Goddesses and monsters : women, myth, power, and popular culture

The essays in Goddesses and Monsters recognize popular culture as a primary repository of ancient mythic energies, images, narratives, personalities, icons and archetypes. Together, they take on the patriarchal myth, where serial killers are heroes, where goddesses - in the form of great white sharks, femmes fatales, and aliens - are ritually slaughtered, and where pornography is the core story underlying militarism, environmental devastation, and racism. They also point to an alternative imagination, suggested by myths of female power behind the popularity of Princess Diana and taking shape in contemporary monsters, cyborgs, and sex bombs.