by June Pulliam Book Review
"Monstrous Bodies," subtitled "Feminine Ability in Young Developed Horror Fiction", is an bookish work by June Pulliam, published by McFarland. When I first saw the cover, I immediately idea of the "Ginger Snaps" moving-picture show trilogy, because the start pic, especially, is such a clever accept on sexism as well as the pains of adolescence, using lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty. I was therefore happy to see it listed equally i of the sources for "Monstrous Bodies", even though it's not a novel.
The book analyzes six novels about ghosts; 2 novels, a short story and two films about werewolves; and vi novels and ane moving-picture show most witches – the latter being another cult favorite "The Craft". June Pulliam'southward thesis is that young adult horror tin exist an constructive tool for exposing and resisting the restricted roles that women go along to be assigned in our patriarchal guild. If the female person monster is a metaphor for the female who will not ostend to stereotypical femininity, then despite developed horror fiction'south tendency to reaffirm sexist stereotypes, young adult (YA) horror perchance makes monsters "a girl's all-time friend".
Pulliam makes an crawly rebuttal to the backfire against feminism that some modern girls take taken up: "Molly's ignorance…is part of a mail service-feminist mindset which erroneously believes that all of the goals of second-wave feminism are irrelevant to the lives of gimmicky young women.… Girls are often reluctant to identify themselves as feminists, who are still characterized every bit rabid human haters… Nevertheless, immature women who do not identify as feminists support feminist ideals of equality between the sexes and liberty of choice." (I'm looking at you lot, Shailene Woodley, and everyone at that disturbing I-don't-need-feminism Tumblr.)
The author too makes a valid betoken in her ghost chapter when she claims, "the ghost reveals that conformity can be a life and death struggle", considering the female ghosts she references all came to their end while attempting to escape patriarchal authority (forced marriages, no choice in careers, etc). Also, in the novel "Jade Greenish" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, she mentions that the camouflage of the championship graphic symbol'due south near-rape and murder is "part of a wider civilization in which sexual violence against women oft goes unpunished considering its threat ratifies the interests of patriarchy". This certainly resonates today with the concept of "rape civilisation", and the Steubenville case, amongst others.
While many of Pulliam'south points are excellent, at that place are several contradictions or stretches scattered here and at that place. In her section on ghosts, for example, Pulliam states that YA ghost stories differ from developed ghost stories in that the protagonists are protected by the ghosts from a representative of the patriarchal society (usually a family unit member) that wants to subdue them. Although this fits most of her examples – and relates to a movie I recently watched called "Haunter" – I observe it unlikely to be true across the board. Surely in that location are YA ghost stories in which the ghost is the villain? It'south too a scrap contradictory when, in the case of her example novel "Dreadful Sorry" by Kathryn Reiss, Pulliam admits that the ghost Clementine does not actually save the protagonist Molly from a family unit patriarch, but only "helps her to appreciate the freedoms and class privilege she has taken for granted".
Another stretched case is the use of a haunted protagonist every bit a monstrous female person in the first place. Shouldn't the ghosts be the monsters instead of the haunted girls? The ghosts in her examples do all happen to be teen girls themselves, autonomously from in "A Stir of Basic" past Nina Kiriki Hoffman, but Pulliam uses both the ghosts and the haunted girls to bear witness her thesis, which sometimes gets muddled. This conclusion too conflicts with her justification for not including the ubiquitous YA vampire genre, which is because the protagonists usually are not the vampires themselves. She adds that those protagonists are not influenced enough by the vampire characters to get "monstrous" (non-befitting), but in both the "Twilight" and "Vampire Diaries" series, for instance, the main girls exercise become vampires. So if the thought is that the characters become literal monsters but not liberated females, then this kills the metaphor!
I suppose you can argue that those books are paranormal romance instead of horror, but Pulliam explains later that two of her werewolf story examples are technically paranormal romance.
In the affiliate on werewolves, Pulliam discusses the Beauty Myth– a phrase she borrows from Naomi Wolf – which points out both the fact that women can never fully encounter the impossible standards of conventional dazzler, and that those standards are used to control women. The latter refers to the fact that unconventional looks in a woman could crusade rejection not just past men, but also past employers and even female person friends. The dazzler standard is very convincingly described as a never-catastrophe "torso projection" that actually keeps women distracted and occupied, and "less probable to notice, let solitary challenge, cultural forces that perpetuate their subordination." It also creates contest and "girlfighting" among women, denying them the resistance ability of sisterhood. Amen.
Pulliam calls the female person werewolf "an iteration of patriarchal fears well-nigh the 'nature' of adult female equally a dangerous, sexually insatiable fauna governed by her hormones, a label that justifies her subordination". I never associated werewolves with sexuality earlier watching the "Ginger Snaps" trilogy, but it certainly applies: the morbid, antisocial sisters Ginger and Bridget go werewolves and as Ginger changes in the offset film, she loses all self control and becomes super ambitious sexually, equating desire with the need to rip things to shreds. In the metaphor of the movie, this is an exaggeration of puberty, considering information technology coincides with Ginger'southward showtime period, merely Pulliam is correct in that Ginger's new assailment makes at least one boy uncomfortable: while fooling around in a car, he says, "Who'due south the guy here?", meaning he's the one who should be initiating things. There are also several good lines about the differences between the fashion people talk virtually boys and girls, especially regarding sex.
In the 2d picture example, "Blood Moon", the protagonist Tara has hypertrichosis, a condition which causes the body to become covered in hair, so she portrays a "Wolf Girl" in a circus freak show. She is taunted and feared for her appearance, and jumps at the chance to become traditionally beautiful by taking an experimental drug, merely the price is, ironically, her humanity. She goes from a kind-hearted person who looks like a monster to a beautiful woman who acts like a monster, killing her tormentors and others. This is obviously a story that could utilize to a human, but information technology is more potent in the case of a female grapheme, because of the much harsher dazzler expectations women face up. Likewise, Pulliam points out that the fact that Tara loses her speech every bit well, fits into the idea of the perfect woman as cute and silent.
Witches, discussed in the last chapter, serve equally the best example of the book's thesis – probably because witches have always represented women who would non be subordinated. The novels she discusses in this section also really sparked my interest (as did the werewolf short story "Boobs", by Suzy McKee Charnas, which sounds hilarious). Pulliam delves here into the complicated concepts of "received knowing", subjectivism and constructivism – borrowed from Mary Belenky and others. She writes, "While developing a more than sophisticated orientation towards authorization is a necessary step in the maturation process, women have more than difficulty arriving at this phase then practise men because [this] emerging constructivist perspective is particularly threatening to the stability of traditional gender roles, which uphold patriarchal gild".
There was one assertion that I found problematic: while discussing "The Craft", Pulliam gives reasons for why each of the girls in the group of witches are outside of what is considered normally feminine, but those same characteristics would as well cause teenaged boys to be outcasts in the film's environment (a generally white, prep school). As in "Claret Moon", you lot could argue that these characteristics are worse to deal with as females, just it's less convincing in this instance.
Over all, Pulliam'due south master thesis is convincing though: If young girls are exposed to and learn from non-conforming, "monstrous" female characters – even in stories that might finish badly – perhaps they stand a better adventure at resisting traditional restraints. As an ending note, I found this statement very funny, and certainly true: "in the conventional romance narrative, the heroine must successfully reinterpret the hero's surliness as evidence of his amore rather than behavior that should drive her abroad".
Damn you, Lord Byron.
Image via Amazon
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Source: https://thelosangelesbeat.com/2014/09/book-review-monstrous-bodies/