The Maiden, The Monster

Anmol/Eve || They/he/she || South Asian || 20s

Interests: Theology, Gothic Literature, Family Abolition, Modern History, Fairytales and Folklore, The relationship between Fairy Tales and Horror, the Monster and the Maiden, the Maiden who is the Monster, Sex and Violence, Final Girls and Killers, Gender in Media, Erotica, Ethel Cain, Poetry, Family Horror, Body Horror, Monstrosity and Otherness, Urdu Poetry, Religious themes, Possession, Purity and Impurity, Questionable Het, Fucked up dynamics, Vampirism, the Grotesque, Sex and Sexuality

TW: Discussions about Incest, sexual assault/rape, abuse, death, colonialism and imperialism, mental illness

Fandoms: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ginger Snaps, Shirley Jackson novels, CW’s Supernatural, Yellowjackets, Arcane, The Borgias, assorted literature, assorted video games

Goodreads || Letterboxd

While I do agree with the overall argument that people elevate romantic love over other relationships such as familial and platonic, with how deeply amatonormativity is ingrained into society and culture, I've always felt that discussion never really discusses why exactly romantic relationships are prioritized, in the first place; because romantic love is seen as having an inherent, special gravity that other relationships don't have. People are assumed to be partners when in a romantic relationships, share their lives with each other in a way they don't with other people; it's a relationship that's believed to be contradictory to self and in it, you destroy the concept of 'self' to form with the other person a new unit, or open yourself in order to fit the other person in. This type of love is seen as unique and exclusive. You can have unlimited family or friends but having more than one romantic interest is subversive because of the belief that romantic intimacy is a special intimacy between two people, otherwise it loses its 'specialness'.

Waitttt Lottie is so fucking Eleanor Vance-coded I can’t believe I haven’t thought of that before

God.

THAT’S NOT HOME NAT. WHAT HOME DO YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO? I CAN’T GO BACK. IF I GO BACK NOTHING WILL BE WELL. I WON’T…. I WON’T BE WELL. I WON’T BE ME. THE ME THAT WAS MADE OUT HERE. THIS UNWELLNESS I FEEL, I FEEL IT SO DEEP IN MY BONES

Lottie beginning to cry as everyone, including those who believed in her and what she preached leave her (because to Lottie, the rejection of the Wilderness is a rejection of Lottie, of who Lottie truly is), not even trying to convince her to come with her (do I think Lottie would’ve? Unsure, probably not. I don’t think she’s like Jackie, who would’ve come back had those she loved tried a little more to coax her) VS Lottie’s little smile as she realises Shauna and Taissa (who are also two of the people who have criticised her most and disbelieved in her and the Wilderness), stay, maybe not for her but it’s enough

Shauna as the skeleton in Melissa’s closet, symbolising everything she’s been hiding and keeping suppressed, they kinda ate

‘I hate it when you call me that’ ‘I don’t even like soccer’ It’s so tragic, isn’t it? That Shauna hates these things that exist in relation to Jackie, that exist because of Jackie, yet made them into fundamental parts of who she is and can’t let go of them anymore because she doesn’t know where Jackie ends and she begins. And when Shauna hallucinates Jackie, she calls her Shipman and she calls her insecure and boring and weak and tragic

Toxic motherdaughter enjoyers we stay winning