A monster can be many things. It can be predatory, tireless and hungry. It can be alien and unfathomable. It can be kind and misunderstood. Many see themselves in the monsters on the screen, love the monstrous as a symbol of comfort and solidarity between outsiders. But even then, we understand what it means when we hear someone whisper in a quavering voice “that person is a monster.”
Maybe the monster is fundamentally inhuman. Or maybe it goes against what we believe humanity should be.
For this piece I wanted to think about the horror genre as relates to my own queer experience, and I settled on the monstrous as a source of transformation. I’m drawn to cosmic horror themes of something huge and unknowable, something so inhuman that connecting to it must by necessity make you less human as well.
Something is calling. Will you listen? Think carefully before you answer.
Sarah Benkin aka Peppermint Monster’s work (including her two paranormal comic anthologies) can be found on PeppermintMonsterPress.com. She has an Etsy a Twitter and a Tumblr where she promises she only talks about monsters on days ending with ‘y.’
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GenderTerror 
I always thought montsers were human, just our darker side. Our monster myths are reflections of our real fears, and therefore a part of ourselves. From that perspective monsters are very human, but it can also depend on where our fears are placed.
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