Women and Other Monsters

A fresh literary and cultural analysis that uses female monsters from Greek mythology to reexamine traits women are taught to suppress, arguing for a wilder, more "monstrous" form of feminism
Through fresh analysis of eleven female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphynx, Jess Zimmerman takes 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.
The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories, we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or insufficiently sexy—aren't just outside the norm. They're unnatural. Monstrous. Often, women try...