Critique on Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and The Fear of Female

Power by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

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Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and The Fear of Female Power
written in 2009 by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle is a novel that talks about the reoccurring distinction
between monstrosity and women while simultaneously picking apart discreet sexism in the
media we consume as well as our patriarchal society.

Firstly, Doyle’s choice of title is specifically mentioned in their novel. The book is split
into three parts: Daughters, Wives and Mothers, because these are the roles that are socially
acceptable for girls and that anything outside of that can be seen as dangerous. However even
within the parameter of playing the role of daughter, wife, and mother, you are still not fully
safe.

Dead Blondes are mentioned in the daughter part of the novel to speak about a bizarre
obsession media and pop culture have with missing and murdered women cases, hence them
being the dead blondes. Doyle speaks of how real-life cases have sparked for movies,
specifically slasher horror movies and how women are more likely to not only be murdered
more than men in these movies but will be sexually violated and tortured before the murder (put into contrast to a man’s death). Furthermore, if women in these films are killed because of a trap (which 
is meant to symbolize their fatal flaw in the film), this flaw will always be vanity, and Doyle uses
examples of women being killed in tanning beds, with exploding mirrors, and shedding light to the fact that their dead bodies are overly sexualized. This perpetuates this "dumb slut stereotype," with
Doyle even using the term "dead slut" to speak of how society views the women who are killed.

Despite these sexist undertones, Doyle reveals that slasher movies are dominated by a
female audience as well as crime documentaries and podcasts, however when it comes to real
life murder stories, the ones that are more popular amongst women are the ones with what
Doyle calls a Final Girl. A Final Girl is essentially the one girl who escapes almost being
murdered and is sometimes the reason the murderer is caught. Doyle references Amanda
Vicary, who coauthored a study on true crime Amazon reviews and found that women enjoy
these stories because this is where they can find survival tips. In stories of murdered women,
another can learn what to avoid ensuring that she is the Final Girl, yet Doyle pops our optimistic
bubble and says that statistically speaking, we’re more likely to be dead sluts.

The second half of the title speaks the most in regard to monstrosity and dominates the
third section of the novel: Bad Mothers. Doyle remarks how maternity is seen not only within
the concepts of society, but nature, hence mother nature, and ancient literature as well.
Ancient Mesopotamia had a famous Babylonian myth titled the Enuma Elish where-- long story
short-- one mother named Tiamat, who can be seen as an element of water, is viciously torn
apart by the hero of the story, Marduk, in order to create the world in which we live. This can
be seen in both a symbolic and literal sense. Just like the Book of Genesis, this is a creation

story essentially telling us that the world exists at the expense of female mutilation,
and we praise the man who does the deed. Not to mention the fact that Tiamat gives birth to monstrous children with Marduk, being a part of that extended family, which in turn means she’s the
original monster.

Symbolically, this can be seen as the modern-day roles placed on mothers. While daddy
issues created a generation of enormously emotional kids, there is never such a thing as a bad
father, because no one holds that man accountable; on the other hand, the same cannot be said for
women. This is also seen at a young age amongst boys and girls with girls being held in a higher
regard and being called more mature while the boys are not only able, but expected to do
stupid, immature and innapropriate things. However, growing up, we literally take everything
we have from our mothers to create the lives we live-- her time, money, abilities, energy,
love-- while she is left with zero identity besides being our mother and living to serve and please
us (and that’s only if her child lives long enough to grow up). Doyle also remarks mothers who
have lost children and, even though they have absolutely no control over her pregnancy and what is
going to happen, she is blamed for miscarriages, premature and still born babies all while being
given not enough time to cope.

Even though this article only tackles Doyle’s choice of title for their novel, there is so
much more to learn and understand. This book has revelation after revelation of sexist
backstories  that give us our modern-day pop culture and modern-day patriarchal society and is a must read.