Quote:
“Not only an accent of command, but something malicious, something saturnine, It was a little guttural, though whether it was a man speaking I could not have positively said; but I had no doubt it was a foreigner, (31)”
It might have been that he had been afflicted by some terrible disease, and it was that which had made him so supernaturally ugly. There was ot a hair upon his face or head, but, to make up for it, the skin, which was a saffron yellow, was an amazing mass of wrinkles. The cranium, and, indeed, the whole skull, was so small as to be disagreeably suggestive of something animal, (34).”
Comment:
One part of Six and Thompson’s article about what makes a modern monster describes how monsters are made as “other”. They represent the status quo in a particular place and during a certain time period. Due to white European countries such as England and the U.S having a history of viewing marginalized groups of people as outside of the status quo, many monsters created from these areas are depicted similarly to these groups of people. The groups often depicted as monsters are queer, POC, and disabiled people. This is in the book The Beetle, by Richard Marsch. In the quote above, the main character sees a figure in his bed. He describes that he cannot tell if the figure is male or female, but that he can tell that they are foreign. As he begins to describe the figure he uses demeaning language by calling them supernaturally ugly and even compares them to an animal. In this case the author is using both queer and POC groups to create his monster. There is a history of racism that can be seen in the ways that the author describes the figure. There is a history of POC people being depicted as animals as a way to dehumanize them. Even when the figure’s nose is described as pointed and sharp like a beak can be seen as an antisemetic stereotype. There is also a section where the main character goes in depth trying to figure out the figure’s gender, not being able to tell if they are male or female. This is playing into gender constriction, especially when it is later revealed that the figure can turn into both. To me this seems to represent either a nonbinary or genderfluid character. All that has been previously mentioned plus the outright fear and rejection that the author uses to create his monster falls into multiple stereotypes and is dehumanizing to marginalized groups.
Question:
Is it possible for a monster to be created without being at the expense of marginalized groups? What monsters are there that don’t play into stereotypes?
