podcast 8-16min

The speakers discuss the idea that monsters are created and not born. They argue that societal expectations and personal experiences can lead individuals to become monstrous. They also mention that monsters are often created through societal standards and prejudices, such as physical appearances. Personal experiences and narratives, including myths and folklore, have influenced their beliefs about monsters. They mention that villains in movies and bullies are often portrayed as having troubled upbringings, and that no one is born bad or monstrous. They also discuss the influence of mental illness on violent behavior. in relation to monsters, and some other films and entertainment that we can also talk about. But yeah, these narratives are associated with real-world concerns with monsters, and I am excited to talk about them. Wow, you guys bring up some pretty great points on that side. I would like to argue – I found some pretty interesting points on the side that argues that, you know, monsters are created. One of the things we looked about was the impacts of social conduct and, you know, personal experiences that, you know, can play a role into, you know, what drives someone to be monstrous. And some of the articles or some of the evidence that I found was, you know, that monsters can be created from society, like society's expectations that there's, you know, a set of rules that you must follow. And if you don't, you are looked at as monstrous. As well as one of the interesting things I found was that, you know, we often talk about how monsters – you either believe in monsters or you don't. But in order to believe in a monster, it kind of has to be created for it to, you know, exist and have an influence on your life. So I'll be taking a deeper look into that a little bit later. But, yeah, if you want to. Yeah, to add on to Joan's point, I believe that lived experiences definitely play a vital role in determining what makes an individual essentially – or essentially what drives them to become or be a monster. Stemming from, like, birth and the foundations of what essentially forms human experiences, I like to come in with the belief that everyone, being humans, are born inherently good. Philosophers like John Locke also back this idea with the theme of a tabula rasa, a clean slate. I think that environments, other people influence what creates monsters or monsters in other – in people. And, yeah, I feel as though society and many, many standards that are quite slim and narrow also go into what society and the standards basically feed into these stereotypes and prejudices that monsters can manifest from physical appearances, whether that comes from physical deformities or not fitting a beauty standard. And, yeah, I feel as though – sorry. Yeah, great points. I think that humans strive from structure, from environments that they're comfortable with. So if someone grows up in a chaotic environment, they're going to take that throughout the rest of their life and implement that to feel a sense of familiarity and safeness. So that just backs my statement that, you know, monsters are created. They're not just put out into the world. They're made from other people, experiences, and learned behaviors. That's great. That's great, Kelly. So I'm really curious about your side. Can you share any personal experiences or narratives that influenced your beliefs about monsters and monstrosity, anything personal that happened that made you think that it was your assurance of nature? Growing up, a lot of the stories I heard about monsters were always, like, myths, folklore, fairy tales in a sense of that. And the character that always made out to be monstrous was the antagonist. They, you know, started off their lives quite normal as any other person would, but then something influenced them to change the way they behaved, something bad, whether that was, like, mostly traumatic or, yeah, definitely traumatic, life-altering things that they're not used to or not used to in the sense that a change from their normal, but it influenced their normal to become something else, which then made them a monster in a sense. So they weren't once evil, quote-unquote evil, or chose to wreak havoc or do what monsters are made to do in a sense. It's not the most specific. Yeah, just to piggyback off of that, I would say that, you know, in terms of the personal experiences, I wouldn't say I have, you know, a specific experience of myself, but I would say, you know, in movies or, you know, the classic, you know, bully, you don't just be born like a bully. Most of the time it's because of, like, a childhood and, like, they're being abused. You know, the bully becomes the bully. You know, you always hear that narrative. And, you know, in a lot of, like, you know, the movies with, like, the superhero and the villain, the villain normally has a troubled upbringing or something that happens to them that makes them act a certain way. And that no one is really born, you know, as, you know, bad or as monstrous as, you know, they become to be. Right. Like a school shooter. Like no one's born a school shooter, but something definitely impacted. No, exactly. I completely agree. Right. You see, like, you know, criminals and anything like that. No one's born bad or chooses to necessarily. People's past have an influence on them for sure. That's what. Exactly. Exactly. I actually think that school shooters, a lot of the school shooters that we see have, or even terrorists, are usually, well, their means for doing the school shooting or, you know, acting on violence or whatever, usually stems from some kind of mental illness or something that is within them. Like, what kind of traits are those? Like, I think, like sadism or. Like sociopath. Yeah. Sociopath and psychopathy. Yeah. Yeah. Those are, those will make you, like, just have no empathy. Right. Yeah.