Publisher's Hardcover ©2021 | -- |
A witty and erudite exploration of the enduring influence of the female monsters in Greek myths.Electric Literature editor-in-chief Zimmerman blends memoir and cultural criticism in a wide-ranging feminist analysis rooted in her youthful love of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. Drawing on accounts by Homer and others, she argues that female monsters like Medusa and the Harpies have inspired more than a Versace logo and a metaphor popular among right-wing critics of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. The fearsome creatures have fostered "a suspicion of women in general" and sounded a warning: "Beware their ambition, their ugliness, their insatiable hunger, their ferocious rage." A graceful stylist who casts a wide literary and geographical net, Zimmerman can make nearly anything interesting. She begins a chapter on the Sirens by reappraising Aerosmith's "Crazy" video and one on Scylla by describing the Josephinum medical museum in Vienna, which displays oddities such as wax bones. The author avoids academic cant and shows a disarming willingness to acknowledge her own vulnerability to damaging messages. Her musings on the Sphinx recall a college affair with a professor whose rundowns of her flaws became "a daily referendum on my specific insufficiencies" that at times caused her to retreat into a Sphinx-like self-imposed silence. Not everyone will accept her argument that the traits that made monsters dangerous "are actually their greatest strength[s]" and can be turned on their heads: "When you embrace your imperfection, your imperfection stops consuming you." Nearly every page, however, brings fresh insights into age-old myths or tragicomic observations on 21st-century womanhood: "How do you cope with a day that might include a guy catcalling you on your commute and a murderous cop going free and a nationwide attack on reproductive rights-and an army of Twitter trolls telling you that all of this is good, actually, and anti-fascism is the real fascism?" This book is excellent armor for the battle.A sparkling and perceptive critique of ancient ideas that still hold women back.
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)A witty and erudite exploration of the enduring influence of the female monsters in Greek myths.Electric Literature editor-in-chief Zimmerman blends memoir and cultural criticism in a wide-ranging feminist analysis rooted in her youthful love of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. Drawing on accounts by Homer and others, she argues that female monsters like Medusa and the Harpies have inspired more than a Versace logo and a metaphor popular among right-wing critics of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. The fearsome creatures have fostered "a suspicion of women in general" and sounded a warning: "Beware their ambition, their ugliness, their insatiable hunger, their ferocious rage." A graceful stylist who casts a wide literary and geographical net, Zimmerman can make nearly anything interesting. She begins a chapter on the Sirens by reappraising Aerosmith's "Crazy" video and one on Scylla by describing the Josephinum medical museum in Vienna, which displays oddities such as wax bones. The author avoids academic cant and shows a disarming willingness to acknowledge her own vulnerability to damaging messages. Her musings on the Sphinx recall a college affair with a professor whose rundowns of her flaws became "a daily referendum on my specific insufficiencies" that at times caused her to retreat into a Sphinx-like self-imposed silence. Not everyone will accept her argument that the traits that made monsters dangerous "are actually their greatest strength[s]" and can be turned on their heads: "When you embrace your imperfection, your imperfection stops consuming you." Nearly every page, however, brings fresh insights into age-old myths or tragicomic observations on 21st-century womanhood: "How do you cope with a day that might include a guy catcalling you on your commute and a murderous cop going free and a nationwide attack on reproductive rights-and an army of Twitter trolls telling you that all of this is good, actually, and anti-fascism is the real fascism?" This book is excellent armor for the battle.A sparkling and perceptive critique of ancient ideas that still hold women back.
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)In this wry and deeply personal essay collection,
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism
The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough—aren’t just outside the norm. They’re unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we’ve been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths.
Through fresh analysis of 11 female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match.
Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we’re told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters—damsels, love interests, and even most heroines—do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us—harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators—women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.
A Note to the Reader
Introduction: Sister Monsters
How to Turn a Man to Stone
Voracious
Dogs Below the Waist
Singing for Bread
The Snatchers
That’s What You Think
Social Justice Warriors
Deep Houses
Shark, Snake, Swarm
Come Back Twice as Hard
Epilogue: Mother of Monsters
Acknowledgments
Resources
Credits