for Queer Ecologies
The Monster
- Ixodes scapularis
Godzilla first rose out of the ocean onto the silver screen in 1954 in direct response to environmental destruction caused by American H-bomb testing in the South Pacific. In the film, Godzilla destroys the rapidly-urbanizing city of Tokyo as retribution for the destruction of its habitat, and as a warning that technological dominance in the nuclear age would only end in pain and suffering. [i]
A monster is not defined by its terrifying countenance or tendency toward violence—these are just tools of monstering. The Greek and Proto-Italic etymological origins of “monster” in fact define it as a teacher (monstro, τέρας, to advise, teach, show) and a soothsayer (moneō, to admonish, foretell, warn). [ii] When we meet a monster, we ought to ask, what are you teaching? What do you warn of?
In most stories we are faced with a binary of the hero and the nemesis—on the one hand a savior, on the other a destroyer.[iii] For the queer ecologist, who has likely been accused of destroying the sanctity of the status quo, the false binary of hero and villain is familiar, and the “monster” becomes a matter of perspective.
In the Northeastern U.S., recent swarms of Spotted Lanternflies are seen as an unnatural invasion, but from another point of view, we see the monster in giant residents of New York City wildly stomping errant lanternflies (at the behest of the city government no less, despite laws that prohibit harming wildlife). The silhouette of the lanternfly stomper recalls Godzilla crushing buildings and humans beneath its feet.[iv] [see RAGE]
Outside the city, the same fear and hatred is directed toward the black-legged tick, unknowing carrier of Lyme Disease. Monsters are made from a society’s fears, often unconscious or unexamined. Behind the loathing of invasive and pathogenic insects lurk neglected problems of human ecology.
Queer ecology attempts to see beyond what is “natural,” perhaps to destroy the term nature and its implicit binaries altogether, for queerness has often been villainized in the same terms of abberation used to define monsters:
“ a. an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure. b. one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character.” (Merriam-Webster)
Jack Halberstam characterized the monster as one who “always represents the disruption of categories, the destruction of boundaries, and the presence of impurities, and so we need monsters and we need to recognize and celebrate our own monstrosities.”[v] To embrace the monster, queer ecologists must utilize its powers of teaching and foretelling, whether to emulate the flamboyant destruction of Godzilla or the invisible disruption of the black-legged tick.
[i]
Ishirō Honda, “Godzilla, The Uncut Japanese Original (Gojira),” YouTube, accessed October 30, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn-Wg1NU32I (0:24:43-0:28:09)
[ii]
“monster, n., adv., & adj., Etymology,” Oxford English Dictionary, accessed October 30, 2023, doi: 10.1093/OED/7407360444
[iii]
The term nemesis has evolved to mean enemy or villain in common practice, but the original word refers to the Greek goddess Nemesis, who operated more as a stand-in for a contemporary legal system, bringing justice and retribution to those who defied the gods, as found in “nemesis,” Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed October 30, 2023, https://www.etymonline.com/word/nemesis
[iv]
NYC has put out a bulletin asking citizens to help stop the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) by stomping them on sight, despite existing laws that prohibit the harming of wildlife, as found in “Spotted Lanternfly,” NYC 311, accessed October 30, 2023, https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03449
[v]
Jack Halberstam, Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995), 27.
CG Traitor with QuERC, 2023