Dismantling the Monstrous Women in ‘Medusa’
By Nuha Hassan
The stories of ancient Greek mythology have been rediscovered and reinterpreted through myths, legends, and fairy tales. In the modern feminist context, the cautionary tale of Medusa symbolises the decapitation and loss of her power. She is described as a beautiful woman with stunning hair. When Poseidon rapes Medusa, Athena, one of her sisters, punishes her by replacing her beautiful hair with venomous snakes, and if anyone looks at her eyes they will turn into stone. Medusa’s story has been up for debate and various interpretations, one of which analyses the story through a feminist lens.
Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa follows a female paramilitary group, ‘The Treasurers of the Altar,’ who dedicate their lives to conservative religious teachings and punish women who they see as sinners. The Treasurers prioritise beauty and purity amongst their group. One night when Mari (Mari Oliviera), who is second-in-command, and her group hunts down a sinful woman, Mari gets brutally attacked, permanently leaving a scar on her face. She gets fired from her job and her friends leave her behind because they don’t find her beautiful or desirable anymore. Desperate to get back into the good graces of her friends and church, Mari decides to find the group’s most sinful woman, Melissa (Bruna Linzmeyer), a young, local actress who was viciously attacked because she starred in a nude film. Mari finds out that Melissa might be hiding in a nearby hospital and accepts a job to find her so that she can be loved by the rest of the members of the Treasurers.
Medusa’s origin story is one that reflects Mari’s character journey. Mari’s beauty, religious practice, her friendship with her best friend and leader of the ‘Treasurers of the Altar,’ Michele (Lara Tremouroux), and the preservation of her purity are the most important things in her life. Without any of these identities, she is lost and cast aside from the rest of the undesirable and sinful people who the group stalks. The church’s roots are directly connected with patriarchy. It controls women and the prioritisation of women’s beauty standards in the community: pure, flawless skin is preferred compared to an impure person with scars or blemishes visible on their face, which are seen as undesirable. It even goes further beyond when Mari and her group repeatedly pit themselves against other women because they are sexually liberated. The Treasurers stalk them, hunt them like prey, physically assault them in the street, and record their sinful confessions, all to post them on the internet to shame them. Their actions towards innocent people are never seen as sinful behaviour because according to their teachings, it is seen as honourable.
Furthermore, Medusa’s themes of self-righteousness and purity are explored in Mari’s journey. The central character in the second-in-command of the ‘Treasurers of the Altar,’ spends most of her time with Michele, who records makeup tutorials for her followers. She focuses on her beauty and vanity and how she is perceived on the outside. After Mari gets attacked, her confidence drops. Michele and her friends cast her aside because of her scar. She recognises quickly that if she wants to get respect from the group, she must do the impossible and find Melissa. Her womanhood is questioned the moment her beauty is destroyed. She isn’t seen as desirable, and just like Medusa, she is cast aside and cursed out by the members, whom she considered to be her sisters. Now, Mari is seen as a monster. It takes away her femininity and serves to demonise her because of her scar. By looking at Mari’s journey and Medusa’s cautionary tale in ancient Greek mythology, it works to dismantle monstrous women and threaten patriarchal authority.
Silveira’s Medusa examines the foundations of womanhood and the themes of freedom, feminist rage, and expression in the context of Medusa’s story. One of the most profound moments in the movie is when Mari realises that the church’s religious practice has limited her freedom and sexual liberty. She finds herself attracted to one of her colleagues, Lucas (Felipe Frazão), and begins an intimate relationship with him. She keeps the information from her friends, but Michele begins to notice some changes in her appearance. Her hair is more dishevelled, and she doesn’t appear to wear makeup — an important part of being the Treasurers is that everyone should wear makeup all the time. As Mari spends more time at the hospital and away from her friends, she realises that she, too, is a victim of patriarchy.
Moreover, the observations of patriarchy, which is deeply rooted in the church, are shown in Michele’s abusive relationship with the lead member of ‘The Watchmen of the Sion,’ a male group that practises self-discipline and eliminates male sinners from the community with brute force. She hides her scars and doesn’t share the abuse with her friends. Women are conditioned to keep their abuse a secret — another way where patriarchy controls women’s abilities to seek freedom from abusive situations. But Silveira twists these narratives by letting the audience know that women can save each other from abusive situations. Mari and Michele console each other and finally free themselves from the patriarchal control of men and the church. The fable of Athena and Medusa teaches women to protect and take care of each other, which is what Silveira’s Medusa suggests when Mari and Michele find comfort in each other.
Medusa’s story is meant to captivate us. The reimagined story of Medusa is told to subvert the patriarchal perspective to put more focus on her being a victim of rape, rather than her terrifying appearance. Perseus’ ‘heroic’ beheading of the evil, monstrous Medusa is given more importance and leaves him blameless of her death. Her rape is swept under the rug to centre the violence that she committed against men by turning them into stone. Silveira’s Medusa deconstructs the patriarchal lens through stories of friendship and disagreement with beauty standards, and other forms of acts which try to silence women. The myth of Medusa is covered in many ancient texts, but the recent rediscoveries of her story change the trajectory of everything in history. In a world where society is dominated by men, we focus too much on the true depictions of Medusa’s story and miss the opportunity to focus on the patriarchal context. 🩸
About
Nuha Hassan is a film/TV writer and reviewer. She is a Staff Writer at Film Cred and Off Colour Org. Apart from writing about film, she is a Video Editor at Dead Central. She studied Master of Media at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
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