The original story of Medusa I learned is victim blaming bullshit.
Do you know her story? In it, Medusa was “seduced” (i.e. raped) by Zeus in Athena’s temple. Athena was pissed at having her temple desecrated, so she turned Medusa into the snake-haired monster who turns people to stone when they look at her.
As a kid learning about this in our 8th grade lesson on Greek mythology, I believed what I was told. She was a monster. Of course Perseus had to kill her!!
But learning more about her story … It pisses me off. Athena victim blamed Medusa for her rape and punished her. Though, as someone who really likes Athena and identifies with a bunch of stuff about her, I want to wonder was she just so incredibly angry and turned that anger upon the only creature that would actually react? Perhaps she wanted to harm Zeus for his bullshit, but she knew she couldn’t. He’s Zeus, after all. Harming someone else doesn’t make the situation much better, but it does make a little more sense…
Anyhoo, here’s Medusa who is double harmed. First raped and then turned into a monster.
Except she’s not. She never was. And she’s really fucking sick of wearing other people’s labels.
