Week 12 Journal Response
This week we are continuing with monsters and monster theory. If you come across any of the topics we have discussed this week, analyze and write a short response to it.
You can also continue with your monster analysis and connect our theory to something from popular culture.
Make sure to include a link, summary, and analysis. Minimum 200 words. Comment below.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
For this week, I decided to talk about an article seen on the website of the Smithsonian: “The Science Behind Hollywood’s Movie Monsters”. What really drew me on deciding to talk about this story was the article’s caption: “Massive hits at the time, the films that brought Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and more to life also tapped into societal fears and traumas” – the movies mentioned here probably did more to scare audiences than their source material because the people could see their fears personified on screen. The article’s main purpose is to show how the classic monster films that people love today were partly inspired by aspects of science – Frankenstein by new scientific technologies; The Mummy by King Tut’s tomb; Dracula by medical scares which were thought to have been caused by vampires and Creature from the Black Lagoon by the coelacanth, an extinct animal that served as the basis for the Creature.
A quote from the article that really ties in with our monster theory comes from author Leo Braudy who gives this statement to conclude the story itself: “the monster, which in a sense comes from inside us as much from outside, can never finally be defeated” – this goes hand in hand with Cohen’s second thesis: “The Monster Always Escapes” (McDowell). The monster always escapes and can never be defeated because the monster must always represent a hideous and dark side of society that would never otherwise be confronted. Monsters are, to put it short, the personifications of society’s flaws and fears – a monster dead is a societal illness put to rest.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/science-behind-hollywoods-movie-monsters-180973418/
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Since we have stated to discuss serial killers in class using monster theory I decided to write about Aileen Wuornos, the article that I found is called “America’s First Female Serial Killer.” The article discusses the killing of Richard Mallory who was a storeowner in Palm Harbor, Florida in 1989 he was last seen taking a ride with Wuornos. The next day his car was found abandoned in a remote area of Ormond Beach; the car contained his wallet, some condoms, and an empty bottle of vodka. Then nearly three weeks later his body turned up in a Daytona beach junkyard with three bullets in his chest; Mallory’s murder was the first of seven committed by Aileen Wuornos over the next year.
Since this is going to be a causal analysis of a monster we have to understand why she decided to do what she did, Wuornos did confess to all seven of the killings in a biker bar by police with the help of woman she was romantically involved with named Tyria Moore. Wuornos did confess but claims she killed the seven men because it was in self-defense because they all raped her. She had been the victim of abuse and neglect, her parents split before she was born and her father was arrested for child molesting and killed himself while awaiting his trail in a mental institution. There is more to her story, but that is why I chose to write about her for my next essay, to know her history as to why she became what she became.
The Link: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/americas-first-female-serial-killer-strikes
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I decided to do my journal on an article on sex trafficking. Sex traffickers are a form of monsters too. According to an article in the Epoch Times The person who scouts out the victim’s for the others are “Spotters”. The spotters invested almost a year from the time they befriended Courtney to the time they handed her over to traffickers. After being handed over, you then go through a stage called “Grooming” in which a long process of brainwashing starts. There are six stages of grooming, Befriend, Intoxicate, Alienate, Isolate, Desensitize, and Capitalize. In domestic sex trafficking its rare for victim’s to be snatched off the street, usually its a long methodical process. The scout used social media in the grooming process, as a tool to befriend and manipulate. They convinced her that they loved her and brainwashed her with guilt in order to get her do what they needed. “They love you so much but they want you to boss up and be independent and to bring something to the table, so they’re going to let you go and make the decision yourself to sell your body, to put a price tag on who you are”. She said. “You’re not seeking money, you’re not willing to sell your soul for some change, but you will do anything to find love, to find validation, self worth,” she said. (she being Courtney). She remembered her faith in God, that there was something out there that could combat the evil she was surrounded by. “You can’t believe in god and not believe that there is a devil. Satan is out there to destroy us. This is his realm. Human trafficking, the selling of human beings, children, teenagers, adults, woman, men, it’s evil”. she said.
This story is eye opening because it brings to mind the idea that you are not physically trapped all the time. It’s crazy how anybody can be brainwashed. I know I was in my abusive relationship. Battered woman are brainwashed by their abusers everyday.
I got this article from a physical paper so I can’t post a link. I will bring the paper to class Ramos.
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Andres Tinajero
I decided to do my journal on the monster Ed Gein. Gein endured a difficult childhood. His father was an alcoholic, and his mother was verbally abusive toward him. Gein nevertheless idolized her, a fact that apparently concerned his older brother Henry, who occasionally confronted her in Gein’s presence. In 1944 Henry died in mysterious circumstances during a fire near the family’s farm in Plainfield. Although Gein reported his brother missing to the police, he was able to lead them directly to the burned body when they arrived. Despite bruises discovered on the victim’s head, the death was ruled an accident. The death of Gein’s mother in 1945 left him a virtual hermit. In subsequent years, Gein cordoned off the areas of the house that his mother had used most frequently, preserving them as something of a shrine. Gein attracted the attention of the police in 1957, when a hardware store owner named Bernice Worden went missing. Gein had been seen with her shortly before her disappearance, and, when law enforcement officials visited his farm, they found her body. She had been fatally shot and decapitated. Subsequent examinations of his home showed that he had systematically robbed graves and collected body parts, which he used to make household items, clothing, and masks. Also discovered on Gein’s property was the head of Mary Hogan, a tavern operator who had disappeared in 1954. This monster inspired many movies and books.
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/ed-gein
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The monster that i am writing my paper on is the Tonton Macoute which translates to Uncle Gunnysack. This is a depiction of the boogeyman in the Haitian culture and basically what it is the president of Haiti, François Duvalier kills alot of his people and police officers because they were trying to rebel and over throw him. He then created his on militia to catch people who were
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Part #2
going against him; the militia would then murder and rape people. Luckner Cambronne led the Tontons Macoute throughout the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. His cruelty earned him the nickname “Vampire of the Caribbean”. The victims of Tontons Macoutes could range from a woman in the poorest of neighborhoods who had previously supported an opposing politician to a businessman who refused to comply with extortion threats. They murder anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000. Which, then led to the start of the boogeyman who would hunt after kids that misbehaved and put them in his gunnysack and take off with them to be eaten for breakfast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonton_Macoute
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