In “Monsters,” Tacey A. Rosolowski recounts some of her fondest and most fundamental childhood memories–gleefully watching campy horror movies with her younger sister. Too young to understand war, let alone march against it, Rosolowski felt alienated by the peace-and-love hippie revolution that had become her contemporary culture. She didn’t want to draw flowers on her face. She couldn’t yet, given her age and relative experiences, understand how creating and displaying beautiful images could effectively protest war. At the age of fourteen, what she did understand was that there was this idea of a feminine standard that was quickly descending upon her body, mind, and being.
To protest this personal war on herself, a war coming from all sides, including from internalized ideas within herself, she watched monster movies. Monsters, who look and behave exactly the way a modern, civilized lady shouldn’t, would momentarily free Rosolowski and her sister from the feminine mold that was fast closing in on them. In what she later recognized as a safe space, Rosolowski and her sister did not need to look or act any which way; they “pretended” to be the monsters they saw on screen, acting loud and brash and gross. These monsters–Godzilla, The Claw, Mothra–demolished cities unapologetically, in their own interest. Human girls, on the other hand, are taught not to do anything unapologetically–and certainly not when it’s in their own interest.
Rosolowski states “Kids will probably always love huge, fantasy beasts–they hold out the hope of omnipotence to anyone dwarfed by the world.” (281) While that is probably true, the question of why boys more often evolve into men who love monsters and gore, and why girls often evolve into women who shriek at the sight of monsters, follows. Men who relish in monster movies will harmlessly, often affectionately, be labeled “boyish,” or “still a boy at heart,” or simply, “a boy.” Women who hoot and holler or express anything but disgust and discomfort while watching scenes of horror are traditionally labeled, “barbaric,” “unladylike,” or, in many cases derogatorily, “a dude.” The difference between “a boy” and “a dude” is that though both are decidedly masculine descriptors, one (“a boy”) denotes a natural, inescapable, and mostly harmless attitude toward fun, while the other (“a dude”) suggests a slovenly, immature, underdeveloped attitude toward life. That males should be labeled one and females, the other, for displaying the exact same behavior and reaction toward a stimulus highlights much of what we expect of women, and what we expect in growth, in both women and men.
- What qualities do outcasted women and B-list movie monsters share?
- What qualities do successful men and B-list movie monsters share?