Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, pedophilia, and domestic violence.

In art analysis and criticism, objectivity is frequently touted as the ideal mode of consuming artwork. Dederer examines this ideal throughout the book, challenging the premise that objective consumption is possible, and highlighting how the ideal has been weaponized against female consumers of art. She introduces the tension between an ideal objective viewer, and the more realistic subjective viewer in Chapter 2, “Roll Call,” describing the pushback she encounters against her viewing of Woody Allen’s Manhattan from multiple male acquaintances. Relating a conversation about the film she had with a colleague, Dederer writes:

‘I think [Manhattan’s] creepy on its own merits, even without knowing about Soon-Yi.’

‘Get over it. You really need to judge it strictly on aesthetics.’

‘So what makes it objectively aesthetically good?’

Male writer said something smart-sounding about ‘balance and elegance’ (40).

The dismissive attitude of Dederer’s male colleague, in combination with his self-assured claims to an objective, “aesthetic” reading of Manhattan points to a dynamic of male hegemony in the art world that conflates the masculine perspective with objective truth.

Later, Dederer points to this male-centric mode of analyzing art as being equally subjective as female-coded modes of analysis.