Hidden Gems, Found Monsters

Today I stumbled across one of my long lost and forgotten laptops and I uncovered some buried treasure there. The treasure being papers I had written during my time as a studious, devoted and slightly deranged Art History major. Now I don't know about you but I get really excited about quality scholarly research. If you're like me, gobble up this tiny portion of my research discussing Bataille's literary figure Simone as a monstrous femme fetale.


Undeniable links are prevalent in consideration with Georges Bataille’s literary figure Simone from his Story of the Eye and Barbara Creed’s notion of the monstrous-feminine. Through the research conducted on this topic, and the very correlation of Simone as a figure of the monstrous feminine, I have been influenced to investigate various aesthetic philosophies, concerning disgust, the abject, and beauty itself. Examination of our reactions to Simone’s perverse and monstrous behavior not only shed light on our own psyche but also the extent to which the societal and cultural framework has a hold on formulating what we perceive to be a personal reaction.

The monstrous-feminine as constructed by a phallocentric ideology is a response to men’s fear of the sexual difference and the unknown of the female body. Bataille’s character Simone is a prime example of Creed’s monstrous-feminine due to her portrayal as a femme-fatal who engages in an array of immoral erotic behavior which lead Bataille’s characters through a literary world of fetishism, insanity, bodily dismemberment, and death. The horror caused in the Story of the Eye is all symptomatic of Simone’s insatiable sexual desire, supporting the claim that the female monster is threatening, out of control, and all encompassing.

If we define the monster as a bodily entity that is anomalous and deviant vis-à-vis the norm, then we can argue that the female body shares with the monster the privilege of bringing out a unique blend of fascination and horror. … the female monster is simultaneously deadly, beautiful, castrating, active, and most significantly abject. (Gear 2.)

In discussing the aesthetics of the monstrous-feminine it seems more than mere coincidence that Simone is physically plain yet beautiful. This highlights the notion of the abject, the ambiguity between the inside and outside. Within the plain yet beautiful shell of Simone rages a tempest of terror and monstrosity; thus creating a perfect circle returning the discussion to man’s fear of castration by the vagina, and the vagina as the heart of the female monster.

Now I stood up and while Simone lay on her side, I drew her legs apart, and found myself facing something I imagine I had been waiting for in the same way that a guillotine waits for a neck to slice. I even felt as if my eyes were bulging from my head, erectile with horror; in Simone’s hairy vagina… (Bataille, 84.)

This sense of a corporeal ambiguity and lack of a firm definition of identity appears to be one of the most disturbing aspects of the monstrous-feminine.

...Ah I miss the days of burying my nose in books, rummaging through articles and losing myself in libraries. If money weren't an issue and the art market were more stable (meaning I'd be certain to find work) I'd already be enrolled in a Masters program in Art History and/or Museum Studies.