Reminds me of a study someone posted to me a couple weeks back. It was about the voices that schizophrenics heard in the USA versus other countries. In other countries the voices were kind and playful but in the USA they were menacing and evil.
The US media that breaks this trend is the explicitly socialist Star Trek.
Star Wars did so in a way kind of. Like the aliens were a mix of friendly and evil. Like the cantina scene was so important for scifi history because it showed alien races drinking and mingling together with humans.
And then of course Han Solo the human walks in and shoots first . . . then revisionists changed the story to make the white man the victim . . . it’s all coming together now, boys
Yeah obviously this post is a bit cherry-picked. Multiple pictures are from The Thing alone.
True, but they didn’t even include the damn killer klowns from outer freaking space!
Sort of. I would say that in general things like aliens, monsters, etc. as a form are a representation of alterity. It is very important to look closely at the creation of, and reaction to these figures in media as this can tell you a lot about ‘otherness’ in society itself. Guillermo del Toro is perhaps the best at bringing this coding to the forefront in its relations of marginalized characters, the actual monster itself, and the society that is doing that marginalization.
What’s important is that this coding of society’s relation to alterity happens regardless of artistic intent as it is something bestowed by the viewer from within their standing in society.
The recently published Towards a Posthuman Imagination in Literature and Media by Simona Micali is a really good book that touches on the ideological narrative created by these fantastical creatures.
Fear of the other is baked into capitalism
It’s all part of the projection, just like the white genocide conspiracy. Afraid of revenge because we know how shitty we are to minorities, but we’ll never admit it.
