The Gothic Horror of a Post-Roe America

In recent times there has been a lot to get my knickers in a twist about, both at home and around the world, but the overturning of Roe vs Wade has turned me into an embittered old woman.

In the gothic tradition, women’s bodies are often treated as disposable, a battleground for unspeakable horror. They become mysteriously ill or go inexplicably mad. Above all else, their fates and their flesh are not their own.

Unfortunately, these fears are not confined to fiction. In a post-Roe America, the quiet part is being said aloud every day, with the GOP making it clear that they’ll never stop legislating our wombs. For them, forced motherhood is gleefully regarded as a form of punishment, a way to correct so-called profane behavior. There’s nothing more threatening to them than women they don’t control.

Perhaps no character from the gothic better exemplifies the GOP’s “dangerous” woman than Lucy Westenra in Dracula. She’s an inveterate flirt who openly laments that she can’t marry three suitors at once. She laughs and cavorts and for the norms of her time, acts like a man—like someone whose freedom is inviolable. There’s a sweet amorality about her that only adds to her charm. Consequently, Lucy is marked for death from the start. After all, why should any wanton woman expect a happy ending?

Read more: Literary Hub