Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
you cannot separate monsterfucking from queerness.
& for the love of fuck i don’t need babygays coming at me with “you’re equating being gay with being a monster!” go back to tiktok, this is for the adults.
monsterfucking is so queer bc so many of us feel unlovable, so many of us can’t relate to real world affections & attractions. (aces & aros in particular)
so yeah, i wanna fuck that monster, bc deep down, i hope someone will love the monster i think i am.
also monsters are Very Hot & that needs no explanation so.
i genuinely don’t get cishet monsterfuckers. for context, in the wake of shape of water i participated in this loving-the-monstrous type discussion event slash publishing party wherein i debuted a short story about a woman who “befriends” a cave monster—but that isnt the point. the point is i had to hear straight women talk for hours about how the appeal of monsters is some kind of weird “taming the beast” fantasy—loving a monster until it loves you back, sounding like every bad beauty and the beast take ever.
And there’s my queer ass being like literally none of you get it. this isn’t about power, this is about love and alienation and acceptance. you dumbasses, I’m the monster. this isn’t a metaphor for your shitty boyfriend, this is a metaphor for my own alienation from a society that tells me a the way i am and the way I love are grotesque. this is a fantasy of love free of judgement, separate from societal standards that I’ll never live up to anyway. that ghoul doesn’t care if I’m fat, they think it’s hot that I eat well. that immortal fae creature doesn’t care if the gender on my birth certificate matches the one I use now, they barely have a concept of gender in the first place. that tentacle monster doesn’t care if I shave, they don’t have eyes
monsterfucking is queer culture, everyone else go home
Oh. I’m guessing those were all yt women, too. Del Toro isn’t Queer, afaik, but he -is- Mexican in the us. It wasn’t really that long ago that interracial relationships were just as forbidden and taboo as Queer ones and there’s still obviously race tensions going on. The other in Shape of the Water is just as much, and likely written as, being a different race and the feeling of alienation of having a different place of origin. It happens to resonate with everyone who’s ever been considered a monster by society, and there’s not just one way this has happened.
The whole “love someone until they’re not a monster” is extra, super gross in that context because people don’t feel BIPOC are actually capable of human emotions who need to be taught to be human by some benevolent yt person who’s fetishised their body.
reblog this version pls
It’s important to remember that disabled people are also included in this other, both by society and textually in Shape of Water. Elisa, the lead, is mute, and deals with a lot of shit because of it, particularly from the cishet white man villain. Her disability is also what allows her to connect to the monster, as she’s able to teach him ASL signs he can communicate with. They’re able to connect because they’re both different. To this day, disabled people face a lot of barriers to relationships, like potentially losing disability benefits if they get married in the US.
Del Toro has a lot of works that boil down to “Different is good and the people trying to fight for the status quo are the true evil here” (shoutout to Pan’s Labyrinth where, in a world full of monsters, the primary antagonist is a white fascist general and abuser).
I think monsterfucking is about vulnerability. When you think about it
Something about knowing this being could destroy you and trusting them not to and in turn the monster is letting you see this part of them and trusting you not to be afraid or disgusted etc etc
“comes back wrong”, what a hot trope. incredibly sexy.
like ooooo i look and sound and seem exactly like the person who died except there is Something Very Wrong with Me, and you try to ignore it and you try to live in the moment but there is Something Very Wrong with Me.
Caitlyn Sieh, Start Here
Nicola Maye Goldberg, Monster Movie
David Cronenberg, Downstage Dead: A Jean-Claude Keyes Mystery
Danez Smith, acknowledgements
Stephanie Valente, I’m Sorry, Is That Too Submissive For You?
Allen S. Weiss, Ten Theses on Monsters and Monstrosity
I’m not into monsters that actively want to kill me, but I am into monsters who totally could and give consistent reminders of that. The twitch of a dangerously clawed hand when you do something that excites them, the effortlessness of how they can pick you up and have you wherever they want, sharp teeth pressed against your skin in the heat of it; just shy of drawing blood. You feel?
