MAKING MONSTERS: Western Constructions of the Female ‘Other’ Across Time & Place

As Part of the Thessaloniki Queer Art Festival’s (TQAF) 2020 programming, this series of short lecture videos investigates Western constructions of female ‘monsters’ with awareness of this present moment in history and a critical eye towards Western/ white culture and how it has and continues to shape us.

WATCH THE VIDEOS ON IGTV

1: MYTHS - BIBLIOGRAPHY + FURTHER READING & VIEWING - FULL TRANSCRIPT

2: WITCHES - BIBLIOGRAPHY + FURTHER READING & VIEWING - FULL TRANSCRIPT

3: HYSTERICS - BIBLIOGRAPHY + FURTHER READING & VIEWING - FULL TRANSCRIPT

Monster Manifesto:

I want everyone to be monsters. I want the world to be made up of monstrous individuals, monstrous communities, and monstrous systems of support, care, expression, and invention.

Oftentimes, monsters are defined as evil, depraved, inhuman, or animalistic beings by a dominant culture that characterizes them as such. These frameworks that rationalize a person or people as ‘bad’ have been used for time immemorial to justify the oppression of some for the benefit of others - the oppressors. When we fear monsters, we do so because they show us the things that we don’t want to see. They expose what is ‘supposed’ to remain hidden. The word monster comes in part from the latin verb ‘monstrare’ - to show, and also from ‘monere’ - to remind, admonish, warn, and instruct. In this sense, to be a monster is to reveal and protest something. The fact that monsters are also characterized as ‘abnormal’ and ‘abominations’ suggests something about what the “monster” is revealing, and who they are protesting. Monsters go against what is ‘supposed’ to be, and in doing so expose our assumptions and presumptions.

I want a reclamation, a new ownership of these characteristics that have long been villainized, and that often represent the best of us. To be a monster is to be outspoken, to challenge the status quo, to engender healing, to be a part of a greater community, and to be what it is natural for you to be (mythological figures worldwide provide examples - Baubo, witches, selkies, etc). These natural powers have been suppressed at the behest of dominant cultures and systems than require our complicity as villains and victims. Instead, let us be monsters, with bared teeth and sharp claws, and tear down what we’ve been told is ‘supposed to be,’ instead creating a new, monstrous world.