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beccaelizabethThe book with the random kissing went a bit wronger. Heroic heterosexuality contrasted with evil vampire lesbians, who got messily dead. But then at the end she had to dump him anyway because she was addicted to his blood, so mostly it was a mess of a book that mixed up sex and death even more than most urban fantasy.
I am aware that most writers probably don't sit down and consciously think that homosexuality is evil so they'll put some evil vampire lesbians into the story just to make sure their audience sees what monsters they are. It's more likely they watched too many vampire movies at a formative age. There isn't exactly a shortage of evil vampire lesbians in the right genres. It's just the not thinking about it perpetuates the evil gross creepy old messages about female sexuality especially when aimed at other women. Like repeating without question all the old stories about evil witches, who just happen to be women who are heiresses in their own right and can have their whole estates taken away if they're guilty of something evil enough. Old lies in new clothes perpetuate old evils.
I was reading GURPS Horror the other day and it divides up its advice not by monster exactly but by fears. Fear of Taint, Fear of Nature, Fear of Madness, Fear of Mutilation, Fear of Starvation, Fear of the Universe, Fear of the Unnatural, Fear of Others, Fear of Disease, Fear of Technology, Fear of the State, Fear of Death, Fear of Apocalypse, Fear of Hell. It struck me as interesting, even useful for a writer, but I had the vague thought it was insufficiently theorised. Even the headings it chooses and the ones it ignores say something about the culture of the writer. The section on Zombies is under Fear of Death, even though the part about voodoo zombies does mention that it's really fear of enslavement and forced labour. Fear of enslavement seems like a top level fear to me. But nope, not here.
Any film about robots splits fear of enslavement and fear of slaves, fear of uprisings. It's uncomfortable to realise it's usually written sympathising with the slave owners, with the workers discovering their free will being the big creepy that tends to be followed by violent retribution. Got no strings... and then what? So very seldom is it hello and welcome, here's your equal rights. Pretty much just Data got that. The rest of the time it's to some extent a bunch of white men fighting to ensure the Others don't get to choose. Putting a metal face on them don't make that okay. So there's Fear of Enslavement and Fear of Slaves waking up.
I've read that vampires are the monster embodying the working class fear of the upper class, and zombies are the upper class fear of the working class. Doesn't quite track, too many kinds of vampire, too many different zombies, but it's a start. Change the spin on a monster though and you change its class signifiers, so vampires become the middle class fear of a parasitic underclass. Should horror always punch up? Is tapping into certain fears too easy?
Stepford Wives (as a trope name, I've not seen any version of it) and ... what's that gun fu movie, Equilibrium? They're both fear of having our emotions drained out in the name of social order and acceptability, but they stand in rather different relations to patriarchy. One of them seems mostly worried at losing the joy in violence. And, granted, I've watched it rather more often, but my taste in movies kind of worries me sometimes. Nowhere in the horror list is Fear of Patriarchy, Fear of Gender Norms, Fear of the Acceptable Eating the Individual. But if you want a list of things that keep me awake at night it isn't exactly focused on Fear of Nature. Fear for Nature, for sure.
Fear of pervasive ideologies overriding empathy and creating systems of oppression through means economic and forcefully repressive.
... not exactly catchy, probably difficult to put makeup on.
The scariest bit of a horror movie is watching the black guy die first. Or maybe the fridging.
Learning how movies pull the strings on fear is a useful political lesson. Watch the media make monsters. See how groups are constructed and then targeted, with their own voices erased.
The monster's always scarier when you can't see it. Partly that's because you'll draw on your own schemas of fear, fill in the blanks with whatever would make you react like that, the same way people probably assume the government has an actual reason big enough to justify the ways it acts. But partly it's because once you get to know anything there's more room for empathy and identification, instead of just fear.
Eh, I depress myself.
I am aware that most writers probably don't sit down and consciously think that homosexuality is evil so they'll put some evil vampire lesbians into the story just to make sure their audience sees what monsters they are. It's more likely they watched too many vampire movies at a formative age. There isn't exactly a shortage of evil vampire lesbians in the right genres. It's just the not thinking about it perpetuates the evil gross creepy old messages about female sexuality especially when aimed at other women. Like repeating without question all the old stories about evil witches, who just happen to be women who are heiresses in their own right and can have their whole estates taken away if they're guilty of something evil enough. Old lies in new clothes perpetuate old evils.
I was reading GURPS Horror the other day and it divides up its advice not by monster exactly but by fears. Fear of Taint, Fear of Nature, Fear of Madness, Fear of Mutilation, Fear of Starvation, Fear of the Universe, Fear of the Unnatural, Fear of Others, Fear of Disease, Fear of Technology, Fear of the State, Fear of Death, Fear of Apocalypse, Fear of Hell. It struck me as interesting, even useful for a writer, but I had the vague thought it was insufficiently theorised. Even the headings it chooses and the ones it ignores say something about the culture of the writer. The section on Zombies is under Fear of Death, even though the part about voodoo zombies does mention that it's really fear of enslavement and forced labour. Fear of enslavement seems like a top level fear to me. But nope, not here.
Any film about robots splits fear of enslavement and fear of slaves, fear of uprisings. It's uncomfortable to realise it's usually written sympathising with the slave owners, with the workers discovering their free will being the big creepy that tends to be followed by violent retribution. Got no strings... and then what? So very seldom is it hello and welcome, here's your equal rights. Pretty much just Data got that. The rest of the time it's to some extent a bunch of white men fighting to ensure the Others don't get to choose. Putting a metal face on them don't make that okay. So there's Fear of Enslavement and Fear of Slaves waking up.
I've read that vampires are the monster embodying the working class fear of the upper class, and zombies are the upper class fear of the working class. Doesn't quite track, too many kinds of vampire, too many different zombies, but it's a start. Change the spin on a monster though and you change its class signifiers, so vampires become the middle class fear of a parasitic underclass. Should horror always punch up? Is tapping into certain fears too easy?
Stepford Wives (as a trope name, I've not seen any version of it) and ... what's that gun fu movie, Equilibrium? They're both fear of having our emotions drained out in the name of social order and acceptability, but they stand in rather different relations to patriarchy. One of them seems mostly worried at losing the joy in violence. And, granted, I've watched it rather more often, but my taste in movies kind of worries me sometimes. Nowhere in the horror list is Fear of Patriarchy, Fear of Gender Norms, Fear of the Acceptable Eating the Individual. But if you want a list of things that keep me awake at night it isn't exactly focused on Fear of Nature. Fear for Nature, for sure.
Fear of pervasive ideologies overriding empathy and creating systems of oppression through means economic and forcefully repressive.
... not exactly catchy, probably difficult to put makeup on.
The scariest bit of a horror movie is watching the black guy die first. Or maybe the fridging.
Learning how movies pull the strings on fear is a useful political lesson. Watch the media make monsters. See how groups are constructed and then targeted, with their own voices erased.
The monster's always scarier when you can't see it. Partly that's because you'll draw on your own schemas of fear, fill in the blanks with whatever would make you react like that, the same way people probably assume the government has an actual reason big enough to justify the ways it acts. But partly it's because once you get to know anything there's more room for empathy and identification, instead of just fear.
Eh, I depress myself.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-09 07:36 pm (UTC)Not sure if fear of imprisonment is part of that or something else.
Re- fear of patriarchy etc: Fear of Loss of Self? Not sure how to phrase that. (I am reminded of Elgin's claims that the topics a culture wishes not to face, it makes hard to talk about. It's easy to talk about war and violence in English; it's hard to talk about maintaining one's individuality in the midst of social norms designed to oppress certain identities.)
"Fear of Taint" and "Fear of Disease" seem awfully close. And wtf, "Fear of Pain" isn't on their list?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-11 05:39 pm (UTC)I agree with you about "Fear of Enslavement" needing some acknowledgement. I wonder if it possibly could be described in even broader terms as "Fear of Loss of Control" or "Fear of Loss of Agency"? The Stepford Wives trop would be there (with the added fear of not being aware that one is enslaved), as is Fear of Patriarchy (any freedom-denying state, really). ~ I wonder if it wasn't on the suorce list you discussed (with which I am not familiar) because it is more a state/ situation than a particular "monster" -- there is no specific antagonist for the protagonist to take aim at. (In a smaller sense perhaps monsters who mind control, possess, or imprison the protagonist in some way might fall in this category, although would the first two be considered to fall under Fear of Madness?)
no subject
Date: 2015-06-12 05:12 pm (UTC)