An Appreciation Part 3

Cynthia A. Freeland's discussion of the androgynous nature of Victor von Frankenstein's monster (in The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror), sheds light on my topic, shemales.

Building upon the opposition of supposedly "masculine" and feminine traits listed below, Freeland argues, quite convincingly, that Frankenstein's "Creature," despite being described as a male and desiring that his creator build him a woman of his own is, according to the very traits themselves, at least as much feminine as masculine:

MALE—FEMALE

Culture—nature

Reason—nature

Mind—body

Master—slave

Reason—matter (physicality)

Rationality—animality (nature)

Human—nature (non-human)

Civilized—primitive (nature)

Production—reproduction (nature)

Self—other

According to Freeland, "the Creature symbolizes animality, primitiveness, and physicality," whereas the "excessively male" Frankenstein himself "represents the forces of civilization, rationality, production, and culture." The Creature is also "other," ostracized as he is from human camaraderie, whereas the scientist "is part of a happy family and has prospects of marriage."

Freeland asks, rather pointedly, whether the monster can truly be regarded as male, adding that it "begins with a good and innocent nature," which contradicts the idea that it is wild or "primitive," and is "identified with the feminine in his desire for family and social bonds" and "may even be a personification of Nature's female power." Frankenstein himself, on the other hand, is obviously associated with many of the qualities of masculinity, such as culture, rationality, mind, mastery, humanity, civilization, production, and selfhood.

Indeed, Freeland declares, "We could even propose that the Creature's very monstrousness is a result of his gender and moral indeterminacy.