#women and other monsters
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People look through your face, or past it, when there’s nothing there they want. They’re not afraid to meet your eyes—they just don’t see the point.
Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology by Jess Zimmerman
#book quote#women and other monsters#jess zimmerman#nonfiction#mythology#feminism#quote#quotes#booklr#bookblr
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Most cultures have a female monster who preys on pregnant women, fetuses, newborns, and children. It's a near-universal nightmare: the creature who rips babies from the womb or steals them from the cradle. her name is Abyzou, Penanggalan, Lamashtu, La Llorona. Her purpose is sometimes to scare children into compliance, but it's often to scare women into compliance as well. Only monsters stand in the way of the natural order: women as incubators, as conduits for birth. In ancient Greece, the baby stealer's name was Lamia. The myths agree on her name, and her role as a murderer of children, and that's about it. Her backstory and her appearance vary almost psychedelically from story to story. In some, she is a sea monster; her name is the ancient Greek for a rogue shark. In others, she is half-woman, half-snake -- or, as in Keats's poem "Lamia," a multicolored snake with a woman's mouth. In some, she is even plural: the Lamiae, a swarm of vampiric demons. She also appears in a seventeenth-century bestiary with a woman's face and breasts, a four-legged body, front paws, back hooves, scales, and a penis and testicles. Unlike so many of her sister monsters -- snake-haired Medusa, lion-bodied Sphinx -- the important feature of Lamia is not what she looks like, but what she does. The fear of the monstrous mother can have many faces, many forms.
Zimmerman, Jess. Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology. Beacon Press, 2021.
#jess zimmerman#women and other monsters#women and other monsters: building a new mythology#on female monsters#excerpts#prose#nonfiction#*
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Summary: This collection of essays explores the experience of women through the lens of female monsters from Greek Mythology.
Quote: "Not every monster devours, but the drive to consume—to gobble up children, or swallow the sun, or eat young women’s hearts—is considered a monstrous trait. Outsize hunger is the province of the monster, and for women, all hungers are outsize.”
My rating: 3.5/5.0 Goodreads: 3.79/5.0
Review: In some ways this feels like internet feminism. Zimmerman draws broad conclusions from her own personal life, the Greek myths sometimes no more than an aesthetic prop for the point she’s making. They’re very well-written broad conclusions, though, and Zimmerman’s willingness to be vulnerable about her personal life lends them poignancy. If you go in accepting these more as personal essays than anything deeply engaging with Greek myth, they can be quite moving.
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toby fox needs to add like a bit of narration in deltarune abt kris like "they themmed they/themily down the stheirs" cus i cant go on seeing them constantly get he/himmed in yt comment sections
#this is my punishment for actually looking at yt comments isnt it#deltarune#kris dreemurr#maybe im looking too much into things but...#it also feels sorta. misogynistic when ppl default to he/him for androgynous/non binary characters#like ive seen multiple ppl use “well its understandable that ppl assume kris is a he when they have such masculine behaviours/hobbies”#the masculine behaviours and hobbies in question are being a prankster#i shit you not#like they called pranking... masc?? huh#can girls and others not get their silly on anymore??#also like i said before with the exception of like frisk and chara like almost every nb character is masculinised#like napstablook monster kid#god there has to be more but my memory is shit atm and i also have to go eat dinner#but i wanna talk more abt like why it feels so misogynistic to me#i thinnk it has to do with the fact that defaulting to he/him just makes women feel like an afterthought. ig like unless its confirmed then#they must be a guy to be relevant or smth#and also like how much they gender entirely non gender specific things (see: pranking)#ofc it wouldnt be BETTER per se if they imagined these characters as girls but its smth ive noticed and i just get frustrated cus#it feels sexist but i cant FULLY articulate why#i feel like i had the answer a lil while ago but i forgot#i might come back to this who knows#wow ok rant over#for now
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Bro is not going to make it to the princess...
#my art#artists on tumblr#digital art#btw I'll be selling her (and her little simp) as an adoptable tomorrow check other links *wink*#dragon#knight#monster women#medieval#that's what 3 hours of curta'n wall can do to a mf
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somebody should study dj’s hold on us. it’s been like 3 years and i still dream of that man lol
well, there are some factors to consider when studying popular fictional men. one must ask;
do they exemplify some of the following traits?
long/beautiful hair (not required but appreciated)
pretty/unique eyes, usually half-lidded
sharp teeth or fangs of some kind, usually shown via cocky smirk or smile
b i g (though a quick study of tumblr sexymen would say this one isn't required)
by this criteria, DJ is certifiably irresistible.
#there are obviously more traits that make a fictional man attractive#these are the ones that apply to many of my monster men#and other male ocs#they can also apply to fictional women
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just watched beetlejuice beetlejuice at the theaters, and can I just say, I loved it! it definitely didn’t disappoint and was a zany adventure, just like the first one.
and it kinda added layers to betelgeuse in a way. because spoilers I definitely thought they would go the same route for astrid and jeremy, the same way they did for lydia and betelgeuse in that what jeremy wanted was for astrid to marry him so that he could get out. instead it was a more sinister method, and it makes me wonder why betelgeuse never tried it. it can’t be because he doesn’t know about it, because he’s the type of ghost to read the handbook backwards and forwards just so he can find every loophole to exploit. like my head keeps going in circles. especially for the first movie where lydia had initially wanted ‘in’ while he wanted ‘out’, the switcheroo method that jeremy tried with astrid would’ve been perfect then. even in this movie where he already has experience of lydia backing out of their deal, he could have had lydia promise to exchange her soul for his. with how much she wanted to save astrid, I’m sure lydia would have agreed. instead, he just wanted to remarry her. it’s interesting because it means betelgeuse, as putrid, crass, disgusting, and opportunistic as he is, actually seems like he has lines he won’t cross.
#beetlejuice#beetlejuice beetlejuice#beetlejuice beetlejuice spoilers#lydia deetz#astrid deetz#like sure betelgeuse did end up killing his ex wife but it was a qpq kind of thing#so is it like jeremy was even a worse kind of monster thing?#betelgeuse is interesting because while he seems every bit a cheater#when he gives his word he’ll see it through#he plays fair…in a way#even at the end it seems like he lets lydia banish him#like some sort of fae he will trick you dont trust him but if you beat him fair and square…#I mean I loved the cartoon#part of me thinks that even movie!beetlejuice has a soft spot for lydia#because he will (try to) horrify and traumatize her#(and I love that her reaction to this is just an unimpressed weirded out look)#but he will still help her#he treats her differently than other women for example…somewhat#weirdly enough they remind me of jareth and sarah#so my favorite dynamic of theirs will always be lydia somehow still getting the upper hand on him
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"Medusa x Perseus" Why don't you guys ship Bellerophon with Chimera? Or Heracles with the Hydra?
#greek mythology#medusa#perseus#ramblings#Yes I know that Medusa has a more humanoid appearance and human intellect compared to the other female monsters#But she is still a monster#She was supposed to have a monstruous appearance but then people made her dirty#Imagine if I would turn the Minotaur into a hot guy with horns and then ship him with Theseus AKA his own killer#I know it sounds ridiculous but this is exactly how some people out there sound too#Why can't we acknowledge that one doesn’t need to be conventionally attractive in order to deserve empathy or understanding?#Or that a woman can be evil and malevolent without a tragic background story that turn all women into victims and all men into assholes?#And why do we have to come up with the most stupid pairs to ever exist?#My tags are becoming more and more distant from the post's subject but my FYP is full of this type of BS so here I am#Thanks for my (salty) Ted Talk!
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empathising with the women who feel forbidden from expressing desire over villains by some imaginary morality clause. villains are so, so sexy. villains transgress all manner of societal norms which is especially appealing to women as we have been confined and restricted all of our lives.
[kind of personally thought woman loving villains who want to burn it all down should make far more sense to everyone than woman identifying with heroes who want to keep everything intact? heroes uphold the status quo. the status quo in our world is patriarchal. there is no catharsis for women in seeing the current state of a world upheld, even if that world is in a galaxy far, far away. but seeing a character played by a handsome actor want to carve up the status quo? yeah. that's sexy. obviously.]
we aren't attracted to villains because we don't understand that they're bad; we like them because they are bad. because in their otherness we find symbolic representation. because in their defiance of societal norms we find catharsis.
#manny jacinto#the acolyte#[sighs]#having to explain monster ideology and it's intersection with feminism is fun and all but also ...#... having to read women smugly lecture other women on “media literacy” is super exhausting#other women do in fact have brain cells#just because they enjoy a character in a way you personally don't find fun or interesting does not make them media illiterate bimbos#i would even argue that there is a conservative patriarchal ideology in favouring heroes over villains but that is for another time
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Being a teenage girl is dramatic in part because it’s your first, chilliest dunking in the certain knowledge that your body is your worth. I’d been a chubby kid, and so the idea that my body was a source of shame wasn’t new to me, but previously I’d only been a disappointment to my family. Now, I was understanding that an unbeautiful woman is an unfulfilled promise to the world.
I realize now that some of this is illusion—that those promises were made on my behalf, without my input, by people who didn’t have my best interests at heart.
Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology by Jess Zimmerman
#jo's birthday takeover#book quote#women and other monsters#jess zimmerman#nonfiction#mythology#feminism#quote#quotes#booklr#bookblr
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[...] The qualities we hail as heroic in Western culture -- courage and fortitude, selflessness and nobility, steadiness of mind and will -- are not unique to men. Arguably, they're not even characteristic. But in the male-dominated myth, folklore, and literature that defines our culture, they've been annexed as "masculine" traits. We're still struggling to create or consume stories about valorous women, unless they also display the "feminine" virtues: passive sex appeal and fragility that requires rescue. In a hero, these are flaws. Thus, any heroine who tries to embody both contains the seeds of her own undoing. The female hero can hoist up the shackles of femininity and take them with her on adventures, but that's not the same as breaking free. [...] In college, I was a particular fan of Edmund Spenser's "martial maid" Britomart, who gets to wear armor and carry a spear and go on quests and even rescue maidens -- but eventually, even Britomart gallops back to her role as a princess, a wife, and the mother of a race of noble Britons. Her whole mission, in general, has been to find the man she glimpsed in a magic mirror and fell in love with. The rescuing damsels part was just a side quest. [...] And if the heroine truly slips the constraints that her femininity is supposed to place on her, the very heroic virtues she embodies often mutate into monstrosity. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the eponymous male hero is described as an aglæca, a word for which we do not know the exact meaning but which is usually translated as something like "hero" or "warrior". Beowulf's antagonist, the monster Grendel, also gets described as an aglæca, which in his case is usually glossed as "demon" or "monster" or something similar. What the two have in common is the sense of being awe-inspiring or formidible, so that's probably more or less what aglæca means. But the word has a feminine form, aglæcwif, and the ancient text contains an aglæcwif too: Grendel's mother. There is no abiguity to this word, not in the way it's come down to us; aglæcwif is translated as "monster-woman," "troll-lady," "wretch," or "hag." In other contexts, "wif" (which is also attached to other descriptors of Grendel's mother) specifically denotes a human woman, and yet -- like it's not indignity enough that she's always called "Grendel's mother," as if the bards were Grendel's schoolmates who didn't realize mothers had names -- the aglæcwif is assumed to be subhuman and bestial. She's just as much an aglæca as Beowulf, and just as much a wif as the other human women to which that refers, but the combination inspires not awe but horror. The monstrousness of Grendel's mother, the factor that makes her a hag or a troll or a wretch, comes from her stepping outside the slim strictures of womanhood into the realm of aglæca, of formidability and awe. In another world, she would have been a hero.
Zimmerman, Jess. Introduction to Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology. Beacon Press, 2021.
#jess zimmerman#women and other monsters#women and other monsters: building a new mythology#beowulf#grendel's mother#on female monsters#excerpts#nonfiction#prose#*
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Sally Jackson, Maria di Angelo, and Naomi Solace would be badass, bestie, wine mamas if they got to meet each other
#pjo headcanon#pjo#pjo fandom#pjo hoo toa#percy jackson#percy jackon and the olympians#sally jackson#maria di angelo#naomi solace#will solace#nico di angelo#I feel like they would all be good at singing and harmonizing#I also feel like Naomi would listen to true crime (Will got it from her)#And then what if she convinced the other two to listen to some#It would also be funny if while they were listening to different true crime podcasts they ended up finding one titled#“The di Angelo disappearance”#And it’s just an episode detailing the story of a single mother Italian immigrant and her two children who went missing#Last seen in Vegas Nevada#it would be so silly#I also feel like they would all have the sight#Just imagine these three badass women fucking up monsters who DARE try to look at their kids the wrong way#just imagine them#They would be great
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delicious in creeking!! 1/2 in a series
[Image Description: A drawing of Falin, Laios, Marcille and Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi. They are all near or wading through a creek. Falin is the nearest figure, squatting and pointing to a bug on a blade of grass. She calls back excitedly to Laios, who is wading towards her through the creek. He shields his face from the sun while smiling and holding a container for keeping bugs. Marcille stands just inside the creek with her hands on her knees. She appears to be catching her breath. Izutsumi squats on the side of the creek, looking at a small fish in the water with wide eyes while flicking her tail. End Description.]
#dungeon meshi#dungeon meshi spoilers#the other piece is gonna be the rest of the party plus kabru and namari cause i love them#clarification: im not done with the other one yet#falin and laios have matching cargo shorts <333#falins hat says ‘women love me fish also love me’#falins bandaid is vaguely lightning mcqueen themed because i feel like she would like silly bandaids#laios’ shirt is hand painted with his Cool Monster Design on it i know its not detailed. but thats what it is supposed to be.#marcille would probably wear sunscreen like crazy and still somehow get burned#izutsumi is enthralled <3 fishie#i gave marcille leg hair too <3 equality <3
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okay listen. fellow monsterfuckers. we talk about this way too much:
AND WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THIS ENOUGH:
LIKE. SHE LOOKS HORRIFIC. AND I LOVE HER FOR IT
#pinkie speakie#i love her your honor#i love her and all of the horrible things she does 🤩🙏#this movie has had a tight hold on me for 15 years now#the other mother#the beldam#beldam#other mother#coraline#evil women#monster fucker#monsterfucking#evil woman
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sapphic activities pt.1 featuring @onlywhump's Nara :>
#wlw#sapphic#monster girl#artists on tumblr#illustrators on tumblr#digital art#monsters#my art#others ocs#nara#my ocs#alma guerrero#art#original art#original character#buff women
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I think some folks MAY have gotten the wrong idea about how I feel about Circe with some of my posts. So, to clear the air...
Homies, I love that fucked up sorceress.
I love how we're never given a reason why she turns people into animals. That's so funny and so awful. And another potion-making magic gal?!?! I love that she's just basically vibing on an island doing whatever she wants. I even love the fact that she scares Odysseus shitless! She's morally gray and that's why she's FUN.
I just sincerely hate when people try to girlboss her or have her be a victim of SA when she never was Looking at you, Miller. Especially when she was actually the one who coerced Odysseus in exchange for his men being transformed back into humans. And even then, while he was clearly afraid of her, (it's in the language of the Odyssey) she likely meant him no harm after a certain point. He just didn't know that.
Why does she need a reason to do awful things? Why can't she just be a goddess who does whatever she wants? That's the reason why I love her!!! She's fucked up!!! :D
I hate what the Telegony did to her as well! >:( You're telling me, this sorceress goddess, who makes potions (!!!) wouldn't have magic contraceptives??? Would WANT CHILDREN?!?! WITH THE PATHETIC WIFEMAN?! No. Fuck no. Eugammon of Cyrene, I have beef with you 🤬
Anyways!!! Understand all the "#anti circe" I have is simply Anti "Girlboss Circe" or the book. I genuinely think she's neat af as her morally gray, fucked up sorceress self and just get frustrated with...everything :'D
#I have these same feelings with Medea and Medusa and so many others. Penelope too. Let them do something fucked up just to be fucked up#I'm a “god forbid women do anything” in the sense of 'she did a fucked up thing. That's why she's fascinating. Don't take her awfulness#away from her!!! please! I wanna study her under a microscope!'😭#PLEASE#...I actually kind of don't like the idea of her actually caring about her nymphs :P maybe she “protects them” but like...#I see her as a “Why are all of you dancing? Oh. it's a birthday? hm okay. Just make sure your duties are done.” while not caring#whose birthday it is. She's not really shown to be close to them during the Odyssey and idk just seems in character for her to not give af#save me morally gray circe#<-making that a tag now because...yeah. She absolutely wouldn't save me though.#Mad rambles#shot by odysseus#anti madeline miller#anti circe#<-THE BOOK! I HATE THE BOOK! LET HER BE AWFUL YOU COWARDS#Why do women need to be SA'ed to be strong Miller?! >:(#...Ima say it. The pathetic wifeman is more relatable to me than Hot Snake Monster Lady when it comes to this stuff.😤#I just sincerely hate the fact that people erase what happened to him you know? It's silly but it means a lot to me.#Also I think she got bored of him immediately and simply let him chill at her place.#She's a goddess. She's got better things to do and she absolutely doesn't love him and he absolutely doesn't want her.#I don't have with Eugammon btw. He's dead and I'm exaggerating but I STILL hate the Telegony >:(#tw sa#kind of??? idk#barely mentioned but yeah#Calypso though?? Yeah. I hate her in practically everything except Pirates of the Caribbean because that's not Odyssey Calypso
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