Monster and Gender

For decades, International Relations theories have circulated in a primarily male-dominated arena, and it wasn't until the late 1980s that women began contributing a feminine voice to IR debates. The second wave of feminism had ended and the third was beginning, and women were determined to have their opinions included in IR. The recognition of women in IR, feminists argued, required more than simply adding feminist issues to the mix of preexisting conditions in the international arena. According to Cynthia Weber, feminists “stressed that feminist questions change the very terms in which IR was approached, understood, and studied” (82). This was a challenge for IR scholars who had built their theories around the concept of man, the state and war – the term “man” intended to represent a gender-free individual. However, as feminist issues were applied to IR, it became evident that there were not simply issues relevant to “man,” but issues relevant to men and women separately as well as together.

As feminist views were incorporated into IR, many scholars, like Adam Jones, determined that the feminist agenda was narrowly focused on only issues pertaining to women, and that it blamed men as the primary source of womens' hardships. In regards to war and peace, Jones says, “the plight of embodied women is front and centre throughout, while the attention paid to the male/masculine realm amounts to little more than lip-service” (88). There is no doubt that feminism has received a negative backlash for all of the reasons Jones outlines.

To be sure that men weren't being short-changed by the elevation of women, Jones recommended that the notion of feminism in IR be rebranded to discuss gender in IR, therefore calling attention to masculine as well as feminine issues. Jones introduced the myth, “gender is a variable,” claiming that gender is a characteristic of identity that can be placed as desired or necessary. As gender debates amount to little more than pieces being moved on a chess board, it is easy to believe that gender is a variable that can be placed where necessary. Defining gender as a neutral variable that brings the voices of both sexes to the IR table is a tantalizing option. But is gender something that can be divorced from the way an individual perceives the world? Or is it a constant variable that can be used to manipulate the world?

The 2003 film, Monster, is based on the true story of the United States' first convicted female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, and pushes Jones' myth to the limit, questioning whether gender is inherent, unavoidable, and a part of our undeniable identity, or if it is a tool that can be used and withdrawn when either gender elects to use that variable to their advantage. Wuornos challenged traditional gender roles at every turn, working as a prostitute, being involved in a lesbian relationship, and eventually morphing into a man-killing “monster.” Wuornos admitted to killing six men between 1989 and 1990, and she was executed for her crimes in 2002. She was unrepentant in her admission of the acts, as if the victims deserved to pay for what she claimed to be a life of male-dominated oppression. The legal system decided that Wuornos had, in fact, used her gender to seek revenge for the injustices she'd felt. As a prostitute, she seduced men into desiring her sexual services, and then, just before she delivered, she murdered them. At first glance, it certainly seems that gender can be a variable. But the film depicts Wuornos as more than just a murderous prostitute. Flashbacks show that Wuornos turned to killing as a result of the constant oppression she'd endured because of her gender since she was a small child. While she may have used her gender to her advantage while seeking murderous justice, she had previously failed to escape the confinement of her gender time and time again. This is what drove Wuornos to her monstrous crimes.

Although the film doesn't attempt to justify Wuornos' actions, it does depict her as a flawed, loving, and hopeful character. It becomes easy to sympathize with her even though her crimes are so outrageous. The film begins with Wuornos' narration as she reminisces about letting boys look at her breasts for money and acceptance. She was raped by a family friend at age 8, and when she told her father about it, he beat her. She was pregnant by the age of 13, and by the time she was old enough to care for herself, all she knew was sex. She kept searching for the right man to take her away from her miserable life, exchanging sexual favors for attention. When the men started refusing her attention and paying her money instead, she accepted prostitution as a way of life. At one point in the film, Wuornos makes up her mind to change her lifestyle, to get a job, and to clean up her act. She is ridiculed for her ignorance at every turn, and even a police officer propositions her for a sex act, telling her, “Once a prostitute, always a prostitute.” Wuornos claimed self-defense in the first murder; she said the man raped and brutalized her beforehand. But while the film generates some sympathy for Wuornos and her unfortunate life, it still depicts the brutality of the murders and the calculating attitude with which she carried them out. By the third murder, she was carefully planning the engagements and keeping newspaper clippings about the murders as mementos.

Monster speaks volumes about what is typical and what is deviant regarding gender roles in modern United States society. First, it proves that a society based on gender and class hierarchies has no sympathy for abused girls who grow up to be prostitutes. The legal system determined Wuornos to be not only guilty but deserving of the death penalty. Second, it reaffirms – and then challenges – the typical roles of dominant males and submissive females. It depicts how males work to keep females “in their place.” Wuornos' story is not typical of every woman's, but it is an extreme case of the male-dominated oppression many women encounter at some point in their lives. When Wuornos finally decided to act on the anger raging within her, she took on a more dominant role, and at last used her gender as a variable, luring men into a deadly trap. Third, the movie joins a long line of films depicting lesbians as dangerous. Wuornos becomes involved with a woman just as she begins her murderous rampage. Her disgust for men prevents her from having sexual relations with them outside of prostitution, so she becomes involved with Selby Wall who teaches her how it feels to be loved and then eventually gives her up for her crimes. But Wuornos is not the strategic, psychological killer that is portrayed in films like Basic Instinct. She kills with a gun, providing some distance between it and her victims, because she knows her physical presence is incapable of creating fear in the men. All of these gender variables which Wuornos embodies are characteristics of her identity, regardless of how deviant they are considered by others. Wuornos knows that no one has experienced what she has, and she doesn't feel guilty about her crimes. If gender is a variable, it is a qualitative and quantitative factor, but Wuornos deviated from typical gender roles so frequently that it would be a difficult variable to examine. While many of Wuornos' characteristics could be considered deviant, the film sheds light on the motivations behind her actions – motivations that certainly invoke sympathy from the audience.

Wuornos' story proves that classifying gender as a variable isn't as simple as Jones and other IR scholars would like it to be. Gender issues are constantly evolving to reflect the change taking place in male and female identities world wide. By calling gender a variable, Jones is attempting to reach a gender-free solution for IR, but because he deems women as incapable of balanced reasoning, his analysis is biased from the beginning. As Weber suggests, IR scholars like Jones “fear that their own privileged perspectives on international politics and their own centralized questions might be displaced – if not replaced – by feminist ones”(90). By calling gender a variable, Jones is attempting to put feminism in its place, making it tow the line alongside masculine issues. He is holding the feminists to the classical standards of international theory, but gender issues today deal with topics classical theory didn't think to recognize. From prostitution to homosexuality to the serial murder of men, Wuornos proved that women could not be held to typical gender roles in today's modern society.

Feminist V. Spike Peterson claims that gender is not a variable, but a world view: “Feminist scholarship, both deconstructive and reconstructive, takes seriously the following two insights: first, that gender is socially constructed, producing subjective identities through which we see and know the world, and second, that the world is pervasively shaped by gendered meanings” (89). This statement suggests that gender is not something that can be removed from the way an individual has been shaped nor from the way they view the world around them. Gender is inherent; it comes with the territory of being reared in a world comprised of engendered social norms. Jones suggests that for the betterment of IR, males and females alike must be able to stand outside of their gender to evaluate the world. Monster proves that this is an impossible feat to accomplish. The film is based on Wuornos' true story, a murderous rampage fueled by her depressing view of the world. A female who had been sexually violated her entire life, Wuornos found it impossible to escape the oppression of her gender. She simply could not divorce a lifetime of experience from the urge to taste justice.

Jones talks about issues affecting primarily men that could be brought to the IR table alongside feminist issues, one of which is the issue of men as victims of murder. In Monster, however, Wuornos' victims are undeveloped and the story is told from her point of view. No case is necessary for the victims; the brutal murders speak for themselves, and Wuornos was both convicted and executed thereafter. If the film weren't based on a true story, though, it is doubtful that the outcome would have been the same. It successfully creates sympathy for Wuornos, and if the circumstances had been different, testimonials on behalf of the victims might have been necessary. If the tables were turned, Jones would have appreciated the opportunity for testimonies to be given against one of the United States' first female serial killers. Neither the prosecution nor the defense in this case could successfully stand outside of their gender to determine Wuornos' guilt or innocence.

Monster puts Jones' theory that gender is a variable to the ultimate test. Wuornos, by finally electing to use her gender to lure men into a deadly revenge scheme, proves that gender can be a variable, but not that it always is. There were many times in her life when she wanted nothing more than to escape the confinement of her gender, but failed in her attempts to do so. Instead, Monster proves that gender is both a world view and a characteristic of one's personal identity, something which cannot be separated from the issues that women are likely to bring to the table during IR debates.

As depicted in the film, Wuornos supported her own death sentence. She lacked remorse regarding the murders and thought death to be the only way to escape her oppression. It is imperative that gender issues like those that Wuornos suffered are not ignored in the political arena. IR scholars like Jones who attempt to keep women in their place are only increasing the negative psychological impact that women endure while trying to find equality. Jones' notion of gender in IR as opposed to narrowly-focused feminism is admirable, especially by those who feel the feminist agenda has, indeed, been too concerned with single-gender issues. However, his arguments beg the question as to whether men feel that they are losing a piece of the proverbial pie to women's social elevation. This power struggle must be abandoned for gender progress to be made in the world. Feminist nor masculine issues can be ignored when proposed in IR. Instead, IR scholars must be willing to take on a simultaneous feminine and masculine world view, as gender is not a variable, but instead a component of the identities of the individuals composing the world as we know it.

Works Cited
Monster. Dir. Patty Jenkins. Perf. Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci. 2003. DVD. Media 8 Entertainment, 2004.
Weber, Cynthia.International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005.