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The part of the video where you discussed sexualizing the "other" reminded me of why I hate the f-able alien trope. It reminds me of the fetishization of foreign women by sex tourists in poor and developing countries. It's a direct manifestation of that.
I love the theory that the "monster" not having to turn into a handsome man may have coincided with the growing realisation that handsome men may, in fact, be monsters.
it's interesting that the disney beauty and the beast movie explored this idea with gaston being the "perfect" hot guy that the town loved but being a horrible person, and with the beast who was automatically despised by the village being able grow and become someone belle can actually love, then he magically becomes hot again
Certainly not a universal principle , but there were a lot of people who believed that a fair visage showed a purer soul and that deformities were because of a bad soul or personality. We can still be very harsh towards people who are not conventionally attractive!
@@shanon4768the thing is the beast used to be like Gaston and Belle hated him at first. It was beast becoming a better person and showing his softer side that caused Belle to fall in love with him. However she only thinks of him as a friend until she almost loses him.
I always found Shrek to be an interesting take on the monster romance genre. It's from the perspective of a man cast out from society and treated as a monster, who isolates himself by choice in fear of how they'll treat him. But when his solitude is threatened, he eventually finds love and friendship with fellow outcasts. Shrek subverts a lot of tropes of this genre by having Fiona be an ogre as well. Also, ogre Fiona is hotter and that's a hill I'm willing to die on. Great video as always, Princess!
I would say both versions of how Fiona looks (Human and Ogre) both have aesthetic charm, but she definitely looks more beautiful as an Ogre because she's more herself and it's the body she chooses for herself! Fiona isn't trans in a gender sense but I think the trans parallels in Shrek are pretty interesting, intentional or not
Both Shrek/Fiona and Dragon/Donkey are GOAT relationships I identify with as a cis man with ADD and ethical polyamourous preferences with a non-binary spouse suffering from hereditary physical conditions, ptsd and post/long covid😢
Broke: it’s because of “I can fix him” shit Woke: it’s because of the idea of accepting inner beauty and personality and such Bespoke: it’s because people can be freaks for shit (guilty as charged) Edit: yeah to clarify this is modern day stuff, way back when it probably was more creepy wife training stuff than we want it to be
Im pretty sure beauty and the beast was written by a french woman and her intention wasnt to brain wash the other women into being good little wives. From my understanding, the original book was a little spicy for the time. So i think she was writing a nasty little romance for the gals.
@@TychoKingdom even better! Without really diving in deep into research I couldn’t be sure but I feel like assuming “people back then bad to women” is usually a safe bet 😂
I completely fall apart every time when Elisa says this line in Shape of Water: "When he looks at me, the way he looks at me... He does not know, what I lack... Or - how - I am incomplete. He sees me, for what I - am, as I am." Dating, love and sex is impossibly hard as a neurodivergent woman. I guess Monster Romance is most appealing for me when it explores relationships outside of established norm where in absence of shared cultural tropes our heroes have to consonantly compromise and communicate for it to work.
Honestly same, the shape of water had me balling in the theater because I felt so seen as a disabled woman. It really sparked my deep love for monster romance I hadn’t connected until just now
That line is probably why my therapist assigned me to see that movie in theaters. I'm ace, and while I don't view myself as lacking, everyone else certainly does. I own The Shape of Water on Blu-ray and have a Funko Pop of the aquatic man on my bookshelf. Whenever I say it's one of my favorite films of all time, I get scoffed at and told I "only like it for the monsterf*cking". I can take or leave the monsterf*cking. I watch that movie to see outsiders and others--people like me--being loved. Queer people, disabled people, people of color, foreigners--they all get to be heroes in that movie, and they're all seen and at least a little bit loved. Now THAT'S a fantasy.
@onbearfeet that's lovely and I'm glad it still feels representational in spite of the focus everyone had on the sultry stuff. I'm going to add it to my watch list because it's one I've been wanting to see and put off too long!
Another good example of an animal wife story that is a precursor to all this: the Melusine. She is a sea fairy, sometimes depicted as part dragon or serpent, sometimes as a mermaid, who makes her husband promise to not look at her one day a week when she takes her monstrous form as she bathes. As long as he respects this she brings him great fortune but when he finally cheats and looks at her she leaves.
Melusine is a sovereignty goddess associated with Frankish nobility, mainly the Luisignan and Luxembourg/Limburg dynasties, is related to a similar magical ancestress associated with the Lusignan's rivals the Anjou/Plantagent house and has a male counterpart in the so called Quinotaur noted as the father of the Frankish Merovingian house. She also has parrelels in the sea nymphs who give birth to many Greek heroes such as Achiles. Many Greek heroes were also ancesters to nobility and royalty and had a strong political element to their legends that got obscured by a lack of interest in the monarchic era of Greek history.
There's also the Tennyo, which are "heavenly women" from Japan. In legend, they're messengers from the heavens who come to Earth to deliver messages and occasionally relax. They have special robes that allow her to fly and have to take them off to bathe. A fishermen finds one such Tennyo bathing, steals her robe, and forces her to marry him and have his children. She eventually finds her robe and returns to heaven, never looking back.
@@YumegakaMurakumo By the same logic we have enough monster men content to last us a lifetime from fan fiction and romance novels. What's your point here?
I always get annoyed when ppl say “well why doesn’t Hera attack Zeus?” As if the Iliad (the most popular Greek myth literature of all time) doesn’t have her fighting against him every chance she gets, or doesn’t have Zeus physically and verbally abusing Hera, further explaining why she doesn’t fight against him more often.
Yea she absolutely tries many times in many stories. But those stories are less emphasized because they aren't cute or playful or have fun magic stuff going on :( Better to paint her as a shrill, vicious harpy who only goes after the unfortunate women (and men, like the guy Aquarius is named after) Zeus goes after.
It's also annoying because it's myth and religion. It's like discussing the trolley problem by arguing that we gotta find the dude that keeps tying people to rails and stop him.
@drawingsticks5333 Based on a recent tumblr post I saw trying to "fix" the story of Orpheus while completely missing the point... yeah. A lot of wanting a happy ending etc and missing that the tragedy is important because most surviving myths are lessons.
I did not make the connection until right this second but when I was watching 'The Magicians' a Fillorian human character named Fray ended up in a romantic relationship with Humbledrum (a talking bear)... hm. 😶
There's literally a graphic novel where a woman ends up dating a bear after a string of awful men! I think the title is something self-explanitory like "my boyfriend is a bear"
Personally the reason i love monster romances so much is because i think it really sets the stage for so much vulnerability. Similar to the 'would you love me if i was a worm' - 'would you love me if i was a monster' is a question about loving someone for who they are at their core - having the deepest connection you possibly could with someone. It's so romantic *and* it works both ways - being the monsterous partner, or having a monsterous partner. AAA!! Plus i love a monsterous partner who has so much physical power and is dangerous being so vulnerable and choosing softness and gentleness. I think it is a really strong way to create a feeling of trust between the characters and speaks so much to their personalities instantly. I know a lot of other people are saying this too, but of course if you're someone who has grown up being the 'other' in some way, monsterous partners are so appealing because they will also know what it's like to be 'other' and different.
In Nordic fairy tales there are plenty of stories of women being kidnapped for marriage with trolls, or men being tricked into marriage with a huldra. The woman is often saved by a christian man, while the man does not realize the huldra is a troll until after marriage. If he treats her well she may look beautiful and be a good wife, but if he treats her badly she will appear ugly and show her strength and magical abilities to make him act kind.
So my friend who wrote and published a buncha romance novels had this writing advice: "You can get away with almost anything as long as somebody falls in love and it's romantic, or they hook up and it's hot. There's probably an audience for it." She was writing a selkie (people who turn into seals or vice-versa) book in 2014.
I know what you mean. I have a story I'm working on with a kelpie and he's rather unapologetic and snarkily humorous about his "if no one catches me, I can eat anything... humans included :)". Do you have the title of your friend's book?
@chl8760 There was a viral question about a month or so ago that originated on either Tumblr or Twitter that went like this: ladies, would you rather be trapped in the woods with a man you don't know or a bear? A decent number of women said "bear", which pissed off some men and started a whole dust-up.
@@jaduspeaks4754 There was plenty of reason to be "pissed off" about that question. It was just another "test" in the line of "orange peel", "spilling fluids", etc. etc. It was just another way for women to show how their male partners were of service to her. The later question even dehumanised men up to the point where you could see women committing emotional domestic violence to their male partners. When the women said "yeah, but it's not about the bear" they didn't even consider that it's less than 1% of men who commit a "violent" act towards a woman. The issue also being that well over 99% of men don't need to hear such messages - yet, it was just another day where it's women abusing men for their own entertainment. If you tell your child every day that they are a bad person, we would consider that abuse. The amount of gaslighting going on about it is worrying and terrifying. "But we want men to be better men", is what these women would say. That's on the same level as an abusive husband hitting his wife with a bat and saying "But darling, I just want you to be the best version of yourself." So yeah, it's wild.
Fun Fact: In the OG Frog Prince, it was *heavily* suggested that the prince had a gay lover who cried by his pond every day (called his loyal groom). Although repulsed at first (because frog), the maiden helped them reunite by breaking the curse.
okay wait something that might be important here is that groom is often used to mean stablehand or servant, so dont necessarily think that means bridegroom on the other hand, the wikipedia article says that theres an additional name of iron henry because the servant had three bands of iron around his heart to prevent it from breaking because the prince was cursed. the bands of iron broke because he was so happy when the curse was broken
My favorite version of the frog princess is a Finnish fairy tale called “The Forest Bride” where the princess is a mouse and the farmer’s youngest song actually falls in love with her BEFORE she turns back into a human! It’s really cute, and it has some elements of Cinderella with the mouse girl and all her mice servants doing the domestic tasks. 🐭
ok I finished and just want to say YES!! YESS!!! everything in this video!! the genre is so varied and it's interesting seeing the different reasons monster love is popular and appealing. I think a lot of people now (at least in the spaces I frequent) do lean more toward the sort of 'embracing otherness' side, the unconventionality and mutual understanding instead of just hypermasculine monster x damsel woman (which is still sometimes fun to read and engage in but still) (and im especially glad that the 'foreign'-coded masculine brute man is getting a little less popular since... well. and i loved your brief commentary on werewolves vs vampires because yes absolutely, vampires are associated with the upper class, elegance, and therefore 'whiteness' while more 'feral' monsters like orcs and werewolves are 'tribal' and 'foreign' and 'savage' and therefore 'not white' and i think the most basic modern example would be twilight. jacob is literally indigenous and 'savage' and still hunts people, and edward is this classy white man who lives in a fancy penthouse and who has sworn off eating people). wonderful video princess
I heard someone say before that we are touched by these "monster groom/bride" stories, because we think of ourselves as one, as an unlovable monster and seeing someone fall for someone like us gives us hope.
In Slavic mythology, especially in the Balkans, dragons were seen as sex demons (among many other things). In many myths, women who have experienced sex with a dragon become so enamored and overwhelmed by that experience that they lose any interest in romance and intimacy with humans. Sometimes dragons abduct princesses, but sometimes princesses willingly marry them. There's a pretty good Russian movie called "Он дракон" which roughly translates to "He is the dragon" in which a woman gets abducted by a dragon but realizes that he's a much better lover than any human could be. I won't spoil the movie, but the idea that dragons are sex demons is uniquely Slavic and I live for it.
I just recently had a wet dream of havi f a very powerful connection to a huge black horse/ dragon... and yes im getting less and less interested in humam beings
‘Where are the lesbian werewolves?’ is an excellent question. There was a short story by Angela Carter called “The Tiger’s Bride” that had the Beauty archetype turn into a Beast herself (Happily Ever After, ofc). We just need that yuri… OH WAIT, isn’t that Dungeon Meshi?
There's a two volume lesbian werewolf Yuri called Scarlet. It has an English publication by Seven Seas. Not sure I'd call it 'good' and it kind of ends abrubtly. As a straight guy who was just checking out translated liscensed Yuri the author's notes were about it having been created as a pitch for a subtext heavy shonen manga and then picked up by a jousei Yuri magazine editor of the 'subtext is for cowards' mentality was as interesting as the comic. I mostly liked that it had its own take on older folklore where witches, vampires and werewolves weren't so distinct so if you want generic hollywood or fanfic werewolves and want something other than youthful looking femme characters I don't think it counts. No idea if it has doujin but it is does mostly seem writen as fodder for that kind of material to the point that it declares its own flash forwards 'happy' ending to be dubiously canon.
@@burnt-croissants This is my sign to make a night lady oc I havent touched in a while into a actual character with a wearwolf girfreind who she runs away with to protect and for her own safety too.
@@VegaNorth Dungeon meshi isn't even remotely yuri. It's implied that Marcille has a thing for Falin, but as far as I know they don't explore that at all.
@@VegaNorth I want there to be a werewolf romance novel where the female is the werewolf and dominant one and the male is human and submissive. Sadly I think the audience for that is very small. For some odd reason role reversal with women and men seems to not really be that much of a thing in romance genre.
I have little of substance to add. But I respect Octavia Spencer's character in The Shape of Water for asking what needed to be asked. Not all heroes wear capes.
The best supernatural lady + human dude combo in mythology/epic literature is Pwyll and Rhiannon. Dude listens to his wife, stands up for her, and she's the one who initiates the relationship as an alternative to a dude she's not into. Pwyll also refuses to sleep with a lady when he's enchanted to look like her husband so he wins the Most Honorable Mythology Guy award. (It's a low bar).
In Haiti we have a lore called Tezen nan dlo. A merman with a young woman but unfortunately has a tragic ending because her family finds out and kills him.
@@shushia1658 They do. It's meant to be romantic but also an escape for the girl from having to live in a patriarchal society. It's also implied they sleep together.
I wonder if this has any connection to Dlo/Maman glo here in Trinidad. A snake lady who lives in rivers that takes pretty human girls as her companions, especially ones who want to escape punishment or marriage
@@ana_d_73 From what I read that sounds like an indigenous spirit of Trinidad mixed with what we called La Siren/Yemaya. She sounds interesting for sure!
As a queer autistic person, it's the otherness of monster romance that's the hook. The monster, the shunned and strange outcast, is more relatable than your everyman. Growing up being told that you and people like you are some boogeyman, that there is something wrong with you- You tend to relate to and see yourself in the monstrous. You see yourself in monsters, and to be embraced by someone else who is an Other, is comforting.
this comment is spot on, im not sure if i have ASD (although i wouldnt be surprised if i was on the spectrum) but i am 100 percent gay, very much relateable.
The first example of the "civilizing woman" appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Wild Man Enkidu and his relationship with shamhat the courtisan who "tamed" and "civilized" him.
Its worth noting that while Shamhat has been interpreted variously as a prostitute, a priestess and 'just some woman' her intended profession or role before being sent to seduce Enkidu is not actually known for certain and is a matter of debate.
@@theasinclaire52 There are wild man stories all over the world but the Epic of Gilgamesh is an elite literary composition that got refined over the centuries. The time gap between various fragments being written down is usually considered more relevant to the variation than regional differences since some are close to a thousand years apart. Disagreements regarding the Enkidu and Shamhat episode are all modern scholars with varying perspectives looking at the same small set of fragments we don't have regional variants for Enkidu's backstory. The variation we do have from older stories about Enkidu outside the main literary epic seem to have no knowledge of this sexually tamed wild man backstory at all.
I was really impressed with the Russian movie On Drakon/He's A Dragon because it uses the monster trope for the uncommon lesson that sexuality can (and must) be separated from patriarchy and violence, and lets the hot lady get a hot guy that can fly her around.
I feel like most BatB adaptations get a pass because there becoming human was what the beast wanted for himself, not what someone else wanted to make him more palatable. But in general, the monster doesn't need to change, especially when they're fine how they are!
@@SecretIdentityStudio Honestly though I'd be down for a version of BatB where the prince recognizes Beauty/Belle/whoever loves him for him and that he doesn't need to change. Then again I suppose Shrek already did that story and it's hard to beat but another version would probably be fine. Just princess loves him for him and he says "You know what I'm stronger than the average dude now and have claws and shit, I DO kick ass. I'm keeping the monster."
The way you took a “horny” topic and brought in historical foundation and tying it into our current man vs bear conversation: brilliant! Really great vid!
I find the 1800s French versions (and their modern counterparts) is that they are equally compelling from a male perspective. A man who views himself as something hideous or even less-than-human finds himself in circumstances with where he is drawn to a woman who reifies his humanity while refusing to be hung upon the characteristic which he thinks makes him inhuman. For a fisabled or neurodivergent men, this is incredibly affirming. Having one's own self-image of repellance or inhumanity being refuted by someone who innately sees past those veneers really does something for that innnate need to be loved.
"You gave me autonomy, and I think that's really attractive." I love that angle and don't know why that hasn't been in my understanding of this story up till now.
@birdiewolf3497 In the OG story, the Beast's mom was a warrior queen. We could have had a bad ass warrior queen! (Along with more positive takes on the themes in the story about looking beyond the surface and adapting to adversity/situations beyond our control.)
In ‘The Mahabharata’, there are creature wives like Ulupi (Woman with the lower half of a snake) who falls in love with Arjun and Hidimbi (a female demon) who falls in love with Bhima.
I am not a biggest fan of sex or NSFW stories so from my perspective: I love monster romances because monsters are truly a representation of something, and them being romanced can be seen as that fear being accepted or reversed into love. Also I think giving them odd behaviors can make it cute! Like the way they move being different from humans, it's just cute to see something 'scary' be accepted and loved by someone. I am not a fan of when the stories take away the monster to replace it with a regular human, I think a good way for this idea to be written is the monster trying to change themselves for the human only to be accepted for who they are (BC u shouldn't have to change who you are physically to such a degree that you are someone different in a relationship)
Christabel was written in 1800, and may technically depict a lesbian vampire too - it's hard to tell what the 'witch' is in that poem. I've uh...made every handle I have on any online service some variation of Christabel since college, lol.
@@almagomez6689 If it's any consolation to OP, the Vampyr was based off of famously bisexual Lord Byron and was at least partially meant as like a dig at his sexual deviancy. Vampires in general after they were brought over from eastern europe to victorian england became symbols of sexual deviants to the victorians, a large part of which were queer ppl, which isn't great but I'll take what representation I can get
There are older vampire stories in the evil bride that kills men tradition. It's the part of the monster romance that Princess did not cover, all the stories where the fair spouse is evil and is plotting your death.
I can’t help but think that stories like The Shiek is an example of Stockholm syndrome and is in some way encouraging women (and men) to forgive/love/desire aggressors/abusive spouses.
Interesting perspective, because it really reminded me of the sexual repression r*pe fantasy- explored by media like The Labyrinth (love that movie). Women couldn’t or feared to exercise sexuality, so having the distress of choice between acting on desire and being demonized by society or repressing desire taken away was a freeing fantasy that didn’t require acknowledgement of ‘unapproved’ thoughts, just the acknowledgment of a powerful, masculine man as an attractive concept
Sharing my head canon that Eros & Psyche pay frequent visits to the Underworld, having become "couples friends" with Hades & Persephone. Psyche and Persephone gossip about Olympus (but especially Aphrodite), while Eros and Hades go on gushing about their wives. 🥰💝
Yesssss. I mean, there's some good solid philosophical overlap among all their domains. Death/earth/soil/growth couple and love/soul/mind couple. But like, specifically sexual, reproductive love, the kind that results in birth, creation of new souls that will live and grow and eventually end up hanging with Hades... A double date with those four is basically the entire human life cycle.
I think the reason women like abduction/forced romance is not having to walk on eggshells for their mans ego as they are forced to in real life. So many women have to perform in bed, praise men for doing the bare minimum and be careful to always let him take the lead even when he’s clueless that being in a forced romance where you can yell ‘I hate you’ and he still comes back and wants you is like a breath of fresh air.
I’m reminded of a college humor skit called the basic knight where a man defends super basic choices made by people. An example of favorite foods being pizza being okay is one joke. Another is the acknowledgment that no one wants to be on top during sex, and that’s okay too. Made me think about how we all just want what we want without consequence and it just kind of sucks that we can’t get it-even before social pressures and such.
theres also the theory that a lot of abduction fantasies come from internalized mysogyny. They tend to be written by women who were raised to be ashamed of their sexuality, so they put the heroine in a spot where things happened against her will so they dont have to be ashamed of those fantasies. Also in a lot of these stories, especially the older ones, the women get abducted from a rather boring life of raising children in a probably loveless marriage to a life of adventure and being loved by the man who abducted them. Basically it boils down to "what if I got the life and relationship I always wanted, but were told werent proper, andnobody can blame me because its happening against my will?".
The desire for an intimate partner without the fear that you will mess it up, lived out through the fantasy of a romance where you are desired no matter what you do. There is no greater acceptance than one who accepts you against your will. It's poetic in a way.... but holy shit our society is messed up if THAT passes for desirable to a lot of us
Also ngl its kind of comforting someone can fall in love with something seen as unnatural, ugly, or scary and it gives me hope that someone will eventually fall for me😭
Yuuta and Rika are the best!!!!!! God, I love their arc so much. Yuuta being this very nervous wreck of a boy, very timid, up until he's talking to Rika. Everyone else cowers up against her, rightfully scared of her, except for him. It's the only time we see him exert confidence or be sure of himself. He knows she won't hurt him, that she's more dangerous to everyone else. She's his protector and he relies on her strength. It's the fact that he uses her love for him to gain confidence, that it was his love in the first place that cursed her! They were just kids! Even as a curse, Rika has some awareness to protect Yuuta and to shield him from becoming jaded and mean. Yuuta maintains a level of innocence because he has Rika. he is cursed and gets bullied because of Rika, yes, but he is also shielded from having to dirty his hands. And he still loves her through it all! There's some resentment, sure. He lost several years to her "protection". But when anyone goes to exorcise her, he's sad. Being separated from her scares him! It's why she's a curse in the first place! He's still in love; he still finds her beautiful, even in her monstrous form. Slight spoilers, but when we see him in the main JJK storyline and he's in Japan again, he's stronger and confident in himself. Their relationship is symbiotic, not parasitic. They work together. Their connection, their bond, is stronger. I just love them so much, please excuse my half awake ramblings.
Hearing that excerpt from "The Sheik" honestly made me want to hurl. Like seriously... people complain Disney Beauty and the Beast was Stockholm's syndrome, but this is a clear actual case of it.
Those people have no idea what they're talking about, anyway. Stockholm Syndrome is when you develop a one-sided relationship with your captor as a coping mechanism, which is what happened during the incident the syndrome is named after.
@@nyanchat2657 It didn't even happen in the incident. What happened is that the police ended up treating the hostages worse than their captors, so when the hostages showed a preference they gave it a name and called it a "syndrome." The fawn response is real, Stockholm syndrome is not (edit: typo)
I know in “Psyche and Eros” that Psyche’s sisters were supposed to be haters, but from their perspective, their sister, who was supposed to be married to a monster, now lives in an enchanted house with a husband she cannot see, so my immediate assumption would also be that she’s being played and should get the hell out of there.
How would they know she can't see him? The version I read insinuates that there are invisible servants and she just hasn't seen the husband yet, and the sisters get jealous because they were hoping she got ball and chained to a literal monster but she got a rich husband and mansion with servants instead, but that's just a version.
@@material-cheshirekhatter2413 the version I read had her explaining her situation to her sisters, so I just assumed she told them about her husband’s mysterious night time visits.
Still kind of haters though, because why would they consider her current situation worse than her being married to a monster? Also if she couldn't see him then it should be assumed that he was a monster saving her from having to see him in that state, either way they are haters. They saw she was happy instead of unhappy and decided to try and ruin it for her.
What would be the point though? She was married to a monster, this was known and accepted before she was married off. Her sisters knew this too but when they came to visit, expecting her to be miserable with her monster husband she is not. What do her sisters do when they find out that living with a monster is not as bad as they thought (and presumably better than their own lives)? The sisters tried to figure out why by endangering their “beloved” sister’s marriage life. They could have been worried, idk, but it was definitely not the only thing they were feeling.
Your opening lines cracked me up. I'm honestly surprised you didn't use a clip from Gargoyles - talk about 500K, slow burn, hurt/comfort, angst with a HEA. But our tough modern woman not only fell in love with a "savage" from ye olden times, but he was, in fact, not human (and amazing, and hot, and a nerd by how much he read) (and Scottish?). I love that series. This was a great video essay.
@@kelcieford7236 It's an old cartoon from the 90s, and was pretty heavy for its time. It still has a cult following even after Disney tried to hide it.
Well, in Asia, there are multiple monster wives that were made out to be monsters who were saved by the protagonist who later comes back disguised as human and would do the hosework for the protagonist to repay him. Like 白蛇传 and tsuru no ongaeshi.
On the topic of Loathy Ladies, for some reason my mind went to superheroes (I guess they can fall under the God/Goddesses comparison). Wonder Woman in mainstream comics rarely has a steady romance outside of Steve Trevor. Almost every man is weaker than her and rarely do they stick around for very long. Steve (and maybe Bruce Wayne) are the only two men weaker than her who seem to respect and admire her autonomy in a romantic sense. When the New 52 universe tried to pair her up with Superman, there was this really strong push that they "belonged together" which always felt icky to me because it seemed to imply that the strongest woman on Earth could only find happiness if she was with a man stronger than her. That she still needed to be second best to a man. Another example is when Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) actually gave up her super heroics in Teen Titans to be with her human husband Terry Long and have a family, but eventually returns due to her super hero career. Her husband is very threatened by these displays of power and autonomy and eventually seeks divorce, which later results in Terry's death and the death of their son. I know that was done to "remove baggage" from Donna's story but the implication from the wider narrative is that the story was punishing her for not being a "better wife and mother". With Starfire and Dick Grayson (my OTP), it kind of starts off with the 'humbling the powerful woman' route but it actually goes in an interesting route. In Teen Titans, it is established that Dick Grayson loves Kory's power and autonomy, that he's not scared that she's stronger than him. No, what he's actually scared of is her emotional honesty- because he's spent his whole life repressing his emotional urges working under Batman. He's afraid of the vulnerability that comes with admitting those emotions because "admitting emotions" is a sacrifice of power (you can't be as cold and manipulative with that). So Kory has to learn how to taper her impulsive actions to reduce hurting others and Dick has to learn emotional honesty so that he can better help others. ... the problem there is that not only did DC sink that ship so that Dick could be in more Batman books, but by pairing him up with Barbara Gordon, it kind of sends the message that trying to marry a more powerful woman was "a mistake". (To clarify, I don't hate Barbara. I'm blaming that implication on the writers afterwards who treated Kory as "lust object" or a "youthful phase" when the narrative made it clear that it wasn't). Anyways, that's my TED talk on the power dynamics of super heroines and their weaker partners. Only Big Barda and Scott Free get it right in DC.
The romance between Starfire -- who first appears in DC Comics Presents (Vol.1) #26 (October 1980; release date: 10 July 1980) -- and Robin began AFTER his attempted romance with Batgirl ended on the grounds of age difference: she was "25 years old -- and he's still a teenager", a quote from Batman Family (Vol.1) #10 (March-April 1977; release date: 23 December 1976). Dick Grayson, having been Robin since the Golden Age, finally turned 18 and left Wayne Manor for Hudson University in Batman (Vol.1) #217 (December 1969; release date: 21 October 1989), prompting Bruce and Alfred to relocate to Wayne Tower. And did you know that all this happened while Barbara Gordon was also representing Gotham City as a CONGRESSWOMAN. She was nominated in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #422 (April 1972; release date: 29 February 1972) in her father's place, she won the election in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #424 (June 1972; release date: 27 April 1972), and finally lost re-election in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #488 (March 1980; release date: 8 November 1979).
About the frog princess. She is actually a powerful sorceress Vasilisa the Wise who was cursed by an evil wizard for refusing to marry him. At night she can take off her frog skin and become full powered human version of herself and that's how she does all the tasks. Other wifes aren't lazy, they are just no math for her. When the prince finds out he burns her frog skin and then she's lika "Dude, wtf? The curse is almost over but now I have to return to the wizard because you were impatient!" He saves her later.
The same Vasilisa from the Baba Yaga myth? Or a different one? That's a common shape-shifter trope, burning/hiding the shape-shifter's skin so that they stay as humans.
@@YumegakaMurakumo it is probably different one. There's also Vasilisa the Beautiful. It's a common name in russian fairytales for a magical bride. The same thing as with Ivan Tsarevich. It's a different one every time.
The original telling of Cupid and Psyche comes from Apuleius's Metamorphoses in the second century. I feel like this trope should be WAY older than that. Love the video though, thank you.
@@chl8760 You're right but I meant it feels like the monster bride/groom trope should be ancient (like a tale as old as time, perhaps :P) 400 bc is still classical
Thank you for including clips from La Belle et La Bete (2014) to tell the story of the original French variant. Few people know about this version, and it is insanely gorgeous! (Visuals, sets, costumes...) 😌🌈🌹
The Cocteau version, this one fails on showing why actually Belle falls in love with the Beast, ad least for me it really looked like fullon Stockholm syndrome
@@Nixx0912 I fully understand that assessment, as a result, I've tried to share with others my own posted theory as to why Belle's feelings for the Beast seem to change so drastically in this film. And I admit to it being initially developed just because I *really* wanted to like the movie past its visuals. 😆 "Belle first felt affection for the Beast when they were dancing. If you watch, her face changes throughout. From appearing relatively unfeeling about it and keeping her eyes downcast, like she's just going through the motions, to looking him in the eye with a newfound softness, no doubt surprised by how comfortable she is in his arms, as if she were dancing with a human. This is further shown by her placing her head on his chest and closing her eyes, showing a sign of trust, as well as her decision to put the deal aside and just be in the moment with him. It's the first real moment of natural chemistry that Belle and the Beast have together, and Belle probably recognizes it. So when she said that he would always disgust her, I don't think she meant it. He wouldn't let her begin to accept him without forcing a relationship on her, and to top it off, he seemingly refused to send her home like she'd asked, so she got fed up and lashed out. But after the Beast leaves and the camera lingers on her, she looks somewhat remorseful, because try as she might, her feelings from the dance remain. So when the Beast catches up to her on the lake and tries to kiss her, you can definitely see her about to kiss him back before falling through. Later, when the Beast warns her to come back or he will die, I think he was more fearful of the God of the Forest's reaction as opposed to his own, and I believe Belle chooses to follow through on her word because she decided to give him a second chance. He not only saved her from drowning, but also took the time to ensure she didn't get hypothermia (though I wish we'd been able to actually see it). Plus, he gave her the rose as a peace offering when she awoke simply because he knew she loved them, and the vial of healing water to show that he was concerned for her safety. When the camera shows Belle's reactions to the gifts, she's clearly touched by these small acts of generosity, thus allowing herself to open up and flirt with him a bit (playfully asking which hand he wanted and then joking about him giving her a ring). To her it meant the Beast was trying to do better, and that gave Belle enough incentive to want to come back and give their relationship another shot (especially after using the water to revive her father). It's why she begs the God of the Forest to let her go back to the Beast, and why she's upset when Perducas (the lead thief) tries to kill him. Belle had only just begun to understand the Beast, so by that point, she knew she didn't want to lose him. When she & her brothers were able to save him in time, I think she was so overcome with joy and relief at the thought of them still having a chance to start over, she fell in love with him as a result. This was probably further enhanced by the Beast's much more vulnerable & heartfelt inquiry about her affection, asking if she could've loved him with more time or patience. Because they ARE able to have more time now, she believes she could indeed love him, but in that moment, she feels as though she already does, which is enough to break the spell. I'm sure Belle and the Prince spent more time connecting as a couple before getting married, and it was a significant enough story that Belle wanted to tell it to their children, probably to help emphasize the idea that people can choose to change for the better. Also, at the end of the film, we can see that Belle is still wearing the necklace with the empty vial when she goes out to meet her husband. I have no doubt she held onto it because it was the first sign he had genuinely cared for her. He didn't just see her as a potential love interest anymore, which his previous gifts seemed to represent; he finally saw Belle as both a person and an individual. That change of viewpoint was the first step he took to better himself, which allowed for their relationship to truly begin to blossom. They wouldn't be where they were in the present without it, therefore it held great significance for Belle."
Nikita Gill did a FANTASTIC rewrite of the Hera-Zeus relationship in her Great Goddesses poetry book. In her version, Hera chooses to leave Zeus because of his philandering and dedicates her powers as the Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth to helping women and children get out of abusive and loveless relationships.
I have this favorite dynamic in monster romance that I don't see very often. The closest description of it that I saw is the ao3 tag "unsafe, insane, consensual". Basically when the monster character is actually dangerous and actually harms the human character to the point of it being life threatening, but the human character is into it and deliberately allows it. But I have no clue what to call this dynamic or where it's coming from.
I vibe with this. I play with the Monster Girl Encyclopedia but I return their ability to cause harm and death. For one thing it just feels like the softness and love is more valuable if it also comes with the reality check that giant spiky venomous beasts are a danger to fragile and thin-skinned humans; both a monster trying to be gentle and a human trying to endure show how important the relationship is to both of them. It also metaphors well into things like a relationship with a trauma victim that lashes out without meaning to, while a beloved helps them accept the scary parts of them by being down bad for all of them, good and bad. I've described this to my brother as letting the monsters 'keep their teeth' because it adds some 'bite' to the story. The fact that actual biting may well be involved is incidental.
I think a lot of the selky/animal/fairybrides, say you can trick/trap/force a woman to be your bride, especially if you seperate them from their families their homes and their friends. But your marraige will not be happy, and shock, horror they might not like you and might run away and leave you with the children.
I love how in depth this video essay is! But it is very euro centric and I’d love to offer a very famous Japanese myth “the crane returns a favor” or “the crane wife” in which a man saves a crane and returns to his home to find a woman who says she is his wife and he says okay but doesn’t have a lot of wealth. She comes with a never ending sack of rice and then tells her husband to not enter a room for 7 days. After seven days she comes back out worryingly skinny and a beautiful cloth/clothing and tells him to sell it at a high price. This happens again, but the man gets curious this time and peeks. He finds out that the wife is the crane and has been using her own feathers to make the cloth. In each version she leaves; one variation because of not respecting/trusting her, the other because he states love doesn’t require sacrifice which she says that isn’t true love if he feels that way.
As an aroace writer who explores a shit ton of certain monsterfucker romance tropes through the lens of everything but romantic/sexual, i really love this video. It outlines both the history and the evolution of the trope so well, especially in regards to our modem day world. The "Other" is a fascinating safe space to explore ourselves and our relationships for those who see that in themselves. Is it also probably because we barely see ourselves represented as actual accurate people in other kinds of stories? Yeah. Probably. But there's a certain empathy needed to see yourself in a monster, and then grow to care for that monster in spite of your fear of it, and I think that's important.
Still cracks me up we aces can be some of the most eager writers for this stuff. That unbiased lens for either romantic or sexual desires comes in handy XD
I love this so much. The history of it is fascinating! I enjoy this genre, but always feel uneasy when I see it present a heteronormative super power dynamic (male character having so much power over female character). And the heroine will just need to trust him, even if he presents strong red flags, and she’ll get something so great if she sticks it out. I know it’s fantasy but it makes me glower for a myriad of reasons. Great video, thank you.
I adore monster romances, it is such a fascinating topic in today's time. I find more satisfaction and relatability with monster romances because of my disability which has led to being an outcast growing up and finding that mutual understanding is very fulfilling
That aphrodite jingle from the Hercules TV show gets stuck in my head randomly sometimes, I had to double check it wasn't just my mind playing tricks 😅
I’ve always had a thing for monster romances because it feels like I won’t have to “perform” for them. Put on the right make up, wear the right clothes and accessories, say the right things. They’ll just love me as I am, even if it takes some adjusting my world view or habits. (Also, on the bear or man question. My entire DnD determined Halsin to be the perfect choice.)
I just want to thank you so much for making this video. As someone who used to love devouring MC erotica, I held so much guilt over it. Firstly, as I’m gay. So I would imagine the male characters as female anyway. But as someone who wants to think of themselves as a strong feminist, I really didn’t understand why any part of me was drawn to these kind of books. I think you hit the nail on the head for me. There’s something about knowing when to expect the violence or the more toxic masculinity and then having a character recognise that and apologise for it afterwards. It does create a feeling of safety, as opposed to the real world where it can pop up anywhere, completely unexpectedly. It’s exhausting. I feel very vulnerable having just shared that though. Be kind people! 😬
I relate. I started reading BL mangas in college and most MLs were downright abusive. I think, I was drawn to the romanticisation of it, as irl our abusers are irredemable pos, who DONT genuily love us but only say so to lower our guards.
YT just ate my comment so I'm going to rewrite it but it'll be shorter. First, thank you for sharing. People are nervous to share these types of thoughts or doubts because it's likely to get people labeled negatively (i.e. problematic). It's unfortunate, though, because the more people I speak with, the more I see how we're all very similar. Years and years ago, I came across an article that suggested that slash fiction appealed to women in part because it provides a useful barrier. Female readers typically view men as physically capable. MLM often features one character aggressively pursing the other. We're less afraid of this intensity because we think the man could stop it if needed. It's "safe." That lends to the fact that women who have fantasies about being forced don't truly wish someone would harm them this way. It's a power fantasy. They're controlling the fantasy and therefore conquering a fear. Finding a tolerable way to explore fears and fantasies is great , even if often misunderstood. When I had lesbian friends share that they often read het fanfiction, even those with aggressive men, redeemed or not, it made sense to me. They were truly comfortable and aroused by female descriptions but the masculine threat could be explored in het romance, fanfic or regular. So while there are numerous reasons people engage or enjoy romance or smut, you're not *wrong* for your reasons. Fiction is the appropriate place to expose yourself to those fears and gain mastery over them. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the newfound power over a fear either. ❤❤❤ Thank you again for sharing. Someone will read your comment and realize they're not alone or weird.
@@wodensskadi i liked this comment back when I read it the first time but having just read it again, I wanted to reply to say thank you for your kind and astute thoughts. I found this really affirming to read so thank you. ☺️
There is a fairytale where I live about a woman, who maries a prince, who is cursed to look like a serpent. During the night he turns back into a beutiful man, but she she is forbidden from telling anyone. She of course breaks this rule, resulting in him being kidnapped by a witch and she has to rescue him. She is also pregnant during this time, but unable to give birth (because evil witch).
My first thought was Madame White Snake from Chinese culture. In that one the woman is secretly a giant snake and she's bisexual with a human husband who doesnt know her true nature and a lesbian lover who is also a snake. I love that story.
Like you mentioned, there are lots of variants of the animal bride tale where the moral is for the dude to get over himself, because a frog bride might outdo a beautiful human girl at baking and weaving and what-have-you. Sometimes a dude is all embarrassed and rude about looks but still gets rewarded (like Tatterhood, where a guy gripes endlessly about getting stuck with the ugly sister), but my favorite versions have him just genuinely think she's nice, like a Finnish story called The Princess Mouse. Different versions of The Frog Princess have the groom be resentful or appreciative.
This was one of your best works. I think you’re best when you do clear intersections of the casual and academic like this. Seeing BBC Merlin’s Guinivere makes me want to your dedicated look at her. Or Sister Sage on the boys once the season is done.
There is one story I know of with a man falling in love with an animal bride called *The White Cat* where the cat in question didn't have to change from being a strong leader and having a great deal of power to have their curse broken. She didn't need to be made weaker/mortal for the man as she already was(she was nerfed from the get-go basically) yet was also a girlboss in a sense of her wealth and mysterious power that the man(a prince) had been literally dependent upon in helping him win the trials of succession his father had imposed upon all 3 of his sons. It's a rare example of the man's status being raised by the female animal bride when their curse is broken, than the other way around. It can be difficult to find the full story translated from it's OG language(French if I recall correctly), but it was a very refreshing take on the typical human male/animal bride dynamic.
My favorite Disney princess as a kid was Belle. We're both bibliophiles. She's still my fave & she's the reason I love Beauty & the Beast AUs or any adaptation of it
19:07 Hera is quite interesting. For one, she never left her father’s house so in a lot of ways she’s still her own person vs if she married outside of the family that wouldn’t necessarily be so. Another thing is that she’s quite protective less of her marriage per se but more so her role as head of the house, queen of the gods, etc. She temporarily banishes Zeus’s lovers and kids for quite some time quite a lot more for them to learn their place and for others to not question hers.
Speaking of western focus, I have met very few people into historical vampire mythology, so like every time someone says they're into vampires I get super excited and immediately emotionally destroyed as they start talking about modern media
Yes! Especially when they start insisting on certain vampire "rules" as being "original." Looking at that silver-backed mirror thing that people keep spreading around. >>; Always from people who have never heard of Peter Plogojowitz.
Hey! I’m someone who’s mainly into Anne rice’s vampires and some other niche vampires,do you have any recommendations for getting into historical vampire mythology that might not be too hard to read? Thank you
Yuta and Rika's relationship is so interesting and sweet. For anyone who wants similar to this, I'd recommend Ancient Magus Bride. It is the best monster romance ever
I agree with Ancient Magus Bride being amazing but good lord, those first few episodes do NOT do it good service 😭 You can't explain the show without people thinking you need to take a trip to Arkham or something..
@@Daelyah She was bought by her love interest, Elias, at an auction. Elias isn't human and doesn't 100% "get" the implications of all that, but it is not a good look. And it definitely doesn't make talking about the show easy. Elias never does anything "bad" to Chise, but like I said, it's just icky if you don't get every last drop of context and explaination.
I love Ancient Magus, but I also fully admit it went Full Anime with Chise being underage. Oh, and the show never let's you forget it. The Good Neighbors and other inhumans are SUPER supportive of it, which is nice, but then the humans of the story keep reminding the audience that Chise is too young for a relationship with Elias and I get the squick again before I turn my brain back off
It's definitely a multi-faceted trope. In fact, some of us guys like the Monster x Woman trope a lot too because we want to _be_ the monster. There's also plenty of room for the opposite, where we want the monster woman. (SCP's, Lusty Argonian Maid, Deathclaws, etc.)
Okay...I love that you used footage from Happily Ever After's Frog Princess. That is the version that has been seared into my head for that story. Her cake (literal. One of her tasks) looked so tasty and Lila had all the best attitude
I've really enjoyed _The Ancient Magus' Bridge,_ which was explicitly written (not that way) to be a _Beauty and the Beast_ style story where the monster doesn't change at the end. Along the way, Chise and Elias have to come to terms with their own personalities, flaws, boundaries and sense of self to become better versions of themselves. It's light on romance, but I love the gentle domestic partnership that forms between them.
I love that your takeaway isn't to shame people for enjoying things that are inherently taboo, or might be skewed as taboo by current social standard- but instead just encouraging people, even in leisure, to consume thoughtfully.
I love that you touched on heteronormativity here! I’m working on a queer pseudo-monster / beauty and the best type romance rn largely bc it’s been a good vehicle to unpack the fears I have around attraction and intimacy as a late-ish in life lesbian. The more I write the more I am surprised that it’s such a heteronormative genre because it’s been a surprisingly enlightening exploration of uniquely queer feelings and experiences. For me, I think the appeal is seeing the protagonist use discernment to decide “okay, this type of suitor may not look dangerous but I know they are. and this suitor may look dangerous but I know they are not.” I’m femme4butch so for me that maps onto loving people who embody what I was taught to fear about myself - very Shrek and Fiona imo!
You will like Aliette de Bodard when you read her work. She writes a Vietnamese space opera world with mostly sapphic stories involving human women & sentient female spaceships. She explores themes of oppression, resistance, liberation, revolution & resilience, complex morality, family bonds...
19:25 If anyone is interested in selkies I would recommend watching “Song of the Sea”. It’s a family movie and it’s animated but its beautiful, wholesome, a little sad, and overall a wonderful movie.
You’ve chosen a great topic. The weirdest I came across recently was ‘Beastly’ starring Alex Pettyfer (very hard to make him look less attractive) and Vanessa Hudgens
for me personally, I love the exploration of this concept of monsterous, powerful, mysterious male-coded characters who are or can be made to be soft, sensitive, gentle, who truly care about you with all their heart, however that's portrayed..... specifically BECAUSE that's not a realistic thing to expect in 2024. You cannot expect a man with a lot of power, physically/societally/monetarily/whatever, to have a secret sensitive side, to have a desire to treat you right, to be kind and sweet somewhere. That is not a realistic thing. So the entire concept of this is a fantasy I think is very interesting to explore. The straights are not okay lmao, so when girls say they'd rather meet a bear in the forest they aint kiddin
Speaking of stories with humans who have relationship with animals/creatures, I can't recommend enough the podcast "(Sort of) The Story" to anyone who likes fairy tales, folktales and myths (it's SO funny and the stories are from all around the world!!) Edit: I'm going to add every story that is both on the video and the podcast - East of the Sun West of the Moon - the Frog Princess (kind of) - the wedding of Sir Gawain - Selkie stories
do you know if they cite their sources? I do feel somewhat weird when people will retell stories removed from their cultural context and want to check folks work
@@zkkitty2436 yes!! They really care about ethical storytelling so they try to find native authors or at least authors who cite the sources and context, and they link everything in the show notes :) Keep in mind that they don't read the story, they retell it, so even though sometimes they quote parts of the text, it's mostly in their words, but I really recommend giving it a try!
Honestly, please keep it coming. These are fascinating! In Eastern and SEA folk tales, many female protagonists are animal or get turned into one. They share similarities in the aspects that if that female is of a high ranks (goddess, etc.) then they became mortal to be of equal ranks. I love your analysis, I look forward to more in the future.
The version I know of when it is eros and psyche is that he's been telling her not to look at his face or something bad will happen to her... then her family basically tell her "no no, you got to see him!" and coerced and convince her to do so, being like "isn't it weird that you don't know what he looks like?" and so forth. So, she finds him and she does see him. after that, he says that they can't be together because she has seen his face.
Three years into a relationship, my girlfriend completely broke down her attraction to me: I was her "beast." The fact that it was by far her favorite story made things a little clearer. For me though, It was a strange revelation, because I am not conventionally attractive, a bit of a brute and maybe a bit scary. But here I was "a beast" and all the supposed negatives were in fact positives for someone. Lucky me, I guess? I still secretly felt slightly offended though.
Come on bro, don't sell yourself short. She thinks you're hot in general and most likely loves you regardless, the fact that you matched her preferences is a bonus
@@sierralovat5498 I totally knew she was into whatever it was I was putting out there, and it really made our relationship pretty tight that we were both what the other admired. But imagine you aren’t happy about being fat and someone tells you are hot because you are fat. It still feels a little weird.
@@Bedevere I think I get it? It's not about self-esteem - you don't feel less worthy because of how you look. It's more about personal aesthetics - you don't like how you look, and would prefer to change if you had the chance. But this other person, who you love, prefers how you look right now. And they think they're validating you by saying so, building up your self-esteem. When in reality they're low-key ignoring your preferences?
@@tbotalpha8133 I don't know if I want to change. I am pretty ok with who I am (At least now anyway). Just imagine you had a big nose and you know it and accept it and then someone compliments your nose and says it your best feature. It's a weird sort of compliment to get.
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Can I ask what song plays at the end of each video-?
@@lizabey "Soon" by AGST
@@AnxiousGary Thank-you! < 3
Following up with this I would recommend taking a look at the game Slay the Princess.
The part of the video where you discussed sexualizing the "other" reminded me of why I hate the f-able alien trope. It reminds me of the fetishization of foreign women by sex tourists in poor and developing countries. It's a direct manifestation of that.
I love the theory that the "monster" not having to turn into a handsome man may have coincided with the growing realisation that handsome men may, in fact, be monsters.
I love this analogy.
Also, that a shiny surface can never compensate for a cruel or indifferent, entitled and egotistic personality.
it's interesting that the disney beauty and the beast movie explored this idea with gaston being the "perfect" hot guy that the town loved but being a horrible person, and with the beast who was automatically despised by the village being able grow and become someone belle can actually love, then he magically becomes hot again
Certainly not a universal principle , but there were a lot of people who believed that a fair visage showed a purer soul and that deformities were because of a bad soul or personality. We can still be very harsh towards people who are not conventionally attractive!
@@shanon4768the thing is the beast used to be like Gaston and Belle hated him at first. It was beast becoming a better person and showing his softer side that caused Belle to fall in love with him. However she only thinks of him as a friend until she almost loses him.
I always found Shrek to be an interesting take on the monster romance genre. It's from the perspective of a man cast out from society and treated as a monster, who isolates himself by choice in fear of how they'll treat him. But when his solitude is threatened, he eventually finds love and friendship with fellow outcasts. Shrek subverts a lot of tropes of this genre by having Fiona be an ogre as well. Also, ogre Fiona is hotter and that's a hill I'm willing to die on.
Great video as always, Princess!
I would say both versions of how Fiona looks (Human and Ogre) both have aesthetic charm, but she definitely looks more beautiful as an Ogre because she's more herself and it's the body she chooses for herself!
Fiona isn't trans in a gender sense but I think the trans parallels in Shrek are pretty interesting, intentional or not
Both Shrek/Fiona and Dragon/Donkey are GOAT relationships I identify with as a cis man with ADD and ethical polyamourous preferences with a non-binary spouse suffering from hereditary physical conditions, ptsd and post/long covid😢
@@SonsOfLorgar Shrek is love, Shrek is life 💚
I love the nice parallels Shrek lines up. Lots of folk can see Fiona as a lovely person and a nice role model.
I dunno, I dislike how she seemed to have lost her fighting prowess when turned into an ogre. She was a badass against the musical theater 😂
Never apologize for a video essay becoming a major media analysis and academic discussion of history because I LIVE for exactly that.
Seconded!😊
Third…ed?🤔
fourthed...?? i love 30 minutes to an hour long video essay about things im interested in
would've been even more perfect if shrek was mentioned 🙏
You expecting a video essay but it was me! Academic analysis!
Broke: it’s because of “I can fix him” shit
Woke: it’s because of the idea of accepting inner beauty and personality and such
Bespoke: it’s because people can be freaks for shit (guilty as charged)
Edit: yeah to clarify this is modern day stuff, way back when it probably was more creepy wife training stuff than we want it to be
Lol, totally skips the acceptable beastiality curve. And urge to be dominated.
I like the idea of loving someone who always thought of themselves as undeserving of love
Im pretty sure beauty and the beast was written by a french woman and her intention wasnt to brain wash the other women into being good little wives. From my understanding, the original book was a little spicy for the time. So i think she was writing a nasty little romance for the gals.
@@TychoKingdom even better! Without really diving in deep into research I couldn’t be sure but I feel like assuming “people back then bad to women” is usually a safe bet 😂
@@TychoKingdomI'm taking the latter of both can be the first, second and then the third.
I completely fall apart every time when Elisa says this line in Shape of Water: "When he looks at me, the way he looks at me... He does not know, what I lack... Or - how - I am incomplete. He sees me, for what I - am, as I am."
Dating, love and sex is impossibly hard as a neurodivergent woman. I guess Monster Romance is most appealing for me when it explores relationships outside of established norm where in absence of shared cultural tropes our heroes have to consonantly compromise and communicate for it to work.
That line made my mom cry in the theater, as a disabled woman she said that was her favorite line in the film and what she related to the most
Honestly same, the shape of water had me balling in the theater because I felt so seen as a disabled woman. It really sparked my deep love for monster romance I hadn’t connected until just now
That line is probably why my therapist assigned me to see that movie in theaters. I'm ace, and while I don't view myself as lacking, everyone else certainly does. I own The Shape of Water on Blu-ray and have a Funko Pop of the aquatic man on my bookshelf. Whenever I say it's one of my favorite films of all time, I get scoffed at and told I "only like it for the monsterf*cking".
I can take or leave the monsterf*cking. I watch that movie to see outsiders and others--people like me--being loved. Queer people, disabled people, people of color, foreigners--they all get to be heroes in that movie, and they're all seen and at least a little bit loved.
Now THAT'S a fantasy.
@onbearfeet that's lovely and I'm glad it still feels representational in spite of the focus everyone had on the sultry stuff. I'm going to add it to my watch list because it's one I've been wanting to see and put off too long!
As a neurodivergent man, it's the same for me.
Another good example of an animal wife story that is a precursor to all this: the Melusine. She is a sea fairy, sometimes depicted as part dragon or serpent, sometimes as a mermaid, who makes her husband promise to not look at her one day a week when she takes her monstrous form as she bathes. As long as he respects this she brings him great fortune but when he finally cheats and looks at her she leaves.
Melusine is a sovereignty goddess associated with Frankish nobility, mainly the Luisignan and Luxembourg/Limburg dynasties, is related to a similar magical ancestress associated with the Lusignan's rivals the Anjou/Plantagent house and has a male counterpart in the so called Quinotaur noted as the father of the Frankish Merovingian house.
She also has parrelels in the sea nymphs who give birth to many Greek heroes such as Achiles. Many Greek heroes were also ancesters to nobility and royalty and had a strong political element to their legends that got obscured by a lack of interest in the monarchic era of Greek history.
There's also the Tennyo, which are "heavenly women" from Japan. In legend, they're messengers from the heavens who come to Earth to deliver messages and occasionally relax. They have special robes that allow her to fly and have to take them off to bathe. A fishermen finds one such Tennyo bathing, steals her robe, and forces her to marry him and have his children. She eventually finds her robe and returns to heaven, never looking back.
We have another monster girl tish from manga/anime to last us a life time, thanks. Let's keep the focus on monster men lol
@@YumegakaMurakumo By the same logic we have enough monster men content to last us a lifetime from fan fiction and romance novels. What's your point here?
@@Jsizzlet There's even plenty of monster men in manga you just have to (shock!) read shoujo and BL.
I always get annoyed when ppl say “well why doesn’t Hera attack Zeus?” As if the Iliad (the most popular Greek myth literature of all time) doesn’t have her fighting against him every chance she gets, or doesn’t have Zeus physically and verbally abusing Hera, further explaining why she doesn’t fight against him more often.
Hera tried once. And got hung up by her wrists, hanging in space, for her trouble.
Yea she absolutely tries many times in many stories. But those stories are less emphasized because they aren't cute or playful or have fun magic stuff going on :(
Better to paint her as a shrill, vicious harpy who only goes after the unfortunate women (and men, like the guy Aquarius is named after) Zeus goes after.
It's also annoying because it's myth and religion. It's like discussing the trolley problem by arguing that we gotta find the dude that keeps tying people to rails and stop him.
@@aazhie I feel like people want to like Greek myths but they want to like it the way they like a saturday cartoon.
@drawingsticks5333 Based on a recent tumblr post I saw trying to "fix" the story of Orpheus while completely missing the point... yeah. A lot of wanting a happy ending etc and missing that the tragedy is important because most surviving myths are lessons.
IDK how I didn't think about monster romances when the "man vs bear" conversation came up originally, that really adds a whole new dimension to it.
I did not make the connection until right this second but when I was watching 'The Magicians' a Fillorian human character named Fray ended up in a romantic relationship with Humbledrum (a talking bear)... hm. 😶
There's literally a graphic novel where a woman ends up dating a bear after a string of awful men! I think the title is something self-explanitory like "my boyfriend is a bear"
And here I thought women choose "bear" because they know that bears exclusively go for other men
@@MelvaCross i go for other men too
@@MelvaCross May i point you in the direction of Halsin from BG3?
“This videos, alas, will not be as horny as expected.
It became academic.
I apologize.”
🤣 I loved that delivery
It def got a giggle out of me.
Nooooooo!!!!!
It was not as horny as expected, but it was horny enough. The trope is like sugar, there are few dishes that could be ruined by adding it.
Personally the reason i love monster romances so much is because i think it really sets the stage for so much vulnerability. Similar to the 'would you love me if i was a worm' - 'would you love me if i was a monster' is a question about loving someone for who they are at their core - having the deepest connection you possibly could with someone. It's so romantic *and* it works both ways - being the monsterous partner, or having a monsterous partner. AAA!!
Plus i love a monsterous partner who has so much physical power and is dangerous being so vulnerable and choosing softness and gentleness. I think it is a really strong way to create a feeling of trust between the characters and speaks so much to their personalities instantly.
I know a lot of other people are saying this too, but of course if you're someone who has grown up being the 'other' in some way, monsterous partners are so appealing because they will also know what it's like to be 'other' and different.
Same here :)
I'm just attracted to weird looking dudes lol
This!!! You summed up my feelings exactly, thank you!
And that’s how I realized I was into dom/sub in the bdsm sphere
this, pretty much.
Here I am at work, trying not to laugh uproariously at "You can turn that squid into a Squidward".
cupcakke reference
see, for me it was the frog-at-the-wall Kendrick sample 😂
I died at that part too XD
A HANDSOME squidward
In Nordic fairy tales there are plenty of stories of women being kidnapped for marriage with trolls, or men being tricked into marriage with a huldra. The woman is often saved by a christian man, while the man does not realize the huldra is a troll until after marriage. If he treats her well she may look beautiful and be a good wife, but if he treats her badly she will appear ugly and show her strength and magical abilities to make him act kind.
Doesn't sound too different from reality tbh
"Will show her strength and magical abilities"
Some Nordic men: Jokes on you, Im into that shit.
Nooooo, let the women be monster f-- lovers! 😢🤣
So my friend who wrote and published a buncha romance novels had this writing advice: "You can get away with almost anything as long as somebody falls in love and it's romantic, or they hook up and it's hot. There's probably an audience for it." She was writing a selkie (people who turn into seals or vice-versa) book in 2014.
Is it mainly romance, or is there a decent chunk of human/selkie social dynamics/drama? I'm a fan of selkies.
Honestly kinda true...
It's me. I am the audience.
Lol I think I read that book 😂
I know what you mean. I have a story I'm working on with a kelpie and he's rather unapologetic and snarkily humorous about his "if no one catches me, I can eat anything... humans included :)".
Do you have the title of your friend's book?
We've gone from stories about women being trapped with bears to women choosing the bear of their own volition, and that's beautiful.
????
alone in the woods with a bear or man discourse @@chl8760
@chl8760 There was a viral question about a month or so ago that originated on either Tumblr or Twitter that went like this: ladies, would you rather be trapped in the woods with a man you don't know or a bear? A decent number of women said "bear", which pissed off some men and started a whole dust-up.
@@jaduspeaks4754 There was plenty of reason to be "pissed off" about that question. It was just another "test" in the line of "orange peel", "spilling fluids", etc. etc. It was just another way for women to show how their male partners were of service to her. The later question even dehumanised men up to the point where you could see women committing emotional domestic violence to their male partners.
When the women said "yeah, but it's not about the bear" they didn't even consider that it's less than 1% of men who commit a "violent" act towards a woman. The issue also being that well over 99% of men don't need to hear such messages - yet, it was just another day where it's women abusing men for their own entertainment. If you tell your child every day that they are a bad person, we would consider that abuse.
The amount of gaslighting going on about it is worrying and terrifying. "But we want men to be better men", is what these women would say. That's on the same level as an abusive husband hitting his wife with a bat and saying "But darling, I just want you to be the best version of yourself."
So yeah, it's wild.
@@chl8760 girl some women really have no brain and i am scared..
Fun Fact: In the OG Frog Prince, it was *heavily* suggested that the prince had a gay lover who cried by his pond every day (called his loyal groom). Although repulsed at first (because frog), the maiden helped them reunite by breaking the curse.
Whelp, time to dig for the original text...
WHAAAAT??? PLEASE I NEED GAY FROG PRINCE OMGGGG
okay wait something that might be important here is that groom is often used to mean stablehand or servant, so dont necessarily think that means bridegroom
on the other hand, the wikipedia article says that theres an additional name of iron henry because the servant had three bands of iron around his heart to prevent it from breaking because the prince was cursed. the bands of iron broke because he was so happy when the curse was broken
@@owo4983 No, I meant groom as in stable hand etc. Iron Henry is exactly who I was talking about however -- just couldn't remember his name. Thanks!
@@CleoHarperReturns oh i see, then consider it a clarification in general lol
My favorite version of the frog princess is a Finnish fairy tale called “The Forest Bride” where the princess is a mouse and the farmer’s youngest song actually falls in love with her BEFORE she turns back into a human! It’s really cute, and it has some elements of Cinderella with the mouse girl and all her mice servants doing the domestic tasks. 🐭
What's the Finnish name of that fairy tale? I'm Finnish but don't remember ever hearing of it
The story title; 'The Forest Bride: The Story of a Little Mouse Who Was a Princess.'
Yes! Was going to come talk about this one. Very favorite, good story.
my monsterf*cking ass RAN to this video
ok I finished and just want to say YES!! YESS!!! everything in this video!! the genre is so varied and it's interesting seeing the different reasons monster love is popular and appealing. I think a lot of people now (at least in the spaces I frequent) do lean more toward the sort of 'embracing otherness' side, the unconventionality and mutual understanding instead of just hypermasculine monster x damsel woman (which is still sometimes fun to read and engage in but still) (and im especially glad that the 'foreign'-coded masculine brute man is getting a little less popular since... well. and i loved your brief commentary on werewolves vs vampires because yes absolutely, vampires are associated with the upper class, elegance, and therefore 'whiteness' while more 'feral' monsters like orcs and werewolves are 'tribal' and 'foreign' and 'savage' and therefore 'not white' and i think the most basic modern example would be twilight. jacob is literally indigenous and 'savage' and still hunts people, and edward is this classy white man who lives in a fancy penthouse and who has sworn off eating people). wonderful video princess
HELPP NO SAMEEEE
I was blessed to have this on my fyp.
You are not alone
same
I heard someone say before that we are touched by these "monster groom/bride" stories, because we think of ourselves as one, as an unlovable monster and seeing someone fall for someone like us gives us hope.
As a tall girly who feels like a monster, i feel this.
@@soundmind69 girl SAME, how tall are u??
@@Li_Tobler 5'11 hbu
@@soundmind69 exactly 6ft or 183 cm in European 😪
@Li_Tobler at least people can use us for our height once in a while. I feel like it kind of makes up for being such a monster. I'm a helpful monster.
The octopus toy showing up on Princess's neck party way into the essay is an appropriate touch. 😆🐙
They won me over one sucker at a time lol
@@Princess_Weekes 😏🖤
@@Princess_Weekes😂😂
@@Princess_Weekes ...same lol
Get that Mind Blown achievement queen
In Slavic mythology, especially in the Balkans, dragons were seen as sex demons (among many other things). In many myths, women who have experienced sex with a dragon become so enamored and overwhelmed by that experience that they lose any interest in romance and intimacy with humans. Sometimes dragons abduct princesses, but sometimes princesses willingly marry them. There's a pretty good Russian movie called "Он дракон" which roughly translates to "He is the dragon" in which a woman gets abducted by a dragon but realizes that he's a much better lover than any human could be. I won't spoil the movie, but the idea that dragons are sex demons is uniquely Slavic and I live for it.
balkan here, it translates to "he dragon." or "he is dragon." if you want sense but, just point out. :)
I just recently had a wet dream of havi f a very powerful connection to a huge black horse/ dragon...
and yes im getting less and less interested in humam beings
Ah finally, the sequel to hit RUclips video My Monster Boyfriend.
I thought that too! 😉
+1. And the tie-in to the Persian character is also a nice twist 😉
Perfect bookends, imo
‘Where are the lesbian werewolves?’ is an excellent question. There was a short story by Angela Carter called “The Tiger’s Bride” that had the Beauty archetype turn into a Beast herself (Happily Ever After, ofc). We just need that yuri…
OH WAIT, isn’t that Dungeon Meshi?
lesbian werewolves is one of my most frequented Ao3 tags lmao
There's a two volume lesbian werewolf Yuri called Scarlet. It has an English publication by Seven Seas. Not sure I'd call it 'good' and it kind of ends abrubtly. As a straight guy who was just checking out translated liscensed Yuri the author's notes were about it having been created as a pitch for a subtext heavy shonen manga and then picked up by a jousei Yuri magazine editor of the 'subtext is for cowards' mentality was as interesting as the comic.
I mostly liked that it had its own take on older folklore where witches, vampires and werewolves weren't so distinct so if you want generic hollywood or fanfic werewolves and want something other than youthful looking femme characters I don't think it counts.
No idea if it has doujin but it is does mostly seem writen as fodder for that kind of material to the point that it declares its own flash forwards 'happy' ending to be dubiously canon.
@@burnt-croissants This is my sign to make a night lady oc I havent touched in a while into a actual character with a wearwolf girfreind who she runs away with to protect and for her own safety too.
@@VegaNorth Dungeon meshi isn't even remotely yuri. It's implied that Marcille has a thing for Falin, but as far as I know they don't explore that at all.
@@VegaNorth I want there to be a werewolf romance novel where the female is the werewolf and dominant one and the male is human and submissive. Sadly I think the audience for that is very small. For some odd reason role reversal with women and men seems to not really be that much of a thing in romance genre.
I have little of substance to add. But I respect Octavia Spencer's character in The Shape of Water for asking what needed to be asked. Not all heroes wear capes.
The best supernatural lady + human dude combo in mythology/epic literature is Pwyll and Rhiannon. Dude listens to his wife, stands up for her, and she's the one who initiates the relationship as an alternative to a dude she's not into. Pwyll also refuses to sleep with a lady when he's enchanted to look like her husband so he wins the Most Honorable Mythology Guy award. (It's a low bar).
In Haiti we have a lore called Tezen nan dlo. A merman with a young woman but unfortunately has a tragic ending because her family finds out and kills him.
Do they fall in love? Many of the Scottish ones I know of are
not consensual
@@shushia1658 They do. It's meant to be romantic but also an escape for the girl from having to live in a patriarchal society. It's also implied they sleep together.
I wonder if this has any connection to Dlo/Maman glo here in Trinidad. A snake lady who lives in rivers that takes pretty human girls as her companions, especially ones who want to escape punishment or marriage
Movie makers, give us this one. A good and true to the origin version.
@@ana_d_73 From what I read that sounds like an indigenous spirit of Trinidad mixed with what we called La Siren/Yemaya. She sounds interesting for sure!
As a queer autistic person, it's the otherness of monster romance that's the hook. The monster, the shunned and strange outcast, is more relatable than your everyman. Growing up being told that you and people like you are some boogeyman, that there is something wrong with you-
You tend to relate to and see yourself in the monstrous. You see yourself in monsters, and to be embraced by someone else who is an Other, is comforting.
this comment is spot on, im not sure if i have ASD (although i wouldnt be surprised if i was on the spectrum) but i am 100 percent gay, very much relateable.
Yepppp
The first example of the "civilizing woman" appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Wild Man Enkidu and his relationship with shamhat the courtisan who "tamed" and "civilized" him.
Was about to comment on this but you beat me to it!
Its worth noting that while Shamhat has been interpreted variously as a prostitute, a priestess and 'just some woman' her intended profession or role before being sent to seduce Enkidu is not actually known for certain and is a matter of debate.
@@AC-dk4fp I think it's possible different regions had variations of this story and so when people interact and compare myths it can get confusing.
Fun fact: The civilizing woman happens in real life too. Prostitutes had a hand in settling The West.
@@theasinclaire52 There are wild man stories all over the world but the Epic of Gilgamesh is an elite literary composition that got refined over the centuries. The time gap between various fragments being written down is usually considered more relevant to the variation than regional differences since some are close to a thousand years apart.
Disagreements regarding the Enkidu and Shamhat episode are all modern scholars with varying perspectives looking at the same small set of fragments we don't have regional variants for Enkidu's backstory.
The variation we do have from older stories about Enkidu outside the main literary epic seem to have no knowledge of this sexually tamed wild man backstory at all.
I was really impressed with the Russian movie On Drakon/He's A Dragon because it uses the monster trope for the uncommon lesson that sexuality can (and must) be separated from patriarchy and violence, and lets the hot lady get a hot guy that can fly her around.
I love that movie! Such a good example!
no i dont want the monster to turn into a human. monsters my beloveds....
I feel like most BatB adaptations get a pass because there becoming human was what the beast wanted for himself, not what someone else wanted to make him more palatable. But in general, the monster doesn't need to change, especially when they're fine how they are!
That one comic is timeless.
"Change back."
Y'all know the one.
@@SecretIdentityStudio Honestly though I'd be down for a version of BatB where the prince recognizes Beauty/Belle/whoever loves him for him and that he doesn't need to change. Then again I suppose Shrek already did that story and it's hard to beat but another version would probably be fine. Just princess loves him for him and he says "You know what I'm stronger than the average dude now and have claws and shit, I DO kick ass. I'm keeping the monster."
this is so Laios coded
@@zkkitty2436 LKJVKGKHJ THAT'S A HUGE COMPLIMENT TO ME THANK YOU LOL
The way you took a “horny” topic and brought in historical foundation and tying it into our current man vs bear conversation: brilliant! Really great vid!
I find the 1800s French versions (and their modern counterparts) is that they are equally compelling from a male perspective. A man who views himself as something hideous or even less-than-human finds himself in circumstances with where he is drawn to a woman who reifies his humanity while refusing to be hung upon the characteristic which he thinks makes him inhuman. For a fisabled or neurodivergent men, this is incredibly affirming. Having one's own self-image of repellance or inhumanity being refuted by someone who innately sees past those veneers really does something for that innnate need to be loved.
Yes
Absolutely agree. I myself identify more with the monster in these romance novels more so than the human protagonist, regardless of gender.
"You gave me autonomy, and I think that's really attractive."
I love that angle and don't know why that hasn't been in my understanding of this story up till now.
Yeah, like I was expecting the OG story to be a lot worse than the Disney version hearing this, I’m like “Wait… Why didn’t we go with this one?”
@birdiewolf3497 In the OG story, the Beast's mom was a warrior queen. We could have had a bad ass warrior queen! (Along with more positive takes on the themes in the story about looking beyond the surface and adapting to adversity/situations beyond our control.)
In ‘The Mahabharata’, there are creature wives like Ulupi (Woman with the lower half of a snake) who falls in love with Arjun and Hidimbi (a female demon) who falls in love with Bhima.
The snake woman reminds me of legend of white snake in Chinese mythology.
I thought they were called Lamia! Cool to learn about new stuff
@@yms4355They're called the Nagas in India.
I am not a biggest fan of sex or NSFW stories so from my perspective: I love monster romances because monsters are truly a representation of something, and them being romanced can be seen as that fear being accepted or reversed into love. Also I think giving them odd behaviors can make it cute! Like the way they move being different from humans, it's just cute to see something 'scary' be accepted and loved by someone.
I am not a fan of when the stories take away the monster to replace it with a regular human, I think a good way for this idea to be written is the monster trying to change themselves for the human only to be accepted for who they are (BC u shouldn't have to change who you are physically to such a degree that you are someone different in a relationship)
The first vampire, Carmilla, was a lesbian. She pre-dates Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 25 years.
Carmilla wasn't the first, the modern concept of vampires as we know them today was on Vampyre
Christabel was written in 1800, and may technically depict a lesbian vampire too - it's hard to tell what the 'witch' is in that poem. I've uh...made every handle I have on any online service some variation of Christabel since college, lol.
@@christabelle__damn, I’ve never heard of that, I’d be SUPET interested in learning more (my special interest is vampires)
@@almagomez6689 If it's any consolation to OP, the Vampyr was based off of famously bisexual Lord Byron and was at least partially meant as like a dig at his sexual deviancy. Vampires in general after they were brought over from eastern europe to victorian england became symbols of sexual deviants to the victorians, a large part of which were queer ppl, which isn't great but I'll take what representation I can get
There are older vampire stories in the evil bride that kills men tradition. It's the part of the monster romance that Princess did not cover, all the stories where the fair spouse is evil and is plotting your death.
I can’t help but think that stories like The Shiek is an example of Stockholm syndrome and is in some way encouraging women (and men) to forgive/love/desire aggressors/abusive spouses.
Interesting perspective, because it really reminded me of the sexual repression r*pe fantasy- explored by media like The Labyrinth (love that movie). Women couldn’t or feared to exercise sexuality, so having the distress of choice between acting on desire and being demonized by society or repressing desire taken away was a freeing fantasy that didn’t require acknowledgement of ‘unapproved’ thoughts, just the acknowledgment of a powerful, masculine man as an attractive concept
definitely coexists with this point tho
Sharing my head canon that Eros & Psyche pay frequent visits to the Underworld, having become "couples friends" with Hades & Persephone. Psyche and Persephone gossip about Olympus (but especially Aphrodite), while Eros and Hades go on gushing about their wives. 🥰💝
Yesssss. I mean, there's some good solid philosophical overlap among all their domains. Death/earth/soil/growth couple and love/soul/mind couple. But like, specifically sexual, reproductive love, the kind that results in birth, creation of new souls that will live and grow and eventually end up hanging with Hades...
A double date with those four is basically the entire human life cycle.
Lore Olympus on WEBTOON is essentially that!
I think the reason women like abduction/forced romance is not having to walk on eggshells for their mans ego as they are forced to in real life. So many women have to perform in bed, praise men for doing the bare minimum and be careful to always let him take the lead even when he’s clueless that being in a forced romance where you can yell ‘I hate you’ and he still comes back and wants you is like a breath of fresh air.
I never considered this, but this is so true!!!
I’m reminded of a college humor skit called the basic knight where a man defends super basic choices made by people. An example of favorite foods being pizza being okay is one joke. Another is the acknowledgment that no one wants to be on top during sex, and that’s okay too.
Made me think about how we all just want what we want without consequence and it just kind of sucks that we can’t get it-even before social pressures and such.
theres also the theory that a lot of abduction fantasies come from internalized mysogyny. They tend to be written by women who were raised to be ashamed of their sexuality, so they put the heroine in a spot where things happened against her will so they dont have to be ashamed of those fantasies. Also in a lot of these stories, especially the older ones, the women get abducted from a rather boring life of raising children in a probably loveless marriage to a life of adventure and being loved by the man who abducted them. Basically it boils down to "what if I got the life and relationship I always wanted, but were told werent proper, andnobody can blame me because its happening against my will?".
The desire for an intimate partner without the fear that you will mess it up, lived out through the fantasy of a romance where you are desired no matter what you do. There is no greater acceptance than one who accepts you against your will. It's poetic in a way.... but holy shit our society is messed up if THAT passes for desirable to a lot of us
If someone is madly in love with me for reasons beyond my control then nothing I do can ever ruin it.
"Ice. Planet. Barbarians."
I almost spat my coffee 😂😂
Victory!!!
Also ngl its kind of comforting someone can fall in love with something seen as unnatural, ugly, or scary and it gives me hope that someone will eventually fall for me😭
Yuuta and Rika are the best!!!!!! God, I love their arc so much. Yuuta being this very nervous wreck of a boy, very timid, up until he's talking to Rika. Everyone else cowers up against her, rightfully scared of her, except for him. It's the only time we see him exert confidence or be sure of himself. He knows she won't hurt him, that she's more dangerous to everyone else. She's his protector and he relies on her strength.
It's the fact that he uses her love for him to gain confidence, that it was his love in the first place that cursed her! They were just kids! Even as a curse, Rika has some awareness to protect Yuuta and to shield him from becoming jaded and mean. Yuuta maintains a level of innocence because he has Rika. he is cursed and gets bullied because of Rika, yes, but he is also shielded from having to dirty his hands.
And he still loves her through it all! There's some resentment, sure. He lost several years to her "protection". But when anyone goes to exorcise her, he's sad. Being separated from her scares him! It's why she's a curse in the first place! He's still in love; he still finds her beautiful, even in her monstrous form.
Slight spoilers, but when we see him in the main JJK storyline and he's in Japan again, he's stronger and confident in himself. Their relationship is symbiotic, not parasitic. They work together. Their connection, their bond, is stronger.
I just love them so much, please excuse my half awake ramblings.
Hearing that excerpt from "The Sheik" honestly made me want to hurl. Like seriously... people complain Disney Beauty and the Beast was Stockholm's syndrome, but this is a clear actual case of it.
Those people have no idea what they're talking about, anyway. Stockholm Syndrome is when you develop a one-sided relationship with your captor as a coping mechanism, which is what happened during the incident the syndrome is named after.
@@nyanchat2657 It didn't even happen in the incident. What happened is that the police ended up treating the hostages worse than their captors, so when the hostages showed a preference they gave it a name and called it a "syndrome." The fawn response is real, Stockholm syndrome is not
(edit: typo)
“I shouldn’t be outside if it isn’t cult activities” is getting tattooed on my forehead rn
I know in “Psyche and Eros” that Psyche’s sisters were supposed to be haters, but from their perspective, their sister, who was supposed to be married to a monster, now lives in an enchanted house with a husband she cannot see, so my immediate assumption would also be that she’s being played and should get the hell out of there.
actually… good point.
How would they know she can't see him? The version I read insinuates that there are invisible servants and she just hasn't seen the husband yet, and the sisters get jealous because they were hoping she got ball and chained to a literal monster but she got a rich husband and mansion with servants instead, but that's just a version.
@@material-cheshirekhatter2413 the version I read had her explaining her situation to her sisters, so I just assumed she told them about her husband’s mysterious night time visits.
Still kind of haters though, because why would they consider her current situation worse than her being married to a monster? Also if she couldn't see him then it should be assumed that he was a monster saving her from having to see him in that state, either way they are haters. They saw she was happy instead of unhappy and decided to try and ruin it for her.
What would be the point though? She was married to a monster, this was known and accepted before she was married off. Her sisters knew this too but when they came to visit, expecting her to be miserable with her monster husband she is not. What do her sisters do when they find out that living with a monster is not as bad as they thought (and presumably better than their own lives)? The sisters tried to figure out why by endangering their “beloved” sister’s marriage life. They could have been worried, idk, but it was definitely not the only thing they were feeling.
Your opening lines cracked me up. I'm honestly surprised you didn't use a clip from Gargoyles - talk about 500K, slow burn, hurt/comfort, angst with a HEA. But our tough modern woman not only fell in love with a "savage" from ye olden times, but he was, in fact, not human (and amazing, and hot, and a nerd by how much he read) (and Scottish?). I love that series. This was a great video essay.
Should be added to a l9st of top 10 monster boy friends lol
Is Gargoyles the book series? Who is the author? 👀
@@kelcieford7236 It's an old cartoon from the 90s, and was pretty heavy for its time. It still has a cult following even after Disney tried to hide it.
@@summerstarr3446Keith David's Goliath is iconic and one of my favorite "monster boyfriend" archetypes. 🥰
Shoutout to Gargoyles for just ruining villainous men for me. Because they just can't beat how great Xanatos is lol
Well, in Asia, there are multiple monster wives that were made out to be monsters who were saved by the protagonist who later comes back disguised as human and would do the hosework for the protagonist to repay him. Like 白蛇传 and tsuru no ongaeshi.
On the topic of Loathy Ladies, for some reason my mind went to superheroes (I guess they can fall under the God/Goddesses comparison).
Wonder Woman in mainstream comics rarely has a steady romance outside of Steve Trevor. Almost every man is weaker than her and rarely do they stick around for very long. Steve (and maybe Bruce Wayne) are the only two men weaker than her who seem to respect and admire her autonomy in a romantic sense. When the New 52 universe tried to pair her up with Superman, there was this really strong push that they "belonged together" which always felt icky to me because it seemed to imply that the strongest woman on Earth could only find happiness if she was with a man stronger than her. That she still needed to be second best to a man.
Another example is when Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) actually gave up her super heroics in Teen Titans to be with her human husband Terry Long and have a family, but eventually returns due to her super hero career. Her husband is very threatened by these displays of power and autonomy and eventually seeks divorce, which later results in Terry's death and the death of their son. I know that was done to "remove baggage" from Donna's story but the implication from the wider narrative is that the story was punishing her for not being a "better wife and mother".
With Starfire and Dick Grayson (my OTP), it kind of starts off with the 'humbling the powerful woman' route but it actually goes in an interesting route. In Teen Titans, it is established that Dick Grayson loves Kory's power and autonomy, that he's not scared that she's stronger than him. No, what he's actually scared of is her emotional honesty- because he's spent his whole life repressing his emotional urges working under Batman. He's afraid of the vulnerability that comes with admitting those emotions because "admitting emotions" is a sacrifice of power (you can't be as cold and manipulative with that). So Kory has to learn how to taper her impulsive actions to reduce hurting others and Dick has to learn emotional honesty so that he can better help others.
... the problem there is that not only did DC sink that ship so that Dick could be in more Batman books, but by pairing him up with Barbara Gordon, it kind of sends the message that trying to marry a more powerful woman was "a mistake". (To clarify, I don't hate Barbara. I'm blaming that implication on the writers afterwards who treated Kory as "lust object" or a "youthful phase" when the narrative made it clear that it wasn't).
Anyways, that's my TED talk on the power dynamics of super heroines and their weaker partners. Only Big Barda and Scott Free get it right in DC.
The romance between Starfire -- who first appears in DC Comics Presents (Vol.1) #26 (October 1980; release date: 10 July 1980) -- and Robin began AFTER his attempted romance with Batgirl ended on the grounds of age difference: she was "25 years old -- and he's still a teenager", a quote from Batman Family (Vol.1) #10 (March-April 1977; release date: 23 December 1976). Dick Grayson, having been Robin since the Golden Age, finally turned 18 and left Wayne Manor for Hudson University in Batman (Vol.1) #217 (December 1969; release date: 21 October 1989), prompting Bruce and Alfred to relocate to Wayne Tower.
And did you know that all this happened while Barbara Gordon was also representing Gotham City as a CONGRESSWOMAN. She was nominated in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #422 (April 1972; release date: 29 February 1972) in her father's place, she won the election in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #424 (June 1972; release date: 27 April 1972), and finally lost re-election in Detective Comics (Vol.1) #488 (March 1980; release date: 8 November 1979).
@@schoolfreak32 I FORGOT Barbara was a Congresswoman! So even Barbara got de-aged and de-powered (politically).
Well put!
About the frog princess. She is actually a powerful sorceress Vasilisa the Wise who was cursed by an evil wizard for refusing to marry him. At night she can take off her frog skin and become full powered human version of herself and that's how she does all the tasks. Other wifes aren't lazy, they are just no math for her.
When the prince finds out he burns her frog skin and then she's lika "Dude, wtf? The curse is almost over but now I have to return to the wizard because you were impatient!" He saves her later.
The same Vasilisa from the Baba Yaga myth? Or a different one? That's a common shape-shifter trope, burning/hiding the shape-shifter's skin so that they stay as humans.
@@YumegakaMurakumo it is probably different one. There's also Vasilisa the Beautiful. It's a common name in russian fairytales for a magical bride. The same thing as with Ivan Tsarevich. It's a different one every time.
The original telling of Cupid and Psyche comes from Apuleius's Metamorphoses in the second century. I feel like this trope should be WAY older than that. Love the video though, thank you.
It is older because the story of cupid and psyche appears in greek art as early as the 4th century BC
@@chl8760 You're right but I meant it feels like the monster bride/groom trope should be ancient (like a tale as old as time, perhaps :P) 400 bc is still classical
There’s something that feels hopeful about yesterday’s anxieties becoming today’s joys.
Thank you for including clips from La Belle et La Bete (2014) to tell the story of the original French variant. Few people know about this version, and it is insanely gorgeous! (Visuals, sets, costumes...) 😌🌈🌹
It's my favorite version, so far, ever since it first came out! 💖💖
The Cocteau version, this one fails on showing why actually Belle falls in love with the Beast, ad least for me it really looked like fullon Stockholm syndrome
@@Nixx0912 I fully understand that assessment, as a result, I've tried to share with others my own posted theory as to why Belle's feelings for the Beast seem to change so drastically in this film. And I admit to it being initially developed just because I *really* wanted to like the movie past its visuals. 😆
"Belle first felt affection for the Beast when they were dancing. If you watch, her face changes throughout. From appearing relatively unfeeling about it and keeping her eyes downcast, like she's just going through the motions, to looking him in the eye with a newfound softness, no doubt surprised by how comfortable she is in his arms, as if she were dancing with a human. This is further shown by her placing her head on his chest and closing her eyes, showing a sign of trust, as well as her decision to put the deal aside and just be in the moment with him. It's the first real moment of natural chemistry that Belle and the Beast have together, and Belle probably recognizes it. So when she said that he would always disgust her, I don't think she meant it. He wouldn't let her begin to accept him without forcing a relationship on her, and to top it off, he seemingly refused to send her home like she'd asked, so she got fed up and lashed out. But after the Beast leaves and the camera lingers on her, she looks somewhat remorseful, because try as she might, her feelings from the dance remain. So when the Beast catches up to her on the lake and tries to kiss her, you can definitely see her about to kiss him back before falling through.
Later, when the Beast warns her to come back or he will die, I think he was more fearful of the God of the Forest's reaction as opposed to his own, and I believe Belle chooses to follow through on her word because she decided to give him a second chance. He not only saved her from drowning, but also took the time to ensure she didn't get hypothermia (though I wish we'd been able to actually see it). Plus, he gave her the rose as a peace offering when she awoke simply because he knew she loved them, and the vial of healing water to show that he was concerned for her safety. When the camera shows Belle's reactions to the gifts, she's clearly touched by these small acts of generosity, thus allowing herself to open up and flirt with him a bit (playfully asking which hand he wanted and then joking about him giving her a ring). To her it meant the Beast was trying to do better, and that gave Belle enough incentive to want to come back and give their relationship another shot (especially after using the water to revive her father). It's why she begs the God of the Forest to let her go back to the Beast, and why she's upset when Perducas (the lead thief) tries to kill him. Belle had only just begun to understand the Beast, so by that point, she knew she didn't want to lose him. When she & her brothers were able to save him in time, I think she was so overcome with joy and relief at the thought of them still having a chance to start over, she fell in love with him as a result. This was probably further enhanced by the Beast's much more vulnerable & heartfelt inquiry about her affection, asking if she could've loved him with more time or patience. Because they ARE able to have more time now, she believes she could indeed love him, but in that moment, she feels as though she already does, which is enough to break the spell. I'm sure Belle and the Prince spent more time connecting as a couple before getting married, and it was a significant enough story that Belle wanted to tell it to their children, probably to help emphasize the idea that people can choose to change for the better.
Also, at the end of the film, we can see that Belle is still wearing the necklace with the empty vial when she goes out to meet her husband. I have no doubt she held onto it because it was the first sign he had genuinely cared for her. He didn't just see her as a potential love interest anymore, which his previous gifts seemed to represent; he finally saw Belle as both a person and an individual. That change of viewpoint was the first step he took to better himself, which allowed for their relationship to truly begin to blossom. They wouldn't be where they were in the present without it, therefore it held great significance for Belle."
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose Thank you so much for posting this!!! I love this movie.....
Thank you, Princess for reminding us all where we first saw Karl “Billy Butcher” Urban 😂
Irene from Cat People is one of my favorite female monsters. Someday could you do a video destroying Zeus and praising Hera. She deserves it.😊
It is in my soul.
Nikita Gill did a FANTASTIC rewrite of the Hera-Zeus relationship in her Great Goddesses poetry book. In her version, Hera chooses to leave Zeus because of his philandering and dedicates her powers as the Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth to helping women and children get out of abusive and loveless relationships.
i would be seated immediately
I have this favorite dynamic in monster romance that I don't see very often. The closest description of it that I saw is the ao3 tag "unsafe, insane, consensual". Basically when the monster character is actually dangerous and actually harms the human character to the point of it being life threatening, but the human character is into it and deliberately allows it. But I have no clue what to call this dynamic or where it's coming from.
I vibe with this. I play with the Monster Girl Encyclopedia but I return their ability to cause harm and death. For one thing it just feels like the softness and love is more valuable if it also comes with the reality check that giant spiky venomous beasts are a danger to fragile and thin-skinned humans; both a monster trying to be gentle and a human trying to endure show how important the relationship is to both of them.
It also metaphors well into things like a relationship with a trauma victim that lashes out without meaning to, while a beloved helps them accept the scary parts of them by being down bad for all of them, good and bad.
I've described this to my brother as letting the monsters 'keep their teeth' because it adds some 'bite' to the story. The fact that actual biting may well be involved is incidental.
@@sunshowers3838 THIS.
I think a lot of the selky/animal/fairybrides, say you can trick/trap/force a woman to be your bride, especially if you seperate them from their families their homes and their friends. But your marraige will not be happy, and shock, horror they might not like you and might run away and leave you with the children.
In some stories she takes the kids because they belong to the sea and then it's a loss of your legacy too
I love how in depth this video essay is! But it is very euro centric and I’d love to offer a very famous Japanese myth “the crane returns a favor” or “the crane wife” in which a man saves a crane and returns to his home to find a woman who says she is his wife and he says okay but doesn’t have a lot of wealth. She comes with a never ending sack of rice and then tells her husband to not enter a room for 7 days. After seven days she comes back out worryingly skinny and a beautiful cloth/clothing and tells him to sell it at a high price. This happens again, but the man gets curious this time and peeks. He finds out that the wife is the crane and has been using her own feathers to make the cloth. In each version she leaves; one variation because of not respecting/trusting her, the other because he states love doesn’t require sacrifice which she says that isn’t true love if he feels that way.
is that where the band The Crane Wives get their name
And the number of fox bride tales with kitsune! Japanese folklore has a lot of monster brides/grooms.
The Frog Princess one was adapted by Gail Carson Levine and combined with Rapunzel. It was one of my favorites of her stories and it’s still great
blast from the past... i loved those books growing up!
this sounds so great! what's the title of the book?
I love her Bamarre books. 🤗 Gail Carson Levine made me the person I am today.
As an aroace writer who explores a shit ton of certain monsterfucker romance tropes through the lens of everything but romantic/sexual, i really love this video. It outlines both the history and the evolution of the trope so well, especially in regards to our modem day world. The "Other" is a fascinating safe space to explore ourselves and our relationships for those who see that in themselves. Is it also probably because we barely see ourselves represented as actual accurate people in other kinds of stories? Yeah. Probably. But there's a certain empathy needed to see yourself in a monster, and then grow to care for that monster in spite of your fear of it, and I think that's important.
Still cracks me up we aces can be some of the most eager writers for this stuff. That unbiased lens for either romantic or sexual desires comes in handy XD
I love this so much. The history of it is fascinating! I enjoy this genre, but always feel uneasy when I see it present a heteronormative super power dynamic (male character having so much power over female character). And the heroine will just need to trust him, even if he presents strong red flags, and she’ll get something so great if she sticks it out. I know it’s fantasy but it makes me glower for a myriad of reasons.
Great video, thank you.
I adore monster romances, it is such a fascinating topic in today's time. I find more satisfaction and relatability with monster romances because of my disability which has led to being an outcast growing up and finding that mutual understanding is very fulfilling
That aphrodite jingle from the Hercules TV show gets stuck in my head randomly sometimes, I had to double check it wasn't just my mind playing tricks 😅
The goddess of love ❤️
I’ve always had a thing for monster romances because it feels like I won’t have to “perform” for them. Put on the right make up, wear the right clothes and accessories, say the right things. They’ll just love me as I am, even if it takes some adjusting my world view or habits.
(Also, on the bear or man question. My entire DnD determined Halsin to be the perfect choice.)
Still hilarious Larian had a statistic listed as "This amount of players chose the bear"
I just want to thank you so much for making this video. As someone who used to love devouring MC erotica, I held so much guilt over it. Firstly, as I’m gay. So I would imagine the male characters as female anyway. But as someone who wants to think of themselves as a strong feminist, I really didn’t understand why any part of me was drawn to these kind of books. I think you hit the nail on the head for me. There’s something about knowing when to expect the violence or the more toxic masculinity and then having a character recognise that and apologise for it afterwards. It does create a feeling of safety, as opposed to the real world where it can pop up anywhere, completely unexpectedly. It’s exhausting. I feel very vulnerable having just shared that though. Be kind people! 😬
I relate. I started reading BL mangas in college and most MLs were downright abusive. I think, I was drawn to the romanticisation of it, as irl our abusers are irredemable pos, who DONT genuily love us but only say so to lower our guards.
YT just ate my comment so I'm going to rewrite it but it'll be shorter.
First, thank you for sharing. People are nervous to share these types of thoughts or doubts because it's likely to get people labeled negatively (i.e. problematic).
It's unfortunate, though, because the more people I speak with, the more I see how we're all very similar.
Years and years ago, I came across an article that suggested that slash fiction appealed to women in part because it provides a useful barrier. Female readers typically view men as physically capable. MLM often features one character aggressively pursing the other. We're less afraid of this intensity because we think the man could stop it if needed. It's "safe."
That lends to the fact that women who have fantasies about being forced don't truly wish someone would harm them this way. It's a power fantasy. They're controlling the fantasy and therefore conquering a fear.
Finding a tolerable way to explore fears and fantasies is great , even if often misunderstood.
When I had lesbian friends share that they often read het fanfiction, even those with aggressive men, redeemed or not, it made sense to me. They were truly comfortable and aroused by female descriptions but the masculine threat could be explored in het romance, fanfic or regular.
So while there are numerous reasons people engage or enjoy romance or smut, you're not *wrong* for your reasons. Fiction is the appropriate place to expose yourself to those fears and gain mastery over them. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the newfound power over a fear either.
❤❤❤ Thank you again for sharing. Someone will read your comment and realize they're not alone or weird.
@@wodensskadi i liked this comment back when I read it the first time but having just read it again, I wanted to reply to say thank you for your kind and astute thoughts. I found this really affirming to read so thank you. ☺️
@ellebee4112 thank you for your original comment and willingness to be vulnerable by sharing!
There is a fairytale where I live about a woman, who maries a prince, who is cursed to look like a serpent. During the night he turns back into a beutiful man, but she she is forbidden from telling anyone. She of course breaks this rule, resulting in him being kidnapped by a witch and she has to rescue him. She is also pregnant during this time, but unable to give birth (because evil witch).
At a girl... She cause her own pain but she nail it to the end
My god that sounds familiar. Like Kong Lindorm, but I don't think it's that one. 🧐
I think i heard a version that had the prince become a lion
My first thought was Madame White Snake from Chinese culture. In that one the woman is secretly a giant snake and she's bisexual with a human husband who doesnt know her true nature and a lesbian lover who is also a snake. I love that story.
Like you mentioned, there are lots of variants of the animal bride tale where the moral is for the dude to get over himself, because a frog bride might outdo a beautiful human girl at baking and weaving and what-have-you. Sometimes a dude is all embarrassed and rude about looks but still gets rewarded (like Tatterhood, where a guy gripes endlessly about getting stuck with the ugly sister), but my favorite versions have him just genuinely think she's nice, like a Finnish story called The Princess Mouse. Different versions of The Frog Princess have the groom be resentful or appreciative.
This was one of your best works. I think you’re best when you do clear intersections of the casual and academic like this.
Seeing BBC Merlin’s Guinivere makes me want to your dedicated look at her. Or Sister Sage on the boys once the season is done.
"Sapphics love orcs" I was not expecting to be called out in this video lol
Legends and Lattes is literally a lesbian succubus and orc cozy fantasy romance. Highly recommend!!!
@@emilyanderson6964 Thanks! Gonna check that out
Princess Weekes: (posts a video essay about monster-loving)
My Beauty & the Beast obsessed ass: 😊🍿
This is a big reason why I LOVE horror. Most horror villains are the other and once you start seeing the other they are representing it’s just tragic.
Everyone is uploading today.
I knowwww its a link up
There is one story I know of with a man falling in love with an animal bride called *The White Cat* where the cat in question didn't have to change from being a strong leader and having a great deal of power to have their curse broken.
She didn't need to be made weaker/mortal for the man as she already was(she was nerfed from the get-go basically) yet was also a girlboss in a sense of her wealth and mysterious power that the man(a prince) had been literally dependent upon in helping him win the trials of succession his father had imposed upon all 3 of his sons.
It's a rare example of the man's status being raised by the female animal bride when their curse is broken, than the other way around.
It can be difficult to find the full story translated from it's OG language(French if I recall correctly), but it was a very refreshing take on the typical human male/animal bride dynamic.
My favorite Disney princess as a kid was Belle. We're both bibliophiles. She's still my fave & she's the reason I love Beauty & the Beast AUs or any adaptation of it
Good that you can enjoy her movie. I just cant. Even back as a kid i hated the movie so much. 😩
Best Disney Princess 💙
I loved her so much when I was little! Adored the movie! Same with Ariel!
19:07 Hera is quite interesting. For one, she never left her father’s house so in a lot of ways she’s still her own person vs if she married outside of the family that wouldn’t necessarily be so. Another thing is that she’s quite protective less of her marriage per se but more so her role as head of the house, queen of the gods, etc. She temporarily banishes Zeus’s lovers and kids for quite some time quite a lot more for them to learn their place and for others to not question hers.
Speaking of western focus, I have met very few people into historical vampire mythology, so like every time someone says they're into vampires I get super excited and immediately emotionally destroyed as they start talking about modern media
Yes! Especially when they start insisting on certain vampire "rules" as being "original." Looking at that silver-backed mirror thing that people keep spreading around. >>;
Always from people who have never heard of Peter Plogojowitz.
I like Anne Rice's vampires
Hey! I’m someone who’s mainly into Anne rice’s vampires and some other niche vampires,do you have any recommendations for getting into historical vampire mythology that might not be too hard to read? Thank you
Yuta and Rika's relationship is so interesting and sweet. For anyone who wants similar to this, I'd recommend Ancient Magus Bride. It is the best monster romance ever
I agree with Ancient Magus Bride being amazing but good lord, those first few episodes do NOT do it good service 😭
You can't explain the show without people thinking you need to take a trip to Arkham or something..
@@tymeforspiace7705 Really, how
Isn't the Bride in question underage? That's the only thing I've gotten from critiques of AMB.
@@Daelyah She was bought by her love interest, Elias, at an auction. Elias isn't human and doesn't 100% "get" the implications of all that, but it is not a good look. And it definitely doesn't make talking about the show easy. Elias never does anything "bad" to Chise, but like I said, it's just icky if you don't get every last drop of context and explaination.
I love Ancient Magus, but I also fully admit it went Full Anime with Chise being underage. Oh, and the show never let's you forget it. The Good Neighbors and other inhumans are SUPER supportive of it, which is nice, but then the humans of the story keep reminding the audience that Chise is too young for a relationship with Elias and I get the squick again before I turn my brain back off
It's definitely a multi-faceted trope. In fact, some of us guys like the Monster x Woman trope a lot too because we want to _be_ the monster. There's also plenty of room for the opposite, where we want the monster woman. (SCP's, Lusty Argonian Maid, Deathclaws, etc.)
Okay...I love that you used footage from Happily Ever After's Frog Princess. That is the version that has been seared into my head for that story.
Her cake (literal. One of her tasks) looked so tasty and Lila had all the best attitude
The TW for Kevin Sorbo made me choke on my drink. 🤣
I wondered about that and decided to Google it. Hoo-boy, that was disappointing to read...
@@TheGalacticGrizzly I'm sorry this is how you found out. =\
@@TheGalacticGrizzly Yeah, strokes do BAD things to folks. He was a right winger beforehand, but afterwards... he's a SHIT
Same!
😂🤣
Kevin Sorbo watches you while you sleep…
I 💗 Beauty & the Beast 1987 tv series with Linda Hamilton (Catherine) & Ron Perlman (Vincent). I have the DVD's. It was so ahead of its time.
There is beauty and the beast media with Ron Perlman???? Sign me tf up
I've really enjoyed _The Ancient Magus' Bridge,_ which was explicitly written (not that way) to be a _Beauty and the Beast_ style story where the monster doesn't change at the end. Along the way, Chise and Elias have to come to terms with their own personalities, flaws, boundaries and sense of self to become better versions of themselves. It's light on romance, but I love the gentle domestic partnership that forms between them.
The Sheik trope is still alive and well not just in fanfic, but in bestsellers like Colleen Hoover novels. Hey, everyone has their kink…
Yep, it has been a mainstay in Harlequin novels for decades at this point.
whoa whoa whoa. That George RR Martin, that Ron Pearlman, and that Linda Hamilton all in one show? Where can I find this?
I found the DVD's on Amazon.
It is very fun, very poetic, and AGGRESSIVELY late 80's.
It was on paramount at some point, some episodes look like bootleg VHS versions, I tried to watch the one GRRM did enough for a credit
I love that your takeaway isn't to shame people for enjoying things that are inherently taboo, or might be skewed as taboo by current social standard- but instead just encouraging people, even in leisure, to consume thoughtfully.
I love that you touched on heteronormativity here! I’m working on a queer pseudo-monster / beauty and the best type romance rn largely bc it’s been a good vehicle to unpack the fears I have around attraction and intimacy as a late-ish in life lesbian. The more I write the more I am surprised that it’s such a heteronormative genre because it’s been a surprisingly enlightening exploration of uniquely queer feelings and experiences. For me, I think the appeal is seeing the protagonist use discernment to decide “okay, this type of suitor may not look dangerous but I know they are. and this suitor may look dangerous but I know they are not.” I’m femme4butch so for me that maps onto loving people who embody what I was taught to fear about myself - very Shrek and Fiona imo!
“In this version it is golf” took me by surprise lol
A romantic retelling of the Tempest with Caliban finding love would be interesting
i heard that "turn that squid into a squidward" JUST as i was having a sip of my beverage 😂
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is probably my favourite part of the JJK anime, outside of certain bits of Shibuya. Great video!
You will like Aliette de Bodard when you read her work. She writes a Vietnamese space opera world with mostly sapphic stories involving human women & sentient female spaceships. She explores themes of oppression, resistance, liberation, revolution & resilience, complex morality, family bonds...
Me, being named Selkie not paying attention for a second, hearing you refer to selkies: ME?!?
19:25 If anyone is interested in selkies I would recommend watching “Song of the Sea”. It’s a family movie and it’s animated but its beautiful, wholesome, a little sad, and overall a wonderful movie.
You’ve chosen a great topic. The weirdest I came across recently was ‘Beastly’ starring Alex Pettyfer (very hard to make him look less attractive) and Vanessa Hudgens
for me personally, I love the exploration of this concept of monsterous, powerful, mysterious male-coded characters who are or can be made to be soft, sensitive, gentle, who truly care about you with all their heart, however that's portrayed..... specifically BECAUSE that's not a realistic thing to expect in 2024. You cannot expect a man with a lot of power, physically/societally/monetarily/whatever, to have a secret sensitive side, to have a desire to treat you right, to be kind and sweet somewhere. That is not a realistic thing. So the entire concept of this is a fantasy I think is very interesting to explore. The straights are not okay lmao, so when girls say they'd rather meet a bear in the forest they aint kiddin
Speaking of stories with humans who have relationship with animals/creatures, I can't recommend enough the podcast "(Sort of) The Story" to anyone who likes fairy tales, folktales and myths (it's SO funny and the stories are from all around the world!!)
Edit: I'm going to add every story that is both on the video and the podcast
- East of the Sun West of the Moon
- the Frog Princess (kind of)
- the wedding of Sir Gawain
- Selkie stories
do you know if they cite their sources? I do feel somewhat weird when people will retell stories removed from their cultural context and want to check folks work
@@zkkitty2436 yes!! They really care about ethical storytelling so they try to find native authors or at least authors who cite the sources and context, and they link everything in the show notes :)
Keep in mind that they don't read the story, they retell it, so even though sometimes they quote parts of the text, it's mostly in their words, but I really recommend giving it a try!
Honestly, please keep it coming. These are fascinating! In Eastern and SEA folk tales, many female protagonists are animal or get turned into one. They share similarities in the aspects that if that female is of a high ranks (goddess, etc.) then they became mortal to be of equal ranks. I love your analysis, I look forward to more in the future.
The version I know of when it is eros and psyche is that he's been telling her not to look at his face or something bad will happen to her... then her family basically tell her "no no, you got to see him!" and coerced and convince her to do so, being like "isn't it weird that you don't know what he looks like?" and so forth. So, she finds him and she does see him. after that, he says that they can't be together because she has seen his face.
Fan casting Satoru Gojo as Eros is so unexpected but so so based LOL
Three years into a relationship, my girlfriend completely broke down her attraction to me: I was her "beast." The fact that it was by far her favorite story made things a little clearer. For me though, It was a strange revelation, because I am not conventionally attractive, a bit of a brute and maybe a bit scary. But here I was "a beast" and all the supposed negatives were in fact positives for someone. Lucky me, I guess? I still secretly felt slightly offended though.
Come on bro, don't sell yourself short. She thinks you're hot in general and most likely loves you regardless, the fact that you matched her preferences is a bonus
@@sierralovat5498 I totally knew she was into whatever it was I was putting out there, and it really made our relationship pretty tight that we were both what the other admired. But imagine you aren’t happy about being fat and someone tells you are hot because you are fat. It still feels a little weird.
@@Bedevere a win is a win
@@Bedevere I think I get it? It's not about self-esteem - you don't feel less worthy because of how you look. It's more about personal aesthetics - you don't like how you look, and would prefer to change if you had the chance. But this other person, who you love, prefers how you look right now. And they think they're validating you by saying so, building up your self-esteem. When in reality they're low-key ignoring your preferences?
@@tbotalpha8133 I don't know if I want to change. I am pretty ok with who I am (At least now anyway). Just imagine you had a big nose and you know it and accept it and then someone compliments your nose and says it your best feature. It's a weird sort of compliment to get.