How Have the Tables Turned?

"For A Change" by Teo Zirinis

I wrote a blog post before called The Monster & the Victim about how monsters and women (the victims) were portrayed in posters for The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Artist Teo Zirinis has this monster shirt design up for vote on Threadless. The words at the bottom say, "The tables have turned!" I took a closer look to see how the horror poster has changed.

Teo Zirinis flips the poses of monster and victim, but is "The Hot Woman" a victor and against who? 

The woman in the monster's pose visually gives her power over him, but did she defeat the monster? Going by old horror posters, she should be a threat to the monster.

The Curse of the Werewolf from 1961

Because she looks docile and dainty, juxtaposition and comedy results in the consideration that she defeated the monster. The artist probably gave her closed eyes to reflect the kidnapped women in horror posters who are usually drawn as having fainted or screaming. She has no signs of harm on her body or clothes so "The Hot Woman" is no longer a victim of violence. However, she also lacks signs of a fighter so she is not a producer of violence either. The poses, but not the roles, have been switched. 

Interestingly, she does not look pleased to be the one still standing and conscious. Her closed eyes make her look sad.  Does she mourn the monster's rampage which is now over or can she not bear to see the monster's defeated body? She is still portrayed as sexy, which leaves room for attraction.

Close-up of  the figures.

The title says she "Carried" the monster not "Defeated," "Destroyed," or "Killed." You cannot defeat someone by carrying them. The worst you could do is injure the person's pride. The act of carrying someone shows strength, compassion, and affection. She looks more like his savior by gently carrying the monster above the sharp trees pointed at his body. With this train of thought, the title reads more as "The Hot Woman Who Loved the Monster." Maybe she had enough of the violence from both sides.

Another way she is no longer the victim is by consenting to be in the monster's presence. She is not there by force or by accident. The monster is unconscious or dead so we cannot tell what he wants. We just assume he is like the usual monster who comes into our society and finds attraction in female humans. Usually in werewolf movies, the cursed man bonds with a woman before he becomes a monster. Most of the time, the woman does not reject the cursed man after his transformation. Okay, now it definitely sounds like Beauty & the Beast!

It is questionable if this horror poster woman has become a victor or hero. We do not know if she "Carried" the monster because she defeated him or saved him after someone else defeated him. On a poster, she has not stepped up to a contributing role yet. In the title she is labeled as sex appeal.

What do you think? Do not forget to vote for the shirt design at Threadless! If the shirt is printed, I hope it leads to conversations over horror poster portrayals.

More Hunger Games Humor

Surprisingly no one has used the Gaston book meme for The Hunger Games yet. I made one: 

For some reason I like photoshopping Beauty & the Beast more than any other Disney princess or movie. 

Here are some funny images I found in time for the 2nd Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire! After the Pocahontas one, they have some Catching Fire spoilers, especially the last one. A few of them I saw last time, but waited for the second movie. Enjoy. :D

Hope you get the song reference. XD

I laughed harder than I thought I would.

Hipster Peeta

It's awesome that Effie has a meme.

Reference to Catching Fire

New character in Catching Fire.

It might be funny only if you read the book.

BIG spoiler

Disney Laughs and Shocks

I've been analyzing the classic Disney princesses for an internship. My first blog with them is posted.

While I looked for movie images to use, I saw some potential comics or memes. Here are the ones I created so far:

A "quinceranera" is a girl's 15th birthday debut.

I came up with two outcomes for Ariel's surprised face.

There's potential for more like "She should have switched to Geico." I'd be happy for a Jurassic Park reference for the last one.

I think they're only Belle and Ariel because I had the most to say about the two for the internship blogs. I'll let you know when the rest of the Disney princess blogs are posted.

Love Me, Stalk Me

When I read The Merchant's Daughter (2011), I told my sister, "I like that this book shows stalkers as bad." She replied, "Stalkers are bad." I clarified that my point was that the book portrays them that way.

Why do some love stories (even in genres other than Romance) depict stalking as flattering and romantic? A 1st person perspective narrator can show other characters to the reader by stalking them, but even detectives face trouble for doing so. Stalking is a wrong kind of attention. A pet peeve of mine is when the fictional love interest has no social life, job, or actitivies so he can attend to the main character 24/7 and rescue if necessary. That love interest usually stalks.

By the way, The Merchant's Daughter is a spiritual retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The author Melanie Dickerson explored appearances as well as love vs. lust (with stalking). Some lines were repetitive and some problems disappeared at the end, but I still liked the book. The setup is more like Jane Eyre in terms of servant and Lord.

A common conflict or climax for heroines is kidnappings. I do not mean just for romances. Heroines tend to be threatened personally more often than male heros, who have battles, obstacles, time-limits, or his beloved is threatened. My concern is for readers getting the wrong idea of romance and for more developed storylines for heroines.

Let's look through classic film monsters for women stalked or kidnapped (spoilers):

Frankenstein's Monster: He observes humanity. He stalks the Frankensteins and kills a woman, but for revenge against Dr. Frankenstein.
Dracula: Stalks, kills, and tried/succeeded in kidnapping depending on version.
The Mummy: Stalks and kidnaps.
Swamp Thing: Stalks and kidnaps.
Phantom of the Opera: Stalks and then later kidnaps.
King Kong: She's kidnapped by a tribe as sacrifice. Later Kong kidnaps her.

King Kong 1933

Sidenote: I roll my eyes at the King Kong line, "It was Beauty that killed the Beast." Let's not blame the ones who brought him to the city. That she-devil. Looking sexy in a torn-up dress and screaming to show off those pearly-white teeth. 

Some viewers find the stalking monsters as exciting in the romantic sense. Yes, the monster is drawn strongly to the girl, but no matter the degree of passion it is the antagonist. Yes, the woman is desired, but why must her life be threatened for attraction? Not all passions are romantic.


Those were old examples, but these type of stories still exist. Look at contemporary books of urban fantasy, dark romance, and supernatural romance. How many of them have the heroine stalked, kidnapped, in danger of rape, and/or forced to date/marry?

Another book I read for my Beauty & the Beast research was The Hollow Kingdom (2006) (some spoilers). It is divided into 3 sections. The first section has stalking and kidnapping.

Me: I like that this book shows kidnapping as bad.
Sis: Kidnapping is bad.
Me: I know kidnapping is bad.
Sis: I'm glaad you do.
Me: I mean they don't make it romantic. Like some books do. It justifies the kidnapping, but it's still bad.
Sis: They justify it?!
Me: Yeeeah.. but it's shown still as bad. The goblins don't care--which is bad--because they do it to survive. Instead of the author turning the kidnapping around as romantic. It's still bad.

Stalked girl does not look happy.
Does stalking make her more
desirable or pretty?

The heroine sort of changed her situation from being kidnapped by agreeing to it, but she did not want that living arrangement. Her reluctance is still prominent in the story. The kidnapping is showed still as bad by learning how terrifying the situation would have been if she was still a reluctant bride. Her situation is still awkward and sad though.


Eventually, the girl fell for the goblin kidnapper (kind of just happened), , Some reveiwers called it Stockholm Syndrom.


Fortunately, kidnapping is not the only exciting event in the book. The heroine got a chance to prove herself in the third section. I liked the protective charm. In addition, the author turns the arrangement around through changed perspective, which I will cover in another post.


The Hollow Kingdom was still a good example of a new bride's fears in my Beauty & the Beauty research. I recommend having that thought in mind while reading the book. The Merchant's Daughter is the healthier love story.

What do you think of this topic or The Hollow Kingdom?

I saw this image on Facebook just as I finished writing:

Reading Status

I am currently in between books right now.

Last week I finished reading Poison by Chris Wooding. I will talk more about Poison on a separate blog post. For now I will say that I enjoyed the adventure and the twists, but I am unsure of the heroine's attitude near the end.

After watching the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I started reading the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. 

Ramona looks happier
in the books than in
the movie.

From the movie, I felt that the battles with each ex represented a boy's inner struggle when dating a girl on a higher level. He feels insecure about the previous relationships of the girl and hopes she won't see him as below them. So when Scott wins a fight, it can be a victory of self-esteem. 

In both the movie and the graphic novels, I crack up on the video game aspects including the pixelated Universal Studios opening. The graphic novels cover more than Scott's current relationships. I just finished vol. 2. 

One new release that I added to the top of my reading list is I, Robot: To Protect.

From glancing at a copy at the store, I thought someone just retold the story in their own style. However, from Amazon reviews, I saw that the book is a prequel to I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. One review states Dr. Susan Calvin is shown to become as she is in I, Robot. Now I am interested. =)

The other new release I want to read is The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson.

A blogger states that she loves the author Dickerson's evil villains and sense of danger in her stories. The Merchant's Daughter is similar to "Beauty and the Beast." This book seems to be about 2 main decisions.

The first decision is to be the lusty bailiff's wife or a disfigured man's temporary servant. You don't have to think too hard on that choice.

Because the heroine is a servant instead of a prisoner or an arranged guest, I think of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The second decision reminds me even more of Jane Eyre. The heroine has a spiritual dilemma: the path she chose for herself or God's true calling for her.







And finally, a friend recommended Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay to me for suspense.

How about you? What are you reading?