The Monstrous Feminine Chapter 6

AKA why Barbara Creed is my idol, my icon, my queen.

Okay so I think each chapter deserves a whole podcast episode to dissect which can be found here? Today I am talking about chapter 6, Woman as Witch: Carrie. Just to keep up the 'witchy' theme of course.

One really interesting thing about this book is that it summarises something that every other book I’ve read about gender in horror film has tried to suggest. The idea of a woman becoming more monstrous the less maternal she is.

If Tyler Durden was a woman, she’d be the most horrifying thing to hit film screens.

This idea is then fleshed out and linked back to witchcraft, especially in the satanic panic of the medieval times, stemming from male anxiety. This feminine energy and power was manifested through male anxiety surrounding women's bodies, sexuality, and power. (Basically big dick energy was given the uno reverse card)

Birth and a woman’s reproductive system made men so unsure that they demonised us, and those midwives and healers that passed their knowledge down and used herbs and understood a woman’s body during childbirth were the ones targeted first.

Everything from a woman’s cycle following the lunar calendar to the fact that a woman would bleed caused men in a pre-educated and 'woke' society to freak out and blame Satan. This insecurity, as we know, had devastating effects.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite points:

Witches have not always been demonised; one of the first negative reps in the media was The Wizard of Oz in 1939, then in 1943 the film The Seventh Victim bought forward the witch as a figure of terror. In 1962 in the film Burn Witch Burn! She was represented as the central monster for the first time.

© 1939 Warner Home Video. All rights reserved.

In real life the accused witch was often known as her healer and most often as a midwife, names translating to her gatherer and wise woman were commonly tacked onto their names or titles. PREGNANCY and NEW LIFE have a direct link to the witch’s origin and first accusation, this idea that a woman can give life made men anxious in a pre-educated world, the Christian church feared this mystical power before Satanism.

The witch is found represented in patriarchal discourses as an implacable enemy of the symbolic order; she unsettles boundaries between the rational and irrational, she wreaks destruction on a community. Her evil powers are part of her feminine nature, this also links to this idea that she is closer to nature than the man and can control natural disasters.

Menstruation is often symbolic to the manifestation of power, yet the endings of films like Carrie (1976) and The Exorcist (1973) have a lot more substance. Vivian Shobchak claims that Carrie and Regan both bleed and it represents an apocalyptic feminine explosion of the frustrated desire to speak.

© 1976 United Artists

Carrie is an example of feminine monstrosity linking to the female reproductive system and following the theory that films like to see that the sins of women are inherited. The link between Carrie, her powers, and blood is a draw on superstitious notions about the powers of menstrual blood; the touch of a menstruating woman could sour wine, rust iron, blunt knives and killing crops. This is similar to what witches would be accused of, causing storms and souring milk.

This book breaks down the origins as women as villains in current and contemporary media. I have only looked at one chapter in this post but I understand and support the theories that Creed suggests and presents through psychoanalysis. Understanding the witch trials of the 14th century is key in understanding contemporary representations and demonisation.

For me this book is one I would recommend to anyone interested in feminist film theory, or just film theory in general.

Buy it on Amazon here.