'Monsters Holding B***hes' Highlights The Misogyny Behind Horror Tropes

Monsters just love holding typically unconscious women . The trope is so frequently reproduced in films and cartoons, naked ladies may as well be required accessories for all fictional beasts.

The device has been around for centuries. Before "King Kong" and all the porny, cartoonish versions of monsters holding women that followed, the monster cradle was present in historical depictions -- like the rape of the Sabine women  (in which Roman men straight up abducted Sabine women to be their wives). The motif also mirrors the tradition of grooms carrying their new brides , albeit a more gruesome variant of that patriarchal visual, in which the man/monster has physical ownership over the woman/victim.

Thanks to the @monstersholdingbitches Instagram, you can check out every iteration of the trope you could ever possibly need to see, from rabid primates holding women hostage to aquatic creatures holding women hostage to, erm, alien lifeforms holding women hostage. The takeaway: misogynistic men (and women) are figuratively monsters.

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