Coda: The Monster’s Suit

Abstract

This book investigates how contemporary filmic depictions of masculinity and monstrosity can be indicators of our cultural moment. As we’ve demonstrated in the preceding chapters, when dealing with movie monstrosity, a host of issues interact: gender, socioeconomics, warfare, sexuality, able-bodiedness, race. Some films reify the human/monster binary to endorse a social “normal.” Some films blur that boundary, thereby distressing the very concept of “normal.” Our aim has been not to assert that our readings of these monster movies are the only ones available; rather, we hope to show that deep interpretation is possible, useful, and necessary. Culture may seem a fixed circumstance at any particular time, but history and geography prove culture to be incessantly variable—and a moving target. Although the delineation of monstrosity and masculinity might seem straight-forward, upon inspection, each concept in itself becomes multidimensional if not puzzling. Pair the two descriptions, as we’ve done in this study, and whole social systems begin to crumble. To conclude this book, instead of summarizing our many points, we’ll end with an exercise in puzzling multidimensionality by taking the monstrous/ masculine pulse of the 2010 Oscar winner for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker. This finale is not intended to render a thoroughgoing reading of director Kathryn Bigelow’s movie.