The Exploitation of Women Accused of Monstrosity in the History of the United States

The monster is a constantly present figure in a variety of cultures, emerging to rationalize natural or societal phenomena. In his book Monster Theory: Reading Culture (1996), Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues through his theoretical framework of monster theory that the monster is a cultural body situated at the threshold of convention, representing the temptation to venture beyond society’s limitations and challenging traditional notions of humanity. The monster’s presence in history is rooted in the attempted rationalization of inexplicable events such as diseases and tragedies through inhuman monstrosities. This intersection of superstitious beliefs and moral panics led to the scapegoating of vulnerable members of the community as monsters under accusations of societal corruption. Deemed to be easily corruptible, women bore the brunt of suspicions rooted in supernatural influence such as witchcraft, vampirism, and demonic possession which led to their violation in the name of purification in incidents such as the witch trials in the seventeenth century, the vampiric suspicion of Mercy Brown in the nineteenth century and the exorcisms of the late 1990s. This paper traces the creation of monsters in these incidents due to societal, spiritual, and mortal anxieties. Through the use of monster theory, the paper argues that these incidents reveal the tendency to create monstrous identities for vulnerable members of society in order to rationalize identities, behaviors, or embodiments that do not conform to conventions and gender norms, resulting in the destruction of these supposed monsters in order to cleanse societal corruption and preserve the status quo.