Constructing a Monster

In the late 1980s, as the second wave of feminism ended and the third began, a variety of new approaches to gender criticism emerged. One such approach, founded on the ideas of linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, sought to deconstruct the world by analyzing the language with which humans describe it. Feminists became concerned with the acts of “conditioning” and “socialization,” attempting to determine how society distinguishes between the terms “female” and “feminine.” Socialization inevitably defines feminine characteristics that are accepted as “normal,” and creates a set of codes under which all females must operate. However, as the third wave of feminism highlighted the eclectic voices of modern women, society discovered that typically “feminine” characteristics are not inherent in every female. In her book, Sexual Politics, American feminist writer Kate Millett claims that the most crucial distinction within feminism is between sex and gender, “the former being a matter of biology, the latter a construct, something learned or acquired, rather than 'natural'” (Barry). Furthermore, French social theorist Simone de Beauvior claims, in Part Two of her book The Second Sex, that “One is not born a woman; rather, one becomes a woman” (Barry). Both of these statements assert that while gender may be a biological determination, sexuality is constructed by social experiences after birth. Society expects a woman's sexuality to evolve in one direction – toward her sexual subjugation unto male dominance. Once females discover their sexuality, they are expected to use it to propagate the male seed. As more sexually independent women emerged during the 1980s, it is no surprise that political issues evolved out of their desire to achieve gender equality. The 2003 film, Monster, which is based on the true story of the United States' first convicted female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, is a testament to the danger of society's strictly defined gender roles. Women who are pressured to adhere to gender characteristics they do not biologically possess may potentially lash out against society for the gender branding to which they've been subjected. It could be said that society itself is responsible for the construction of the cold-blooded killer that Wuornos became.

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 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. As a prostitute, she seduced men into desiring her sexual services, and then, just before she delivered, she murdered them. 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 world, exchanging sexual favors for attention. When 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. Still, in defense of Wuornos, the authors of the article, “Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos” state that “the social, psychological, and family history of Ms. Wuornos … is helpful as it explains the manifestation and maintenance of attachment disorder and psychopathy throughout much of her life” (Arrigo & Griffin). It is evident that Wuornos' cold-blooded demeanor emerged from the constraints placed upon her by society. Wuornos did not “become a woman,” as de Beauvior suggests, but was forced, time and time again, to fulfill the feminine roles prescribed to her.

Monster speaks volumes about what is typical and what is deviant regarding gender roles in modern American 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 phallacizes herself by killing 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. The evolution of Wuornos' criminality indicates that as she began seeking vengeance against her violators, she also began taking on more and more masculine characteristics. Wuornos challenged femininity at every turn. Not primarily feminine or masculine, Wuornos proved that women can not be held to typical gender roles in today's modern society.

As noted by Miriam Basilio in her article, “Corporal Evidence: Representations of Aileen Wuornos,” the case “is examined in relation to the high degree of violence against women and the marked disparities in prison sentences for men and women convicted of violent crimes.” At a time when women's social mobility caused anxiety in conservative sectors of American society, the story of America's first female serial killer became highly sensationalized by the media. Prosecutors and media commentators labeled Wuornos as a “highway sex worker,” and the FBI profiled her as “a (male) serial killer with the stereotype of a masculine lesbian” (Basilio). The media's stress on Wuornos as a female serial killer undermines the routine incidences of violence against women as well as any attempt for a woman to defend herself.

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 social arena. Men must not assume 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. Society as a whole must avoid creating language which engenders human beings who are incapable of being defined as primarily masculine or feminine. 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.

Works Cited

Arrigo, Bruce A. and Griffin, Ayanna. “Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos: Attachment Theory, Psychopathy, and Predatory Aggression.” Behavioral Sciences and the Law 22. 2004, 375-393.

Barry, Peter. “Feminist Criticism.” Beginning Theory. 2nd ed. New York: Manchester University Press, 2002, 121-134.

Basilio, Miriam. “Corporal Evidence: Representations of Aileen Wuornos.” Art Journal 55(4). 1996.

Monster. Dir. Patty Jenkins. Perf. Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci. 2003. DVD. Media 8 Entertainment, 2004.