Writing Monsters While Avoiding Ableism
Image via V_M (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/monster-horror-evil-4803620/)
There are a lot of tropes associated with monsters, and a huge number of these tropes are racist and ableist caricatures used as shorthand to suggest that non-white people and people with disabilities are inherently inferior, if not downright evil.
This article from Mythcreants, “Ridding Your Monsters of Ableism,” gives examples of how monster tropes can be ableist. The article also provides ideas on how you can have frightening monsters that don’t rely on these tropes.
There’s a lot to read and digest here, but I recommend it for people who want to avoid these problematic tropes and still create monsters that work well for your writing.
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