I decided to purchase my own copy of ‘Women and other Monsters’ by Jess Zimmerman so I could highlight and fully analyse what was written.

Here are some important quotes and ideas from the book that could help focus my work.

First Chapter: Sister Monsters
‘Medusa and her counterparts became subject, despite their monstrousness to the principles of beauty.’
‘Creatures who were once conceived as repulsive were reimagined as appealing, even seductive.’
‘In a society centred on the male citizen, the feminization of monsters served to demonize women.’
‘The later monsters look more human, underscoring the idea that the monstrousness is somehow the human woman’s natural condition.’
‘Women may look harmless on the face, they said, but look at their snake hair and dog crotches and claws. Look at them crouched over the male victim, ready to bite. Beware their ambition, their ugliness and their ferocious rage.’
‘cultural expectations of a women; to be attractive and sexually available (but not too available), to never outshine the male heroes.’

From this first chapter, It re-proves my previous research of Patriarchal society in ancient Greeks and that the female characters/figures are created so the males are seen as the heroes.

Chapter 2 – Medusa.
‘Medusa is famously ugly, so grotesque if you look you turn to stone.’
‘She’s so ugly it hurts, but it doesn’t hurt her…’
‘Beauty is demonstrably a cheat code for an easier life.’
‘Medusa was beautiful once…splendid hair so alluring it caught eye of Poseidon…so he raped her.’
‘Older images of the Gorgons have scales, tusks and often beards.’
‘Athena took everything that gave medusa value, her looks and hair… her potential as a victim of a prize.’
‘She became a demi got, a legend, a monster,  a mother of monsters…ugliness was her armour and her blade.’
‘It’s a tiny place beauty…there’s only room for a few.’
‘the first film and video cameras were calibrated to white skin, dark skinned people were literally … if we are invisible we are unvalued and inhuman.’
”Men are taught to devalue us, we are taught to devalue ourselves.’
‘All that means is historically, even our heroines are subject to the demands of physical perfection… symmetrical, high cheekbone, youthful and hairless from the neck down.’
‘Where beauty is narrow and constrained, ugliness is an entire galaxy.’
”There are a thousand ways to look monstrous, surprising, upsetting, outlandish and odd… fat and bony and hairy…large nose, thick eyebrows, blemish, birthmark, scar…’
‘Beauty is in someway boring and ugly is becoming in it’s own way, beautiful.’
‘Ugliness is larger than beauty, ugliness has always had power.’
‘nobody is beautiful,’
‘Ugliness is for protection, for bravery and for defence, Ugly is for visibility and forcing people to meet your eyes’.

I really enjoyed reading this chapter, not even for analysing Medusa but because of the analysis of ugly vs beauty. In modern day, feminists pride themselves in growing their body hair, and owning their weight and skin colour and ‘imperfections.’ whereas Greek Goddesses were seen as the epitome of beautiful, with fair  and white skin and light hair even though they’re  Greek and Jewish. The monsters are seen as animals, and therefore inhuman and ugly.