Jessica Rusk UNIV 100 H18 Dr. Terranova 2 November 2017 Monstrous Adolescence Directed by John Fawcett, Ginger Snaps (2000) tells the story of two teenage sisters after one of them, Ginger, is bitten by a werewolf. The night Ginger is bitten happens to be the night she starts her first period. Ginger Snaps uses the confusing and often scary process of becoming a werewolf as a metaphor for female adolescence. Ginger Snaps focuses on the Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger (16) and Bridgette (15). One of the first scenes of the movie is of a mother and her son in their backyard as the mother finds the son with the paw of their dead dog, Baxter. The dog’s death is a result of the “beast of Bailey Downs” and is only another mark in the string of dog deaths throughout the town (Fawcett). During the girls’ PE class the school’s popular girl and bully, Trina Sinclair, pushes Bridgette down and she falls into another mutilated dog. The girls decide to steal Trina’s dog as revenge leading them to be in the park alone that night where they find another dead dog. Shortly after finding the body and Bridgette points out that Ginger is bleeding, a mysterious beast appears and savagely attacks Ginger. It is assumed that this is the …show more content…
These include cramps, growing unwanted body hair, mood swings, confusion about what exactly is happening, and fear about the future. However, there is one significant difference in becoming an adult woman and becoming a monster. Ginger even tells this to Bridgette when she says “I just got my period…I’ve got hormones. They may make me butt ugly, but they don’t make me a monster” (Fawcett). There is no doubt that to become a werewolf is to become a monster. Nevertheless, while the process to become an adult woman is monstrous, adult women are not monsters. Ginger Snaps does an exceptional job of using Ginger’s transition into a werewolf as a metaphor for female
For centuries, women have been forced to live life on the outskirts of a male-dominated society. During the 1800’s, the opportunities for women were extremely limited and Mary Shelly does an excellent job portraying this in her gothic novel, Frankenstein. Furthermore, in this novel, Mary Shelly shows how society considers women to be possessions rather than independent human beings. In addition, the female characters rely heavily on men for support and survival, thus proving their inability to do it on their own. Lastly, the female characters in this novel are in many ways victimized by the male characters.
This is where the role of the monster comes in, it wants a female for
For as long as mankind has been around the fascination of savage beasts were greatly integrated through its cultures. The concept of monsters has been used in many historical and ideological context to vilify what society deems abhorrent. Monsters serve as our own depictions of ourselves and the world around us. They challenge our cultural mores and force us to analyze what is within us. The reason why monsters are becoming increasingly popular is because it allows people to break out of social norms and immerse themselves into a world of immorality. Werewolves, in particular, we see are just like humans, facing the same issues we do. They are seeking love, affection, and acceptance, much like us. However, much of their approach may test our
In her critical essay, Anne K. Mellor is arguing that the deaths of the women in the text and the birth of the creature all represent Frankenstein’s desire to create a male dominated society while completely destroying the need for women. As Mellor states, “by stealing the female’s control over reproduction, Frankenstein has eliminated the female’s primary biological function and source of cultural power” (355). If Frankenstein were able to construct men from pieces of random corpses successfully, he would obliterate the woman’s primary function in society: to birth babies. Mellor states that Frankenstein’s primary motivation for his horrific actions is fueled by his fear of female sexuality. The treatment of females in this text is a reflection of the repression of sexual desire in the 18th century.
In the story “The Company of Wolves” little red riding hood (LRRH) sexuality empowerment was short lived. LRRH is raised in a time where “Children do not stay young for long in this savage country” because they had to help out the family and did not have time to play. Since LRRH was “so pretty and the youngest of her family” she was not as wise and maybe a little naive. So when it as a
Caramelo has been quite an interesting novel. It describes a Hispanic family to the tee. Sandra Cisneros chose her title perfectly for this book. Life’s hardships and possibilities are explored throughout this fascinating novel.
The first example that comes to mind would be the illness of Elizabeth and the death of her and Victor’s mother, Caroline: “Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever; her illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger. […] Elizabeth was saved […] On the third day my mother sickened […] accompanied by the most alarming symptoms. […] She died calmly…” (Shelley 19) Within the first twenty pages of the novel, the reader is projected an image of how weak women are to a virus that is much smaller than them. While one survived the deadly symptoms, the one who could be argued to be more of a woman has perished. This removal of nearly two female characters this early is a portrayal of the frailty of the female sex. This is not the only time feminism is removed from the novel. In an article entitled “The Monster in a Dark Room: Frankenstein, Feminism, and Philosophy”, Nancy Yousef states that “Not surprisingly, the creature’s nonbirth, occluding an unavoidably female act, has dominated feminist interpretations of Frankenstein.” (Yousef 198) Hitting the nail on the head, Yousef makes an excellent observation. The creature was not born by any natural means as he was a creation of Victor’s. By removing the natural birth of a human through a woman’s reproductive organs, Shelley is making a statement as to the oppression of the female sex within the late 18th and early 19th century. Within an essay written by Diane Long Hoeveler, she makes a good point too expressing that “The fact that Victor constructs the [female] body and then, when contemplating the realities of sexuality, desire, and reproduction, rips that body apart, suggests that the female body is for Victor infinitely more threatening and "monstrous" than was the creature 's male body.” (Hoeveler 52) Hoeveler is essentially stating that the female body is a threat to the male sex and was more hideous
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
...ult's fairy tale: “Red Hot Riding Hood.“ Both Hopkinson's and Avery's wolf share some human qualities which make him even more dangerous for young innocent girls.
In both Robert Burns’s Tam O’Shanter and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, A Modern Prometheus, the authors use gender as an underlying theme throughout the narrative, a common thread present in the characters’ goals and motivations. In the case of Tam O’Shanter, Tam’s midnight adventure is against the advice of his wife and nearly ends with his death due to his inability to control himself when faced with a sultry witch. Frankenstein, though less blatant in its gendered imagery, follows the monster as he searches for a woman to play the role of his mother, wife, or daughter, demonstrating his need for female companionship in the light of Victor’s failure to be a father to him. The gender role that Victor himself plays is also debated, as he
When reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, one cannot help but notice that the women characters seem to have little substance compared to the male characters. This may have been caused by the time period in which she wrote: one in which females were considered inferior to males. This difference between the sexes can be looked at using a variety of different perspectives. Johanna M. Smith, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, discusses this issue using feminist eyes in her essay entitled "'Cooped up': Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein." The main points in Professor Smith's essay are that the female characters are there only to reflect the male characters, and that the Frankenstein family has a weird style of living, which she describes as a "bookkeeping mentality" (Smith 279).
The reading by Barbara Creed titled “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, is an in-depth examination on the role of women in horror films. Creed challenges the commanding patriarchal view, which frequently puts the woman in the position of the helpless victim. She argues that when the feminine is constructed as monstrous, it is frequently done in conjunction with its mothering role and function. Creed’s main thesis supports that the prototype of all cinematic definitions of monstrosity related to the feminine is linked to the woman’s reproductive body. Creed elects to use the term “monstrous feminine” instead of female monster, because for Creed it is the “femininity itself that is monstrous” (41). It has been unfairly
...o the male monster since she may not be “feminine” enough, or c) not find the male monster attractive and mate with ordinary males. All of these things center around a fear of a female’s ability to reproduce and a fear of a female’s ability to choose her own path. Shelley suggests that the impact of these things is what frightens men, making them feel like they must dominate women to avoid any of the negative implications of them.
Little Red Riding Hood retold by the Brothers Grimm version by Paul Galdone includes a "sweet little maiden" (Galdone 1) who never wears anything else but a little red velvet cloak, given to her by her Grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood's mother asks her to take cake and a bottle of wine to her Grandmother. The wolf in the woods is very talented as in she is somewhat convincing in the story. She first approaches Little Red Riding Hood in the woods keeping her calm with polite conversation and convinces her then to pick the beautiful flowers, meanwhile, she scurried away to Grandmother's cottage to devour Grandmother; later to devour Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf later lay there in Grandmother's bed convincingly as Grandmother in Grandmother's cap down over her face. After convincing Little Red Riding Hood to approach the wolf then devours her. The heroin turns out to be a huntsman, whom "took a knife and began cutting open the sleeping wolf" (Galdone 26) when out popped Little Red Riding Hood and Grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood is victorious by putting all inside the wolf big stones, which weighed him down, ...
She decides to go through forest, what people think its frightening and foreboding. However she is confident enough in her budding sexuality to do not pay attention to those prejudices. In the wood she meets with the wolf. After they split up, the wolf heads towards the Red Riding Hoods destination and there he eats her grandma.