ABSTRACT
‘The Monstrous Feminine’ is a term first proposed by Barbara Creed in her 1986 Screen article ‘Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine an Imaginary Abjection’. Since then it has gained currency not only in writing about the cinema, the context in which it first appeared, but in a range of humanities, and medical and social science settings. In this chapter, I explore the relevance of the concept in relationship to a series of iconic art works ranging across the twentieth century and into the new millennium from Friday Kahlo and Judy Chicago to First Nation artists such as Destiny Deacon. I explore, in particular, the usefulness of the term in understanding the politics of Gender, Race, and Colonialism in the neighbourhood of feminist photography, painting, performance, and installation art.
