Sadie Frost as Lucy in Francis Ford Coppola’s version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (Wikimedia Commons)

On the Medusa, Vampires, and the Fear of the Female Body

juliamartins99Posts

I recently read Natalie Haynes’ incredible new novel, Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story (which I highly recommend), and that got me thinking about female monsters – and menstruating women. The Medusa is an ambiguous figure: both fascinating and repulsive, aggressive and victimised. While we all know her power to turn men who looked at her into stone, few people know her story.