Monstrous-feminine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
8rp13ObMisI
• The Monstrous-Feminine of the maternal
figure is a complex representation perceived
within patriarchal ideology ( Barbara Creed)
 Monstrous-Feminine
• This concept refers to an idea of woman as
terrifying, shocking, abject, taboo and that
combines an aspect of fascination and
repulsion by the very notion of the feminine.
• (Barbara Creed, Julia Kristeva)
 Abject
• Kristeva (Powers of Horror): an object of
disgust but necessary to the foundation of
culture; it is extremely “other”. Abject crosses
and confuses boundaries.
• Creed (“Horror and the Monstrous-feminine:
An Imaginary Abjection”): critiques Kristeva
for not going further in her analysis as the
abject as being feminine.
 Archaic mother
• As death
• Threateningly reproductive, generative, and dedicated to destruction.
• Represented in terrifying creatures that may castrate (ref. Freud) the male
hero.
• (In folklore: “Toothed vagina” that castrates; “Phallic mother” (the horrific
witch with long nails and long nose; Medusa=female genitals)
• Ex: The Thing:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZkkIsLiNg
• Alien:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG0Wa5S1HKo

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYPaQfLg08c&feature=related
 Teeth
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH8yuld4
DUE
 Medusa
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcQJf7W
Q1o&feature=related
 Mother: the uncanny
• The role of the father is to stop this incestuous
relationship of a symbolic order (castration).
 Representations in horror films
• Two distinct representations:
• 1- The archaic mother as a negative force
(black hole=vagina= devouring womb)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
tBs2YpOPL78
• 2-The archaic mother as death or the desire to
return to the state of origin/threat to self-
boundaries.
 (female) hysteria
• Greek word Hyster (womb)
• Egyptians thought that womb wanders throughout
the body and impedes breathing.
• Association contributed to the view of women as
emotional and mysterious; a “female malady”.
• Male hysteria as “feminine” and the displacement of
the male-engendered anxieties onto images of the
body.
 Abjection and horror
• Abjection: “cast off”
• Power of Horror (by J. Kristeva):
The fundamental reflex of horror, abjection or
revulsion, is the formation of the ego. It originates
from the child turning away from the archaic
Mother, encountered for the first time as The
Other, the “not-me”.
. Patriarchy considers the feminine as the horror
where the mother is perceived as an all powerful
presence that threatens castration.
 Deconstructing the gaze
1. The women of horror are counted on for
convincing performances as victims.
2. Horror works for the male as an exorcism for
it offers a way of distancing oneself from the
power of the mother.
3. It is reactionary and punishes transgressions
of conventional gender roles.
4. The camera gaze is inherently male. (Has this
gaze been challenged? Why?)